The USA Containment Policy, Research Paper Example

Containment was an American policy during the postwar era. The policy determined the United States policy for more than 50 years after Second World War. The first use of the containment policy was witnessed in the Eastern Mediterranean in countries such as Britain. Britain supported Turkey where there was pressure from the Soviet Union to ensure territorial concessions as well as their right to construct the Bosporus naval bases. Britain also supported Greece.A year later in 1947, the British government told the United States that it could not afford to provide such aids. In response, the State Department of the country came up with a method to provide support to Greece and Turkey (Bragg, 2005). Truman, the then president of the United States had to seek support from the Senate for him to succeed in the plan. Interestingly, senate leaders who knew a good number of the members would not agree to this told the president to ensure that he does nothing but “scaring the hell out of the United States.” Truman told the senate that it was necessary for the US to have a policy that would support the free nations that were opposing suppression by the outward pressure and armed minorities (Bragg, 2005). He went further and requested the Congress to provide military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece in the form of $400m.

The policy of containment started when the US State Department grew suspicious of the Soviets as the war drew closer in 1944. The US Stated Department asked the then US Ambassador in Moscow the reason behind the Russia’s opposition to the construction of the IMF and the World Bank. His reply was an analysis of the Russian policy. He stated that the Soviet power was not adventurist or schematic like the German one. He further stated that the power is always impervious to any form of logical reasoning. In addition to this, he affirmed that the soviet power prefer the force logic and is highly sensitive to it. Kennan went further and came up with a draft that depicted the Soviet Conduct sources. The US adopted the containment policy to ensure that the Russian expansive tendencies were controlled (Bragg, 2005). According to Kennan viewed containment policy as the best measure that the United States could use in containing the influence of the Soviet in Europe at the beginning but later turned against the policy citing mistakes in some of the articles he wrote in support of the policy. He stated that he failed to state the geographical containment in his article. He also stated that he meant the containment of the Soviet using the political method not the military method that most people assumed was the only way of containing the Soviet powers in Europe. George Kennan viewed containment as an important measure in handling the Soviet dangerous expansive tendencies in other parts of the European continent(Bragg, 2005). As a US ambassador in the Moscow, he observed keenly the Soviet culture and recommended political containment as the sure way of handling the issues. As stated above, the Soviet powers prefer force logic compared to any kind of rationalities when dealing with issues of national interest. In this, military containment would obviously mean another war between the United States and Russia. To avoid this, the US had to employ another great concept in dealing with the Soviet powers in a non-provocative manner.

Since the American troops were tired, having come from war, less than a year ago, the government had no desire to send the US troops to Eastern Europe to help in containing the expansive soviet union. However, in the places where communism was constantly threatening to ensure expansion, American aid was the most appropriate means of controlling the expansion. With this, the US knew that it would definitely control communism within its borders in a more peaceful and political manner. This policy was popularly termed as the Truman Doctrine. This is because President Truman outlined the intentions following his request of $400m from the congress as monetary aid to both Turkey and Greece.

Following the end of the Second World War, the Western parts of Europe looked devastated due to the destruction of infrastructure and ruining of the rich crop fields in the region. This left most regions of the continent in need of help to sustain life. Considering the spread of the communism in Europe, the United States had to do something in saving the situation in order to prevent the influence of the Soviet powers in these regions. With this, George Marshall, the then Secretary of the state came up with a recovery program for the affected European nations. This happened in June 1947. As a wise leader, Marshall was aware of the fact that his program would possibly cause antagonism of the Soviet Union and this would obviously lead to a war with Russia. In order to avoid possible speculations, he stated that the program was purely based on humanitarian grounds. In addition, he ensured that the eastern communist states were also offered something. Money amounting to $17m was sent to western European nations such as Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, and West Germany (Gaddis, 2005). The program boosted a lot the economy of the aforementioned states. Analytically, there was a drastic increase in economy when compared to the state of the countries before the war. The program was known as the Marshall Plan. Containment had some flaws as well. It was purely meant to prevent the expansion of communism in other parts of the world. In this aspect, it was a war between the United States and the USS (Gaddis, 2005). In other words, a country had to be in support of the US or Russia, and any nation that supported the latter was definitely termed a communist nation. It was dangerous was of creating enmity between different communities in the world.

Based on the broad span of the Cold War, the containment policy successfully ensured that the communism was controlled in countries in Europe and Asia as well. Containment was successful for the nations that took part in it. As stated earlier, it worked well in Western European countries. It also worked in Afghanistan and South Korea. It never worked in China and other South East Asian countries. Containment gave the US opportunity to establish itself as the world’s most powerful nation. It was the most brilliant method of countering the effect of communism in different nations across the world(Gaddis, 2005). Despite the fact that it required large amounts of resources, the United States benefitted by creating good relations with other countries. It provided a good basis for International Corporation and enhancement of economic activities such as trade.

References

Bragg, C. (2005). Vietnam, Korea and US foreign policy [1945 – 75].Oxford: Heinemann.

Gaddis, J. L. (2005). Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War.Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA.