For what reasons, and with what results up to 1963, did the Unites States adapt the policy known as containment?

Authors Avatar

OCTOBER 6, 2009

MRINALI R. D. ROCHLANI

For what reasons, and with what results up to 1963, did the Unites States adapt the policy known as containment?

The term containment describes the foreign policy strategy pursued by the United States after the Second World War. The goal of containment was simple: prevent the spread of communism. In general, USA pursued this policy to maintain stability in the international arena, to maintain a balance of power, and also to express disapproval of totalitarian, communist, non-democratic regimes. Containment was expressed through a variety of policies and institutions: economic, political and military. These included the Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, NATO, and US involvement in south east Asia.

                 Truman had wanted to pursue a strategy of containment based on economic deterrence, say, influencing Western bloc countries through aid packages and favorable trade agreements to support democratic institutions and democratic parties, instead of the new communist parties. The Marshall Plan was one such way to influence these countries. In June 1947, the U.S secretary of state, George Marshall, announced the economic recovery program which later became known as the Marshall plan. It provided economic assistance to all European nations that would agree to United States’ intervention. Hence providing aid would let US look at everything that was going on in that country and also have control over it. This policy was specifically for the USSR who had repeatedly asked for aid in 1944 and 1945, but US kept stalling. The Marshall plan was a way to get into USSR and hence look at exactly what was going on, whether they were building atomic bombs. US knew that USSR would never agree to such conditions as opening up to American private investment in Easter Europe and this was against communism, which supported state control over everything. To a great extent US was right about Soviet’s reaction. According to Kennan, the Soviets and its satellite states would either unwillingly accept these conditions or have to give up its “exclusive orientation of its economies.”  And as seen, when Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister went to Paris, as soon as the conditions were made explicit, the talks quickly broke off. The USSR saw US’s intention and Stalin refused to allow any Soviet satellite states to participate. So in essence the Marshall Plan was not only a way to solve economic problems but also to challenge the Eastern Bloc and communism. The US were definitely successful in portraying their “good cop” image, as now it looked like the US tried to help USSR but the USSR denied it because of their selfish reasons, making USSR look bad.

              The US not only succeeded in presenting itself as the helpful nation but also drastically helped its own economy through the Marshall Plan. Because Americans feared that after World War II the financial troubles and unemployment of the 1930s could recur, increasing prosperity in the U.S. was one goal of the Marshall Plan. As a way of boosting exports, the plan had wide appeal to American business people, bankers, workers, and farmers. This was done by setting a condition that most of the money for the goods needed to rebuild Europe be spent on Amenrica itself. Thus the Marshall plan represented a huge government subsidy to American business, labour and agriculture and played a vital role in refueling the post-war bloom in the US. In Europe the results seemed equally impressive. By the time the plan came to an end in 1952, about $13,000 million had been appreciated. With the goods supplied by the US, industrial output in Western Europe rose to 35 percent above pre-war levels and agricultural output to 10 percent above. So, as an economic policy, Marshall plan was a big success, however, there were also military aspects involved due to the Korean war that started in 1950, which accounted for the economic success and well as military.

Join now!

                The Cold War between the Communists and the Western Worlds began in earnest at the end of World War II. In Korea, the armies of both the U.S. and USSR withdrew, but each side armed their respective section of the country. However, in June 1950 the Communist North invaded the South in an attempt to unite the country. As the Americans believed the invasion was Soviet-backed they sent troops to help South Korean defense while also gaining the support of the U.N. A U.N. military force was subsequently dispatched, although it consisted ...

This is a preview of the whole essay