Post World War Two the United States was under the Truman administration. Theodore Roosevelt, the past president, had been in contact with Stalin offering aid to the USSR. These off books agreements came to a halt when Roosevelt died. Truman, coming into office, was unaware of these tacit agreements. …show more content…
This abatement of communism seems to stem out of the fear of another world war. The more communist countries throughout the world, the more likely that this may occur. The Marshall plan was a direct outcome of this ideology. On a visit to Europe, General George Marshall saw the impoverished state of Europe as an open door, from which communism could enter and take over. Through the aid of the United States in the sum of thirteen billion dollars, Western Europe was able industrialize and ward off the advances coming from the USSR. Had it not been for this aid, Western Europe likely would have fallen under Russian control just as Eastern Europe had. The Marshall plan was but a portion of the Truman doctrine which offered support for any nation threatened by the Soviet Union. This support was a form of Neo-imperialism in which the United States would come into a developing country, allow it to grow economically under the ideals of free trade and capitalism. After substantial growth, the United States would then leave watching their progress from a distance. The problem with this was that the solutions were American prescribed. Instead of aiding countries in finding their own alternative solutions, they simply told them what to do which did not always …show more content…
This political distance came to be known as the “Cold War.” When two sides see themselves as correct the development of conflict between the two seem inevitable. Kennan described this “It is an undeniable privilege of every man to prove himself right in the thesis that the world is his enemy; for if he reiterates it frequently enough and makes it the background of his conduct he is bound to be right (569).” Direct conflict of these two ideologies never did emerge, instead it is manifested in Proxy Wars. The Vietnam war was fought between the Communist government of North Vietnam and its allies known as the Viet Cong against the South Vietnam government whose main ally was the United States. The goal of the North was to Unite Vietnam under a communist model of government. The Vietnam war exemplifies the divide between these political ideals. World War order was almost equally divided post World War