INTRODUCTION

The United States had emerged from the Second World War as a relatively unified, powerful and confident nation. Victory gave Americans a deep pride in the powers of their armed forces, in the productivity of their economy and in the strength of their ideals. America, Churchill said, «stands at this moment at the summit of the world». The US entered the postwar era as a creditor nation producing almost half of the world's manufactured goods with every indication of continuing technological and financial supremacy. In the spring of 1945, most Americans looked to the world beyond their borders with optimism. Nearly 80% endorsed the US involvement in the United Nations (multiletralism). Fewer than 1/3 anticipated another World War, and 64% expressed satisfaction with relationships between Britain, the Soviet Union and the US. Interestingly enough, the Soviet Union ranked higher in popularity among Americans than Britain. Yet within a short time, such optimism had vanished. In a few months, American and Soviet diplomats were waging a battle of angry words, and by the spring of 1948, General Lucius Clay, the American military governor of Berlin, was warning that “war may come with dramatic suddenness”. President Harry Truman charged that the Soviet Union was engaged in “a ruthless course of action, seeking to extend its rule over Europe”. By 1950, the National Security Agency, America's highest authority on military and foreign policy, concluded that the world faced a “polarization of powers” in which a slave society was trying to triumph over “the free”. The Cold War has become a reality. Tired of crises and challenge, Americans of the 1950s renewed the 1920s “quest for normalcy”. American politics continued to flow in cycles, alternating between “liberal” (Démocrates de gauche) eras, when public action seemed the best way of meeting national problems, and Conservative eras, relying on private action and private interest.

CHAPTER ONE : TRUMAN TAKES