Meaning of 'Leader of the Free World'
John Fousek, in his book To Lead the Free World, maintains that the idea of free-world leadership had become the controlling metaphor in the U.S. foreign policy discourse in the post-war period. He therefore goes on to say,
"The Free World, in this view, was a metaphor, depending on one's viewpoint, for the capitalist world system or the anticommunist bloc."