The Devasting Effects to the U.S. After World War II

After devastating Europe and fifty million lives lost, the Allies were victorious in World War II.  Germany, Italy and Japan were defeated and their fascistic and militaristic governments overthrown.  After years of war the original reasons why the European continent was thrust into armed conflict was forgotten by its end.

Poland, which was invaded by Nazi Germany to start World War II had been liberated and handed over to another tyrant, Josef Stalin.  Also in Czechoslovakia, another country that was overtaken by Hitler was tightly in the Soviet Union’s orbit.  

Franklin Roosevelt had been ignorant throughout the War and it continued after victory was achieved.  At the Teheran Conference in 1943, FDR praised Stalin saying “he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.”  He even suggested that the Eastern European governments be friendly to the Soviet Union.  Only two years later at Yalta did these suggestions become a reality.  Stalin had total influence throughout Eastern Europe and was granted control of Manchuria if the Soviet Army went to war against Japan.  This gave communists in China a safe place and paved the way for takeover in 1949.

In Asia, Japan was decisively defeated by the United States and Allies.  The war in the Pacific stemmed from the American Government’s strong opposition to the Japanese invasion of China.  By 1949, after the Japanese had left, China was ruled by possibly the greatest mass murderer of all time, Mao Tse-Tung.  There was now indeed something worse than Japanese control of China.

The Allies sided with Stalin against the Axis Powers and paid a price for doing so for nearly a half century after World War II.  The Soviet Union became a nuclear capable enemy of the West that led to trillions of dollars in defense spending along with small wars across the world, not to mention the threat of nuclear annihilation.