The Application of the Containment Policy Between 1945 1962 in USA Essay

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Containment Policy of the United States

Containment was the United States' major attempt to stop the spread of communism. It involved several strategies as it tried to curtail the efforts of the Soviet Union to enlarge its communism influence to Eastern Asia. This policy, developed over four decades, greatly influenced the fighting of the Cold War. George F. Kennan was responsible for the term as he mentioned it in a communication cable that he sent in 1946 while he was a diplomat in Moscow. It was a bridge between rollback and detente.

During the post-World War Two period, the U.S. president Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) did not seem to have a clear stance regarding the Soviet Union. While open hostilities were not declared, the U.S. still wanted to have its way in the general cooperation that existed between the two countries. At the time, Stalin was the ruler of the Soviet Union, and though not in agreement with his dictatorship, President Truman was willing to have peaceful terms with him (Edwards, n.p.).

Given the uneasy stance then, Kennan came up with the solution. He worked in the U.S. Foreign Service as a diplomat with respect to Russia.

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He was in charge of the foreign office in Moscow. The diplomat did not like Stalin's leadership or communism. His view of communism was as a corrupt means by which its proponents built up their power and forced their will on the people. Thus, in response to a request to give his views on it in 1946, he constructed a long cable in which he highlighted the totalitarian rule and its legitimization through the demonizing of capitalism. Edwards reports on this by stating that the Soviet Union was bent on expansion, and that they had no problem using the necessary force to have their way. Therefore, any negotiations with them would be in bad faith (Edwards, n. p.). The thoughts of Kennan were welcomed especially after Stalin, Russia's dictator had aided a rebellion in Iran earlier in 1946.

The thoughts of Kennan mirrored those of many people in Washington, including those in the Pentagon as well as other diplomats. It was because of this that Kennan was asked to lead policy planning in the Department of State in 1947, after George Marshall was appointed the Secretary of State. In his article "The.....

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"The Application Of The Containment Policy Between 1945 1962 In USA", 30 November 2015, Accessed.18 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/application-containment-policy-1945-1962-2158178