When the Soviet Union went through a peaceful transition to democracy, the United States was left as the world's one great superpower, able to preside over the creation of numerous new nations with more or less democratic and America-inspired political systems. In the 1990s the absence of Communist repression permitted old ethnic and religious animosities in Eastern Europe to resurface. In spite of hideous "ethnic cleansing" campaigns, America was reluctant to become involved for fear that Bosnia would become another Vietnam.