I assume you mean foreign policy. The major change is that
the U.S. no longer was involved in a war against fascism, but found itself entangled in
the Cold War, primarily against the Soviet Union.
There had
been some distrust of the Soviets, even before the end of World War II; in fact there is
strong speculation among historians that the Atomic Bomb was used on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki primarily to end the war quickly before the Soviets became too involved in the
war against Japan. After the war, the Soviets refused to withdraw their troops from East
Germany and Poland, claiming that they needed a "buffer zone" against further invasions.
The veracity of this claim is highly questionable. In clear violation of the Yalta
agreements signed earlier, the Soviets set up puppet governments in Poland and Romania;
claiming that the U.S. and its allies had effected Italy's surrender without Soviet
participation. This also is highly
questionable.
Thereafter, American foreign policy shifted
to one of containment to prevent the further spread of
Communism. It was best expressed in an article written by George F. Keenan in which he
said American policy should be
a long term, patient but firm and vigilant
containment of Russian expansive tendencies…. Such a policy has
nothing to do with outward histrionics: with threats or blustering or superfluous
gestures of outward
toughness,
Later, when the
Soviets backed communist insurrectionists in Greece, President Harry Truman issued a
statement that became known as the "Truman Doctrine."
I believe that it must be the policy of the
United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside
pressures."
Thus U.S. foreign
policy after World War II became one of the containment by whatever means of the spread
of communism. When one understands this policy, one readily understands the involvement
of the U.S. in Korea, Viet Nam, and the Cuban Missile crisis.
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