Historyonthenet.co. Learning: online learning resources. SchoolHistory.co.uk - online history lessons, revision, games, worksheets, quizzes and links. - Tudors. - A World Divided. National Archives and Records Administration. US Enters the Korean Conflict. (Originally published in Social Education, the Journal of the National Council for the Social Studies). Background While the end of World War II brought peace and prosperity to most Americans, it also created a heightened state of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. Fearing that the Soviet Union intended to "export" communism to other nations, America centered its foreign policy on the "containment" of communism, both at home and abroad.
Although formulation of the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and the Berlin Airlift suggested that the United States had a particular concern with the spread of communism in Europe, America's policy of containment extended to Asia as well. Indeed, Asia proved to be the site of the first major battle waged in the name of containment: the Korean War. In 1950 the Korea Peninsula was divided between a Soviet-backed government in the north and an American-backed government in the south. This document is part of the George M. The Document.