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== What were the United States' goals in Europe after World War II? ==
[[File:Marshall Plan poster.JPG|left|thumbnail|240px|Marshall Plan poster]]
The United States had not intended to become involved in the conflict in 1939. The 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor led to massive American involvement in both the Atlantic and Pacific Wars. Propping up the Western Allies, U.S.-led troops occupied most of Western Europe, Greece, and much of Asia. President Roosevelt and his successor Harry Truman were led by a combination of democratic idealism with the harsh reality of the failures of the Treaty of Versailles. Seeking to learn from the mistakes from the end of World War I and the interwar era, the U.S. served as a stabilizing force against post-war chaos and Soviet expansionism.