Cold War Containment

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.

Marshall Plan- The Marshall Plan was a plan on financial aid created by the United States. This plan was proposed by George Marshall, the United States Secretary of State. The Marshall Plan, also known as the Europe Recovery Program, was implemented from 1948 to 1951. The Plan was created to help restore Europe’s economy after WWI. The Marshall Plan was important because it helped restore Europe’s economy and stopped the spread of Soviet communism

The Cold War was a time in our nation’s history where different countries were “going at it” with each other over communism. This time lasted for 45 years. The main strategy during this time was “containment”. It was originally created by Truman who wanted to “contain” communism. The Containment Strategy was used to contain communism, which was the big thing during the Cold War.

According to an article written by Clif Staten he asserts that John Lewis Gaddis has argued that the history of our containment policy toward the Soviet Union reflected the swing of a pendulum between periods when our resources did not match our ever-expanding goals and periods that required us to react to this deficit by either reducing, redefining or reprioritizing our goals to bring them in line with our limited resources. He continues to argue that the pendulum swing is illustrative of the shift between our idealist and realist sides. In the early years of the Cold War, our foreign policy goals focused on containing communism in Europe. We recognized that our resources were limited. We had been demobilizing since the end of World War II and the American public had reverted to its traditional isolationist character. Containment was limited only to Western Europe where our military strength was greatest.

In the cold war it was the soviets against the west. Soviets wanted to make communism spread, but the west, which was capitalist, developed a policy called containment. According to The Geography of the Cold War: What was Containment, “containment was the idea that the Soviet Union and soviet communism should not be allowed to spread.” Three examples of containment are North Korea against South Korea, Truman Doctrine and the Marshall plan. Before I tell you about these examples let me give you some background knowledge.

I believe that Lyndon Johnson was focused more on the domestic picture of the United States and was very unhappy to be involved in Vietnam in any form. Lyndon Johnson wanted to be more focused on making our country than focusing on others.

During the cold war was an period of time were the United states and the Soviet union did not agree on things, like communism. The policy of containment was when the United states tried different things and many strategies to stop the spread of communism (Ayers 819).

With over 13 billion dollars in aid being delivered to Europe under the Marshall Plan, from 1948 to 1952 many European economies grew at an unprecedented rate. The mutual assistance of the aid led to softening of national competition between many countries in Europe, and served the dual purposes of modernization and cooperation for European countries. At the same time as the Marshal plan was being implemented, the Soviet Union enacted what was know as the, “Cominform” that sought to counter the American influence in post war Europe. This program organized by the Kremlin would work with communist parties in European countries through propaganda efforts to

In June 1947, the United States announced the Marshall Plan, intended to help economic recovery in Europe and thus prevent the spread of Communism in a Europe that was increasingly becoming “a breeding ground of hate”, thus providing a comforting environment for the rise of the Marxist ideology. At first, the Marshall Plan seemed to be a success, with economic aid worth $17 billion being made available to Europe and ensuring the protection of democratic governments in Turkey and Greece. Marshall Aid did help economic recovery in Europe, erasing unemployment and improving living standards greatly. Most Western European nations were happy to accept American aid in order to redevelop their economies. However, Stalin forbade any Eastern European countries from accepting the Plan and setup organizations like the Cominform and Comecon instead, to further tighten Stalin’s grip over Eastern Europe.

This drove individuals to live in dread over a conceivable war, because of the event of other wars starting in such a way. The United States knew rivaling the USSR would not prevent socialism from spreading. President Truman proposed the Containment Policy. with this arrangement the American Nation would helper individuals who were being compelled to ended up Soviet Satellites or eastern square countries. The arrangement begun with Greece and turkey. At President Truman's proposal they were given 400 million dollars in associate. The nation in which majority rule government started, (Greece), sat tight law based, and also Turkey. Not long after the accomplishment with the Containment arrangement, America's Secretary of state achieved another arrangement, the Marshall Plan. In the Marshall Plan, The United States helped nations, who after the war should have been remade financially, socially, and politically. Marshal said "It's reason for existing is to restore a working economy in the World". He knew socialism appeared to be the main alternative to nations who were shaky. In spite of the fact that 13 billion dollars was put into this arrangement, it was considered cash well spent.

Imagine that New York City just broke out in a massive epidemic, spreading an airborne strand of the deadly virus, Ebola. The first move authorities would make in order to reduce the number of casualties, would most likely be to quarantine the virus and isolate it to a confined area. They would do this, not only so that it doesn’t spread, but also to reduce the overlying fear that is being created by the masses. This is essentially what the U.S. was trying to do with communist ideals during the cold war, they were trying to quarantine the spread of such leftist ideology, and to do so, American leaders often took desperate measures in order to ensure that communism was dissipated and secluded to the Soviet Union. This concept was used throughout history by the American diplomat, George F. Kennan which would be credited as the founder of containment. This foreign policy would be used throughout the entirety of the cold war, but one of the most prominent examples of containment was in the 1960’s where both President Eisenhower and President Kennedy tangoed with Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Although on two separate grounds both presidents faced Cuban resistance. Eisenhower had to face the young charismatic Fidel at his finest, and faced the threat of letting Cuba establish a communist regime. Meanwhile, President Kennedy was presented with two major disasters, the bay of pigs invasion, and the Cuban missile crisis.

Question 1: During cold war times, the US’ had a theory of containment. Containment made to stop the spread of communism, because it was thought that if the US could not stop communist countries than it could work on stopping communism from spreading. In 1954, Vietnam was able to become independent from France. The country was divided along the 17th parallel, and North Vietnam and South Vietnam were created. Ho Chi Minh led North Vietnam and it had a communistic government, which was supported by China and the USSR. On the other hand, South Vietnam was a ‘democratic’ (anti-communism) government, which was led by Ngo Dinh Diem and supported by the US. During Diem’s regime, the government started to interrogate Buddhist priests. Diem was also known for treating the peasant class harshly, because he came from the property owning class. His government was also very corrupt, because he only appointed his family members to government roles00000. Diem’s totalitarian government led to the rise of a communist group called the Vietcong. The Vietcong were a group that arose during Diem’s regime, they wanted to change South Vietnam into a communist country. Many non-communist citizens of the south also supported the Vietcong in hopes of ridding themselves of their corrupt government. The Vietcong was given supplies from North Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh trail. They used guerrilla warfare to create fear in the hearts of their enemies. Using this strategy, they were able to kill the

The Marshall plan was introduced by an American general named George Marshall. Its aims were to spark economic recovery within the EU. Although this plan had channelled over $13 billion to help economic recovery between 1948-1951 the Soviet Union had refused to participate. This was due to the Soviet Union portraying this to interfere with internal affairs between states. This had led to the Soviets refusing Poland and Czechoslovakia to interfere. However, although the Soviets decided not to interfere the United States had taken the opportunity to remake the European economy in the image of their own.

Left as one of the only remaining major powers, not significantly devastated by World War II, the United States of America lit the beacon of humanitarian aid. At its own discretion, after the Soviet Union’s refusal of America’s extent of influence and relief in the European continent, the U.S. was free to do as it pleased regarding attempts of foreign assistance. Secretary of State in the U.S. at the time, George Marshall, proposed the "Marshall Plan”, originally called “the European Recovery Program”, in June of 1947, during his speech at Harvard University. Marshall’s argument was to provide 13 billion U.S. dollars, about 5% of the American gross domestic product during that period, to European nations to bail them out of their continental crisis post-World War II. The plan was in operation for four years, rebuilding war terrorized countries with several goals put in place by the United States. America would take on the responsibility to rebuild their economies, rebuild their currency, and foster a free and open trade between European and U.S. economies.

In my opinion, the definition of the Cold War: was a series of conflicts concerning political, mili-tary, and economics activities between two major political philosophies, represented by the United States along with Western Europe (democracy led) and by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, along with Eastern Europe (communist led). Moreover, open hostilities between the US and the USSR never occurred except though each countries client states.