Could America have taken over the World after World War 2? Should they have?

[Bofferbrauer]

There actually where plans on striking back at the Soviet Union right after (or in the ending stages of) World War 2 (Google Operation Unthinkable if you want to know more about it).

It would have been next to impossible to pull it through, hence why it was not done. While the West had much superior Naval and better Air Forces at the time, the Army of the Soviet Union was both stronger and bigger than their western counterparts combined. They also had better Tanks with much better Armor than the American tanks (the IS 2 was nearly unstoppable, even Germany's best antitank gun, the 8,8cm Pak 43 L/71 needed a perfect hit to the side armor to take these out; and the even stronger IS3 was soon to be fielded, as was the T54). In other words, they would have Steamrolled western Armies and their production facilities where totally out of range, making nukes useless against them.

As for the US doing it alone, they would face a serious backlash worldwide for doublecrossing their former allies, branding them as even worse as even Stalins Soviet Union during the Red Scare. It would also start with a total evecuation of europe as the british navy would blockade all the possible sea supply lines from the US near the european coasts. This leaves the southern japanese islands and Corea as the only possible attack vectors. And while China was weak and divided (they still are, Taiwan is actually what's left of the Republic of China), their monstrous manpower pool is more than enough to make it a serious threat, especially if the PRC gets supplied in large quantities by the Soviet Union (as the americans learned the hard way during the Corean War). Plus, the Soviet Union being directly to the north means that their armies would soon interwene. I don't think that the US could break out of Corea anytime soon as they would be seriously supply constrained unlike their foes, making their numeral advantages nil. And like I said, doublecrossing former allies is a very bad idea. Especially if one of them is diectly to the north of your own country an with best ties to another (and the strongest) former ally, namingly the british (Newfoundland was also still british at the time). This means the US would at least have to fight on 2 fronts (Canada and Corea), and if Mexico would intervene (with all the territories lost during the Manifest Destiny one could hardly blame them to, either) they would threaten the texan oil fields and the Californian Naval bases anf force the US to further splinter their Army.

So no, not a chance of staying on top. Even less so if they would try it nowadays due to the irrational high fear of casualities in a war, which would turn off public support in a very short time.

Phew, that post became much longer than I anticipated