After two once in a lifetime kind of wars that changed the landscape of the world in the span of 30 years, it was not just the soldiers that wanted the fighting to stop.
Outlooks, beliefs, practices, faith, loyalty, and security, just to name a few of the things that had been changed as a result of these conflicts.
And this wasn’t just in the general population, this was a time when the world saw a changing of the guard so to speak in the way of diplomacy.
Foreign relations and overall trust also changed; to the point that the allied countries in WW2 were at a preverbal global risk board in a dimly lit corner of the room long before the war had even ended.
This was a time that, even as world leaders were meeting with each other as allies speaking strategy out of one side of their mouth, they were, on the other side making “backroom” deals and maneuvers to make sure that they came out on top not only of the ones they were fighting against, but also the ones they were fighting alongside.
There maybe no better example of this than the positioning plays that were done at the Yalta conference where the big 3 met to decide on the reorganization of Europe after the war concluded.
Josef Stalin, the Russian president, had always feared that the other countries aligned themselves with Russia as a result of the concept of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And, in reality, this really wasn’t that much of a stretch.
After all, the allied coalition was made up of countries that the only thing they opposed more staunchly than Soviet communism was German fascism and what Hitler represented.
As it turns out, Stalin’s paranoia wasn’t completely unfounded.
Also, if we want to look at the polarity of the situation, the natural enemy to communism was capitalism of any kind, whether it be the Democratic Capitalism that America represented or the Imperial Capitalism that was in operation in Europe.
The constant looking over of every shoulder in this time period was not only warranted, but also a necessity.
Links to research aides:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-end-of-the-british-empire-after-the-second-world-war
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/endofempire_overview_01.shtml
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/the-sad-end-of-the-british-empire-110362