Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

ble, the United States feared that lo-

American leaders feared that

cal Communist parties, directed by losing Berlin would be a prelude to

Moscow, would capitalize on their losing Germany and subsequently all

wartime record of resistance to the of Europe . Therefore, in a successful

Nazis and come to power . “The pa- demonstration of Western resolve

tient is sinking while the doctors de- known as the Berlin Airlift, Al ied air liberate,” declared Secretary of State forces took to the sky, flying supplies George C . Marshall . In mid-1947 into Berlin . U .S ., French, and British

Marshall asked troubled European planes delivered nearly 2,250,000

nations to draw up a program “di- tons of goods, including food and

rected not against any country or coal . Stalin lifted the blockade after

doctrine but against hunger, poverty, 231 days and 277,264 flights .

desperation, and chaos .”

By then, Soviet domination of

The Soviets participated in the Eastern Europe, and especially the

first planning meeting, then depart- Czech coup, had alarmed the West-

ed rather than share economic data ern Europeans . The result, initiated

and submit to Western controls on by the Europeans, was a military al-

the expenditure of the aid . The re- liance to complement economic ef-

maining 16 nations hammered out a forts at containment . The Norwegian

request that finally came to $17,000 historian Geir Lundestad has cal ed

million for a four-year period . In it “empire by invitation .” In 1949 the

early 1948 Congress voted to fund United States and 11 other countries

the “Marshall Plan,” which helped established the North Atlantic Trea-

underwrite the economic resur- ty Organization (NATO) . An attack

gence of Western Europe . It is gen- against one was to be considered an

erally regarded as one of the most attack against all, to be met by ap-

successful foreign policy initiatives propriate force . NATO was the first

in U .S . history .

peacetime “entangling al iance” with

Postwar Germany was a special powers outside the Western hemi-

problem . It had been divided into sphere in American history .

U .S ., Soviet, British, and French

The next year, the United States

zones of occupation, with the for- defined its defense aims clearly . The

mer German capital of Berlin (it- National Security Council (NSC)

self divided into four zones), near — the forum where the President,

the center of the Soviet zone . When Cabinet officers, and other execu-

the Western powers announced tive branch members consider na-

their intention to create a consoli- tional security and foreign affairs

dated federal state from their zones, issues — undertook a full-fledged

Stalin responded . On June 24, 1948, review of American foreign and

Soviet forces blockaded Berlin, cut- defense policy . The resulting docu-

ting off all road and rail access from ment, known as NSC-68, signaled a

the West .

new direction in American security

262

OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

policy . Based on the assumption that control, at least in Asia .

“the Soviet Union was engaged in

The Korean War brought armed

a fanatical effort to seize control of conflict between the United States

all governments wherever possible,” and China . The United States and

the document committed America the Soviet Union had divided Ko-

to assist allied nations anywhere in rea along the 38th parallel after lib-

the world that seemed threatened by erating it from Japan at the end of

Soviet aggression . After the start of World War II . Originally a matter

the Korean War, a reluctant Truman of military convenience, the divid-

approved the document . The United ing line became more rigid as both

States proceeded to increase defense major powers set up governments

spending dramatically .

in their respective occupation zones

and continued to support them even

THE COLD WAR IN ASIA AND

after departing .

THE MIDDLE EAST

In June 1950, after consultations

W

with and having obtained the assent

hile seeking to prevent Com- of the Soviet Union, North Korean

munist ideology from gaining fur- leader Kim Il-sung dispatched his

ther adherents in Europe, the United Soviet-supplied army across the 38th

States also responded to challenges parallel and attacked southward,

elsewhere . In China, Americans overrunning Seoul . Truman, per-

worried about the advances of Mao ceiving the North Koreans as Soviet

Zedong and his Communist Party . pawns in the global struggle, read-

During World War II, the National- ied American forces and ordered

ist government under Chiang Kai- World War II hero General Douglas

shek and the Communist forces MacArthur to Korea . Meanwhile,

waged a civil war even as they fought the United States was able to secure

the Japanese . Chiang had been a a U .N . resolution branding North

war-time ally, but his government Korea as an aggressor . (The Soviet

was hopelessly inefficient and cor- Union, which could have vetoed any

rupt . American policy makers had action had it been occupying its seat

little hope of saving his regime and on the Security Council, was boycot-

considered Europe vastly more im- ting the United Nations to protest

portant . With most American aid a decision not to admit Mao’s new

moving across the Atlantic, Mao’s Chinese regime .)

forces seized power in 1949 . Chiang’s

The war seesawed back and forth .

government fled to the island of Tai- U .S . and Korean forces were initial-

wan . When China’s new ruler an- ly pushed into an enclave far to the

nounced that he would support the south around the city of Pusan . A

Soviet Union against the “imperial- daring amphibious landing at In-

ist” United States, it appeared that chon, the port for the city of Seoul,

Communism was spreading out of drove the North Koreans back and

263