Truman and the Cold war
Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president from 1945-1953 greatly exaggerated Russia's power and "scared" the U.S. citizens and government into a Cold War and power struggle. After World War II it was inevitable there would be a power struggle, as the two most powerful yet completely different countries, Russia and the US emerged as the world leaders. Russia and the US were allies during the war, but with their entirely different government structures, and the power-hungry Stalin and the anti-isolationist Truman, Russia and the US clashed heads. The Cold War controversy was initially publicly ignited by Churchill's public speech at Westminster college on March 5, 1946. Churchill stated that, "From what I have seen of our Russian friends and allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength and there is nothing for which they have less respect than military weakness."Truman was urged by his cabinet not to endorse Churchill's statements, but Truman, being bitter from Stalin's broken promise of letting the Polish people determining their own form of government that he promised at the meeting at Potsdam, Truman publicly endorsed the speech. Truman was also wary if Stalin's comments in his Febr
Stalin responded with his COMECON, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, his own recovery plan for Eastern Europe. It didn't stop Stalin, and in mid-1946 he marched into Turkey and setup a Turkey-Soviet defense barrier across the waterway much against Turkey's request. " Containment as explained by State Department planner and specialist George Kennan was "Applying military and economic pressures to confine the Soviet Union within its borders and to prevent its further expansion. Truman decided to take over Britain's responsibilities in order to prevent Communism influence in yet another European country. Stalin wanted to slow the recovery even more, so the Soviets occupied Berlin and closed it off, making all Americans have to be checked at the border, also all cargo and trains had to be checked. Although most of the public supported Truman's new foreign policy, many people led by Henry Wallace, thought the President overreacted to Stalin's empty threats, and wondered whether it was in the best interest of the United States to spend the money and resources to protect free nations around the globe. Stalin did this in order to apply the Soviet currency in Berlin to counter the Western circulation of the Deutsche Mark.
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