War debts do not make Anglo-American war likely

Could American pressure over British war debt trigger a conflict?

It was unlikely because coercion would disrupt trade and finance while leaving the United States with global policing burdens it did not want in the 1920s.

Britain's First World War debt to the United States was smaller than its later obligations and sat inside a wider web of Allied lending and trade. An improper attempt to call it in could be resisted legally and publicized in both countries' closely connected press. A British refusal to pay could cause trouble in the American financial system, while trade gave both countries reasons to avoid calling in debts. The United States also benefited from the Royal Navy carrying global policing burdens that American isolationists did not want to assume.