ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of its victory over Japan in the Pacific War, the United States aspired to create a new, postcolonial order in East Asia in partnership with Chiang Kai-shek's China, which was to be based on Western-oriented liberal democracies and free market economies. By 1950 this vision had foundered on the messy realities of decolonization, the fall of China to Mao Zedong's communists, and the extension of the US-Soviet Cold War from Europe to East Asia. The 'American New Order' was an outgrowth of President Franklin Roosevelt's vision for the postwar world, which was based on Wilsonian principles of collective security, liberal democracy, and national self-determination. The anticommunist Republic of Korea (ROK) was led by Syngman Rhee, a veteran nationalist who had presided over a Korean government-in-exile in the United States. The Vietnam and Korean conflicts were similar in that both were undeclared limited wars waged to roll back what the United States saw as Sino-Soviet aggression.
