ountry, and
             the world came very close to disaster. When Leonid Brezhnev assumed
             leadership of the USSR, he moved into Prague to reassert his country's
             power. Meanwhile, the United States entered the Vietnam War to fight
             Soon, however, changes started occurring globally. France began to
             explore closer relations with Eastern Europe and the possibility of
             withdrawing from NATO. Romania departed from Soviet policy. Such factors
             combined to loosen the rigid pattern of international relationships and
             made détente more assured. From 1989 to 1991, the Cold War came to an end
             with the opening of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Communist Party,
             the reunification of Germany, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
             Decolonization
             The Cold War also set the stage for the decolonization of what was to
             become the Third World. Although regions seeking independence still had
             years of fighting to endure after 1945, countries like Britain, France,
             Belgium, Portugal, and the Netherlands were losing ownership of their
             colonies. Japan, Germany and Italy lost their colonial empires immediately
             following their defeat in World War II. The U.S. also began to lessen
             direct colonial control over acquired territories, focusing its energies on
             building Cold War alliances and influence. As a result, colonial empires
             collapsed all over the world, and a host of new countries emerged. In 1947,
             India achieved independence from Great Britain and Burma followed a year
             later. Laos and Cambodia gained their freedom after 1954. The regions that
             were to make up Malaysia gained independence in 1957. The United States
             relinquished the Philippines in 1946, and the Netherlands gave up Dutch
             East Indies/Indonesia in 1949. The French continued the colonization fight
             clinging to French Indochina and struggling with Vietnam until 1975. By the
             1970s, about 60 new countries a...