USA policy of containment
Was the US policy of ‘Containment’ a success or a failure?
It was in a speech made by the 33rd President of the United States of America, Harry Truman in which he announced a policy that would undoubtedly shape the way his nation would be looked at for much of the century (or at least the half of it that remained). It was in this speech that he announced his very own Doctrine, intended to "to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”, to save the “free peoples” of Eastern Europe from the monster known as Communism, a political ideology born out of the Russian Revolution of 1917, that had spread somewhat like a plague, throughout the lands in the East, which Stalin and the Soviets now controlled. The Doctrine, was based around the principle of ‘containment’, created not to roll back America’s most feared enemy, but rather to prevent the growing cancer from spreading further. The Doctrine went on to become the basis of American Foreign Policy during the Cold War, not only in Europe but around the world, with Truman willing to send military aid, advice and funds to any nation under the threat of a Communist take-over. The Doctrine was passed amidst great chaos in Greece, where its people were embroiled in a grueling civil war between the Communists and the monarchists, and Turkey, where a similar, large Communist threat loomed. The immediate effect was nothing but positive. $400 million in aid sent to Turkey and additional support for the king’s government in Greece meant that the Communist threat in both nations had been eradicated and both nations were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by 1952. Unfortunately, all that begins well doesn’t necessarily have to end well. Instead of being a moral crusade against Communism, the policy of containment was marred by disastrous failures in Korea, Cuba and Vietnam. Failures that were compounded by the exposition of the various
It was in a speech made by the 33rd President of the United States of America, Harry Truman in which he announced a policy that would undoubtedly shape the way his nation would be looked at for much of the century (or at least the half of it that remained). It was in this speech that he announced his very own Doctrine, intended to "to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”, to save the “free peoples” of Eastern Europe from the monster known as Communism, a political ideology born out of the Russian Revolution of 1917, that had spread somewhat like a plague, throughout the lands in the East, which Stalin and the Soviets now controlled. The Doctrine, was based around the principle of ‘containment’, created not to roll back America’s most feared enemy, but rather to prevent the growing cancer from spreading further. The Doctrine went on to become the basis of American Foreign Policy during the Cold War, not only in Europe but around the world, with Truman willing to send military aid, advice and funds to any nation under the threat of a Communist take-over. The Doctrine was passed amidst great chaos in Greece, where its people were embroiled in a grueling civil war between the Communists and the monarchists, and Turkey, where a similar, large Communist threat loomed. The immediate effect was nothing but positive. $400 million in aid sent to Turkey and additional support for the king’s government in Greece meant that the Communist threat in both nations had been eradicated and both nations were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by 1952. Unfortunately, all that begins well doesn’t necessarily have to end well. Instead of being a moral crusade against Communism, the policy of containment was marred by disastrous failures in Korea, Cuba and Vietnam. Failures that were compounded by the exposition of the various
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