Containment was the foreign policy put forth by the United States to challenge Russia during the Cold War (Kennan and Containment, n.d.).
This Policy was based on a letter written by George Kennan called the X Article (Jones, 2008). The letter called for the United States to contain communism from any further expansion. Under President Truman, this became policy and would continue for many years and Presidents after him. Since the letter did not define the terms on how to contain communism, every administration implemented their own form of containment. This would vary from military interference to economic aid and trade agreements.
The Russians were determined to set their influence through the world. They were determined to stop …show more content…
Also U2 planes discovered the construction of a missile site in August. On October 14th another U2 fly over discovered medium range ballistic missiles being assembled (Cuban Missile Crisis, n.d.). This has led to a series of events, including the establishment of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) on October 22nd (World on the Brink, n.d.) who’s job is to resolve this situation.
All of these series of events that would be known as the Cuban Missile crisis. For 13 days in October 1962 the United States and soviet Russia were at the brink of war because of the nuclear missiles in Cuba. A lot of time was spent determining how to get Russia to admit the missiles were there and how to get them to remove the missiles and stop more from coming in. After many discussions, it was determined a blockade of Cuba would be the best action to take. The blockade of Cuba and diplomacy from the United States finally worked and Russia admitted to the presence of the missiles. Eventually through negotiations, the missiles were removed from …show more content…
President Kennedy was advised that a communist takeover of South Vietnam would lead to a fall in the defense of the Pacific by the United States (Jones, 2008). He was also advised to create a counterinsurgency force to stop the Vietcong. Soon the United States would find itself fighting the forces of communism in Vietnam.
This started with Kennedy sending American military forces there in an advisory role, to train the South Vietnamese Army to fight and defend itself from a communists take over. Kennedy would increase the number of U.S. forces there but never to the extent of President Johnson. After Kennedy’s assignation Johnson would take over as president of the United States. He feared that China was involved in with communist North Vietnam and if allowed to take the South, they would not stop there. Because of this he committed more troops to combat communism in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was not very popular to the American public. Because of media reports depicting many atrocities of war and the loss of American lives, American society no longer wanted any involvement in the country of the Vietnam. Nixon’s promise to end the conflict in Vietnam would help him win the next presidential