The policy of containment during the Cold War

For the duration of the Cold War, the United States engaged in a lot of aggressive policies both in America and abroad, in pursuance to fight communism and the spread of communist ideologies. Faced with a new challenge and global responsibilities the U.S. needed to preserve what it had fought for in Planet War II. It needed to include the communist tips flowing from the Soviet Union although stopping communist influence in America, without having provoking Globe War III.

The United States successfully utilized containment by the application of three approaches, the Berlin airlift ,the Truman Doctrine, and the use of naval blockade. The Berlin airlift was one profitable containment technique in which the untied states responded to the soviet blockade of Berlin, effectively bringing food and healthcare supplies to allied controlled places of Berlin.

In June 1948, the Soviets blockaded all exterior access to Berlin from the west. This reprisal move was intended to send a sign to the U.S. and its Allies that the Soviet Union did not tolerate western interference in its territories. In response, President Truman made a choice that would allow the U.S. to provide supplies to the Berlin folks with no fighting the Soviets. His proposal called for American aircrafts to airlift supplies to West Berlin. This program was instantly accepted, and the Berlin Airlift started flying thousands of meals and supplies to Berlin day-to-day. In Could of 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade and permitted the free of charge flow of supplies into West Berlin. Performing so brought on the Soviet Union to shed in what was essentially a public relations war. This dispute proves that the Berlin Airlift was a successful containment approach. The Truman Doctrine was an additional productive method of containment in which President Truman declared the US should give military help to countries threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurgency.

In August of 1945 the Soviet Union invaded Korea, which had been below Japan’s manage given that 1910. Fearing that the Soviet Union would seize the whole peninsula, the United States speedily moved its own soldiers into South Korea. Japanese arms forces surrendered to the Soviets in the north and to the Americans in the south. In an effort to keep away from a extended-term controversy regarding Korea’s future, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Korea along the 38th parallel. In 1950, the Korea Peninsula was divided between an American-primarily based government in the south and a Soviet-primarily based government in the north. When North Korean soldiers invaded South Korea, the Truman administration took advantage of the chance to defend a noncommunist government from invasion by communist armed forces. Determined not to permit yet another nation to be defeated by communism, and interested in supporting its anticommunist credentials, the Truman administration decided to offer military support for South Korea. The war continues for a number of years and finally ends in 1953, really close to the original boarders.

The Truman Doctrine was a profitable strategy of containment in which due to the fact the Truman administration decided to defend South Korea and its democratic techniques, it properly contained one more nation from the communistic ideologies of the Soviet Union. The application of naval blockade preformed by the U.S. was but one more productive strategy of containment. In January 1959 Cuba becomes a communist nation below the reign of Fidel Castro. As of might 1962 the Soviet Union secretly began to move thousands of soldiers, missiles and nuclear war heads to Cuba in intent to bomb America. Kennedy took recognition of the Soviets secret strategy and chose to execute a naval blockade to ban the Soviets from bringing in any additional military supplies to Cuba. After additional negotiation, Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed on the withdraw of the weapons, and for that reason improved relations and moved on, making peace and avoiding additional use of nuclear warfare. The use of naval blockade supported the US policy of containment by maintaining the communist Soviet Union from bombing the US.

In conclusion it is indisputable that the policy of containment was a single of the most critical factors in the Cold War. From the declaration of the Truman Doctrine, to America’s support in the Korean war, containment was the driving force behind all of these crucial events and choices. United States effectively utilized containment by the application of 3 methods, the Berlin Airlift , the Truman Doctrine, and the use of naval blockade.