After World War II, signs of increasingly troubled relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became evident. The inability of the two nations to reach an agreement on any key postwar issues and the growing suspicion of his advisers contributed to Truman’s hardening stance toward the Soviets. According to historian Gaddis, accidents of personality made it more difficult more difficult to achieve a mutually agreeable settlement. The Russians saw the transition from Roosevelt to Truman as a shift in policy from cooperation to one of confrontation when it had simply been a shift of personality. Roosevelt sought to woo the Soviet leader while Truman used his tough talk, not to impede, but to facilitate negotiations. He simply thought that any appearances of weakness would only encourage the Russians to ask more.
On March 12, 1947, Truman proclaimed that “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures,” known as the Truman Doctrine proceeded to ask for $400 million to help fight communist insurgents in Greece and Turkey, two vitally strategic countries in the Middle East for oil and whose insurgents were being helped by the three Soviet satellite states--Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria--on Greece's northern border. Truman feared that these two nations would fall into Stalin’s iron curtain and Stalin would be closer to accomplishing his dream of a communist world. And when Western Europe was in danger, again Truman stepped in and in June 1947 Secretary of State George C. Marshall offered U.S. economic aid help fight off hunger and desperation, which Truman believed would lead to communist take over. Four months later, State Department official George F. Kennan’s Mr. X article appeared in Foreign Affairs. This article urged the containment of the Soviets, by one of the best experts on the Soviet Union. And with all of these documents in place, American attempted to “contain” communism.
In 1948, Truman was reelected and continued to press to contain communism abroad. In 1949, Truman signed off on the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Paris and Bonn conventions. These documents helped bring West Germany into the allied camp under the guidance of the European Defense Community.
Most of Truman’s failures came in Asia. He was accused of losing China to communism, when he was unable to assure the success of the Nationalists over the communists in the conclusion of the Chinese civil war. Then on June 25, 1950, the communist North Korean army invaded South Korea. Two days later, the President sent U.S armed forces under the leadership of General MacArthur, in an effort to contain the spread of Communism, which seemed to be spreading over Asia. Truman later fired MacArthur for publicly challenging Truman’s orders. In 1952, Truman announced that he would not seek a third term, and returned to private life, dying at age 88 on December 26, 1972.
