Title: Why did the United States commit itself to containing communism between 1945 and 1960? - eNotes.com
Headings: Why did the United States commit itself to containing communism between 1945 and 1960?
The Cold War
Why did the United States commit itself to containing communism between 1945 and 1960?
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Content: Even though the regime of Chiang Kai-shek was ineffective and corrupt, people were shocked when Mao's revolution took hold in China. There was additional shock when communists in North Korea invaded South Korea. Harry Truman was accused of being soft on communism as the press, led by Time' s Henry Luce, stated that the United States "lost China." In order to ensure no further losses, presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy toughened their stance against anything that looked like communist aggression. It was believed that all communists were being directed by the Kremlin, when in reality, many of these communist takeovers were really anti-imperialist movements that used funding from China and the Soviet Union. Last Updated by eNotes Editorial on May 1, 2020
Colin Cavendish-Jones, Ph.D.
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The United States of America committed itself to a policy of containing communism in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War because this was the most pragmatic way of pursuing its strategic, economic, and ideological goals. In 1945, the US was still finding its way as the major power of the Western hemisphere. It would not have been realistic to try to fight another war with the Soviet Union immediately after the Axis powers had been defeated at such high cost and given that the Soviet Union had already initiated its nuclear program in 1943. On the other hand, it would clearly have been detrimental to US global interests to pursue a policy of isolationism and allow communism to spread unchecked. Even if the Soviet Union has been content to exercise power only over Eastern Bloc countries, this could still have caused serious disruption to US supply chains, particularly in the case of oil.