soon after world war ii, armed conflicts broke out among jewish and arab ethnic groups in

When Truman ascended to the presidency on April 12, 1945, World War II in Europe was almost over within a month, Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered. Over the coming decades, the NSC became a significant instrument of American foreign policy. While underdeveloped and undernourished during its first years of existence, the NSC grew in prestige and power due to U.S. Finally, the Act established the National Security Council (NSC) to advise the President on issues related primarily to American foreign policy. The National Security Act also created the Central Intelligence Agency, the leading arm of the nation's intelligence network. Two years later, the NME was renamed the Department of Defense and made an executive department. It unified the Army, Navy, and Air Force under a National Military Establishment (NME) headed by a civilian Secretary of Defense. Truman also reorganized the nation's military and national security apparatus with passage of the National Security Act in 1947. Marshall and Acheson proved inspired leaders and sometimes brilliant architects of United States foreign policy. Acheson, a former undersecretary of state, in 1949. Marshall, in turn, was succeeded by Dean G. Marshall, Army chief of staff during the war, who had attempted to mediate the Chinese civil war during 1946. Byrnes handled the opening rounds of negotiations at the postwar conferences of allied foreign ministers, but he proved problematic for the President. At the State Department, Truman replaced FDR's last secretary of state, Edward Stettinius, with former senator, Supreme Court justice, and war mobilization director James F. Truman inherited Roosevelt's national security team, though he would transform it-in terms of both personnel and organization-during the course of his presidency.

In sum, Truman's foreign policy established some of the basic principles and commitments that marked American foreign policy for the remainder of the twentieth century. Truman intervened with American troops in the conflict between North Korea and South Korea and he supported the creation of the state of Israel in the Middle East.

Truman guided the United States through the end of World War II, the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the dawning of the atomic age. Truman confronted unprecedented challenges in international affairs during his nearly eight years in office.

Soon after world war ii, armed conflicts broke out among jewish and arab ethnic groups in