The British and the Americans opposed the Soviet territorial claims against Turkey. As the Cold War began, the American government saw the claims as part of an "expansionist drive by a Communist empire" and viewed them as reminiscent of Nazi irredentist designs over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The US State Department was concerned about the strategic military significance of the Kars Plateau to the Soviets. They concluded that their earlier support for Armenia since President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) had expired since the loss of Armenian independence. The Soviet Union also requested a revision of the Montreux Convention and a military base on the Turkish Straits. The State Department advised US President Harry Truman to support Turkey and to oppose the Soviet demands, which he did. Turkey joined the anti-Soviet NATO military alliance in 1952.