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Let's face it -- WWII had results and influences that endure strongly to this day. The purpose of this thread is to discuss those influences, and to what extent they survive and also to talk about how the war changed everything for just about everybody.

Take the War leaders Truman died before the end of the war, Hitler and Mussolini all so dead, Churchill lost the general election only Stalin was the real winner. Stalin grabbed all that land, sorry liberated and imposed his iron will on Eastern Europe.

For one, WWII strongly influenced the other nations into identifying the United States as THE super power of the world. To take on two major battlefronts at nearly the same time and still come out victorious proved to the rest of the world just how powerful America had become. Even Stalin was amazed at what he called "the industrial giant", and how quickly it responded to the call of war.

Another factor is that America had to cease becoming an isolationist country and forcibly be involved with every nation now, even until today, for better or for worse.

And lastly was of course the influence of the two atomic bombs being used. It ushered in the nuclear age, where the other major super power, led by Stalin, attempted to outdue America on this aspect, and vice versa, for decades afterward.

Originally posted by Koenig
Take the War leaders Truman died before the end of the war, Hitler and Mussolini all so dead, Churchill lost the general election only Stalin was the real winner. Stalin grabbed all that land, sorry liberated and imposed his iron will on Eastern Europe.

I think you mean FDR.

Anyway, the aftershocks of WWII are in fact being felt today and not in the way that has been stated. After WWII the powers of Western Europe and the U.S. began to release many of there colonies, and created the extremely unstable climate now seen in Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia. These are problems that will take several decades if not centuries to correct. As for America as the ONLY superpower I am sure that the USSR would argue that point. The U.S. did not become the only superpower until the early 1990s. WWII marked the end of the age of empires, if I may borrow a cliche, and created a world where people were living with people they either hated or were secluded from ethnic cohesion. Also states like Palestine, Lebanon, and several others missed out on the self determination that many colonies had the opportunity to experience. These are the aftershocks of WWII that will most affect the current and future generations.

Originally posted by BuzzKiller
As for America as the ONLY superpower I am sure that the USSR would argue that point. The U.S. did not become the only superpower until the early 1990s.

Sorry, I should've alluded to this next statement more strongly. I had mentioned earlier that USSR was the other major super power after WWII, but of the two the US was the larger and more powerful one, something that even Stalin recognized. I suppose it depends on which book and which author you're reading for that fact. I've read "Hitler and Stalin : Parallel lives", by Alan Bullock, and "Stalin : Breaker of Nations" by Robert Conquest, and the former has Stalin recognizing that fact, the latter has Stalin stating that the USSR was always more stronger. And you are correct that it wasn't until the USSR collapsed that the US became the sole superpower in the world.

An interesting side note, at least one loosely presented in "Stalin : Breaker of Nations", is to think how much things would've been different if Lenin had never died. He was certainly far more of a pacifist than Stalin, not to a degree that he was an angel, but absolutely not within Stalin's callous ruthlessness. It would be interesting to wonder just how successful the USSR would've been under Lenin's leadership during WWII, especially after Hitler compromised his pact with the nation and invaded the USSR.

Lenin's very first act of foreign policy as the leader of Russia/USSR was to sign a treaty with Germany in 1918. This Treaty was the Peace of Brest-Litovsk. Lenin gave up large tracts of land and large amounts of resources to remove Russia from the war. Lenin seems to have a little less resolve than Stalin. This is perhaps due to Stalin's early life and upbringing. And yes I know Lenin had to secure the domestic front before he could set foreign policy, but it is just hard for me to believe Stalin would have given in so easily to the Kaiser which would seem very similar to the Tsar that they just got rid of.

As for the fall out after the War, perhaps Lenin would have incoporated Eastern Europe more fully into Russia/USSR than Stalin did. That was Lenin's strong suit, he would have made the Eastern Europeans happy to be a citizen of the USSR.

The end of WWII created many new nations, which helped contribute to both the number of UN members we now have, and the number of third-world countries that exist.

WW2 made France and Germany say,

"maybe war, isn't the answer."

American militarism

I think that is an oversimplified view of the results of WWII. Why not say the militarization of Russia. The resulting militarism was necessary in order to maintain balance against a very dangerous percieved threat.

ww2 made america "believe" that it was the proprietor of the a-bomb.

it made a lot of countries not like the us.

but my favorite part of the a-bomb senario is that the us was and is the only country to ever use nuclear weapons in a war, yet we decide that no one else is allowed to use them.....

And for good reasons.

here are some stats on world war II: Australia wartime population 7.1m, forces peak 680,000, forces killed/missing in action 34,000, forces wounded 181,000, civilians killed 100.


Belgium wartime population 8.1m, forces peak 800,000, forces killed/missing in action 10,000, forces wounded 15,000, civilians killed 90,000.


Bulgaria wartime population 6.7m, forces peak 450,000, forces killed/missing in action 19,000, forces wounded 22,000, civilians killed n.a


Canada wartime population 11.4m, forces peak 780,000, forces killed/missing in action 43,000, forces wounded 53,000, civilians killed n.a


china wartime population 541m, forces peak 5m, forces killed/missing in action 1.5m, forces wounded 2m, civilians killed 20m.


Czechoslovakia wartime population 14.2m, forces peak 180,000, forces killed/missing in action 7,000, forces wounded 8,000, civilians killed 310,000.f


Finland wartime population 3.9m, forces peak 250,000, forces killed/missing in action 79,000, forces wounded 50,000, civilians killed 11,000.


France wartime population 41.9m, forces peak 5m, forces killed/missing in action 245,000, forces wounded 390,000, civilians killed 173,000.


Germany wartime population 79.4m, forces peak 10m, forces killed/missing in action 3.5m, forces wounded 2m, civilians killed 2m.


Greece wartime population 7.2m, forces peak 150,000, forces killed/missing in action 17,000, forces wounded 47,000, civilians killed 391,000.


Hungary wartime population 14m, forces peak 350,000, forces killed/missing in action 147,000, forces wounded n.a, civilians killed 280,000.


India wartime population 388.8m, forces peak 2.4m, forces killed/missing in action 48,000, forces wounded 65,000, civilians killed n.a.


Italy wartime population 45.4m, forces peak 4.5m, forces killed/missing in action 380,000, forces wounded 225,000, civilians killed 180,000.


japan wartime population 73.1m, forces peak 6m, forces killed/ missing in action 2.6m, forces wounded 326,000, civilians killed 953,000.


Netherlands wartime population 9m, forces peak 500,000, forces killed/missing in action 14,000, forces wounded 2,000, civilians killed 242,000.


new Zealand wartime population 1.7m, forces peak 157,000, forces killed/missing in action 12,000, forces wounded 16,000, civilians killed n.a.


Norway wartime population 3m, forces peak 25,000, forces killed/missing in action 5,000, forces wounded 400, civilians killed 8,000.


Poland wartime population 35m, forces peak 1m, forces killed/missing in action 600,000, forces wounded 530,000, civilians killed 6m.


Romania wartime population 20m, forces peak 600,000, forces killed/missing in action 73,000, forces wounded 49,000, civilians killed 465,000.


south Africa wartime population 10.7m, forces peak 140,000, forces killed/missing in action 9,000, forces wounded 15,000, civilians killed n.a.


u.k wartime population 47.8m, forces peak 4.7m, forces killed/missing in action 420,000, forces wounded 377,000, civilians killed 70,000.


u.s.a wartime population 132m, forces peak 16.4, forces killed/missing in action 292,000, forces wounded 675,000, civilians killed n.a.


u.s.s.r wartime population 193m, forces peak 20m, forces killed/missing in action 13.6m, forces wounded 5m, civilians killed 7.7m.


Yugoslavia wartime population 16.3m, forces peak 3,7m, forces killed/missing in action 305,000, forces wounded 425,000, civilians killed 1.4m.