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• Truman was left with many options in ending war with Japan

• Attack on Japanese mainland would produce thousands of casualties

• Japanese flatly rejected Potsdam Declaration

The “Big Three” meet to discuss postwar Europe

Nuremburg Trials

From Left to Right: Sir Norman Birkett & Sir

Geoffrey Lawrence – Britain’s Main and Alternate Judges

Tokyo Trials “The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility:

(a) Crimes against Peace: Namely, the planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a declared or undeclared war of aggression, or a war in violation of international law, treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing;

(b) Conventional War Crimes: Namely, violations of the laws or customs of war;

(c) Crimes against Humanity: Namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions on political or racial grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated...”Source: Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East 1946

SOVIET – U.S. RELATIONSSOVIET – U.S. RELATIONS

• Alliance during war was of convenience – not mutual trust

• Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe worried liberal democracies

• Many compared Russian government to Hitler's regime

SATELLITE STATES IN EASTERN EUROPE

Soviets sought to fortify western flank from attack

Communist dictators came to power in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia

U.S. and British governments were deeply alarmed

Source: Leslie Illingworth, Daily Mail, June 1947

Occupation Zones of Germany • Temporary Soviet

occupation zones became new communist states

• Soviets wanted a weaker German nation

• U.S. and G.B. viewed recovery of Germany as significant to Central Europe

Source: Jay "Ding" Darling, “We Tried Everything But Dynamite”, New York Times 1947

Containment Policy - U.S. aimed to contain Communism in its current borders- Avoid the domino effect of Communist takeover- Doctrine was expanded to cover the world - George Kennan’s “Long Telegram”

• Britain removed forces in Greece and Turkey

• Western Allies feared Communist victory in Greek Civil War would jeopardize the political stability of Turkey

• March 1947: Truman asked for $400 million in military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey against totalitarian governments

• Reoriented foreign policy from withdrawn position to active intervention in foreign matters

It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.

Marshall Plan

Source: Speech at Harvard University, George Marshall, April 1948

• Idea born at Dumbarton Oaks Conference, formulated and negotiated at Yalta Conference

• Intended to promote international security and prevent future global conflicts

• Atomic Energy Commission created after U.S. proposal and Soviet agreement

June 1948: Soviets cut off all land access to Berlin

Truman responds with air supply drop offs

“To promote the national security by providing for a Secretary of Defense; for a National Military Establishment; for a Department of the Army, a Department of the Navy, and a Department of the Air Force; and for the coordination of activities of the National Military Establishment with other departments and agencies of the Government concerned with the national security.”Source: National Security Act, November 4, 1952

If war should begin in 1950, the United States and its allies will have the military capability of conducting defensive operations to provide a reasonable measure of protection to the Western Hemisphere, bases in the Western Pacific, and essential military lines of communication; and an inadequate measure of protection to vital military bases in the United Kingdom and in the Near and Middle East. We will have the capability of conducting powerful offensive air operations against vital elements of the Soviet war-making capacity.

If war should begin in 1950, the United States and its allies will have the military capability of conducting defensive operations to provide a reasonable measure of protection to the Western Hemisphere, bases in the Western Pacific, and essential military lines of communication; and an inadequate measure of protection to vital military bases in the United Kingdom and in the Near and Middle East. We will have the capability of conducting powerful offensive air operations against vital elements of the Soviet war-making capacity.Source: National Council Report 68, April 14,

1950

Source: Cumming

s of the Daily

Express, 24

August 1953,

"Back to Where it

all Started"

“What is not generally understood is that the Zionists are not the only ones to be considered in the Palestine question. There are other interests that come into play, each with its own agenda. The military is concerned with the problems of defending a newly created small country from attacks by much larger and better trained Arab nations. Others have selfish interests concerning the flow of Arab oil to the U.S. Since they all cannot have their way, it is a perfect example of why I had to remember that 'The Buck Stops Here.'"Source: Harry Truman, Diary Entry, 1948

Postwar Japan MacArthur (SCAP)

took firm control of Japanese reconstruction

Enacted a new constitution

U.S. – Japanese Security Treaty

George Marshall sent to George Marshall sent to negotiate end to Chinese negotiate end to Chinese civil warcivil war

Nationalist Chinese Nationalist Chinese government was given government was given $400 million$400 million

Much of which ended Much of which ended up in Communist handsup in Communist hands

The Rise of Communist China• Chiang and Nationalists took refuge in Formosa

• U.S. refused to recognize Zedong

• Republicans alarmed by loss of China

North Korean Surprise Attack

June 25, 1950: North Korean Army invaded South Korea

U.S. did not hesitate with a response

Inchon Invasion MacArthur reversed

the war with an amphibious attack at Inchon

Advanced as far as the southern Chinese border

Chinese Intervention- November 1950: Chinese troops

launch surprise attack and decimate MacArthur’s troops in North Korea

- Made Korean Conflict "an entirely new war.”

- PRC aimed to preserve North Korean Communist State

MACARTHUR VS. TRUMAN

•MacArthur called for an expanded war

•Truman cautioned MacArthur from speaking out against policy

•MacArthur recalled for insubordination

“Old soldiers never die, they just fade

away.”– General Douglas MacArthur

Armistice• War ended in stalemate at 38th parallel

• 54,000 Americans died in Korea

• Critics saw Truman as “soft on communism”

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