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Efter två veckor av WikiLeaks konstaterar Financial Times Gideon Rachman att USA borde ge Wikileaks frontperson Julian Assange en guldmedalj och att ”Conspiracy theorists all over the world must be deeply disappointed.”

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For the European and Latin American left, just as for the Chinese or Russian nationalist right, it has long been all but assumed that whatever the Americans say publicly about their foreign policy is simply a cover story for some sort of secret agenda. What that agenda is can vary, according to taste – the interests of a powerful company (Halliburton!), the subversion of a leftwing government, the weakening of a rival nation. But whatever the Americans’ secret agenda was held to be, they definitely had one – only the absurdly naive could believe otherwise.

And yet, after a fortnight of revelations, WikiLeaks has revealed that, remarkably enough, the public position taken by the US on any given issue is usually the private position as well. There are plenty of cables yet to be released – and perhaps there are some bombshells still out there. But the documents published over the past fortnight have provided very little evidence of double-dealing or bad faith in US foreign policy. Conspiracy theorists all over the world must be deeply disappointed.

The Americans say, in public, that they would like to build a strong relationship with China based on mutual interests – but that they are worried that some Chinese economic policies are damaging American workers. This turns out to be what they are saying in private, as well. In a cable predicting a more turbulent phase in US-Chinese relations, Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador, insists: ”We need to find ways to keep the relationship positive,” while ensuring that American workers benefit more. Many Chinese nationalists and netizens have developed elaborate theories about American plots to thwart China’s rise. There is not a hint of this in WikiLeaks.

In public, the Americans have long said that they believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons and that this poses a threat to world peace – but that their preference is to deal with the Iranian problem peacefully. WikiLeaks confirms that this is what they are saying in private, too. Indeed, the really radical statements about Iran are made by non-Americans. It is the Saudi king who advocates a military strike on Iran. It is a senior adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France who describes the Iranian government as ”fascist”.

In public, the Americans make a fuss about human rights and corruption. It turns out that, if you read the cables from Kenya (for example), they also worry about these issues behind closed doors. Who do these Americans think they are – saying one thing in public, and the same thing in private?”