How did the Cold War shape reconstruction, revolution, and decolonization in East and Southeast Asia?

In Asia Japan’s defeat ended the Second World War, but other conflicts continued: nationalists in territories colonized by European nations intensified their struggle for independence, and in China Nationalist and Communist armies that had cooperated to expel the Japanese invaders now confronted each other in a renewed civil war. In 1949 Communist forces under Mao Zedong triumphed and established the People’s Republic of China. The Nationalist government retreated to the island of Taiwan, where it remained a Republic of China independent of the Communist mainland. The Communist victory in China shaped the nature of Japan’s reconstruction, as its U.S. occupiers determined that an industrially and economically strong Japan would serve as a counterweight to Mao. U.S. fear of the spread of communism drew the country into conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, intensifying the stakes in the decolonization struggle across East and Southeast Asia.