The Second Great Depression devastated America’s economic power. Most of the Western Powers took it on the chin at that time. The Chinese sugarcoated their conquests as securing the debts that America and other nations owed them. The Russians were far less concerned with saving face. They smiled as they reinstated their control over Eastern Europe and the various Stans on the southern border. It was their right to defend the Rodina, you know. The West was too busy trying to survive to do anything about the nations either one was gobbling up. By the time the surviving American States put the Federal government back in order and started looking outside again, there was no way they were going to roll any of the new borders back. America became home to a new wave of political refugees looking for freedom in a much darker world.