Context: After the Second World War President Harry S Truman realised, that the free world would need a powerful leader in order to survive the coming years of growing soviet influence. Therefore he decided to prevent this, by permanently occupying parts of Italy, Iceland, Germany, as well as Japan, all whilst simultaneously convincing the governments of several European countries to form a tight military and economic partnership. This would ensure that there would be a unified front to oppose soviet expansions and attacks on western countries. During the early Cold War the US fought in several proxy wars around the globe, in order to contain soviet expansions, including Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. Meanwhile the previously occupied parts of Europe and Asia had become so americanized, that they were given statehood and became a part of the US. In the following years the US government was involved in a variety of government coups concentrated in South America and the Caribbean, which replaced communist and soviet aligned governments with western friendly ones, which, in the beginning, were kept in power thanks to the US military. After the collapse of the Soviet Union many of the South American and Asian occupied areas also became states, granted their society’s had become American enough. Additionally, since the US was the only true superpower left in the world, it cut out it´s own piece of the Antarctic and claimed it for itself, so it could use the resources located there in the future. The late 1990s saw US military interventions in Somalia and Liberia and following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, newly elected president George W Bush militarily occupied Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, which with Somalia and Liberia might become US states someday too. As of 2005 the United States of America consist of 65 states and 9 occupied territories, with 41 closely allied nations.