Task
Use details from the sources below to support your ideas.
Please remember:
As soon as World War II ended, the United States began pursuing a policy of containment against "Soviet aggression." Examples include giving aid to European and Asian nations, organizing the Berlin Airlift, and sending troops to South Korea.
What were America's reasons for pursuing this policy of containment? Were they good reasons? |
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A. |
The excerpt below was written by Henry Wallace in 1946, when he served as Secretary of Commerce. Wallace disagreed with the aggressive stance that the Truman Administration was taking against the Soviet Union.
"'Getting tough' never bought anything real and lasting - whether for schoolyard bullies or businessmen or world powers. The tougher we get, the tougher the Russians will get...
We must earnestly want peace with Russia - but we want to be met half way. We want cooperation... The real peace treaty we now need is between the United States and Russia. On our part, we should recognize that we have no more business in the political affairs of Eastern Europe than Russia has in the political affairs of Latin America, Western Europe, and the United States. We may not like what Russia does in Eastern Europe. Her type of land reform, industrial expropriation, and suppression of basic liberties offends the great majority of the people of the United States. But whether we like it or not the Russians will try to socialize their sphere of influence just as we try to democratize our sphere of influence. This applies also to Germany and Japan. We are striving to democratize Japan and our area of control in Germany, while Russia strives to socialize eastern Germany... Meanwhile, the Russians should stop teaching that their form of communism must, by force if necessary, ultimately triumph over democratic capitalism - while we should close our ears to those among us who would have us believe that Russian communism and our free enterprise system cannot live, one with another, in a profitable and productive peace." |
B. |
The video below includes excerpts from the "Truman Doctrine" speech by President Truman to Congress, March 12, 1947.
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C. |
The newspaper article and political cartoon below are from the February 25, 1948 edition of The New York Times. The event they are referring to is the fall of the government of Czechoslovakia to Soviet influence.
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E. |
From the writings of General Douglas MacArthur, August 1950. The topic he is discussing is the Korean War.
"The prestige of the Western world hangs in the balance. Oriental millions are watching the outcome. It is plainly apparent that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest. The test is not in Berlin or Vienna, in London, Paris or Washington. It is here and now–it is along the Naktong River in South Korea. We have joined the issue on the battlefield. Actually, we here fight Europe's war with arms, while there it is still confined to words. If we lose the war to Communism in Asia, the fate of Europe will be gravely jeopardized. Win it and Europe will probably be saved from war and stay free. Make the wrong decision her–the fatal decision of inertia–and we will be done. I can almost hear the ticking of the second hand of destiny. We must act now or we will die."
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F. |
The video excerpt below is the first 4 minutes of Crash Course US History: The Cold War in Asia, featuring John Green.
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