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uscar tsarcK. ueorge Kennan, J. William Fulbright and Ronald Steel.C HISTORICAL BACKGROUND;In February of 1945, the Allies (Roosevelt of the U.S., Churchill of England and Stalin of Russia) met in Yalta, a Russian seaport on the Black Sea. to plan for the final defeat of Germany (which was to come in May -1945). the push against Japan and the remapping of Europe.At Yalta, a sick and beleaguered Roosevelt, who was to die about two months after the Yalta agreement, agreed to the following:Russia would enter the v/ar against Japan and recognize Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Party as the rightful government on mainland China.Russia would receive the Kurile Islands and part of the Sakhalin - Islands off the coast of Japan.Stalin would be given a sphere of influence in ManchuriaInterim governments would be ^established by the Soviets in captured Eastern European countries until “free” and democratic elections could be held (These elections were never held. JNew boundaries for Poland would give Russia the part of Poland it had occupied in the early part of World Wrar IIGermany would be divided into four occupation zones as previously agreed to. hit Berlin, which was in Russia’sfIn his essay “Franklin Roosevelt,” historian Paul L. Murphy says:“The practical course then was a series of adjustments, as minor as possible, to the growing demands of Stalin. These settlements were not based on any naive assumption that the Russians were ‘swell fellows, let’s benice to them,* but upon the desire to nail down Russian promises of postwar cooperation.”When Truman took office in April of 1945, he was totally uninformed about F.D.R.'s foreign policy. The only thing he knew for certain was that Roosevelt wanted a United Nations. Truman strongly agreed with this position, and at the July, 1945, Potsdam Conference he was lenient towards the Russians.At this conference, Truman informed the Allies that the U.S. had a new destructive weapon, the A-bomb, with which it would bomb Japan into sub-anH thnf RiK«sian frrvnrv? u/AiildStates), which united Latin-Americ nations in a military and econo it alliance against Communism.In 1949, N.A.TO. (North Atlani Treaty Organization) was created Western Europe. Its purpose was contain Communism in Europe. Russ countered this move by organizing t Warsaw Pact, which united the nt Eastern European satellite nations.In China, Communist forces und Mao-Tse-T\jng were able to overcon the U.S.-supported Chiang Kai-sfo government when Truman refused send more aid to the Nationali government. In 1949, mainland Chii went Communist.In June of 1950. Communist Nor Korea, with the assistance of Soviequipment, attacked South Kore (Korea had been divided in 1945 ! Russia and the U.S.) To stop the Nor Koreans, theU.N. immediately sentVietnam RecordThe following figures are approximations:U.S. killed ___________________ 46,00CU.S wounded_________________ 304,00(South Vietnamese killed_______ 599,00(South Vietnamese wounded l,385,00(U.S. Cost_____________________ 130 Billio
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Suburbanite Economist
Chicago, Illinois, US
Thu, Dec 06, 1973
Page 13
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