Well, obviously I do not remember anything from the 1940s, but I do have personal images as a result of what I know about my family history.  In a global perspective, it is clear that the period from 1945 to 1950 saw the start of the Cold War, which I cover in a different lecture.  Here I would like to mention something about that in the guise of two of the most important commuists of the period:  Mao and Tito.

Mao

, Mao Zedong
Well he was a genius, a moral assessment of that genius can be problematical and controversial

Mao Zedong pronunciation (help·info) (Simplified Chinese: 毛泽东; Traditional Chinese: 毛澤東; Pinyin: Máo Zédōng; Wade-giles: Mao Tse-tung); December 26, 1893–September 9, 1976 was a Chinese military and political leader, who led the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victory against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.

Andy Warhol's 'Mao' sells for $17.4 million

17th Nov 2006, 02:11 GMT

Andy Warhol's iconic image of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, considered one of his most sensational pieces of the 1970s, sold for $17.4 million (about Rs 82 crore), a world auction record for the artist, Christie's auction house said.

http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Modern/pages/MOD_9.shtml
Check out this rt Insttitue of Chicago Sitewith the Mao wallp[aper of Warhol

There are a LOT OF Classic Mao image sout there on the web, but check out this by Andy Warhol

DMao was involved in revolutionary activities as a student already with the May 1919 movement.  The afte r ashor ttime in Moscow (not sure of this), he becasme one of th eleading theeorists f the communist movermne tin the 1920s.  One of the problems was that Moscow through the Comintern, and russian advisors in China,, trie dto steer and control the nascent Chinese communist movermnet.  This lead to disaster whent the natioanlists turend against the Chinese at Shanghai and almost wiped them out.
I think that Mao learned a lot about working wth or taking orders from the Russians after this.
Then it was survial during the 1903s. first came the long amrch, a truly amazing feat
Then came the war with ajpapan and a forced alliance with the natioanlsits.
That was lasted a long time, but it gave the communist a lot of prestige
with the end of the war, the commusnist got a break with arms in manchurai, but mao basically defied Stalin and contiuned a civl war.
leading t the eventual October 1949 victory, whcih was not done with much soviet aid despite westernm prconc eptions to the contrary.

Trouble again resulted as Mao went to Moscow expecting to be crowned another king and receive loans and material iaid from Stalin, but he got little.

With respect to the Cold war, the Mao-Stalin thing got vene more personal once it becamse the Mao-Khrushchev thing, since Mao considered K an upstart and not a great revolutonary leader.  By the 1960s, there was open hostilty between Russian and cChina, culminmating in a few nasty open ar sexchanges and also some broder skirmishes.  Problem that Russian did not give Mao nucealr weapons.

But back to the 1940s.I'd like to empahsize that while the US and the western world was seeing the unrolling of a communist monoith, the reality was actually cquite diffrent as russia and China had diferent theroretical basis (Mao did different things with Marx than Lenin had done); they were in similar dires straits with reagird to the phyicals destruction of ther conutries, but they were not dependent on one another.

Tito

Josip Broz Tito
Almost as soon as the Cold War started, it already began to dissipate (if anyone had really cared to look, part of that was due to waht Mao did, but it was also due to Tito who had his fingerd wagged at him, bu tnothing happende.d

Khrushchev on Stalin (paraphrased): "Stalin said. 'I will wag my little finger, and Tito will fall, just like that!' Well, Stalin wagged his little finger, and Kirov fell. He wagged it again, and the Red Army was decimated. But when it came to Tito, it didn't work."
Picture

Some dates in the deterioration of the Moscow-Belgrade relationship.

1. No doubt about it, detente was over-sold both to Americans and Russians.  Despite friendly talk and nice state visits, there still remained a lot of nuclear missiles pointed at both sides, and most of the same military infrastructure that had deployed those missiles remained in place with their "cold war warrior" mentalités intact.
2. On 3 January 1975, President Gerald Ford signed into law the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which required that any future expansion of trade between the US and USSR--primarily grain sales by American farmers to Russia--be dependent on improvements of human rights conditions within the Soviet Union.  That irritated Russia.
3. Throughout the 1970s, there was continuing communist activity around the world: Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Thailand (insurgency), Somalia, Ethiopia, Angola, Central America, El Salvador, Yemen, Benin, Mozambique, etc.  That irritated America.
4. Russian support for Arab nations such as Syria in the Middle East.  That irritated America.
5. President Carter's call for the observance of human rights around the world, especially in communist Eastern Europe.  That irritated Russia.
6. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis appeared to show the United States powerless on the world stage.  That bothered America.
7. On 25 December 1979 (Christmas day!), the Soviets invaded Afghanistan to support the communist regime there. That bothered America.
8. Because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the US boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.  That bothered Russia.
9. Also as a result of events in Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter increased the U.S. defense budget and financing of the anti-Soviet Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan began.  That irritated the Russians.
10. The 1980 American presidential election was won by Ronald Reagan who opposed further "concessions" to the Russians in the SALT II negotiations.

Tito-Stalin split - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Web pages within the course relevant to the 1940s

• United Nations
• Nuremberg War Crimes
• Hiroshima
• Mainframe Computers (ENIAC)
• Pakistan
• Mahatma Gandhi
• The Formation of NATO
• 
  

Some suggestions for further research

http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/mao.html
The time 100

CNN In-Depth Specials - Visions of China - Profiles: Mao Tse-tung

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, ToC