World War II pitted the “Grand Alliance” of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the French government in exile, and the United States against the Axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy. The Allies consisted of the world’s leading colonial power, Great Britain; the world’s lone Communist nation, the Soviet Union; and the world’s strongest capitalist country, the United States—ingredients for an uncomfortable alliance. From the outset, the United States deployed military forces to contain Japanese aggression, but its most immediate concern was to defeat Germany. Before battles in Europe, Asia, and four other continents concluded, more than 60 million people perished, including 405,000 Americans. Six million Jewish civilians died in the Holocaust, the Nazi regime’s genocidal effort to eradicate Europe’s Jewish population. The Soviet Union experienced the greatest losses—nearly 27 million soldiers and civilians, more than two-fifths of all those killed.