Postwar diplomacy

“The war produced a redistribution of power more sweeping than in any previous period of history. Among the leading nations in the multipolar prewar international system, Japan, Italy, and Germany were defeated and occupied. Exhausted and nearly bankrupt, once-dominant Britain was reduced to a second-rank power. Defeated at the outset of the war and liberated by its allies. France suffered even greater loss of status and power. The Eurocentric world largely through a process of self-destruction came to an inglorious end. A new bipolar system replaced the old. Only the United States and the Soviet Union emerged from the war capable of wielding significant influence beyond their borders.”

-Source: George C. Herring, historian, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776, 2008

According to the passage, which of the following best explains the most important effect that World War II had on the United States?

(Choice A)
It started an arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States.
(Choice B)
It led to the emergence of the United States as a world power.
(Choice C)
It caused a rise in anti-Communist sentiment on the home front.
(Choice D)
It created a powerful peacetime alliance in the United Nations.

AP®︎/College US History

Course: AP®︎/College US History > Unit 7

Problem