This was fascinating:

“ Indeed, ominous for Einstein to predict that the leadership of civilization would pass to America and ultimately Asia. Einstein‘s admiration for the United States appears to have begun in 1921, when he visited New York City for the first time. As he then wrote in an essay entitled ‘My First Impression of the U.S.A.’, he was surprised to find that “What strikes a visitor is the joyous, positive attitude to life […] ”