Disagreed. I think this is the point where the US was the most scared, and made its very dangerous gambit as a last resort because they knew the alternative was dying out (or nuclear war). This is the time when Kissinger asks the advisors what to do about the US starting to accrue a trade deficit, noting that historically when an empire becomes a net importer it marks the start of imperial decline; they were scared as hell! But of course, one of the advisors tells him "triple the national debt and make the rest of the world pay for it" and the rest is history.