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With Japan’s surrender in August 1945, Americans besieged the government to bring their loved ones home. They looked forward to the end of international crises and the dismantling of the large military establishment. Postwar realities quickly shattered these hopes. The wartime alliance of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union crumbled, giving birth to a Cold War. The United States began to develop the means for containing the spread of Soviet power around the globe, including a military buildup and an enormous aid program for Europe, known as the Marshall Plan.