US President Franklin D Roosevelt was sincere in his altruism. Of course, the US is at the centre of the international order of which, in 1944-45, he laid the foundation, not least in the economic sphere.
But most other states saw their interests served as well, and so they accepted that the US, as the strongest of the great powers and ultimate guarantor of the order, occasionally acted against the rules, as long as Washington continued to uphold the system at large.
