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