Abstract:

Not only the end of the Second World War, 1945 was also the beginning of a new and promising era. But how many ambiguities in these promises ! In the place of the solidarity that drove the Allies, a bipolar world, shared by the two big winners, the United States and the USSR, was built on the ruins of Europe. Instead of the peace wished by the UN, the French and British colonial empires saw their first setbacks, in Algeria, India, and Indochina. And instead of the collective security system conceived in Dumbarton Oaks, the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki announced the start of a 50 year long arms race, which would come to an end only after the collapse of the communist block, in the 90s.


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