hey briefly provided a problem but they had no air force with which to support their own troops. Truman fired MacArthur on insubordination charges. The U.N. forces continued the war until a cease-fire was made in 1953. This reestablished the border at the 38th parallel. During this war, the U.S. lost about 60,000 troops. What results did we get? No border changes, a minor containment of Communism that probably would not have made much difference to the U.S. anyway. Only the death of Americans was gained. The next result of the Truman Doctrine was the Vietnam War. This was another anti- Communist containment war. Ho Chi Minh had invaded South Vietnam. It began with the Gulf of Tonkin incident in which Vietnam Torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers. From there, more and more troops were poured into Vietnam. U.S. began bombing raids in 1965. By the end of that year more than 200,000 troops were in Vietnam. In 1968, 525,000 troops were there. Several peace initiatives were given by the U.S. but were refused, however by the Vietnamese. The Tet offensive renewed lagging conflict and eventually led to the end of all-out U.S. involvement in 1973. In 1970, the U.S. entered Cambodia due to a coup. However, in three months the U.S. troops were withdrawn. At the end of our withdrawal nearly 60,000 troops were killed and this time we had not even saved the country we were defending. The veterans received nearly no welcome as the public was not interested in fighting a war too far away to matter. One great event that has caused the U.S. to escalate world aid and involvement was the collapse of the Soviet Union. No longer are we fighting to contain Communism, but instead to maintain Democracy any and everywhere. Still, today the Truman Doctrine prevails in determining our foreign policy. Most recently, we fought the stunning Gulf War. This was not a war of containment but it served a similar purpose. It sou...
