Containment in asia during the cold war

Containment in asia during the cold war

Kennan and Containment, George F. Kennan, a career Foreign Service Officer, formulated the policy of “containment,” the basic United States strategy for fighting the cold war (–) with the Soviet Union.. Kennan’s ideas, which became the basis of the Truman administration’s foreign policy, first came to public attention in in the form of an anonymous contribution to Cold War, Latin America, and “Hemispheric Defense” The Cold War, officially started in with the Truman doctrine theorizing “containment” policy, had key consequences in Latin America, considered by the United States to be a full part of the Western Bloc, also called the “free world.” Oct 26,  · This essay will serve as an introduction into the media’s role during the Cold War. It will evidence how the media on both sides of the ideological division sort to produce, contribute and maintain political and cultural antagonism. This was part of the West’s strategy of Communism containment. The Vietnam War was termed as the first

Containment: Cold War History for Kids ***

Containment is a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States. It is loosely related to the term cordon sanitaire which was later used to describe the geopolitical containment of the Soviet Union in the s. 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 a component of the Cold War, this policy caused a response from the Soviet Union to increase communist influence in Eastern EuropeAsiaAfricaand Latin Americawhile also being regarded as the beginning of the cold war.

Containment represented a middle-ground position between detente relaxation of relations and rollback actively replacing a regime. The basis of the doctrine was articulated in a cable by U. diplomat George F. Kennan during the post-WWII term of U. President Harry S. As a description of U. foreign policythe word originated in a report Kennan submitted to U.

Defense Secretary James Forrestal inwhich was later used in a magazine article. There were major historical precedents familiar to Americans and Europeans. In the s, anti-slavery forces in containment in asia during the cold war United States developed a free soil strategy of containment to stop the expansion of slavery until it later collapsed. Historian James Oakes explains the strategy:. The Federal government would surround the south with free states, free territories, and free waters, building what they called a 'cordon of freedom' around slavery, hemming it in until the system's own internal weaknesses forced the slave states one by one to abandon slavery.

Between andGermany repeatedly intervened in the internal affairs of France's neighbors. In Belgium, Spain, containment in asia during the cold war, and Italy, Bismarck exerted strong and sustained political pressure to support the election or appointment of liberal, anticlerical governments. 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.

It was hoped that by surrounding France with a number of liberal states, French republicans could defeat MacMahon and his reactionary supporters.

The modern concept of containment provides a useful model for understanding the dynamics of this policy. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, there were calls by Western leaders to isolate the Bolshevik government, which seemed intent on promoting worldwide revolution.

In Containment in asia during the cold warcontainment in asia during the cold war, French Premier Georges Clemenceau called for a cordon sanitairea ring of non-communist states, to isolate Soviet Russia. Translating that phrase, US President Woodrow Wilson called for a "quarantine. The World War I Allies launched an incursion into Russiaostensibly to create an eastern front against Germany.

In reality, the policy was anti-Bolshevik as well, and its economic warfare took a major toll on all of Russia. Bythe intervention was entirely anti-communist, although the unpopularity of the assault led containment in asia during the cold war to be gradually withdrawn. The US simultaneously engaged in covert action against the new Soviet government.

While the campaigns were officially pro-democracy, they often supported the White Terror of former Tsarist generals like GM Semenov and Alexander Kolchak. The U. initially refused to recognize the Soviet Union, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt reversed the policy in in the hope to expand American export markets. The Munich Agreement of was a failed attempt to contain Nazi expansion in Europe. tried to contain Japanese expansion in Asia in toand Japan reacted with its attack on Pearl Harbor.

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in during World War IIthe U. and the Soviet Union found themselves allied against Germany and used rollback to defeat the Axis Powers : Germany, Italy, and Japan. Key State Department personnel grew increasingly frustrated with and suspicious of the Soviets as the war drew to a close. Averell HarrimanU.

Ambassador in Moscow, once a "confirmed optimist" regarding U. In Februarythe U. State Department asked George F. Kennanthen at the U. Embassy in Moscow, why the Russians opposed the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He responded with a wide-ranging analysis of Russian policy now called the Long Telegram : [9].

Soviet power, unlike that of Hitlerite Germany, is neither schematic nor adventuristic. It does not work by fixed plans. It does not take unnecessary risks. Impervious to logic of reason, and it is highly sensitive to logic of force. For this reason it can easily withdraw—and usually does when strong resistance is encountered at any point. Kennan's cable was hailed in the State Department as "the appreciation of the situation that had long been needed.

Six months later, it would probably have sounded redundant. This report, which recommended "restraining and confining" Soviet influence, was presented to Truman on September 24, In JanuaryKennan drafted an essay entitled " The Sources of Soviet Conduct. Kennan later turned against the containment policy and noted several deficiencies in his X Article. He later said that by containment he meant not the containment of Soviet Power "by military means of a military threat, but the political containment of a political threat.

After Republicans gained control of Congress in the elections, President Truman, a Democrat, containment in asia during the cold war, made a dramatic speech that is often considered to mark the beginning of the Cold War. Portraying the issue as a mighty clash between "totalitarian regimes" and "free peoples," the speech marks the adoption of containment as official U. Congress appropriated the money. Truman's motives on that occasion have been the subject of considerable scholarship and several schools of interpretation.

In the orthodox explanation of Herbert Feisa series of aggressive Soviet actions in —47 in Poland, Iran, Turkey, and elsewhere awakened the American public to the new danger to freedom to which Truman responded. DavisTruman was a naive idealist who unnecessarily provoked the Soviets by couching disputes in terms like democracy and freedom that were alien to the Communist vision. 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.

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.

The timing of the speech was not a response to any particular Soviet action but to the fact that the Republican Party had just gained control of Congress.

The British, with their own position weakened by economic distress, urgently called on the U. to take over the traditional British role in Greece.

He won wide support from both parties as well as containment in asia during the cold war in foreign policy inside and outside the government. It was strongly opposed by the Left, notably by former Vice President Henry A. Wallacewho ran against Truman in the presidential campaign. Truman, containment in asia during the cold war, under the guidance of Acheson, followed up his speech with a series of measures to contain Soviet influence in Europe, including the Marshall Planor European Recovery Program, and NATOa military alliance between the U.

and Western European nations. Because containment required detailed information about Communist moves, the government relied increasingly on the Central Intelligence Agency CIA. Established by the National Security Act ofthe CIA conducted espionage in foreign lands, some of it visible, more of it secret. The Soviet Union's first nuclear test in prompted the National Security Council to formulate a revised security doctrine.

Completed in Aprilit became known as NSC According to the report, drafted by Paul Nitze and others:. In the words of the Federalist No. 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, containment in asia during the cold war.

There were three alternative policies to containment under discussion in the late s. The first was a return to isolationismminimizing American involvement with the rest of the world, a policy that was supported by conservative Republicans, especially from the Midwestincluding former President Herbert Hoover and Senator Robert A.

However, containment in asia during the cold war, many other Republicans, containment in asia during the cold war, led by Senator Arthur H. Vandenbergsaid that policy had helped cause World War II and so was too dangerous to revive.

The second policy was continuation of the détente policies that aimed at friendly relationships with the Soviet Union, especially trade. Roosevelt had been the champion of détente, but he was dead, and most of his inner circle had left the government by The chief proponent of détente was Henry Wallace, a former vice president and the Secretary of Commerce under Truman.

Wallace's position was supported by far left elements of the CIObut they were purged in and Wallace ran against Truman on the Progressive Party ticket inbut his campaign was increasingly dominated by Communists, which helped to discredit détente. The third policy was rollbackan aggressive effort to undercut or destroy the Soviet Union itself.

Military rollback against the Soviet Union was proposed by James Burnham [33] and other conservative strategists in the late s. AfterBurnham and like-minded strategists containment in asia during the cold war editors and regular contributors to William F. Buckley, Jr. Truman himself adopted a rollback strategy in the Korean War after the success of the Inchon landings in Septemberonly to reverse himself after the Chinese counterattack two months later and revert to containment.

General Douglas MacArthur called on Congress to continue the rollback policy, but Truman fired him for insubordination. Under President Dwight Eisenhowera rollback strategy was considered against communism in Eastern Europe from to Eisenhower agreed to a propaganda campaign to roll back the influence of communism psychologically, but he refused to intervene in the Hungarian Uprising[35] mainly for fear that it would cause the Third World War. Since latecontainment in asia during the cold war, when the Soviets had successfully tested an atomic bomb, they had been known to possess nuclear weapons.

followed containment when it first entered the Korean War to defend South Korea from a communist invasion by North Korea. 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. However, the success of the Inchon landing inspired the U.

The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38

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The History of American Foreign Policy | Boundless Political Science

Oct 26,  · This essay will serve as an introduction into the media’s role during the Cold War. It will evidence how the media on both sides of the ideological division sort to produce, contribute and maintain political and cultural antagonism. This was part of the West’s strategy of Communism containment. The Vietnam War was termed as the first This article on the Cold War policy of containment is an excerpt from Lee Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards Spalding’s book A Brief History of the Cold War. It is available to order now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can also buy the book by clicking on the buttons to the left Jul 01,  · Containment Facts - The Vietnam War (November 1, – April 30, ) was to last for 20 years during the period of the Cold War in south-east Asia. The first US combat troops were sent to Vietnam in March and left in August