How The United States Contained Communism in the Cold War Essay

During the cold war the state of US Foreign Policy changed as it shifted towards “Containment”. Containment was the strategy of preventing the spread of communist influence without resorting to a nuclear war. This stemmed from the idea that communism was doomed to fail, and would collapse on itself, given enough time. This policy of containment played a massive part in the Cold War and around the world. Examples of containment include: the Marshall Plan. the Korean War, and the Berlin Crisis.

Since the U.S. was founded (July 4th 1776) the U.S. has been at war constantly. Although this may not be believable to some readers, the U.S. has been at war for 93% of its existence (222 out of the 239 years). Out of the many wars the U.S. has been a part of, the Cold War had the potential to be the most dangerous. Even though The Soviet Union and the U.S. were a part of an alliance in World War II, recently after this war ended the U.S. and the Soviets were not on good terms. The U.S. believed in following the political and economic system of capitalism, the Soviets strongly believed in communism. While the United States was content with the Soviets believing in communism, what the U.S. did not find acceptable was the Soviets attempt to spread communism. The real question is, how can the U.S. stop these countries, when they had such straight forward leaders? To bribe countries in Eastern Europe to not dive into communism, the U.S. created the Truman Doctrine and the

After defeating Hitler and the Nazi Party in World War 2, a Cold War started between the United States and the Soviet Union. The war consisted of tension between the two countries. The Cold War was between two government policies, Communism and Democracy. The Soviets wanted to expand on their ideas of communism, but the Americans were not going to allow that to happen. Their American policy was containment. Containment is the idea that there should be no spreading of the Soviet communism. Events that portrayed containment were the Berlin Blockade and Airlift, The Korean War, and The Cuban Missile Crisis.

The great historian and moralist Lord Acton once stated; “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The context of his statement was likely directed toward monarchies of the 1800’s but, his words speak truth that resonates still today. The opposing political ideologies of communism and capitalism both seek to balance power, promote fairness, and limit corruption. Both ideologies have very different paths to achieve this goal and every different social political, and economic organization. Communism is defined as a way of constructing a specific society where government owns the economy, there is no privately owned property, and total government control often implemented by force. Capitalism is the exact opposite because it is based on private ownership and an economy that is based on private production for profit supported by the value of personal freedom. The world is becoming a global economy and the ideology that dominates the globe will put countries that support it at an advantage. Communism often violent intolerance for what they think is ultimately destructive capitalism seems irrational. The prevent possible war by war or revolution seems like a struggle for absolute power. Harry S. Truman, wrote one of the most notable containment policies to try to contain communism; this document is called the Truman Doctrine. Specifically, to what extent did communist

The Cold War started in 1945 and ended in 1961, during that time major changes were made to U.S. policy abroad, while McCarthyism targeted the Department of State at home. The Containment approach used by President Eisenhower was more effective then President Truman’s approach at containment or at the reconstruction in Europe. Containment was arguably better due to the cost advantages to the United States. Through the use of foreign policy and a system of alliances, America was able to prove it was worthy to place itself as a World super power.

Throughout United States history, there has not been a more prominent and long lasting threat like the one of communism. It has been a threat to the democratic and capitalist ideals of the U.S. since before World War I, throughout the Cold War and is still until this day. When one thinks about communism, you conjure up images of the Red Scare that the Soviet Union induced and of other dictatorships throughout the western hemisphere and one might overlook the Marxist ideals that were being spread throughout our neighboring countries. These western countries were allies that the U.S. could not afford to lose during the Cold War. Latin America, which has many ties to the U.S., both geographically and politically, could pose a very strategic threat to the U.S. in its battle against communism. To understand Latin America’s communist history is to understand how much influence and intervention the U.S. had in the region during the Cold War. This report will serve to explain how communism spread to the western hemisphere, why the U.S. government had to stop that spread, and how they were able to stop many communist revolutions in Latin America.

By 1946 the Americans started to adopt the policy of 'containment'. On March 12, 1947, President Truman gave an address to Congress that would later be known as the Truman Doctrine. He called for $400 million to aid to Greece and Turkey in quelling guerrilla uprisings, some of which were communist. More significant than the request itself was the broader aim of Truman's speech. He articulated the concept that would shape the entire Cold War: containment.

At the time of America 's involvement in the war in Indochina, much of American foreign policy was seen from the point of view of the Cold War; the ultimate victory of the United States over the Soviet Union, Capitalism over Communism and the United States acting on behalf of the ˜free ' people of the world. After 1945 and the end of the Second World War, America had emerged as a dominant power and triggered the development of an American ideal. This ideal was based on national pride, built up on the reality that the United States had never lost an open conflict war and their great economic and technological superiority. This developed into a feeling of responsibility for the protection of liberties, the containment of communism and to act

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

During the beginning stages of the Cold War, the United States fought communism on two separate fronts: Europe and Asia. After Stalin implemented communist governments in Eastern Europe and banned free elections, the United States decided that it needed to start a strategy of containment. First introduced by George Kennan in 1946, containment was a policy of preventing the spread of communism in other parts of the world, including Eastern Europe, China, Vietnam, and Korea. Though commonly associated with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, early Cold War containment affected more than just the Europeans. Containment took on a completely different role in Asia, especially in the United State’s stance towards China. Containment strategies

The House of Representatives had a program called the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) which investigated alleged communists in the United States. They mostly investigated Government officials and people in Hollywood. This committee added to the people communism hysteria and made them question how much they can question the government. One investigation became very popular because the investigated, Alger Hiss was well known in the government and was arrested for perjury. This freaked Americans out because he was well known in the government, which meant that anyone in the government could be a communist. Also, Truman's Loyalty Program investigated the loyalty of the people working in the federal government. Later on state, and local government, universities, churches, political organizations and businesses started to follow along with the policy, but made the employees take an oath pledging their loyalty to the US. Both of these organizations were very successful in suppressing the communist hysteria in the United States because it restored the people's faith in the government.The rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy was not as successful. McCarthy had made allegations of that he had a list of 205 people that were working in the government and military people were communists. McCarthy was saying that people were communists even though he had no evidence proving so. In 1954 the Army-McCarthy hearings were televised and Americans saw him for who he really was and began to turn against him. Truman not trying to stop McCarthy from making those allegations was bad because he was still disliked by the people from what had happened in the Korean War and China and did not want to get involved with another problem. For these reasons, you could say that President Truman could partially deserve the comment that he was “soft on communism” in the United

The Cold War and the reality of nuclear weapons shaped the U.S. foreign policy from the end of the Second World War up to, and including, the War in Vietnam. However, the reality of nuclear weapons did not help America to have an effective foreign policy. After the end of World War II, the President of the United States of America, Harry S. Truman, embraced a policy of communist containment (Heineman 72). This policy sought to limit the expansion of the Soviet Union. As such, the foreign policy of the U.S. fought communism. In doing so, America help those countries in Europe which are torn by war to return to prosperity. Despite U.S. Cold War foreign policy around the 1940s, Democratic liberals were uncomfortable with the idea that the U.S.

The US policy of containment and the idea of “us vs them” guided our decisions through the Cold War. The US wanted to stop the spread of communism throughout the world and would do anything to stop it. The tension between the US and the Soviet Union was growing because of the idea of “us vs them”. During the Cold War there was a sense that at any moment there could be nuclear war and there was a heightened fear of communism.

In Asia containment took a new turn, U.S. was promoting a non-communist government in China, it invested time and money to see no results from a corrupt and self oriented Chinese ruler. When the U.S. realized that there was no use in helping the Chinese dynasty, they pulled out leaving Mao Zedong a pro communist leader to establish a communist state known as the People Republic of China.

During the Cold War from 1946 to 1990 the United States had formed a policy called the containment policy which was adopted by President Harry Truman. The containment policy was a doctrine uniting military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to turn back communism and to insure that America would hold the leading role in world affairs.