section_path: History/Cold War and social revolution (1945 – 1991)
section_name: Cold War and social revolution (1945 – 1991)
paragraph_text: Cold War and social revolution (1945 – 1991)
  
  The end of World War II in 1945 left the U.S. and the Soviet Union as superpowers, each with its own political, military, and economic sphere of influence. Geopolitical tensions between the two superpowers soon led to the Cold War. The U.S. utilized the policy of containment to limit the USSR's sphere of influence, engaged in regime change against governments perceived to be aligned with Moscow, and prevailed in the Space Race, which culminated with the first crewed Moon landing in 1969.
  
  Domestically, the U.S. experienced economic growth, urbanization, and population growth following World War II. The civil rights movement emerged, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader in the early 1960s. The Great Society plan of President Lyndon B. Johnson 's administration resulted in groundbreaking and broad-reaching laws, policies and a constitutional amendment to counteract some of the worst effects of lingering institutional racism.
  
  The counterculture movement in the U.S. brought significant social changes, including the liberalization of attitudes toward recreational drug use and sexuality. It also encouraged open defiance of the military draft (leading to the end of conscription in 1973) and wide opposition to U.S. intervention in Vietnam (with the U.S. totally withdrawing in 1975). A societal shift in the roles of women was significantly responsible for the large increase in female paid labor participation during the 1970s, and by 1985 the majority of American women aged 16 and older were employed.
  
  The fall of communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991 marked the end of the Cold War and left the United States as the world's sole superpower. This cemented the United States' global influence, reinforcing the concept of the " American Century " as it dominated international political, economic, and military affairs.