President Harry S. Truman
When Harry S Truman became President in April 1945, much of Europe
and Asia lay in ruins. Although the Axis powers had been defeated, an
ominous new threat appeared on the horizon. The United States and the Soviet
Union, who were allies during World War II, emerged from the war as global
powers, increasingly in conflict with each other. By 1947, efforts to
maintain cooperation between Washington and Moscow had broken down
completely. President Truman, working closely with two assertive Secretaries
of State—George C. Marshall (1947-1949) and Dean G.
Acheson (1949-1953)—took decisive steps to contain Soviet
expansion in regions in which the United States had vital interests. The
United States was about to enter a new kind of war: the “Cold War.”