Can anyone explain the containment policy?

Question

post WWII years

Answer 1

"Containment refers to the foreign policy strategy of the United States in the early years of the Cold War in which it was to stop what it called the domino effect of nations moving politically towards Soviet Union-based communism, rather than European-American-based capitalism."

"[American diplomat George F.] Kennan argued that the primary goal of the United States should be to prevent the spread of Communism to non-Communist nations; that is, to "contain" Communism within its borders. The Truman Doctrine aimed at this goal, and containment was one of its key principles. This led to American support for regimes around the world to block the spread of communism. The epitome of containment may have been domino theory, which held that allowing one regional state to fall to communism would threaten the entire region, similar to a series of dominoes toppling. After the Vietnam War, Kennan asserted that his ideas had been misinterpreted, and that he never advocated military intervention, merely economic support."

"Containment further became the overriding objective of US national security policy with the NSC 20/4, approved by Truman in November of 1948. This document maintained that the Soviet Union was motivated by its ideology to expand its influence throughout the world, and claimed that this expansion of interests was inimical to American security interests. It has been recognized as the first comprehensive post-war declaration of US national security policy."

"All subsequent American presidents after Truman, both Republican and Democrat, subscribed to the Doctrine of Containment as being the focal point of American foreign policy, with the exception of Jimmy Carter who initially proclaimed human rights as the priority of his administration. However, before Carter left office, he re-articulated the primary focus of American foreign policy with the Carter Doctrine, the principles of containing Soviet expansion."

"Containment" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containment

Answer 2

Explain The Policy Of Containment

Answer 3

The Containment Policy

Answer 4

The idea, proposed by George F Kennan in his "Long Telegram" and "Mr. X" article, was that Communism must be contained within its present borders. To achieve this, economic and political pressure must be brought at all points. This is best expressed by the Marshall Plan, for which George Kennan led the advisory board.

However, the Truman Administration altered the idea slightly, adding a military aspect. If Communists attempt to take over a nation, economic and political force must be applied- but also military force. It modified a strict "Containment" into "Rollback"- you not only save South Korea from the North, but you "rollback" past Communist gains by invading North Korea.

Eisenhower altered this again by reducing the emphasis on direct military force and instead wanted to use the threat of retaliation and covert actions. This is what began the 1950s arms race in earnest and the introduction of military special forces. Ike massively expanded the nuclear arsenal and as the Russians launched the first nuclear missile, he spurred the US to create more and better missiles. (indirectly, this also led to our space program, which used ICBM rockets to launch satellites and men into orbit)

Kennedy did a sort-of-180 and readopted Truman's ideas of containment and expanded Ike's ideas of special forces, but didn't want to expand the nuclear arsenal more than he had to. Kennedy's approach led to the aborted invasion of Cuba and the long-term military commitment to Vietnam.

LBJ continued Kennedy's ideas.

Nixon, Ford and Carter adopted a policy of negotiation and economic pressure. This resulted in the SALT talks (which the Russians had no intention of following) and Détente.

However, hindsight shows us that this was folly and the Russians didn't follow the protocals while the US did. Therefore, Reagan reestablished a form of Ike's approach with massive military spending to the point where the Russians were unable to close up. Within a few years, the gap was closed and the US was quickly ahead. He also took a form of the direct military option, but focused on our own hemisphere.

Answer 5

1945-1952, Post WWII

The Containment Policy

The containment policy was described by George Kennan, a professor and Soviet expert, in an issue of Foreign Affairs written under the pseudonym Mr X.. Kennan said that Soviet policy was dominated by the belief in the inevitable victory of Communism and the US and its allies should contain the Soviet Union, thus forcing it to deal with the inaccuracies and contradictions of that belief. In other words, the Soviet Union would eventually implode if its expansionism was blocked. This containment policy worked eventually as every president, Truman through Reagan, followed it. The Cold War, as this struggle was known, was the longest "war" in US History.

In 1947, it was not clear that it would work. The Truman Doctrine, announced in March, 1947, worked. Thus encouraged, the US would apply it elsewhere. In June of that year, the US proposed the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economies of Europe. The assumption was that desperate peoples might choose extreme solutions to their problems such as Communism. Additionally, Truman's advisors pointed out that US business, industry, and agriculture would benefit enormously if Europeans could buy US products. Thus, the Marshall Plan was clever self-interest. The Soviet Union and its satellites refused help; the USSR could not afford to admit that it had problems. The Plan probably saved France and Italy from voting themselves Communists. It succeeded even though the Soviets tried to cause its failure of Marshall Plan. In addition, Soviet control of eastern Europe was tightened to prevent defection to the West and Czechoslovakia became a Soviet puppet state following the February, 1948 coup.

In the summer of 1948, the USSR decided to attempt to get greater control over Germany, especially it capital, Berlin. It said that the division of Germany ended all reason for the occupation of the country. It argued that its troops were there because they had been invited but the Western troops were an occupying force. The West refused to be budged. Then Soviet forces cut all surface communications between West Germany and Berlin. This Berlin Blockade was eventually broken by massive airlifts which kept the Western-controlled sectors of the city supplied. In May, 1949, Russia withdrew the blockade. In September, West Germany was proclaimed an independent republic; the Soviets retaliated by declaring East Germany one also. Alarmed by the Berlin threat and encouraged by economic revival, the western European countries moved towards cooperation. Under US leadership, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in April, 1949. Greece and Turkey joined later.

The US began rebuilding its war machinery. The 1947 National Security Act created the Department of Defense (from the beginning of the Republic, it had been the Department of War but Cold War propaganda did not want to suggest that the US was warlike ), the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency. In June, 1948, the Selective Service system (military conscription) was reintroduced. Bomber groups, capable of dropping the atomic bomb, were sent to Britain in order to be closer to Soviet targets and to intimidate the USSR.

Despite these steps, the US had only began to build forces sufficient for a worldwide struggle for Congress did not want to make very large military appropriations. Truman wanted to cut the budget further, for conventional wisdom was that the federal government should be small and that only a wartime emergency, now gone, justified large budgets. Up to 1950, defense expenditures were limited to $15 billion and the armed forces were a little over one million people. The US relied upon the threat of using the atomic bomb but its monopoly ended in September, 1949, when the Soviets Russian a bomb of their own. In the winter of 1949-50, the US began a crash program to build a hydrogen bomb.

Answer 6

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RE:
Can anyone explain the containment policy?
post WWII years

Answer 7

It was a strategy used by the United States to stop nations from moving towards Soviet Union-based communism.