both civilian and military advisers, recently declassified government records show that the reasons for their support differed greatly.
As early as December 1945, intelligence reports to the Joint Chiefs of Staff indicated that U.S. conventional forces, rapidly demobilized after World War 11, were barely strong enough to defend the Western Hemi- sphere, even as they occupied Japan and West Germany. Soviet troops, however, were judged capable of taking most of Western Europe, the Persian Gulf, Korea,...