fazza,
A great struggle remained in the aftermath of World War II, between democratic capitalism and communism. This helps to explain why some Western commanders, notably American General George S. Patton, urged that the Western Allies not stop at the Elbe but continue on through Germany and attack the Soviets. That suggestion was not taken seriously, but another general’s plan, that of George C. Marshal, for economic assistance to war-torn Europe can be seen as a subtler way of winning that area for democratic capitalism. As all this implies, within a few years of the war, the victorious Alliance, Europe, and the world divided into two opposing camps, fighting a life-and-death struggle with propaganda and materiel, as well as bullets, a sequel to World War II known as the Cold War.
Finally, if World War II settled anything, it was the rise to preeminence of the two great superpowers, The Soviet Union and the United States, who would be the principal combatants in the Cold War.
Obviously, the end of World War II left much unfinished business. Much of Europe, China, and Japan were devastated. Whole cities had been leveled by successive bombing campaigns. Armies of refugees found themselves displaced. Local governments broke down as the defeated regimes crumbled. The Allies turned from occupiers to administrators and judges. Germany was divided into four zones, corresponding to the British, the French, the Americans, and the Russians. And once that territory was divided, it was a race between the superpowers to divide the rest of the territories that were left in ruins.
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