"The head pin was China. It is down already. The two pins in the second row are Burma and Indochina. If they go, the three pins in the next row, Siam, Malaya, and Indonesia, are pretty sure to topple in their turn. And if all the rest of Asia goes, the resulting psychological, political, and economic magnetism will almost certainly drag down the four pins of the fourth row, India, Pakistan, Japan, and the Philippines."-Source: Stewart Alsop, "We Are Losing Asia Fast," Saturday Evening Post, 1950The excerpt is best understood as a response to which of the following historical developments?

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