“The U.S. has about 50 percent of the world’s wealth and about 6.3 percent of its population. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to the national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not to deceive ourselves that we can afford the luxury of altruism and world benefaction. We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the rising of living standards and democritization. The day is not far off when we’re going to have to deal in strict power concepts. The less we have been hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”

George Kennan, Former Head of the U.S. Department Policy Planning Staff, 1950.