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==First Signs of Conflict==

The differing zones of occupation and goals invariably led to the first conflicts of the Cold War. Greece was engulfed by a civil war between pro-Western and Communist factions. The Soviets also threatened Turkey over the rights to the important Black Sea straits. It was due to this situation that President Truman announced the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The United States offered substantial military assistance to both nations to prevent an expansion of Soviet influence. With this aid, coupled with economic help, communism did not spread in either country. The two sides solidified into alliances: the Warsaw Pact dominated by the Soviets and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization led by the U.S. <ref>Caldwell, Curt, ''NSC 68 and the Political Economy of the Early Cold War.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Page 211-215.</ref>

There were similar seeds of conflict in East Asia. Soviet troops occupied much of China and Korea. Local communist forces had stayed in place in much of Vietnam. While the Nationalist faction in China was friendly with both the U.S.S.R. and U.S., the Communist Party of China won a series of victories against the Nationalists in the re-emerging Chinese Civil War. By 1948 the Communists had effectively won the conflict, confining the Nationalist Republic of China to Taiwan. Furthermore, the Soviet forces in Korea established a client state in the northern half, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In 1950 as American forces largely left Korea, the North invaded the South.