¶ … Yalta Convention marked the beginning of the Cold War. Franklin Roosevelt Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met at the former palace of Czar Nicholas between February 4th and 11th, 1945. Before the end of World War II, the three world leaders had carved up the world. Germany and Poland were divided. The U.S. agreed to withdraw troops within two years, and Stalin agreed to hold free elections. Russia got land in Outer Mongolia and agreed to enter the Asian War. Korea was split at the 38th Parallel.
Three months later, victory is declared in Europe and three months after that, Japan surrendered. Stalin declared war on Japan two days after the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before VJ Day. The Allies split Indochina into two zones, north and south of the 16th Parallel with the Chinese occupying the north and the British controlling the south.
When Harry Truman became president, he and Stalin exchanged hostile words. Truman spoke of Communism being the greatest danger in the free world while Stalin declared that Communism and Capitalism were incompatible. In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China.
Southeast Asia was as a major interest to the United States and they supported the French Colonialist government against the Communist North under Ho Chi Minh, and the British in Malaysia. Americans feared Communist expansion. Politicians used that fear to their advantage. Senator Joseph McCarthy announced that 57 Communists (or 205 or 81) worked in the State Department. That fear grew in 950 when Stalin and Mao, the Soviet Union and Peoples' Republic of China, signed a 30-year alliance.
By mid-1954, the French knew they had lost their hold on Indochina, and supported the Geneva Accord agreement to settle the Indochina War. Vietnam was to become an independent nation. Elections were to be held under international supervision. Until then, Vietnam would be split. Although the North was pressured by China and the Soviet Union to concede, the U.S. was firmly committed to a policy of sabotaging the Geneva Accords and trying to make South Vietnam an independent country. Foreign policy in Southeast Asia went from military training to direct intervention. American Involvement in Southeast Asia would be a tragic decision that would ultimately cost innumerable lives.
