Containment
Raina White
Facts About Containment
- The first major policy during the Cold War and used many strategies to prevent the spread of Communism (Harry Truman starting this policy).
- Containment was one of the responses to the Soviet Union expanding communist influence into eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam.
- N.A.T.O. was established so western European nations had a defense against communist influence.
- Economic assistance and collective defense agreements became the fortification of the western containment policy.
- George Kennan said "that containment was not something he believed the US could necessarily achieve everywhere successfully. "
Summary
Containment is an important policy during this time period because it shows how worried noncommunist countries where about the spread of communism to Western Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. President Harry Truman was determined to stop the spread of communism so he called a meeting with all of the US allies. This meeting -and others like it - would be the creation of the United Nations and NATO. But the US faced other problems besides communism during the Cold War, recently Fidel Castro has taken over Cuba and makes it into a dictatorship. Castro also fears that the US is going to invade Cuba, and he's not far from it. The Bay of Pigs happens - even though the attack is unsuccessful - and results in an alliance between Cuba and Russia. Khrushchev makes it seem like he really wants to protect Cuba but in the end he really just used them to prove to the US that Russia is just as bold as them. This leads to the Cuba missile crisis.