Evaluating the Success of America's Policy of Containment of Communism

When World War II ended it was decided that the best defense against the Soviet ideology was a strategy of containment. George Kennan explained his policy n 1946, in the "Long Telegram." The Soviet Union is "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);" George Kennan went on to say that "long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies" was necessary. Harry Truman echoed these ideas. "It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by outside pressures." This ideology is one that we implement to this day.

The primary goal of the Ronald Reagan administration’s foreign policy of was winning the Cold War against Communism—which was achieved in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted for much of the second half of the 20th century resulted in mutual suspicions, heightened tensions and a series of international incidents that brought the world’s superpowers to the brink of disaster. The Cold War was won through a strategy of "peace through strength” and a warming of relations with the Soviet Union, 1981-89. These foreign policies became known as the "Reagan Doctrine,” the United States also offered financial and logistics support to the anti-communist opposition in central Europe and took an increasingly hard line against socialist and communist governments in Afghanistan, Angola, and Nicaragua. Reagan also increase the size of the military, spent billions on national defense, to fight Communists throughout the

During World War II, the United States and the Soviets put their political differences aside in their need to defeat their common foe, Germany. However, even during the war against Germany, and later Japan, the political and post-war tensions between the United States and the Soviets were ever underlying and continued to grow. As both sides of the Axis allies continued to gain ground, during their victories in Europe, the questions and positioning for future world domination of political ideals continued to mount up. Shortly after Germany surrendered, the issues began to come to light at the Potsdam Conference that was attended by the current British, American, and Soviet leaders. After the use of the atomic bombs and Japan’s surrender,

I think that the most effective foreign policy in ending the cold war was Ronald Reagan and his policy of “confrontation” because he funded anti-communist rebellions in other countries, funded billions of dollars on military spending, and invaded and counterattacked troops led by the soviet union in other countries and America.

This was known as The Policy of Containment.

Considering the continued growth of Communism on the international stage and the Democratic president Harry S. Truman’s inability to stop events like the Communist takeover of China, the Republican Platform, that President Dwight D. Eisenhower ran on, proposed an exceptionally tougher stance on Communism. The platform had determined mere containment of Communism to be an insufficient solution, so therefore called for military action to reverse the spread of Soviet influence. However, President Eisenhower also promised large budget cuts to the military, so they devised a policy that they believed would cut spending but also increase the effectiveness of the military’s power. The Eisenhower administration announced this policy that called for the creation of a nuclear bomb carrying air fleet, that would be used as a threat to any Communists groups to discourage them from making advances to invade or takeover countries requesting American aid. Eisenhower planned to reverse the growth of Communism by using a superbomber airfleet as an effective weapon against Communism, however, he often failed to follow this initial foreign policy throughout his administration.

foreign policy objectives. The U.S. defensive build up in regions of economic or strategic importance ignored large portions of the globe, leaving regions without serious defense or deterrence from communist aggression. Any communist expansion in the undeveloped world may not directly impact the capitalist system, but may provide enough evidence for the Soviet leadership to display the success of the communist system to the Soviet public. Additionally, communist expansion in regions deemed insignificant by the U.S. may provide the Soviets with a strategic advantage in any future aggression on regions deemed important to the United States. The solution to this problem would be to abandon strong point defense in favor of perimeter defense (defending everything), but the numerically reduced U.S. military under the Truman administration lacked the capabilities for such a broad global contentment.

President Reagan’s foreign policy took a sharp turn from his predecessors’ tactics of easing tensions and instead chose to escalate the cold war conflict, arguing the moral superiority of the U.S.’s governmental system and framing the Cold War as a fight between the good and free capitalist United States versus the evil communist regime. (“Reagan Doctrine" at U.S. Department of State) This direct confrontal approach later became known as the “Reagan Doctrine”. In his pursuit of the USSR he implemented a new policy through the National Security Decisions Directive to diminish the resources of the Soviet

The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the war did not bring about large scale fighting, there remained a constant threat of a catastrophic nuclear war. During the war, the US sought to strictly limit the spread of communism through containment, an idea formulated by US diplomat George Kennan, which became the basis of Harry Truman’s foreign policy. The containment policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Africa, and Vietnam. The president’s initial step toward containment came in response to a British request to support both Turkey and Greece against the spread of communism. By requesting Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey, Truman established the Truman Doctrine. This policy, marking an “informal declaration of Cold War against the Soviets”, established that the United States would provide military and economic assistance to all nations threatened by Communism. The United States further devised the Marshall plan, which provided massive financial aid to western European countries in order to strengthen their economy, which indirectly prevented the spread of communism. Eisenhower and Nixon’s containment policies, while sharing Truman’s idea that communism should be contained, implemented different policies regarding containment. Eisenhower’s “New Look” policy was fiscally

The threat from the Soviet Union in enlarging the development of communism had pushed the Americans to stand up and prevent this Soviet’s action from happening. Therefore, the United States came up with the policy of containment. It was a policy created by George F. Kennan in February 1946 to avoid Communism to spread world wide. The following year, Truman declared the Truman Doctrine which was “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” The Soviet Union was considered a threat to the United States at the time, therefore the Americans thought that it was their duty to stop the influences from the Soviet. The policy of containment was not only applied in Europe, but it existed in Asia as well. China was struggling to choose

the containment of communism, U.S. credibility, and strengthening the resolve of others to resist communism.53 The Roper Center’s February 1968 poll found that 49 percent thought one of the strongest reasons for the U.S. military effort in Vietnam was containment of communism; 33 percent cited the impact on the will of others to resist communism; and 23 percent cited the potential loss of prestige and confidence of U.S. friends and allies. Compared to the benefits of a military victory, the political objective the Johnson and Nixon administrations pursued—achieving a negotiated settlement—probably limited the expected gains from the war for most members of the public and may have contributed to

“Following World War II (1939-45), the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union became engaged in a series of largely political and economic clashes known as the Cold War” (“Red Scare”). During this so called Cold War, the correlation between the United States’ global objectives and its foreign policy was very clear. The intentions of the United States during the Cold War were to combat the spread of communism to the best of their ability on all fronts, to be militarily superior to the Soviet Union, and to allow their country to grow without impediment. These ideals were developed both as a result of and in the midst of their political opposition to the Soviet Union. These intentions developed by the United States during the

Since the beginning of the Cold War in the late 1940s, American national strategy has been dedicated to the containment of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (Soviet Union) and its soviet-inspired communism. Following the end of World War II, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were strained. The distinct differences in the political systems between these two countries facilitated animosity and mistrust, often to the brink of war. The Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, spread communism throughout Eurasia in an attempt to establish Soviet hegemony and secure his power domestically. President Harry S. Truman embraced the framework of George F. Kennan’s controversial containment policy to limit the Soviet’s influence, often at the expense of the United States.

In daylight of President Eisenhower’s policy on containment of communism, the Soviets feel they have no choice but to resist any such efforts. While we have successfully positioned ourselves as the number one nuclear power on the planet, Nikita Khrushchev has built up a nuclear power of his own. I have gathered classified information leading me to believe that Khrushchev has landed these weapons of mass destruction in Cuba as part of a “nuclear pressure” policy, code named “Anadyr” (Zubok, 144). I am disappointed to say that we have underestimated the Kremlin. It is crucial to inform President Kennedy of the situation immediately in order to make timely decisions on how to handle the situation and to ensure the security of the United States of America.

6. The US strategy for the Cold War was based on Mutually Assured Destruction, meaning if the Soviets launched their missiles, we would launch ours and wipe them out. Our strategy was MAD.