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

[Jon-Erich]

Ka-pi96 said:

Not a chance. It wasn't just Europe and Russia that had a lot of problems, the war damaged the American economy a lot as well, they wouldn't have been able to keep it up. Besides, Europe and Russia wouldn't have just fell down and died. If America had invaded Russia then they would have had the exact same problems Germany did, it's a fucking huge country, with people that will defend it fanatically. As for Europe, Britain just held off Germany and lets not forget they still had colonial territory at this time, so any offensive against Europe/Britain would have immediately put the US at war with the whole of the commonwealth, Canada in particular would have been problematic what with being neighbours to the US and all.

Not to mention all the other countries that are in the world. The US couldn't win in Korea or Vietnam when they were at their strongest, so how could a country exausted from war with Germany and Japan manage to win there?

If MacAurthor would have had his way, the US would have won Korea. He wanted to drop dozens of atom bombs on China. It would resulted in millions of dead Chinese and possibly war with the Soviet Union, but Korea would be fully united today. Since President Truman felt threatened by MacAurthor's popularity (Truman was a Democrat facing re-election and MacAurthor was a Republican and rumored potential competing condidate) he fired MacAurthor to the dismay of the American public and even the Japanese who had come to respect MacAurthor. Also, the US was not at it's strongest in Vietnam. The technology was there but the soldiers at that time were not fully trained for jungle warfare. There was this idea starting in the 1950's that a nuclear weapon would be the means of quickly ending a war and the army would be there to clean up the mess. Also, most analysts felt that World War III was going to be fought in European cities and that's the kind of war Americans were being trained for. 

As for taking over the world, the US could have deinitely taken Japan, probably most of China and South East Asia as well as all of the Pacific. Maybe even Australia. North America would have remained exactly as is. Canada was still in good shape. Mexico wouldn't have been woth the effot. South America would have been left alone since it was almost untouched by the war. I'm also thinking chunks of Africa and large portions of Europe could have gone to America. I don't think the US could have taken the Soviet Union with heavy usage of the atom bomb and even then, they probably wouldn't have captured the entire Soviet Union. The worst thing that would have happened would be the US taking small chunks of the USSR while the Soviet Union as a whole fragments and dissolves. Then each newly independent republics would probably be able to fend off an American invasion. Britain definitely would surrender without a fight and it would be a hell of a fight. The only major problem with Britain is that they were completely after the war. 

I think if there were any other resul that's more realistic, that would be America forming an alliance with the rest of North America, South America, and Britain to seize and divide the rest of the world amongst themselves under the guise of bringing peace to a chaotic world.