Immediately after the Second World War, the United States and Britian could have split the world in two FOREVER.
Lets look back at the period of May-August of 1945.
Germany has been defeated, and the USSR has lost 20 million people in the war. France has just been liberated, and has no military. Japan was defeated, and we began to occuply Japan proper and Eastern Asia. Europe was completely held by the US and UK.
The United States was relitivley untouched by the war, the homeland hadn't been touched by the enemie, and we lost a fairly low number of men. There was a massive industrial complex still pumping out war materials.
The USSR was very, very weak. The only country standing in the way of world domination. We could have taken on the Red Army, with many tanks, and a full continent behind us. The Russians would have been broke eventually. Plus the ace up our sleeve was that in '45 we had the bomb.
I am convinced that if not for the strong civilian leadership present in the US, not in the USSR we never took over the world. It could have been done, and the globe would have been ours by 1950.
At the most fruitful point of imperialism, we resisted. Quite amazing if you think about it.
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"It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war...but the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts...To such a task we dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.” -- Woodrow Wilson April 2, 1917.