Following the Second World War, the United States experienced economic prosperity and, at the same time, turned away from its general policy of isolationism to one more focused on international engagement. The letter Peter wrote to his mother in 1948, before emigrating to the United States, was prescient. As noted in Chapter 6, Peter had written about his concerns over a New York Times article implying that America was already preparing and ready to enter another war, and had said “I hope not.” In 1949, the United States rejected its prior policy of having no military alliances in peacetime by forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in response to the growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The first post-war US military engagement started shortly after Peter’s US citizenship was confirmed. Else was relieved to have her sons in the US, but the concerns Richard and Else had written about were valid. Peter, as a US citizen, would be drafted into military service in the United States.