WI: Could've Truman handled Stalin Better?

In what ways could have Truman handled Stalin better than IOTL, given the start of the cold war, the lack of initial aggression over the formation of the eastern bloc, the massive Russian spy rings, leading to Soviet nukes, and of course, the Korean War?

Would it have been feasible to immediately start suspecting that there were indeed spy rings all over the intelligence system, and to let Hoover sick the FBI on every last communist or suspected spy in all levels of government?

How far back would you need to go to assure that Stalin would've been unable to make nukes during his time?

If the US had pressured the Soviets for more autonomy over the Eastern states in 1945, would it have produced better results than IOTL?

Could have the US been capable of aiding Chiang's government against Mao's forces, to the point of crushing them, if they wanted to?

And how could've the US avoided the Korean War and force a proper unification of the peninsula?
 
I am not very knowledgeable about this period of time nut as there have been no other comments here goes.
The Turman administration worked very hard to bring the US government expenditures back under control after the necessary excesses of WW2. In today's out of control budget environment I admire him for that. However arguably the US military budget was cut to the bone and then some. The American troops in South Korea were very few and very poorly trained for the magnitude of their task. If I remember correctly rifle and other weapon practice was cut back severely in order to save them expense of ammunition. Armour was not usable for lack of spare parts

Their lack of readiness was an open secret and presented an irresistible opportunity for North Korea. Truman could have handled Stalin better by having a better idea of what America's post-war military obligations where and providing both money and better leadership.

In his defense the American people where absolutely sick of war, America's new role and obligation as the worlds policeman was not yet fully appreciated, the cold war was just emerging as the new world order. America had fully de-militarized after WW2, Stalin did not. America had not the will to stand up to the numerically superior Soviet post WW2 Army and felt sure there was no need to match the Red Army on a one-to-one basis because American had the bomb and Uncle Joe did not.

The danger of proxy wars was little or not at all recognized.

I think there was little or no chance or even thought of reuniting the Korean peninsula because North Korea was given to the Soviet Union and America had little or no reason to go back to the bargaining table.

In short, a new world order not yet fully appreciated, opportunistic Stalin and Mao, and a somewhat complacent President Truman pre- occupied by post war domestic- economic- concerns and an unrealistic defense strategy of limited conventional arms combined with the threat of massive nuclear retaliation if attacked..
 
Saving Truman's Presidency would really require a different elite thinking in the last 2 years or so of the FDR WH about Stalin. In the end Truman sort of paid the full price for mistaken thinking before he came into office and his biggest mistake was not being way ahead of public and elite opinion which he would have had to have been.
 
The big issue is that for the most part, Truman was left holding FDR's baggage. One of FDR's many sins is he was pretty much duped by Stalin - Truman in the mean time, sized him up pretty well. "Russians ask for the world, in the hope you'll give them a few inches"

He would have none of Stalin's shit. He didn't in OTL for the most part, but was stuck having to clean up after FDR handed him the keys to the kingdom.
 
The input above sums what I also think. Truman couldn't turn 180 degrees on FDR's policy, which also included favourably depictions of the USSR in the late parts of the war. It'd take some time to change (or to correctly portray, I'd personally say), the soviet intentions to the american public.
 
The input above sums what I also think. Truman couldn't turn 180 degrees on FDR's policy, which also included favourably depictions of the USSR in the late parts of the war. It'd take some time to change (or to correctly portray, I'd personally say), the soviet intentions to the american public.
What if you had J Edgar uncover some of those massive Soviet spy rings ASAP, watch as the press and public cry betrayal from 'those damn soviet backstabbers' and let the red scare rip? Doesn't the public at large remember hearing of Stalin's purges and famines before the war? If the red scare could be controlled into more of a response to Stalin's totalitarianism and less of a general paranoid reaction against anything leftist ever, that would be great.

Could Truman also secretly start a correspondence with Mao before/after he takes power in China? With Tito?
 
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