Military containment

• In 1948, Congress passed the Vandenberg Resolution allowing the U.S. to enter into military alliance in peacetime.
• In 1949, NATO was created : the first long-lasting defense alliance to be joined by the U.S. -> It was a confirmation that the age of the isolation had come to an end
• The US stationed troops in Western Europe assuring its NATO allies they could benefit from nuclear deterrence.
• In 1949 : 


  
  

  • China - led by Mao Zedong - became a communist country
  • The USSR successfully tested its first atomic bomb
• In reaction to what happened in China and in the USSR, a defense memo warned "the soviet union is animated by a new fanatic faith and seeks to impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world"
• The defense memo suggested to foment "unrest and revolt in [Soviet] satellite countries"