This textbook explores the years after World War II when the United States became the world's greatest power. It discusses U.S. uneasiness with its postwar role as global policeman, even as the country fought to keep countries across the world from becoming part of the Soviet Union's communist empire. There were battles at home, too, with the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War. Truman, Stalin, Khrushchev, Ho Chi Minh, Thurgood Marshall, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, Bill Clinton--even the Beatles star in this exciting final chapter in "A History of US," written especially in vocabulary appropriate for 8- to 13-year olds. (EH)