Communisms Threats to The United States

Communist Threats to the United States

At the outbreak of the Cold War, America was enjoying the highest standard of living any civilization in history ever experienced. While American standard of living was on the rise, the rest of the world was still devastated due to the traumatic end of World War II. Many European nations were facing the issues of rebuilding along with the issues of stabilizing their governments. The Soviet Union stayed strong throughout the end of the World War and was one of the world’s super powers (along with the United States and Britain). At the Yalta Conference, the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to have the Eastern European countries hold free elections, but the U.S.S.R. was fixing the elections, allowing only communist dictators to win and take control of each country. The spread of communism was a major threat to the world and primarily to the United States. These threats shaped the political strength of an unpopular president, the economic prosperity of the American people, and the stress of social issues.

            The political party in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate was the Republican Party, which contrasted with the Democratic President, Harry Truman. The Legislative and Executive Branches of the United States did not see eye to eye on many situations and it was often the case that the Legislative Branch would see Truman’s policy of containing Communism as being too “soft” on it. However, they did work together when national security was at stake or a democratic nation was under attack by Communism. This was first shown when Mao Zedong overthrew the Chinese government and turned it to a Communist nation. To counter any other Communist offensives, the United States created the Southeast Asia Treaties Organization which formalized alliances between the United States and many Southeastern Asian countries. The second test of the United States containment policy was when North Korea surprisingly attacked South Korea. Immediately Truman asked the United Nations to assist South Korea in fighting off Communists, which began the Korean War. As the UN troops fought the North Koreans almost to extinction, the new Communists China sent forth hundreds of thousands of soldiers which eventually fought back to the original 38’ parallel border. After Stalin’s death, an armistice was signed and all fighting was broken off. When Greece and Turkey had to fight for their independence from Communism, Truman signed into action the Truman Doctrine which supplied both countries with hundreds of millions of dollars for military spending to defeat the communist threat. These moves, made by President Truman, showed his true strength as a leader when he had to make decisions that were unpopular to the American public.