After the Second World War European ideology was still closely linked to transatlantic thinking. Many people, especially those born at the beginning of the twentieth century, had been inspired and influenced by the ideas and politics of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Among them was Jean Monnet, whose career had started with Wilson's League of Nations and who had many friends in America - including President Eisenhower. The Dutch historian and diplomat Max Kohnstamm, a great admirer of Roosevelt's New Deal, was to become one of Monnet's most trusted assistants and colleagues over several decades. He was Secretary to the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in the 1950s, and before that had been a private secretary to the Dutch Queen.