Chapter 15 discusses the events of 1949 and 1950. Truman viewed the success of the Berlin airlift and the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as some of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency. The global situation remained tense with multiple pockets of unrest developing. In China, the forces of the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek, backed by the US, were, McCullough says, “crumbing fast before the onrush of the Communists” (862), and on October 1, 1949, China established a new revolutionary government under Mao Tse-tung.

The Soviet Union conducted its first successful nuclear test in August 1949. In response, Americans sought to develop a hydrogen bomb. The reaction was mixed. Acheson and Eleanor Roosevelt supported it, while Kennan and Oppenheimer opposed it. The media referred to it as the “Hell Bomb” (882). The question of bigger and better weapons to challenge the Soviet Union translated into an arms race and increased defense spending.

Meanwhile, hostilities began in the Korean peninsula. After the Japanese occupation of Korea, the country had been divided along an arbitrary line between the American- and Soviet-controlled zones. The two Korean states were generally ideologically aligned with each respective side, and each claimed legitimacy.