I was born toward the end of WW2:
(December 12, 1944).
China was a disaster,
having been destroyed by Japan.
Russia lost 20 million lives in the war,
but claimed a bitter victory.
America won the war with all the spoils of victory.
.
I was 8 during the Korean War. (1952).
China/Russia and America split up North Korea and South Korea.
I asked my mother, did we win?
She said, the war has ended.
.
I was nineteen at the start of the Vietnam War. (1964).
China and America supported North and South Vietnam respectively.
South Vietnam collapsed and North Vietnam invaded.
America evacuated, China claimed victory.
Vietnam becomes a mixture of socialism to China’s delight, and a MARKET driven economy much to America’s delight.
.
The Cold War came to an end in 1989. I was 44 years old.
Russia and socialism collapsed.
America and capitalism won.
.
China/Russian authoritarianism challenge America AGAIN. I’m 77 today.
Russia is about to go to war with Ukraine. This will test America’s resolve to lead NATO and Western European countries against Russia’s renewed efforts to reassert its dominance since its defeat in the Cold War.
China is itching to invade Taiwan. If Russia succeeds in invading Ukraine, no doubt China will invade Taiwan, singling America’s inability to be the protector and facilitator of the engine of the world’s greatest region of wealth creation. This will be evidence China is replacing America as the world’s most dominant nation.
.
Outcome:
China will become poorer. Why? China becomes poorer after it becomes richer. Its obsession, for two thousand years, in absolute central control works for a while then comes apart.
Russia will become poorer. Why? Russia is poor. For example, Russia’s literature is among the very best communicated I’ve ever read, but its themes are also the most pessimistic and paranoid of all I have read. The Russian psyche trusts no one or nothing, especially government.
And America? America finds a way to become richer, win, lose, or draw during wars with China and Russia.
Traditional and social media predict America is going to lose big in these present challenges with China/Russia. It’s reasoning: presently America has terrible divisions internally. I have another opinion: during my lifetime and before, America has always been divided – until it isn’t. America has its own unique brand of democracy. We were divided during the Revolutionary War, Civil War, civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, and the recent United States Capitol insurrection. That’s how we begin to work out the seemingly unworkable. Then we calm down a bit, and start getting richer as we work through our new challenges with China/Russia.