The United States and the Soviet Union represented starkly different fundamental values. The United States represented democratic political institutions and a generally free market economic system. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian government with a communist (socialist) economic system.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of United States foreign policy since World War II by b) explaining the origins of the Cold War, and describing the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment of communism, the American role in wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe.
Origins of the Cold War