ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the pre-containment period (1945-1946) on three levels: Harry S. Truman's indebtedness to Woodrow Wilson, his response to the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his belief in the inseparability of mission and power. Truman's foreign policy bespeaks his emerging conviction that the most just, secure and peaceable solution to the world's problems was one which contained and frustrated the power of the Soviet Union while making the world aware of Soviet transgressions. From the outset, Truman sought channels through which the United States might live up to its responsibilities and attempted to define for Americans just what those responsibilities were. In doing so, he tied postwar foreign policy firmly to the internationalist tradition, and in doing so, he expounded a decidedly Wilsonian philosophy and rationale. As were Wilson's hopes for the League of Nations, Truman's initial hopes for the UN were great.
