ABSTRACT
Abandoning at least temporarily the notion of a Pacific Pact, the United States, as we have seen, instead created a network of bilateral security arrangements with Japan, Australia and New Zealand, the Philippines, and eventually with South Korea and Taiwan. During the Truman administration, any notion of a regional pact focused on the offshore islands and flatly rejected any entanglement in mainland Asia. Already during Truman’s administration, however, the U.S. began its evolving commitment to the French in South Vietnam. The Eisenhower administration took office in 1953, against the background of the stalemate in Korea, with the dual goal of regaining the lost initiative in the struggle against Communism and at the same time reducing the costs of foreign policy so as to balance the budget. Its first step in the latter direction was to end the war in Korea and initiate a major rethinking of U.S. global strategy, a process that culminated in the introduction of the “New Look.” However, as the French position in Indochina worsened, the Eisenhower administration found itself facing the same dilemma that confronted its predecessor: how to effectively continue the struggle against the Communist threat while minimizing the costs of doing so for the U.S.?
