Editing Free World (section)

===United States===
[[File:George H. W. Bush presidential portrait (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|[[George H. W. Bush]], the [[president of the United States]] during the [[Fall of Communism]].]]
The "Leader of the Free World" was a [[colloquialism]], first used during the [[Cold War]], to describe either the [[United States]] or, more commonly, the [[president of the United States]]. The term when used in this context suggested that the United States was the principal [[democracy|democratic]] [[superpower]], and the U.S. president was by extension the leader of the world's democratic states, i.e. the "Free World".

{{quote box
| quote = But remember, we have differences with our allies all over the world. They are family differences, and sometimes they are acute, but, by and large, the reason we call it "free world" is because each nation in it wants to remain independent under its own government and not under some dictatorial form of government.
| author = —[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] (to the [[Associated Press]], 1 October)
| source = ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'', 2 October 1958
| width = 35%
| align = right
}}

The phrase has its origin in the 1940s during the [[Second World War]], especially through the [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] [[Free World (magazine)|''Free World'' magazine]] and the American [[propaganda film]] series ''[[Why We Fight]]''. At this time, the term was criticized for including the [[Soviet Union|Soviet Union (USSR)]], which critics saw as a totalitarian dictatorship. However, the term became more widely used against the USSR and its allies during the 1950s in the wake of [[Truman Doctrine]], when the United States depicted a foreign policy based on a struggle between "a democratic alliance and a communist realm set on world domination", according to the American magazine ''[[The Atlantic]]''.<ref name="The Atlantic Trump">Tierney, Dominic (24 January 2017). [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/trump-free-world-leader/514232/ "What Does It Mean That Trump Is 'Leader of the Free World'?"]. ''[[The Atlantic]]''.</ref> The term here was criticized again for including right-wing dictatorships such as [[Francoist Spain]], and [[Nikita Khrushchev]] said in the [[21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|21st Congress of the Soviet Communist Party]] that "the so-called free world constitutes the kingdom of the dollar".<ref name="The Atlantic Trump" /><ref name="Safire2008">William Safire. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=c4UoX6-Sv1AC&pg=PA265 Safire's Political Dictionary]''. Oxford University Press; 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-19-534334-2}}. p. 265.</ref>

Although in decline after the mid-1970s,<ref name="The Atlantic Trump" /> the term was heavily referenced in US foreign policy up until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in December 1991. After the presidency of [[George H. W. Bush]] the term has largely fallen out of use, in part for its usage in rhetoric critical of [[U.S. foreign policy]].<ref>{{cite book |title=To Lead the Free World |author=John Fousek |year=2000 |publisher=UNC Press Books |page=130 |isbn=0-8078-2525-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qGGGt-ui9sgC&pg=PA130}}</ref> However, the term is still used at times to describe the president of the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Flanagan |first=Ryan |date=2021-01-19 |title=Does 'leader of the free world' still accurately describe the U.S. president? |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/does-leader-of-the-free-world-still-accurately-describe-the-u-s-president-1.5273282 |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=CTVNews |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gotev |first=Georgi |date=2022-02-14 |title=The Brief – The leader of the free world |url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/opinion/the-brief-the-leader-of-the-free-world/ |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=www.euractiv.com |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tierney |first=Dominic |date=2017-01-24 |title=What Does It Mean That Trump Is 'Leader of the Free World'? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/trump-free-world-leader/514232/ |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref>