20th Century Americans had already had a bellyfull of conquest and domination in the 19th Century. America had the only bomb for several years, and didn’t blackmail the world into submission. America had vast expanses of other people’s territories, and thought nothing of choosing liberty over empire. No wonder leftists hate America.
Empire and liberty are not mutually exclusive. We chose liberty for ourselves but leave others to perish in our zeal to wash our hands of the territories we’ve gained. A great example is Cuba. How many cubans have perished in castros gulags because we failed to retain the territory that we had fought for in the Spanish American war?
No, instead we handed the territory over to a bunch of crooks and incompetents who had no experience in running a free country or a comstitutional republic. And ended up with bloodshed. And we play this same tune again, and again, and again. Most recently in Iraq.