Free Essays,College Free Essays,Free College Essays at Anti Essays

A combination of political, economic, and moral considerations led the U.S. government to oppose Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe. President Truman took a strong stance against the Soviet territorial advances, advocating a policy of containment. Under this policy, the U.S. would not attempt to change the post–World War II situation in Europe, but it would work to prevent further Soviet expansion through peaceful or military means.
After the close of World War II, a new and very different conflict rose to the forefront of American national attention: the Cold War. The Cold War pitted the communist Soviet Union against the capitalist U.S. and its Western Allies. While there was little actual violence, both sides considered the conflict to be severe and threatening. President Harry S. Truman, who had succeeded Franklin Roosevelt as president after the latter’s death in April 1945, found himself in an increasingly difficult and complex battle against communism. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who succeeded Truman as president in 1952, inherited the conflict.
In Asia, as in Europe, Truman tried to contain the spread of communism. The U.S. denied the USSR any hand in the postwar reconstruction of Japan and occupied Japan until 1952, at which point the U.S. officially exited but left troops behind on American military bases. In China, the U.S. spent almost $3 billion in a failed effort to support Chinese nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek against Mao Zedong’s communists. In 1949, the communists achieved victory and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The nationalists fled to Taiwan, where they established their own government to rival the PRC. Asia, much like Germany, became the site of division between contending camps, communist and noncommunist.
The Cold War conflict in Asia erupted into outright war in June 1950, when troops from Soviet-supported North Korea invaded South Korea. Without asking for a declaration of war, Truman committed...