Each had tremendous human and natural resources, actual or potential, on a scale unmatched by any other nation. Nothing could make plainer why the world is in its present state-- and how that came to pass--than an understanding of the diametrically opposite principles and policies of these two great powers in a war-ruined world. The United States has sought to use its pre-eminent position of power to help other nations recover from the damage and dislocation of the war.