h ideas could be brought to countries of the world over time with first the introduction of a free-market economic system, and then with gradual political reforms and a greater advancement of civil liberties. The spread of these ideas would lead to greater prosperity for the United States and the world as a whole. There was only one thing in the world that could stop the spread of American ideas: communism.
             The word "specter" according to Webster's College Dictionary means; "some object or source of terror or dread." With the new Soviet threat and its recent aggression into Eastern Europe, the American government and the American public had a real reason to fear the spread of communism from the Soviet Union. If the Soviet progression across the continent was to continue, the United States would lose all of its post war economic gains in the war torn countries of Western Europe. The loss of this vast and growing marketplace for American exports would have thrown the American economy in a downward spiral for decades. As the title of Leffler's book mentions, the United States had a real reason to fear that American core interests and security were at threat from the spread of communism.
             If the "Red Tide" did flow through Western Europe, the loss of the market for American goods would cause the economy of the United States to fall to something worse than depression levels. In turn, the government of the United States would have to impose manufacturing restrictions on the production of certain goods. The international market would no longer be able to absorb the surplus American goods due to the Soviet control of our greatest trading block. This new economic system would, after a certain period of time, cause the American economy to become a command economy where the government would be involved in every faucet of production. This in turn would cause the United States to shift dramati...