THE COLD WAR IN ASIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
While seeking to prevent Com- munist ideology from gaining fur- ther adherents in Europe, the United States also responded to challenges elsewhere . In China, Americans worried about the advances of Mao Zedong and his Communist Party . During World War II, the National- ist government under Chiang Kai- shek and the Communist forces waged a civil war even as they fought the Japanese . Chiang had been a war-time ally, but his government was hopelessly inefficient and cor- rupt . American policy makers had little hope of saving his regime and considered Europe vastly more im- portant . With most American aid moving across the Atlantic, Mao’s forces seized power in 1949 . Chiang’s government fled to the island of Tai- wan . When China’s new ruler an- nounced that he would support the Soviet Union against the “imperial- ist” United States, it appeared that Communism was spreading out of
control, at least in Asia . The Korean War brought armed
conflict between the United States and China . The United States and the Soviet Union had divided Ko- rea along the 38th parallel after lib- erating it from Japan at the end of World War II . Originally a matter of military convenience, the divid- ing line became more rigid as both major powers set up governments in their respective occupation zones and continued to support them even after departing .
In June 1950, after consultations with and having obtained the assent of the Soviet Union, North Korean leader Kim Il-sung dispatched his Soviet-supplied army across the 38th parallel and attacked southward, overrunning Seoul . Truman, per- ceiving the North Koreans as Soviet pawns in the global struggle, read- ied American forces and ordered World War II hero General Douglas MacArthur to Korea . Meanwhile, the United States was able to secure a U .N . resolution branding North Korea as an aggressor . (The Soviet Union, which could have vetoed any action had it been occupying its seat on the Security Council, was boycot- ting the United Nations to protest a decision not to admit Mao’s new Chinese regime .)
The war seesawed back and forth . U .S . and Korean forces were initial- ly pushed into an enclave far to the south around the city of Pusan . A daring amphibious landing at In- chon, the port for the city of Seoul, drove the North Koreans back and
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threatened to occupy the entire peninsula . In November, China entered the war, sending massive forces across the Yalu River . U .N . forces, largely American, retreated once again in bitter fighting . Com- manded by General Matthew B . Ridgway, they stopped the overex- tended Chinese, and slowly fought their way back to the 38th parallel . MacArthur meanwhile challenged Truman’s authority by attempting to orchestrate public support for bombing China and assisting an invasion of the mainland by Chi- ang Kai-shek’s forces . In April 1951, Truman relieved him of his duties and replaced him with Ridgway .
The Cold War stakes were high . Mindful of the European prior- ity, the U .S . government decided against sending more troops to Ko- rea and was ready to settle for the prewar status quo . The result was frustration among many Americans who could not understand the need for restraint . Truman’s popular- ity plunged to a 24-percent approval rating, the lowest to that time of any president since pollsters had begun to measure presidential popularity . Truce talks began in July 1951 . The two sides finally reached an agree- ment in July 1953, during the first term of Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower .
Cold War struggles also occurred in the Middle East . The region’s stra- tegic importance as a supplier of oil had provided much of the impetus for pushing the Soviets out of Iran in 1946 . But two years later, the United
States officially recognized the new state of Israel 15 minutes after it was proclaimed — a decision Truman made over strong resistance from Marshall and the State Department . The result was an enduring dilemma — how to maintain ties with Israel while keeping good relations with bitterly anti-Israeli (and oil-rich) Arab states .