America's use of the atomic bomb had brought an end to the deadliest war in history. But the victory did not deliver the peace that so many Americans had been longing for. The war years helped make the United States one of the strongest nations in the world, playing a role in global affairs that would have seemed inconceivable, to most Americans, just five years earlier.

The future of Eastern Europe now withered at the fate of U.S.-Soviet contention, as each nation sought to reshape the postwar world in a way that would serve its own interests. Both super powers were now engaged in a conflict, in which each action on the part of one seemed to intensify the insecurities of the other. At home, Anti-communist propaganda and McCarthyism instilled a new fear in American life.

The U.S.'s security blanket had been abruptly torn away from her with the loss of the monopoly on nuclear weapons and a subsequent arms race followed. Fearful of appeasement, frightened Americans embraced containment as their defense against the "Red Menace." The Cold War had begun, and its effects on American life would be profound and long lasting.