Super-imperialism is a difficult read! Took me a few goes to be honest, and every time I still discover new things I never noticed before. I don’t claim to fully comprehend the book, to be honest. It’s one of those books that as your understanding of economics and finance grew, when you re-read them you will learn new details that didn’t make sense before.

The Destiny of Civilization is much more straightforward in comparison, and I recommend it for people who want a simpler version of it (also more up to date with the recent growth of Chinese economy etc.)

Anyway, as for your last part, the US military personnel and all their logistics have to spend the dollars the government paid them overseas, in French Indochina right? That’s how the French banks racked up all those dollars, which were remitted back to the central bank in France because they didn’t know what to do with all those excess dollars.