American Containment Dbq

During the cold war, the United States engaged in many aggressive policies both at home and abroad, in which to fight communism and the spread of communist ideas. Faced with a new challenge and new global responsibilities the U.S. needed to retain what it had fought so strongly for in World War II. It needed to contain the communist ideas pouring from the Soviet Union while preventing communist influence at home, without triggering World War III. With the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship, the United States hoped to effectively stop the spread of communism and their newest threat, the Soviet Union.

Capitalist versus communist countries, i.e. the Western Bloc versus the Eastern Bloc were linking to the events dominating the politics of the world the Cold War. In the aftermath of World War II, the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union governed the tension surrounding communist growth and fears. These two nations had become the new superpowers, with the communist Soviet Union heading an ‘Eastern Bloc’ of countries and the capitalist United States heading a ‘Western Bloc’. In 1947, the United States declared a new policy to check the growing power of communism; ‘to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation [complete control] by armed minorities or by outside pressure’. The conflict between the Eastern and Western blocs became known as the Cold War. It centred

During the cuban missile crisis, there was a constant eerie feeling among Americans as you absolutely never knew when the nuclear bombs were going to drop. You could hear the water sloshing at your door, a constant pounding sound and it was only a matter of time before it leaks through and destroys everything. Cuba became a communist country under Fidel Castro in 1959 and it all spiraled downward from there. Soviets began to start sending secret weapons and soldiers to Cuba, yet America found out easily with the help of spy planes. The US announced a quarantine against any ships that were carrying offensive weapons to Cuba and that was the point where the Earth stopped moving. Soviet ships stopped dead in the water just outside of the quarantine line, and Americans were flabbergasted! Eventually, after careful decision making on America's part and arranging a diplomatic solution to the issue, the soviets removed their weapons from Cuba. This really showed Americas might as a country as they were not willing to back down until the missiles were removed, and that really put a dent in the communist influence around the

Following World War Two, the two legitimate world powers were the United States and the Soviet Union. With the Soviet Union under a communistic government and the United States being a nation founded in Capitalism, tensions between the two nations rose, resulting in the Cold War. Against the wishes of the United States, small countries in East Asia began to turn communist. Fear that one country turning would have a chain reaction turning many more, the United States turned to a policy of ‘containment’. This policy was tested in the Korean War and would be again tested in the Vietnam War. Starting as a War with the communist North Vietnam against South Vietnam and the French,

We have to contain the spread of Communism. We have to contain our women, our children, anything that goes against our American values and leaders. This was one of many widely held beliefs during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In the book, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, the author Elaine T. May defines domestic containment as being a protectorate of the nuclear family; which consisted of: the bread-winner father, the stay at home mother (housewife) and well behaved children. This, was to stay aligned with our patriarchal society, where men were seen as superior; and women and children as in inferior. Thus, in need of protection by them. Overall, containment was the key to security for the wellbeing of all Americans.

of the US in the early years of the Cold war. The policy was to defeat

The success of the Soviet attempt to spread communism and socialism to developing countries would be the direct opposite of the goals of containment, by giving the Soviet Union allies outside of Europe, and a large amount of natural resources to use. Thus, the United States was forced to respond by modifying foreign policy to include financial and economic assistance to developing countries. While the effect of this assistance did not in fact increase the living conditions of the general populace in the majority of these nations, its did, with a few notable exceptions, prevent them from becoming communist or socialist nations.

In The Sources of Soviet Conduct, George F. Kennan explained “Containment was the central post-war concept of the United States and its allies in dealing with the Soviet Union”. To contain communism, the United Stated strategy was to have a strong

The Cuban Missile Crisis forever marked 1962 as the year the world almost witnessed a nuclear war. The Soviet Union, Cuba, and the United States were all teetering on the edge of a cliff that was crumbling from the weight of fear, tension, and secrecy. It also marked the official end of Americans innocent belief that they were safe in the glow of Lady Liberty’s torch. Yet amidst the dark shadow of nuclear threat one American president rose to this challenge and proved that peace through strength is the best strategy.

Initially, American leaders were unsure about how exactly containment would be implemented. Would it be applied everywhere? Would it involve economic aid to help nations reconstruct their economies? Would it involve military confrontation? The answer was to come soon.

The United States was determined to remain a capitalist democracy, Harry S. Truman who was president at the time tried to stop the spread of Communism. Truman help Nations that were in danger of Communism by creating things such as the Truman Doctrine, this provided political, military, and economic assistance to

The United States responded to the “Hawks”, President Harry S. Trueman still wanted and continued to keep communism “bottled up”. In result the Marshall Plan was created (Doc. 2). World War Two had left Europe in pieces, and the United States wanted to gain support from them. The plan was to help Europe rebuild. Between 1948 and 1952, the United States provided more than twelve billion dollars in aid. The United States helped reduce the spread of communism in Western Europe. The Trueman Doctrine basically “bribed” Greece and Turkey to think again about communist expansionism. The United States provided them with four hundred million dollars in military and economic aid. The Berlin Airlift also stopped west Berlin from falling into the Soviets arms. The United States and Britain provided helicopters and planes to drop food, fuel, and other supplies to about two million Berliners everyday. Little children would call these planes “chocolate bombers”.

One example of containment is the Berlin Airlift. Communists wanted to take over West Berlin since they weren’t communists, but the US didn’t want to give it up so they resisted. Then on June 27, 1948, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union decide to blockade any shipments coming into West Berlin (doc b). They did a blockade on West Berlin so they could weaken them in order to take, so the US, Britain, and France responded with an airlift with supplies so they can defend it and resist a takeover. This is an example of containment because it kept communism from taking over in West Berlin.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a frightening moment for the entire world. It started October 14th, 1962 after the Soviet Union planted nuclear missiles inn Cuba. The U.S. found out that these missiles were being planted without their knowledge, but the Soviet Union continued the construction of these nuclear missile sites, even after President Kennedy, the president of the U.S., sent out a warning against these weapons in Cuba. Even after this warning, Kennedy once again found out that the construction was still happening. Following the discovery of the ongoing construction, Kennedy wanted to meet with people at the White House to solve the problem that they were encountering. There were multiple sides during their talk about the missiles. Some of the people at the meeting wanted to take a more aggressive approach and destroy these missiles and then follow up with an attack. Kennedy eventually decided to quarantine Cuba. After Kennedy quarantined Cuba, there were many messages sent between the White House and the Kremlin to try and solve the problem. The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for thirteen extremely tense days. At the end of these thirteen days, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended with an agreement between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis greatly impacted history. It strengthened the bond between the United States and Soviet Union, showed people how to come to a

The first way the United States practiced containment was the Korean war. This occurred in June 25 1950 when North Korea crosses the 38th