Abstract
For the half century that the U.S. led the war of containment against the Soviet Union, Asia provided a major part of the battleground, when the two superpowers clashed through their proxies in Korea and Vietnam. These two wars claimed the highest number of American lives in the Cold War, and their effects were profound. The Korean War was a significant early milestone in the Cold War – suddenly, the possibility of a worldwide military confrontation with the Soviet Union loomed.1 This led to massive post-World War II rearmament by the U.S., and sparked the arms race, as the two superpowers relentlessly built up their nuclear arsenals, attaining the capability of annihilating the world many times over. The Vietnam War buried America’s idealism and caused a deep and lasting desire in much of the American public to disengage from the complex and dangerous world of international politics.2
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© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Ang, G. (2004). Instituting Change in U.S. Foreign Policy Towards the Emerging Pacific Rim. In: Magyar, K.P. (eds) United States Post-Cold War Defence Interests. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000834_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000834_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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