invaded South Korea, drawing the United States or non-nuclear, forces. American policymakers and the UN into a three-year conflict that ended also hoped to maintain their head start in the in a stalemate. By the mid-1950s, arms race. In 1947, Truman ordered that four U.S. leaders had reluctantly accepted the Sovi- et hundred nuclear weapons be ready by 1953. sphere of influence behind the Iron Curtain. Under Eisenhower, the doctrine of “massive Moscow’s development of nuclear weap- retaliation” committed the United States to use ons forced American defense planners to devise nuclear weapons to counter a Soviet attack on a new national security strategy to counter the Western Europe. The purpose of the policy was Soviet threat. Presidents Truman and to deter an attack from ever taking place. This Eisenhower bolstered the U.S. presence in policy of deterrence would form the cornerstone Western Europe to deter Soviet aggression. The of U.S. security policy for nearly fifty years. United States increased its conventional, n Part I, you have read three critical turning points in America’s relationship to the world in the last century. The challenge for Americans is to define the role that the nation will have in the twenty-first century. As you read the next two sections on changes in the global environment and U.S. security, think about the turning points of the past. How were ordinary Americans involved in the foreign policy decisions of the last century, and how might Americans be involved today? Will the same factors involved in the twentieth century influence the decisions of the twenty-first? Have our values changed? As you read the following sections, use your knowledge of previous turning points to evaluate the choices available for us today.
invaded South Korea, drawing the United States and the UN into a three-year conflict that ended in a stalemate. By the mid-1950s, U.S. leaders had reluctantly accepted the Sovi- et sphere of influence behind the Iron Curtain. Moscow’s development of nuclear weap- ons forced American defense planners to devise a new national security strategy to counter the Soviet threat. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower bolstered the U.S. presence in Western Europe to deter Soviet aggression. The United States increased its conventional, or non-nuclear, forces. American policymakers also hoped to maintain their head start in the arms race. In 1947, Truman ordered that four hundred nuclear weapons be ready by 1953. Under Eisenhower, the doctrine of “massive retaliation” committed the United States to use nuclear weapons to counter a Soviet attack on Western Europe. The purpose of the policy was to deter an attack from ever taking place. This policy of deterrence would form the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for nearly fifty years. n Part I, you have read three critical turning points in America’s relationship to the world in the last century. The challenge for Americans is to define the role that the nation will have in the twenty-first century. As you read the next two sections on changes in the global environment and U.S. security, think about the turning points of the past. How were ordinary Americans involved in the foreign policy decisions of the last century, and how might Americans be involved today? Will the same factors involved in the twentieth century influence the decisions of the twenty-first? Have our values changed? As you read the following sections, use your knowledge of previous turning points to evaluate the choices available for us today.
choicesus_role_in_the_world.docx