Submitted by: Submitted by msheppa3
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Words: 879
Pages: 4
Category: US History
Date Submitted: 04/03/2014 06:11 AM
Two major historical turning points during the period under discussion were the end of World War II and the creation of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. There are several reasons why the end of World War II was so significant, particularly for the United States.
First of all, the end of World War II had a huge impact politically due to the fact that the United States became more involved in foreign affairs, changing its role in the world from a neutral party to a global superpower. There are several reasons for this, first of all after World War II came to an end the United States was one of the only countries that were involved in the war and not completely devastated. By the end of the war, the United States had suffered 4000,000 military deaths and 11,000 civilian deaths. In addition, the United States had escaped major destruction of its economic infrastructure. (Schultz) Since the United States economic infrastructure was mostly preserved unlike the losses incurred by many other countries involved in the war such as Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union etc. this gave the United States a distinct advantage and certainly in a position to assert itself as a global superpower. Another reason the United States became a global superpower was due to the fact that it was internationally undisputed that the United States had the strongest military in the world and the only country to have demonstrated its use of the atom bomb. The United States was in fact the first country to develop the nuclear weapon which it used to devastate Hiroshima and then Nagasaki Japan on August 9th 1945 at the end of World War II. This directly led to the surrender of Japan given that the current Emperor was allowed to keep his position. Following World War II the United States became more politically involved with the rest of the world and greatly contributed to the alliance known as the United Nations (UN) in the year of 1945. The rest of the world looked at the United...