To what extent was America's policy of containment successful? Use Korea, Cuba and Vietnam in your investigation.

To what extent was America’s policy of containment successful? Use Korea, Cuba and Vietnam in your investigation.

American policy of containment refers to the foreign policy strategy of the US in the early years of the Cold war. The policy was to defeat the Soviet Union by preventing it from expanding the territories under its Communist control or otherwise extending its influence. This, naturally, resulted in strained relations and rivalry between the two superpowers. Despite the many difficulties, American policy of containment during the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War did manage to contain the expansion of Communism to a certain extent.

The containment of communism in Korea was successful. The Korean War, which started on June 25, 1950 and ended with a cease fire on July 27, 1953, was a civil war between North Korea and South Korea. This Cold War era fighting is considered to have been a proxy war between the United States and its Western democratic allies, and the Communist powers (Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China). North Korea was supported by Communist China and the Soviet Union, and South Korea was supported by the United States and its Western allies. Communist North Korea sought to spread its influence and control to the South. In October 1950, hostility spilled over into open warfare. North Korean troops overwhelmed the South Korean forces and by September 1950 all except a small corner of South Korea was under Communist control. Once the North Koreans invaded, the Americans with the help of their strong allies managed to push the North Koreans back and continued fighting ensured that the North Korean army lost its footing on South Korean soil. The then president elect, Eisenhower initiated the earlier stalled peace talks; he has the honor of bringing the Korean War to an end. He revived the peace talks and an armistice was eventually signed with a demilitarized zone at the 38th parallel. The end of the Korean War proves the fact that America’s policy of containing Communism was successful.

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However, America’s policy of containing the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis was not so successful. In fact, it almost resulted in a nuclear war. The crisis was a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 14, 1962 and lasted until November 20, 1962. It could have resulted in a nuclear war. In April 1961, President Kennedy supplied arms, equipment and transport for some anti-Castro exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro. Castro had overthrown the American backed Batista. The Bay of Pigs incident which was Kennedy’s attempt to oust Communism from Cuba was a disastrous failure. Fidel Castro sought Soviet support; the Soviet Union installed nuclear weapons in Cuba. Finally, Cuba came under the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence; after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Soviet Union arms flooded into Cuba. In May 1962 the Soviet Union announced publicly that they were supplying Cuba with arms. The United States started deploying nuclear missiles near Turkey in 1961, which threatened the Soviet Union. “Soviet reasoning was two fold – first to defend this new socialist state from a United States or United States – sponsored invasion, and second, to restore the nuclear balance of power putting United States cities directly within the range of Soviet missiles.” In Saturday 27 October, Kennedy ignored the second letter he received that day from Khrushchev. Instead he accepted the terms suggested by Khrushchev on 26 October, that is, “If assurances were given that the USA would not participate in an attack on Cuba and the blockade was lifted then the question of the removal or the destruction of the missile sites would be entirely different question.”(This was the first time Khrushchev admitted the presence of the missiles in Cuba.) Khrushchev did as he promised. The removal of missiles in Turkey was also negotiated and was kept secret from public. The end of the crisis was a relief for the whole world. A nuclear war was averted through diplomacy and Cuban relations with communist Soviet Union became closer.

The effort to contain the spread of communism in Vietnam was not only not successful, but a miserable, catastrophic failure. The Vietnam War was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam allied with the Viet Cong against the Republic of Vietnam and principally supported by the United States military. In Vietnam, Americans faced a guerilla war. The war quickly sapped the morale of American troops and American casualties rose rapidly. The Massacre at My Lai from 1965 to 1967 was a result of American troops following a policy known as ‘search and destroy’; they had to flush out North Vietnam troops. The My Lai massacre was a massacre by United States Soldiers of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children. This soon became the symbol of Unite States American war crimes in Vietnam, which outraged the world and reduced public support for the war in the United States. In January 1973, President Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam and cited peace negotiations; Americans had agreed to a cease fire and ended all United States aid to the Saigon regime. By April, South Vietnamese army had fallen to the Communists. Vietnam was united by the North Vietnamese on July 2, 1976 to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Communism had spread to Vietnam.

In conclusion, American policy of containment of communism and Soviet's influence was not as successful as it was hoped to be. The Americans managed to contain the spread of Communism to a certain extent during the Korean War and to a limited extent during the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the reasons for the South Korean success was that the Korean terrain was familiar and there was tremendous support from the Korean people. On the other hand, the Vietnam War was a thorn in the side because American troops were not familiar with the Vietnamese rainforest terrains. Despite setbacks in other areas, the American policy of containment was successful at keeping the Soviet Union from conquering American allies in Western Europe and North-east Asia. The spread and influence of communism was definitely curtailed and democracy thrived in many parts of the world.

Joseph Shin

Teacher Reviews

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Natalya Luck

17th of Sep 2013

The author structures this well and offers some valid points of analysis but this is largely a narrative account of the three events with only brief references to the question. 3 out of 5 stars.

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