In respects to the containment policy during the Cold War, the United States were affective in containing the spread of communism in Western Europe. However, their attempts in Asia were not as successful.
After the war ended, President Truman made several strategic moves to prevent the spread of Communism in Western Europe. The first was the Truman Doctrine, which was a request by president Truman to Congress for $400 million in aid for both Greece and Turkey, to prevent communists from overthrowing the government. The second move was in response to Europe's economy.Learning from the mistakes of their past, the U.S. proposed the Marshall plan to assist Europe. This plan, recommended my Secretary of State George Marshall, attempted to rehab over twenty nations, and allotted $12 billion over the course of four years for this reconstruction. These two, along with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), proved to be affective against the spreading of communism. NATO was simply an alliance among Western allies and the U.S., with a theory that if you attack one nation, you've attacked them all.
The spread of communism in Asia was a different story. Their struggle started with the Chinese Civil War, which had started in 1937 and resumed in 1945. Here, Mao Zedong, a communist leader fought and defeated Jiang Jieshi and the anti communist national government. Even though the U.S. sent over $2 billion dollars in aid, it still was said that enough wasn't done and the U.S. was blamed for the Chinese loss. The next mishap came in the Korean war, when Truman wrongfully believed that an attack was plan for Moscow, and ordered troops from Japan to Korea. This led to the request by Truman to the U.N. to disengage in the Moscow protection and to send the troops back to aid Korea. By the time this was passed it was too late, and the U.S. and Korea were driven into a Korean peninsula.
The decisions made by the U.S. led to two completely different outcomes in the containing of communism. Good strategic moves in Western Europe allowed for their to be a strong defense in the fight against communism, while bad decisions and lack of support allowed Asia to be susceptible to the ways of communism.
After the war ended, President Truman made several strategic moves to prevent the spread of Communism in Western Europe. The first was the Truman Doctrine, which was a request by president Truman to Congress for $400 million in aid for both Greece and Turkey, to prevent communists from overthrowing the government. The second move was in response to Europe's economy.Learning from the mistakes of their past, the U.S. proposed the Marshall plan to assist Europe. This plan, recommended my Secretary of State George Marshall, attempted to rehab over twenty nations, and allotted $12 billion over the course of four years for this reconstruction. These two, along with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), proved to be affective against the spreading of communism. NATO was simply an alliance among Western allies and the U.S., with a theory that if you attack one nation, you've attacked them all.
The spread of communism in Asia was a different story. Their struggle started with the Chinese Civil War, which had started in 1937 and resumed in 1945. Here, Mao Zedong, a communist leader fought and defeated Jiang Jieshi and the anti communist national government. Even though the U.S. sent over $2 billion dollars in aid, it still was said that enough wasn't done and the U.S. was blamed for the Chinese loss. The next mishap came in the Korean war, when Truman wrongfully believed that an attack was plan for Moscow, and ordered troops from Japan to Korea. This led to the request by Truman to the U.N. to disengage in the Moscow protection and to send the troops back to aid Korea. By the time this was passed it was too late, and the U.S. and Korea were driven into a Korean peninsula.
The decisions made by the U.S. led to two completely different outcomes in the containing of communism. Good strategic moves in Western Europe allowed for their to be a strong defense in the fight against communism, while bad decisions and lack of support allowed Asia to be susceptible to the ways of communism.
posted by poeticlyspeaking at 3:33 PM
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