Why did the USA believe it was losing the Cold War in the 1950's?

Authors Avatar

Why did the USA believe it was losing the Cold War in the 1950’s?

There were a number of important reasons for why the USA believed it was losing the Cold War in the 1950s, it started shortly after the end of the second world war when the USSR established the ‘Iron Curtain’ over the now communist Eastern Europe. In early 1947 the British government said it could no longer support Greece and so many diplomats feared the USSR would try to spread its power throughout the Middle East, President Truman met this problem by giving $400million in aid money to Greece and turkey, this policy of aid became known as the ‘Truman Doctrine’. The USA was becoming worried about the growing threat of communism affecting the liberties of capitalism in the rest of the world and so a policy of ‘containment’ was established to prevent aggressive communist countries trying to influence others.

In 1949 in a case that shocked the world China’s civil war was coming to an end and Mao Zedongs communist forces were beginning to take control and eventually pushed the nationalists out of mainland China forcing Chang Kai Sheks remaining forces to flee to Cuba. In early September Mao’s declaration of a Communists Peoples Republic of China sent shockwaves throughout the USA with people believing Stalin was spreading the word of communism and that the President Truman had been to ‘soft’ on the issue. Many American’s now felt that with such a large country falling to communism then the forces of     freedom and capitalism seemed under threat.

Join now!

To further add to the USA’s dismay in 1949 the USSR makes its first test of the A-bomb meaning it has once again caught up to the USA in the arm’s race leading to fears that the USSR would soon match and eventually take over the West in terms of arms production.

In 1950 things went from bad to worse with the communist forces of South Korea launching a surprise attack on the recently divided South, within two weeks the North Korean forces had reached the capital of Seoul and the USA felt obligated to take action to ...

This is a preview of the whole essay