February 2026
The Transatlantic Bargain
The other side of the deal — a story Europe carries but America rarely hears
TL;DR In 1939, the US Army was smaller than Portugal's. By 1945, America controlled three-quarters of the world's gold. The Marshall Plan and NATO weren't charity — they were strategic investments that turned Europe into a platform for American power. When Americans say Europe has been freeloading, Europeans hear a landlord complaining about tenants in a building he only bought to surveil the neighborhood.