The US Policy of Containment is the US trying to prevent the spread of communism after the World War II. The idea was to make other countries comfortable enough to avoid the temptation of communism. George Kennan wrote the “Geography of the Cold War: What was Containment” debating how the Soviet was being blackmailed and they were turmoil, and the US got involved when they decided to help them, and that’s how that containment started. The Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Western Berlins provide historians with instances of the US policy of containment, this paper will argue that the Korean War is a strong example of containment, while the Berlin Airlift is the weaker example of containment. The strongest example of containment is …show more content…
When viewing the map on Document B, it is evident that “In 1948, Western Berlin was a pro-American island in a Soviet Union because West Berlin is in the middle of the Soviet zone.” Since the West Berlin was in the middle of the Soviet zone, they were on their side not the Americans. Also, according to Document B, it appears that, “ On June 27, 1948, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union decided to blockade any shipments (including food) coming into West Berlin, this was like an example of fatalism. On May 12, 1949, Stalin removed the blockade.” Blockade means the isolating, closing off, or surrounding of a place, as a port, harbor, or city, by hostile ships or troops to prevent entrance or exit, so Stalin and the Soviet Union were incensed and didn’t let anyone else get more shipments and goodies, but was later discarded. Therefore, the Soviets blocked the shipments because they had expensive tendencies and they wanted to expand it. During the blockade, in Document B, it says, “America and its allies decided to support the West Berliners by air, flying in supplies for the over two million people for nearly a year. Everything from food to coal as provide.” They did survive from the food the Americans had provided so they didn’t starve to death when they ran out of food. This document doesn’t really demonstrate the American Policy of Containment because the airlift contained the Soviets and they spread
Berlin was located well in East Germany, but was divided basically the same as Germany, where the east was the Soviets and the west the other three allies. In 1948, in an effort to drive the allies out of Berlin the Soviets set up a blockade, but instead of leaving, the
On December 7,1941, the United States declared war on Japan. This eventually led the US to involve the Second World War (Lecture notes). The support of the US helped a lot for allies, which led them to win the war. Throughout the war, the US military was all over the world, Europe and the Pacific Ocean. The United States surely proofed that they are the one of the superpower across the globe.
Post World War II America was one of the most militarily active periods in American history, having been involved in three wars, spanning roughly from 1947 to 1992, in order to stop the spread of communism. Overall, the United States permanently broke its previous isolationist policy in an attempt to promote democracy throughout the world; however, the wars proved to have serious negative effects on America. America was impacted by the military involvement in the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War. Shortly after the end of World War II, America and Russia, the two super world powers emerging from the war, divided various parts of Eurasia—namely Germany and Korea—between themselves. Following America’s decision to maintain world
After the cold war happen then came the containment act. Containment was when the Soviet Union and soviet communism shouldn’t be allowed to spread. The policy of containment was to expand the soviet policy an then the American policy was to containment. Both armies were coming from opposite sides of Europe at this time. Both Russians and Americans cut Hitler’s Germany into two pieces.
The regime established feeding centers at major cities and towns under its control in the north but refused to authorize movement to insurgent areas. This hindered international efforts to reach the people who were at risk of starvation. Moreover, instead of the government giving priority to their people, they gave priority to Soviet ships unloading military cargo. The president even rejected food truces that were offered. The government was prepared to use force such as airstrikes because they did not want to give away supplies to insurgent areas.
Three examples of U.S. containment during the Cold War were Berlin airlift, Korean War , and Cuban missile crisis. Containment is proved to work for the three reasons above. One example of containment was the Berlin airlift (1948-1949) The blockade is built surrounding west Berlin.
did to contain communism is that of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On January 1959, Fidel Castro overtook Cuba to make it a communist nation. (Doc D) The U.S. then launched a failed invasion; the communists remained. Soon after, the Soviet Union began to ship in missiles and nuclear weaponry to Cuba.
The Cold War was a war full of politics and beliefs along with brutal fighting. Communism was seen as a major threat to the United States. The Soviet Union was trying to, at the time, influence other countries of its communist beliefs in hopes of gaining allies and resources. The Soviets expanded after WWII and the Americans feared this, adding tense to their “alliance.” The Soviet Union’s main targets were Europe but also to gain global exposure and power as well.
The Cold War was a war of threats. After the end of World War II, there was a spread of two different types of government, democracy and communism. There was the Western and the Soviet spheres of influence. The difference between the governments resulted a conflict, which led to the Cold War. Threats were made to stop the spread of each other’s ideology, but one of them must be dominant for peace can be created when there is an unity of a single type of government in Europe.
In an effort to stop communism from spreading, the United States and its allies practiced containment. Containment is the act of keeping something harmful under control, this meant that the United States and its allies will get involved if they needed in order to stop communism from spreading. The U.S and its allies managed to help several countries from falling into communism, but they also suffered their hardships and lost many men during a war to protect their allie, South Korea. On February 1946, the United States, State Department received a telegram, the telegram seemed to give of two warnings.
After World War II, President Truman warned of communism encroaching on nations vulnerable to Soviet control. The Policy of Containment pledged the U.S. would form strategic alliances and support weak independent nations with military support and economic assistance. A $400 million U.S. appropriation was granted in 1947 to support Greece and Turkey which had lost British assistance. This evolved into the Truman Doctrine that included the Marshall Plan which provided humanitarian aid to devastated Western European nations. After four years and $17 billion these nations established economic security, increased trade with the U.S. and rejected Soviet takeover efforts (ushistory.org).
Imagine if you lived in a place where you had no freedom, and you were ruled by a man like Joseph Stalin. That is what it would be like in many countries if it weren’t for the United States’ policy of containment. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union wanted to take over other countries and make them have the government system of Communism. The United States didn’t like that, because they thought their governmental system of Democracy was better. As a result, the U.S. adopted a policy of “Containment”.
This became one of the first of many international crisis of the Cold War, in which America responded well, not destroying the blockade or attacking the Soviets, but by delivering supplies through an alternate route until the USSR had no choice but to acknowledge their actions were futile and remove the blockade. Just before the Berlin Blockade and right before Harry Truman became president he said, “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisted subjugation by armed or outside pressures.” (A) This concept surely followed him into the incident involving West Berlin and he stayed true to his ideas in helping the citizens living there obtain resources, despite the Soviets
With East Berlin losing its professional class to West Berlin, the Kremlin decided to make sure that no one could get out. The large numbers of Red Army soldiers around construction sites lead many to fear that an invasion was nearing. In response, Kennedy put troops on the other side of the wall, both countries insisted on never backing down. That was, until an agreement had been made, and another world war
On the night of August 12-13, 1961, Berlin began to experience some awful tragedies. They became separated by a wall because of financial reasons. The wall separated the East from the West Berlin. There was many reasonings behind this. America was involved in this also.