The Good Ones Do Win

Those who are not invited should stay out. This is a normal rule in houses and usually countries, but the US was not willing to follow it when communism is a threat. It was evident in history that America was afraid of communism spreading and believed in the Domino Theory; the idea that once one country becomes communist, all the rest will. By the end of WWII, tensions with Russia were growing due to diplomatic differences that came up in Yalta conference. The United States and other democratic capitalist countries formed the NATO to stay strong against communism. The Communist European countries answered with their own alliance; the Warsaw pact. However, Europe was not the only concern. China was a major power at the time with one fourth of the world’s population. The Domino Theory was very likely to work in Asia with China’s powerful influence. In 1945, America saw itself in trouble after China went communist. Different presidents in the US tried their own tactics with foreign policy in Korea and Vietnam with China always in the background but history proved that sometimes countries actually do have choice when it comes to their own policies; although some of the US’s attempts to stop communism worked, the result was usually dictated by the country itself.

After being under Japan’s ruling, Korea was divided into the communist North and a more western-like South. The North suddenly attacked the South in an attempt to make communism rule the two territories. A man named Kennan has introduced the policy of Containment during Truman’s presidency at around the same time the Korean War broke out. This was the idea to keep communism the way it was then. Therefore, the United States had to go to Korea and fight Communism to restore the antebellum quo. Troops were sent to Korea under General MacArthur in order to push the North back to the 38th parallel which was where the division line for North and South Korea originally was. This goal was accomplished right away, but General MacArthur felt the need to keep pushing the North Koreans North. This was a poor strategy since the North border of Korea is China and pushing the army almost to the border awoke China into the conflict. From then on the war kept going, soldiers kept dying for about three more years until both countries, or the three countries, agreed to keep the like by the 38th parallel again. Not much was changed but considering the North’s attack was answered, the United States was partially successful. The fighting should have ended once the North was contained. General MacArthur ended up being fired by Truman after defying him popularly and claiming to know what to do with communism.