Changes

====Containment====

====Containment====

In 1947 Truman, a Democrat, convinced the Republican-controlled Congress to support the [[Truman Doctrine]] by sending massive aid to the small country of Greece, threatened by a Communist takeover.  The rest of Europe was still in economic ruin, which Washington feared would help the spread of Communism, so the [[Marshall Plan]] was proposed to help restore the European economies.  When Stalin engineered a Communist takeover of democratic Czechoslovakia in early 1948, and forbade his satellites to accept Marshall plan moneys, Americans realized that Winston Churchill's warnings about an “iron curtain” had come true.  The strategy of isolationism had failed in 1941. The strategy of friendship (or détente) with Communism had failed in 1948.  Some argued for a strategy of direct confrontation or “Roll-Back”—but that was considered too dangerous, especially when the Soviets tested their first nuclear weapon in 1950.  Washington decided on a strategy of containment, as embodied in the NATO military alliance set up in 1949.  The plan was to prevent further Communist expansion, hoping that the internal weaknesses of the Soviet system would soon lead to its collapse.  The problem with containment was that it meant fighting wars against Communist expansion, especially in Korea in 1950–53, and in Vietnam 1963–73.  Containment had the basic flaw that the enemy could choose the time and place of movement, while America and its allies had to defend everywhere at all times.  In 1949 [[Mao ZeDong]] and his Communists won the civil war in China showing the failure of containment in Asia.

In 1947 Truman, a Democrat, convinced the Republican-controlled Congress to support the [[Truman Doctrine]] by sending massive aid to the small country of Greece, threatened by a Communist takeover.  The rest of Europe was still in economic ruin, which Washington feared would help the spread of Communism, so the [[Marshall Plan]] was proposed to help restore the European economies.  When Stalin engineered a Communist takeover of democratic Czechoslovakia in early 1948, and forbade his satellites to accept Marshall plan moneys, Americans realized that Winston Churchill's warnings about an “iron curtain” had come true.  The strategy of isolationism had failed in 1941. The strategy of friendship (or détente) with Communism had failed in 1948.  Some argued for a strategy of direct confrontation or “Roll-Back”—but that was considered too dangerous, especially when the Soviets tested their first nuclear weapon in 1950.  Washington decided on a strategy of containment, as embodied in the NATO military alliance set up in 1949.  The plan was to prevent further Communist expansion, hoping that the internal weaknesses of the Soviet system would soon lead to its collapse.  The problem with containment was that it meant fighting wars against Communist expansion, especially in Korea in 1950–53, and in Vietnam 1963–73.  Containment had the basic flaw that the enemy could choose the time and place of movement, while America and its allies had to defend everywhere at all times.  In 1949 [[Mao Zedong]] and his Communists won the civil war in China showing the failure of containment in Asia.

===Korean War: 1950-1953===

===Korean War: 1950-1953===