| US Wars 1920-1960 |
| World War II |
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| The United States of America was still feeling the effects of World War I and remembering bitter regrets about entering the war. Before entering the Great War, the US was seeking to be neutral from the European conflict and when Europe was on the verge of another world war again, the US sought to remain neutral. Americans thought that whatever happened in Europe was to be handled by the Europeans and that America must stay out of it at all cost. |
| President Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged Americans to support neutrality. The ancient words of George Washington warning the people to stay out of foreign conflicts were returning to them. |
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| Korean War |
| Korea was granted freedom at the end of World War II and was split into North and South Korea at the 38th parallel (Korean 2). At this time, the Soviets controlled the north and the US controlled the south. When North Korea invaded South Korea (they had opposing governments after all), the UN acted to stop this aggression.As a proxy war, this was a war between the more communist and more capitalist sides. Stalin of the Soviet Union was the one who requested the Chinese to help the North Koreans attack. The US was following a policy of containment here. |
| The Cold War |
| What the Cold War was made of was proxy wars. This means that the nations who are technically the ones opposing each other are fighting through using other nations who share similar interests to actually fight on the battlefield. The US and USSR hardly made contact on the battlefield. The Cold War encased several wars that were fought that show how it was made of proxy wars. The Cold War began right after World War II ended, rooted in the relations between democratic USA and autocratic USSR. Because of their opposing ideologies and their want of trying to spread them, the US and USSR leaders showed decent friendliness on the surface but bitter resentment and distrust were chronic feelings toward each other in reality. |
| Vietnam |
| The Vietnam War was a battle between North and South Vietnam where North Vietnam was communist rooted and once again the US had to stop communism from spreading. The Domino Theory explained that if communism were to take over Vietnam, then the rest of Southeast Asia would follow it. Here, the US is again following the policy of containment. US troops were sent to Vietnam over the period of the war and the acts of both theirs and the Viet Cong sparked much controversy and protests against the war in the future years of the war. China was of course supporting North Vietnam and this war would drag out to more than 25 years. It was the longest war America was involved in and it was against communism. |
| Click here for a paper report. |