Sentence:  In each of the last , the trial marked the beginning of a new course : in Moscow the liquidation of the Old Bolsheviks and the tightening of Stalin 's dictatorship ; in the <WSD>United</WSD> States the initiation of militant anti Communism , with the repentant ex Communist in the vanguard . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776