US watched this developments increasing anxiety.

US spies reported to Truman that Stalin was using Cominform to help communists win power in Malaya + Indonesia + Burma + Philippines + Korea

To Truman and US Spies this suggested conspiracy.

  • feared that communist countries acting together to spread communism and would overrun Asia.
  • Truman and Acheson convinced Stalin was orchestrating process of communist expansion worldwide.
  • They were determined to stop him