Though it was a great relief that the Allied Forces won WWII, the events that followed may be less so. The four leaders of the Allied Forces -Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Chiang Kai-Shek- each had a different idea of what the world would look like after the war.
Churchill wanted to rebuild France and Germany, forging an alliance between them and the UK. This pact would serve as the counterbalancing force to keep Stalin's Soviet Union in check and maintain peace and order in Europe.
However, Roosevelt's distrust for Germany and misgivings about Britain and France's imperialist history caused him to reject Churchill's vision of Europe. Instead, he came up with the idea of the Four Policemen.
Essentially, Roosevelt's idea entailed that all countries except for the four WWII victors to be disarmed and world order to be maintained by each superpower in their respective 'spheres': the UK in Western Europe and its territories, Russia in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, China in East Asia and the Western Pacific, and the US in the rest of the Western hemisphere.
However, Churchill's concerns over Stalin and the Soviet Union proved to be true, as they crept ever closer into central Europe. Not to mention, Churchill had his own political struggles at home. Meanwhile, Mao took over China and pushed Chiang and his faction to Taiwan.
All this left Roosevelt's vision in shambles. Churchill's plan of rebuilding France and Germany, however, proved to be a wise decision and they have since been strong allies helping maintain balance in Europe.
Roosevelt's Four Policemen idea might have seemed a good idea at the time, but perhaps his naivete over European politics caused him to think that peace could be maintained in such a system and that the other "allies" would agree to his proposed setup. If only things were that simple.
(Image credit: Mister Sheen/Alt History Fandom)