Cold War in Asia, 1945-1954
How Republicans used the Truman Doctrine
to insist that the Democratic President stop
communism in Asia, and how Truman came to
intervene on the Korean Peninsula and lay the
foundation for the Vietnam War
Is your Cell Phone Turned On?
• Chairman
Mao says
Comrades,
turn off your
cell phone and
read my Little
Red Book!
Themes and Topics
• Empire
 Origins of World War II: Asia
 The Korean War, 1950-1953
• Role of Government
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Cold War: Creating a National Security State
Cold War: Truman Doctrine and Containment
Cold War: CIA Covert Operations in the Third World, 1950-1963
New Topic: The Korean War and the Constitution
Cold War: The Vietnam War, 1953-1963
• Private Enterprise
 Military Keynesianism in World War II and After
Central Analytical Questions
• What role did domestic politics play in spreading
the Truman Doctrine and Containment operative to
Asia?
• How and why did containment differ in the Asian
theater from the European theater?
• What was McCarthyism?
• Who is the aggressor in the Korean War?
• How did the Korean War change US policy toward
“French Indochina” (Vietnam)?
• How did the Korean War effect U.S. domestic
politics and governing principles?
The Cold War Comes to Asia
• Survey of the territory
Chinese Civil War
Korean War
First Indochina War
General Albert Wedemeyer
Chinese Civil War, 1929-1949
• FDR’s plans for China
• China at the end of
Jiang Jieshi
(Chiang
World War II
 Nationalists
 Communists
• US government
options
 Support Jiang
 Support Mao
 Support Coalition
Government
• Position of the USSR
Kai-Shek)
Kuomintang party
(Guo Min Dang or GMD)
Leader
Mao Zedung
(Mao Tse-Tung)
Communist
Party Leader
Chinese Civil War, 1929-1949
• Failure of Coalition
Government Option
 American Ambassador
Patrick J. Hurley
denounced Truman’s
coalition option,
November 1945
 Marshall’s first effort,
December 1945
 Marshall’s second
effort, June 1946
 General Wedemeyer’s
Report, Fall 1947
Jiang Jieshi
(Chiang
Kai-Shek)
Mao Zedung
(Mao TseTung)
The China Lobby
• Republican control of
Congress was central
to their ability to shape
policy toward China
• China Lobby achieve
continued military aid
to Jiang’s government
• Shows partial success
of the “China Lobby”
Sen. William Knowland, R-Ca,
the “Senator from Formosa”
When the US didn’t Intervene
• Success of the
Communist
Revolution, October
1949
• Nationalists to
Formosa (Taiwan)
• Acheson’s White
Paper on China, Aug
1949
• U.S. Non-Recognition
of China
Truman and Acheson
What about Taiwan (Formosa?)
The Key Transformations
• Before WW2, Japan was
the US East Asian enemy
and China was the US ally
 China was a colonized
nation as were other areas
of East Asia
• After WW2, China was
the US East Asian enemy
and Japan was the US ally
 National Liberation
movements against
European colonies would be
aided by China
Things Just Get Uglier
• China Lobby attack on
Truman administration
creates the 4th Myth
of the Cold War, the
“loss of China”
• The politics of
questioning loyalty
Republican Senator Joseph
“Tail-Gunner” McCarthy
Korean War, 1950-53
Acheson’s Defense
Perimeter
North Korean
invasion
Truman’s “Police
action”
US invasion
Chinese invasion
Truman and MacArthur
• MacArthur plan behind
North Korean lines at
Inchon a success as North
Korea routed
• MacArthur pressed
northward toward the
North Korean border with
Communist China
• Communist China entered
the war
• Stalemate and Armistice
You’re Fired!
Cost of the Korean War
38th Parallel
• The war left Korea
permanently divided
• Public Opinion
• 54,246 Americans killed;
103,284 wounded
• 900k-1M Chinese killed
or wounded
• 3M Koreans killed (10%
of population)
• US cost: $54 B
• Constitutional Damage:
priceless?
Did Korea End the Republic?
• Korea was called a
“police action”
• Defenders of
Truman’s action
• Problem with
Truman’s action
• The public and
Korea
NSC-68 and Korea
• The invasion of South
Korea compelled Truman to
embrace a number of
policies he had earlier
resisted
 Non-recognition of China
 Blocking Communist China’s
UN membership
 Drastic increases in foreign
military aid and global bases
 The plans outlined in NSC-68
Nuclear Weapons waste,
Hanford Reservation,
Washington State, 1950s
• The decision committed the
US to massive new levels of
military spending
Communist-Nationalist Revolution
in Indochina
• A Post-WW II challenges
to colonialism
• Initial appeal to the US
• US support for French
Colonialism
 US subordinates Far East to
European politics
 Impact of Chinese
Revolution on American
politics
 State Department and
Indochina
Ho Chi Minh,
political head
Vietminh
resistance
General
Giap, military
commander
of the
Vietminh
resistance
The First Indochina War
Critical Thinking Questions
• Is Truman’s reputation for decisiveness justified?
• How do we assess the decisions Truman made?
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Was the Cold War justified? Necessary?
Did he handle the Chinese Civil War effectively?
Was his intervention in Korea justified? Necessary?
Was his support for the French in Indochina justified?
Necessary?
 What is his responsibility for the rise of anti-communist
politics?
 What is Truman’s responsibility for the “Imperial
Presidency” and the decline of separation of powers?
Conclusions
• Chinese intervention shows Truman did not
interpret his own Truman Doctrine
universally, but paid a high price as a result
• Korean intervention demonstrated decline
of Republican government and onset of “the
empire”
• Korean War solidified military industrial
complex and set stage for Vietnam
intervention, and harden U.S. militancy