The aftermath of World War 2 is what we call "the Cold War"...a war between the Soviet Union and communism versus the Western nations (the US, Great Britain, etc.) and capitalism/political freedom. The march of communism in China begins in the early 20th century and progresses into a victory for Mao Zedong in 1949. The defeated armies of the Nationalists (under Chiang Kai-shek) flee to Taiwan and establish their competing government. This story continues today with the communists in China wanting to eliminate the free Chinese on Taiwan and absorb them into their totalitarian control. So...in a sense the Cold War continues in the standoff between today's Communist China and the free China of Taiwan.

The United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. Why? What was the reasoning of the US at that time? And what did the US do for its allies, and even its former enemies immediately after World War 2? And how did we get such states as communist North Korea and communist China? The answers all lie in what happened at the end of this war and its aftermath.

By 1943 it was clear that the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were not going to win The Second World War. Through numerous brutal campaigns the Allies (Britain, Soviet Union, America) slowly slogged their way across Europe and the Pacific to invade the home territory of the Axis Powers and finish them off.