Aftermath of World War II

• 1. Rise of Two Superpowers

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  In 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as the world's two dominant powers. Their alliance had been forged to defeat Nazi Germany, but by the war's end, they stood on opposite sides of a new global divide. The U.S. possessed vast industrial capacity and nuclear weapons, while the Soviet Union controlled Eastern Europe with its massive Red Army. This competition defined international relations for decades. They engaged in espionage, political subversion, and proxy wars rather than direct conflict. The Cold War never became a hot war because both nations held nuclear deterrents against each other. This standoff created a state of mutually assured destruction that prevented total war between them.

• 2. Rebuilding A Divided Continent

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  By the end of the war, European economies had collapsed and much of the continent's industrial infrastructure lay destroyed. In response, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall devised the European Recovery Program in 1947. From 1948 to 1952, the United States government allocated US$13 billion for the reconstruction of affected countries in Western Europe. Meanwhile, Central and Eastern Europe fell under the Soviet sphere of influence behind an Iron Curtain. New satellite states were set up by the Soviets in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, and East Germany. West Germany was formed from American, British, and French zones in 1949, while the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic. The division of Germany included the Saar protectorate which entered economic union with France in 1947 before joining West Germany in 1957.

• 3. Independence And Asian Wars

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  The aftermath of World War II opened the way for decolonization across Asia, Africa, and South America. Independence was granted to India and Pakistan from the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, French India, and Vanuatu from France, Indonesia from the Netherlands, and the Philippines from the U.S. Several Arab nations gained independence from mandates previously held by European powers. The partition of India resulted in communal violence and massive displacements described as one of the largest refugee crises in history. In China, Communist forces prevailed over Kuomintang forces, establishing the People's Republic of China on the 1st of October 1949. The Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel between communist North and Western-aligned South. This division led to the Korean War starting two years later when the north invaded the south. The First Indochina War began in 1946 between Viet Minh government and France after Japanese retreat.

• 4. Humanitarian Catastrophes And Trials

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  At the end of the war in Europe, tens of millions of people had been killed and even more were displaced. Soviet population decreased by about 27 million during the war with 8.7 million combat deaths. Roughly a quarter of the Soviet Union's capital resources were destroyed. Approximately 12 million people were expelled from Germany including seven million from Germany proper and three million from the Sudetenland. About 1.9 million German women altogether were raped at the end of the war by Red Army soldiers according to projections. Between 95,000 and 130,000 women were raped in Berlin alone with about 10,000 dying mostly by suicide. The International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals took place in Nuremberg, Bavaria. General Douglas MacArthur established the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese leaders. No international war crimes trials were held against Italian military and political leaders though some were summarily executed by resistance fighters.

• 5. Espionage And Nuclear Arms Race

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  Western Allied occupation force officers in Germany were ordered to refuse cooperation with Soviets in sharing captured wartime secret weapons. In Operation Paperclip beginning in 1945, the United States imported 1,600 German scientists and technicians as part of intellectual reparations owed to the U.S. and UK. Three German rocket-scientist groups arrived in the U.S. for duty at Fort Bliss, Texas and White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico. The Soviets began Operation Osoaviakhim in 1946 using 92 trains to transport thousands of specialists including Helmut Gröttrup and about two hundred scientists from Mittelwerk. The Central Intelligence Agency employed at least a thousand Nazis as Cold War spies and informants according to records disclosed in the 1990s. Radio Free Europe, the Information Research Department, the Gehlen Organization, and the Ministry for State Security were created as propaganda and espionage organizations during this period.

• 6. New World Order Institutions

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  The Allies formed the United Nations which officially came into existence on the 24th of October 1945. The UN replaced the defunct League of Nations that was formally dissolved on the 20th of April 1946 but had ceased functioning in 1939. Members agreed to outlaw wars of aggression in an attempt to avoid a third world war. Five major Allied powers received permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council with veto power over any resolution. The five founding powers were the United States, United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union, and Republic of China. The UN adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 though the Soviet Union abstained from voting on its adoption. The U.S. did not ratify the social and economic rights sections of the declaration. League of Nations mandates became United Nations trust territories except South West Africa which remained under original mandate terms.