Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. It arrived in Washington on February 22, 1946, and circulated widely around the White House until Kennan made it public in an article called "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" — this became known as X Article because the authorship was attributed to X. George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. [16] Second, Kennan admitted a failure in the article to specify the geographical scope of "containment", and that containment was not something he believed the United States could necessarily achieve everywhere successfully.[17]. While the campaigns were officially pro-democracy, they often supported the White Terror of former Tsarist generals like GM Semenov and Alexander Kolchak.[3][4]. Reagan's aim was to defeat the Soviets through an expensive arms buildup the Soviets could not match. American Cold War Policy By 1947 it had become apparent to most observers that the world was splitting in two—East and West—leaving the inevitable conflict of the Cold War. Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. Initially, this directed the action of the US to only push back North Korea across the 38th Parallel and restore South Korea's sovereignty, thereby allowing North Korea's survival as a state. [37] General Douglas MacArthur then advanced across the 38th Parallel into North Korea. A mid-level diplomat in the State Department named George Kennan proposed the policy of containment. Congress appropriated the money. Robert Wilde is a historian who writes about European history. [24], The British, with their own position weakened by economic distress, urgently called on the U.S. to take over the traditional British role in Greece. [40] Dulles was named secretary of state by incoming President Eisenhower, but Eisenhower's decision not to intervene during the 1956 Hungarian Uprising made containment a bipartisan doctrine. Truman criticized MacArthur's focus on absolute victory and adopted a "limited war" policy. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-containment-1221496 (accessed February 22, 2021). George F. Kennan, a career Foreign Service Officer, formulated the policy of “containment,” the basic United States strategy for fighting the cold war (1947–1989) with the Soviet Union. For this reason it can easily withdraw—and usually does when strong resistance is encountered at any point. The wording of the Carter Doctrine (1980) intentionally echoed that of the Truman Doctrine. [1], Between 1873 and 1877, Germany repeatedly intervened in the internal affairs of France's neighbors. Containment represented a middle-ground position between detente (relaxation of relations) and rollback (actively replacing a regime). "[43] President Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic nominee, answered that rollback risked nuclear war. "[13] Biographer Douglas Brinkley has dubbed Forrestal "godfather of containment" on account of his work in distributing Kennan's writing. [29] It concluded that a massive military buildup was necessary to deal with the Soviet threat. It does not take unnecessary risks. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. Containment, strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States beginning in the late 1940s in order to check the expansionist policy of the Soviet Union. ThoughtCo. This report, which recommended "restraining and confining" Soviet influence, was presented to Truman on September 24, 1946. Without using the term, the new Republican Party in the Northern United States in the 1850s proposed a system of containing slavery, once it gained control of the national government. The Soviets perceived themselves to be in a state of perpetual war with capitalism; The Soviets would use controllable Marxists in the capitalist world as allies; Soviet aggression was not aligned with the views of the Russian people or with economic reality, but with historic Russian xenophobia and paranoia; The Soviet government's structure prevented objective or accurate pictures of internal and external reality. Completed in April 1950, it became known as NSC 68. [19] In the revisionist view of William Appleman Williams, Truman's speech was an expression of longstanding American expansionism. It does not work by fixed plans. Wilde, Robert. In the orthodox explanation of Herbert Feis, a series of aggressive Soviet actions in 1945–47 in Poland, Iran, Turkey, and elsewhere awakened the American public to the new danger to freedom to which Truman responded. Afghanistan and Iraq The Bush Doctrine produced the two most significant foreign interventions that the U.S. has undertaken in the 21st century. Containment was a foreign policy of the United States of America, introduced at the start of the Cold War, aimed at stopping the spread of Communism and keeping it "contained" and isolated within its current borders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or the Soviet Union) instead of spreading to a war-ravaged Europe. He is the author of the History in an Afternoon textbook series. In reality, the policy was anti-Bolshevik as well, and its economic warfare took a major toll on all of Russia. It is clear that American foreign policy with its’ banner of containment was a miserable failure. The first was a return to isolationism, minimizing American involvement with the rest of the world, a policy that was supported by conservative Republicans, especially from the Midwest, including former President Herbert Hoover and Senator Robert A. Taft. According to the report, drafted by Paul Nitze and others: In the words of the Federalist (No. The chief proponent of détente was Henry Wallace, a former vice president and the Secretary of Commerce under Truman. He was also one of the group of foreign policy elders known as "The Wise Men". ", James I. Matray, "Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea,". In March 1919, French Premier Georges Clemenceau called for a cordon sanitaire, a ring of non-communist states, to isolate Soviet Russia. In conclusion it is indisputable that the policy of containment was one of the most important factors in the Cold War. Key State Department personnel grew increasingly frustrated with and suspicious of the Soviets as the war drew to a close. auspices. Truman himself adopted a rollback strategy in the Korean War after the success of the Inchon landings in September 1950, only to reverse himself after the Chinese counterattack two months later and revert to containment. "Containment: America's Plan for Communism." The third policy was rollback, an aggressive effort to undercut or destroy the Soviet Union itself. "[9] Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal gave permission for the report to be published in the journal Foreign Affairs under the pseudonym "X. When Strategies of Containment was first published, the Soviet Union was still a superpower, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and the Berlin Wall was still standing. Emphasis was placed on talks with the Soviet Union concerning nuclear weapons called the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. László Borhi, "Rollback, Liberation, Containment, or Inaction? Contents. ", The World War I Allies launched an incursion into Russia, ostensibly to create an eastern front against Germany. Since late 1949, when the Soviets had successfully tested an atomic bomb, they had been known to possess nuclear weapons. In either case we should take no avoidable initiative which would cause it to become a war of annihilation, and if we have the forces to defeat a Soviet drive for limited objectives it may well be to our interest not to let it become a global war. In the 1850s, anti-slavery forces in the United States developed a free soil strategy of containment to stop the expansion of slavery until it later collapsed. Even countries themselves were dividing in half over the ideas of how to move forward and recover from the last World War. The United States wanted to prevent this from spreading further Europe and on to the rest of the world, so they developed a solution called containment to attempt to manipulate the socio-political future of these recovering nations. The strategy of "containment" is best known as a Cold War foreign policy of the United States and its allies to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. Containment was adopted by President Harry Truman as part of his Truman Doctrine in 1947, which redefined America's foreign policy as one that supports the "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures," according to Truman's speech to Congress that year. By 1919, the intervention was entirely anti-communist, although the unpopularity of the assault led it to be gradually withdrawn. These acts of arbitration could include sending funds, such as in 1947 when the CIA spent large amounts to influence the result of Italy's elections helping the Christian Democrats defeat the Communist party, but it also could mean wars, leading to US involvement in Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere. Because containment required detailed information about Communist moves, the government relied increasingly on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Containment is a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States. Wallace's position was supported by far left elements of the CIO, but they were purged in 1947 and 1948. This event was important to the Cold War because the US was fighting the USSR in the sense that they were preventing the USSR from spreading their economic strategies, but they never actually fought each other in a battle. Sidney Pash, "Containment, Rollback and the Onset of the Pacific War, 1933-1941" in G. Kurt Piehler and Sidney Pash, eds. Also, much of the policy helped influence U.S. foreign policy in later years, such as during the War on Terror and dealing with post-Cold War dictators, such as Iraq's Saddam Hussein. U.S. Policy and Eastern Europe in the 1950s", Arc of Containment: Britain, the United States, and Anticommunism in Southeast Asia, "Containment and the Cold War: Reexaming the Doctrine of Containment as a Grand Strategy Driving US Cold War Interventions", EDSITEment's Lesson Strategy of Containment 1947-1948, https://astro.temple.edu/~rimmerma/the_X_article.htm, 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972, Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War, Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States, American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Containment&oldid=1007548723, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from September 2017, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. He pursued a comprehensive nuclear disarmament initiative called START I and policy toward Europe continued to emphasize a NATO-based defensive approach. Foundations of Foreign Affairs, 1775-1823. Eisenhower' policy of containment was a Cold War strategy of limiting the Soviet Union's growth with an emphasis on U.S. air and sea power ANCIENT/MEDIEVAL HISTORY Mayans However, the success of the Inchon landing inspired the U.S. and the United Nations to adopt a rollback strategy instead and to overthrow communist North Korea, thus allowing nationwide elections under U.N. How Successful was the Policy of Containment during the Cold War In May of 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered, thus starting the beginning of the end of World War II. World War I Allies launched an incursion into Russia, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Driven Patriot: The Life And Times Of James Forrestal, President Harry S. Truman's Address Before a Joint Session of Congress, NSC 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security. For other uses, see, American Cold War foreign policy against the spread of communism, James Stone, "Bismarck and the Containment of France, 1873–1877,". "[11] Clark Clifford and George Elsey produced a report elaborating on the Long Telegram and proposing concrete policy recommendations based on its analysis. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Containment is a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States. [36], The U.S. followed containment when it first entered the Korean War to defend South Korea from a communist invasion by North Korea. The US simultaneously engaged in covert action against the new Soviet government. In the early period of Truman’s presidency U.S. armed forces were undergoing a large-scale programme of demobilisation, yet by its end in 1953 military and economic alliances were held with states in virtually every continent of the globe. The Munich Agreement of 1938 was a failed attempt to contain Nazi expansion in Europe. "[15], Kennan later turned against the containment policy and noted several deficiencies in his X Article. Truman's motives on that occasion have been the subject of considerable scholarship and several schools of interpretation. Six months later, it would probably have sounded redundant. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. First laid out by George F. Kennan in 1947, the policy stated that communism needed to be contained and isolated, or else it would spread to neighboring countries. This mentality contributed greatly to the paranoia of the Cold War. Containment and the Cold War In February 1946, George F. Kennan, an American diplomat in Moscow, proposed a policy of containment. Summary and Definition: The strategy and policy of Containment was used by the United States during the Cold War (1945 - 1991). Definition and Examples, What Was the Eisenhower Doctrine? He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War.He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histories of the relations between the USSR and the United States. The purpose of the Containment policy was to restrict the spread of communism abroad by diplomatic, military and economic actions. That was part of an integrated strategy to promote republicanism in France by strategically and ideologically isolating the clerical-monarchist regime of President Patrice de Mac-Mahon. Throughout the 1980s, under a policy that came to be known as the Reagan Doctrine, the United States provided technical and economic assistance to the Afghan guerrillas fighting against the Soviet army (Mujahideen).[46]. The strategy of "containment" is best known as a Cold War foreign policy of the United States and its allies to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. As the war continued, it grew less popular. Ambassador in Moscow, once a "confirmed optimist" regarding U.S.-Soviet relations,[6] was disillusioned by what he saw as the Soviet betrayal of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising as well as by violations of the February 1945 Yalta Agreement concerning Poland. Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. [23] Truman was little involved in drafting the speech and did not himself adopt the hard-line attitude that it suggested until several months later. Johnson adhered closely to containment during the Vietnam War. [8], In February 1946, the U.S. State Department asked George F. Kennan, then at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, why the Russians opposed the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Like containment policy during the Cold War, the Bush Doctrine has been the guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy, in terms of longevity and comprehensiveness, since 2001. While one may disagree over the rationale underlying the strategy of containment (and in a realistic assessment, US foreign policy has probably been informed by all these factors simultaneously), containment of Soviet influence had become the cornerstone of Cold War US foreign policy. General Douglas MacArthur called on Congress to continue the rollback policy, but Truman fired him for insubordination. [30], There were three alternative policies to containment under discussion in the late 1940s. Historical dictionary of the 1950s. A Democratic Congress forced Nixon, a Republican, to abandon the policy in 1973 by enacting the Case–Church Amendment, which ended U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and led to successful communist invasions of South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Soviet aggression in Greece and Turkey was the first major event that would force America to react to Soviet activity. Nixon, who replaced Johnson in 1969, referred to his foreign policy as détente, a relaxation of tension. Acting deliberately, at times aggressively, to involve itself in the border states of the world, to keep them from turning communist, the United States spearheaded a movement that would eventually lead to the creation of NATO (North American Treaty Organization). Containment was a foreign policy of the United States of America, introduced at the start of the Cold War, aimed at stopping the spread of Communism and keeping it "contained" and isolated within its current borders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or the Soviet Union) instead of spreading to a war-ravaged Europe. Although containment may have specifically been meant as a term to describe the U.S. strategy for the curtailment of communism from spreading outward from the Soviet Union, the idea of containment as a strategy for cutting off nations such as China and North Korea still persist to this day. Containment: America's Plan for Communism. As a component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to the Soviet Union's move to increase communist influence in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The use of naval blockade supported the US policy of containment by keeping the communist Soviet Union from bombing the US. He deployed the Pershing II missile in Europe and promoted research on a Strategic Defense Initiative, called "Star Wars" by its critics, to shoot down missiles fired at the United States. Truman approved a classified statement of containment policy called NSC 20/4 in November 1948, the first comprehensive statement of security policy ever created by the United States. [14] The use of the word "containment" originates from this so-called "X Article": "In these circumstances it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies. The policy of containment led directly to a radical change in the global positioning of the U.S. The concept of containment was first outlined in George Kennan's "Long Telegram," which was sent to the U.S. Government from his position in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Cold War Containment 796 Words | 4 Pages. However, Reagan continued to follow containment in several key areas. Containment and the Cold War In February 1946, George F. Kennan, an American diplomat in Moscow, proposed a policy of containment.Containment is the blocking of another nation's attempts to spread its influence.During the late 1940s and early 1950s the United States used this policy against the Soviets. Historian James Oakes explains the strategy: 1. [22], The drama surrounding the announcement of the Truman Doctrine catered to president's self-image of a strong and decisive leader, but his real decision-making process was more complex and gradual. Eisenhower relied on clandestine CIA actions to undermine hostile governments and used economic and military foreign aid to strengthen governments supporting the American position in the Cold War. Truman publicly hinted that he might use his "ace in the hole" of the atomic bomb, but Mao was unmoved. Following the communist victory of Vietnam, Democrats began to view further communist advance as inevitable, but Republicans returned to the rollback doctrine. It is loosely related to the term cordon sanitaire which was later used to describe the geopolitical containment of the Soviet Union in the 1940s. In 1952, Dulles called for rollback and the eventual liberation of Eastern Europe. The Communists were later pushed back to roughly around the original border, with minimal changes. "Containment: America's Plan for Communism." The mischief may be a global war or it may be a Soviet campaign for limited objectives. The Cold War was the period in history in which for 40 years the world was under the constant threat of total destruction, caught between the nuclear stockpiles of the United States, Great Britain, and France on one side and the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China on the other. "[11] Kennan himself attributed the enthusiastic reception to timing: "Six months earlier the message would probably have been received in the State Department with raised eyebrows and lips pursed in disapproval. Corke, Sarah-Jane. The United States feared specifically a domino effect, that the communism of the USSR would spread from one country to the next, destabilizing one nation which would, in turn, destabilize the next and allow for communist regimes to dominate the region. Containment Containment is a policy of stopping the enlargement of an enemy, or the ideals of the enemy. [41], In the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the top officials in Washington debated using rollback to get rid of Soviet nuclear missiles, which were threatening the United States. Wallace ran against Truman on the Progressive Party ticket in 1948, but his campaign was increasingly dominated by Communists, which helped to discredit détente.[32]. It is loosely related to the term cordon sanitaire which was later used to describe the geopolitical containment of the Soviet Union in the 1940s. "[26][27] Truman was explicit about the challenge of Communism taking control of Greece. The Chinese, fearful of a possible US presence on their border or even an invasion by them, then sent in a large army and defeated the U.N. forces, pushing them back below the 38th parallel. The Reagan Doctrine: To Wipe Out Communism, American Manifest Destiny and Modern Foreign Policy, What Is an Embargo? President Jimmy Carter came to office in 1977 and was committed to a foreign policy that emphasized human rights. However, many other Republicans, led by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, said that policy had helped cause World War II and so was too dangerous to revive. [20], According to psychological analysis by Deborah Larson, Truman felt a need to prove his decisiveness and feared that aides would make unfavorable comparisons between him and his predecessor, Roosevelt. [18] Truman pledged to, "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. It was strongly opposed by the Left, notably by former Vice President Henry A. Wallace, who ran against Truman in the 1948 presidential campaign.[28]. 28) "The means to be employed must be proportioned to the extent of the mischief." Rejecting proposals by General William Westmoreland for U.S. ground forces to advance into Laos and cut communist supply lines, Johnson gathered a group of elder statesmen called The Wise Men. It can be seen to have directly affected the politics of many states, but it drew the west into supporting dictators and other people simply because they were enemies of communism, rather than by any broader sense of morality. He won wide support from both parties as well as experts in foreign policy inside and outside the government. The U.S. tried to contain Japanese expansion in Asia in 1937 to 1941, and Japan reacted with its attack on Pearl Harbor.[5]. Containment as U.S. policy during Cold War Era From after World War II and up until 1991 the foreign policy of the United States was based on Cold War ideology and the policy of containment; to prevent nations from leaning towards Soviet Union-based communism, as first laid out by George Kennan and later used as one of the key principles in the Truman Doctrine (LeCain). [10], Kennan's cable was hailed in the State Department as "the appreciation of the situation that had long been needed. Containment and Cold War, 1945-1961. The policy of containing Cuba was put into effect by President John F. Kennedy and continued until 2015.[42]. The Soviet Union's first nuclear test in 1949 prompted the National Security Council to formulate a revised security doctrine. The basis of the doctrine was articulated in a 1946 cable by U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan during the post-WWII term of U.S. President Harry S. Truman. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, The U.S. Involvement in Border States: Containment 101. Containment was a foreign policy strategy followed by the United States during the Cold War. Established by the National Security Act of 1947, the CIA conducted espionage in foreign lands, some of it visible, more of it secret.

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