Essay on American Communist Containment Policy 1945-1953

1947: Truman Doctrine: The Truman Doctrine was one of the policies under President Truman’s “Containment Policy.” In the Doctrine, he requested $400 million to bolster forces in eastern Europe to defend against Communism. Congress agrees and passes the doctrine. Dean Acheson, who was the Secretary of State at the time, argued that the fall of a Communist country will have a “domino” effect on the neighboring countries, and they need to be properly prepared for such a situation. As result of this policy, the US became the “global

Turkey, another country that had been dependent on British aid was also being pressured by the Soviets into granting them base and transit rights through the Turkish Straights. Worried about the growth the spread of communism and the growing influence of the Soviets; President Truman appealed to a joint session of congress to authorize $400-million in emergency aid to the Greek and Turkish Governments and the dispatch of American civilian and military personnel to those countries. In his Speech; Truman said “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”. This would be known as the Truman Doctrine and it would be the foundation of the post-war American foreign policy throughout the Cold War. The Policy of Containment also sprung from the Truman Doctrine. This new foreign policy stood in stark contrast to the isolationist foreign policy that the United States had held in the past. Instead of avoiding international affairs and conflicts around the world the United States would become more proactive in the affairs of the world to promote its interest and to combat the influence Soviet

Although the Soviet Union and the United States fought together during World War II against the Axis Powers, the relationship between the two grew bitter going into the 1950’s Cold War. The Cold War left a dominant impact on the U.S. and American living throughout the 20th century. The fall out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union created various issues that United States dealt with (Suddath). The United States was a capitalistic country, while the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR, was lead by a strong communist influence. The expansion of Soviets into Eastern Europe fueled most of the fear the U.S. had of Russia, that they would attempt to influence many more countries.

The Soviet’s growing power was finally addressed in 1946 by former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. His “Iron Curtain” speech warned Americans about the danger of Soviet expansion, causing all citizens to truly realize that Russia was a major threat. It was now clear that America had to assist any country that was threatened by Soviet Communism. In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was established to do just this. Substantial funds were used for the soul purpose of preventing the expansion of communism, which was further utilized in 1948 to assist Turkey and Greece in this fight. This has been said to be the beginning of the Cold War.

In order to stop the Soviet’s threat to spread communism, Truman, president of the US at the time, developed a containment plan. Later, Eisenhower, the next president, realized

Almost as soon as World War II had ended, the Cold War began, and the Soviets wasted no time in spreading their communist ideals to nearby countries by forcefully establishing communist governments. Soon after, they held on tightly to their eastern block of Germany as a first defense from western political thought, even going as far as blockading Berlin from any form of help, especially from the West. The West quickly responded by airlifting supplies that included food, coal, etc. . This marked the first instance of the American policy of containment, which was the idea that the Soviet Union and Soviet communism should not be allowed to spread (Background Essay). As time went on and acts of communism began to burst out globally, the U.S. policy of containment became an effective

They put into effect containment and the Truman Doctrine because they knew that if he took over enough countries, that the rest would give up or would easily be taken over by him and his demand for power. The U.S feared that Stalin would soon take over Eastern Europe so they decided that they would do anything they could to put an end to him, which they called containment. “Is a belief that this peninsula is an extremely strategic spot and that if it “went” communist all Southeast Asia and beyond would turn Red,” (Doc.6) One example of containment is when North Korea, endorsed by the Soviet Union, invaded South Korea. The U.S sent in troops to fight with South Korea so that Stalin wouldn’t be able to take it over. After 3 years of combat, the Korean War ended with both countries inhabiting the same land they both started with. Another way the U.S took action against the Soviet Union to support their position was the Truman Doctorian. In 1947 Truman decided to give peoples taxes to Greece and Turkey. (Doc. 2) Truman knew that if the Soviet Union took over Greece and Turkey, that the rest of eastern europe would rapidly turn communist. So the U.S sent over around $400 million in support for military and economic aid in both countries. Since the Truman Doctrine helped Greece and Turkey grow stronger, the U.S expanded the Truman Doctrine into the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan sent billions of dollars to countries all over Western Europe to fortify their economies so they would be able to fight the U.S.S.R. In return Stalin would not be able to take over as many countries, people, or land. Thanks to the U.S, the Truman Doctrine and containment helped hundreds of countries from being taken over and pulverized by Stalin and the U.S.S.R in there attempt to come to

During the Cold War, America's basic policy was that of "containment" of the Soviet Union. The policy of containment was based upon several principles. First, the Soviet Union wanted to spread socialism to all areas of the world. However, it was felt that the leadership of the Soviet Union felt no particular rush to accomplish their goal. "The Kremlin is under no ideological compulsion to accomplish its purposes in a hurry. Like the Church, it is dealing in ideological concepts which are of a long-term validity, and it can afford to be patient. (Hook and Spanier, 42)." In other words, the Soviet leadership believed that, since their ideas were the correct ones, they would eventually prevail, and thus, no direct confrontation would be

It was also during this time that former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech. The issue addressed in the speech given by Churchill tells of how the communist threat, or “curtain”, was soon to cover and take over Europe if the looming communist ideas were not halted (Doc 1). After Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, President Harry Truman on March 12, 1947 delivered a speech to Congress in which he explained the Domino Effect theory that he believed was going to take place in Europe, and the rest of the world, if the communists were not stopped. The way that Truman decided appropriate to tackle the issue of communist expansion was by adopting the idea of the containment policy, which was made by a Soviet specialist and friend of Truman, George Kennan (Doc 2). The policy was discussed in the speech Truman delivered to Congress, and was hoped that if effective, the spread of communism would be ended, since the Soviet expansion would be stopped. The speech given by Churchill, and the response of it by the United States government, added more tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, which deepened the fight in the cold

After the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II it was apparent that the victors would come out as the new world powers. With the United States and the Soviet Union being the strongest nations of the victorious Allies they were the two countries who emerged as the new world powers but their views varied drastically. The Democratic United States and the Communist Soviets butted heads about each others views and the U.S. wanted to halt the spread of communism so it couldn’t get to the rest of the world. The U.S. adopted a policy of containment to keep communism in the USSR and the other places it had spread. The U.S.’s main goal was to prevent the spread of communism and they did everything

Containment was very important for the United States during the Cold War as they tried to prevent the spread of communism onto their country. Containment was necessary as the Soviet Union started growing its influence of communism through Eastern Europe, including countries such as China, Korea, and Vietnam. This was the result of Germany invading the Soviet Union twice in the past thirty years. A diplomat named George Kennan suggested the policy of containment as he states in his famous journal article in 1947 called “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” that “In these circumstances it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of long-term, patient put firm and vigilant containment of Russian

First, in the Stalin speech in 1946, he stated “the only key to future world peace was for “monopoly capitalism” to be replaced by Communism around the world.” It became clear to the Supreme Court Justice William Douglas that Stalin was declaring another World War based in his ideology. (Fraser 697). Based on Stalin speech, the American embassy in Moscow, George Kennan sent the “Long Telegram”, which he explained his strategy of “containment” against Soviet Union, “a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the U.S. there can be no permanent modus vivendi [agreement between parties that disagree]”; as a result, America’s only choice

Document Review Regardless of the alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II, the cooperation found during a time of war began deteriorating due to the differences of the two nations. Soviet leaders claimed that communism and capitalism were unable to exist peacefully. Tensions grew strong as the USSR began acting out, causing the beginning of the Cold War and eventually the “Red Scare” in America, resulting in a change in foreign policy. Hints of the Cold War began in WWII as the multiple delays in creating another front in Europe made the Soviets suspicious of their Western Allies’ motives.

Under the lead of President Harry Truman, in 1947, a foreign policy doctrine was forged during the Cold War called the "Containment Policy" which states that the United States did not aim to ignite a war with the Soviet Union,

1. Truman’s Policy of Containment was that the U.S. would work to stop the spread of communism by providing political, economic, and military assistance to all democratic nations under the threat of communism or any external authoritarian forces. The political aspect of this policy was the alliances made during the Cold War. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was a defensive alliance among the U.S. and other European countries against the Soviet Union. This alliance still exists today. The Warsaw Pact was a defensive alliance that included the Soviet Union and its satellite governments in Eastern Europe. These alliances assured that if one country was attacked, then the others must react by coming to the defense.