U.S. CONTAINMENT POLICY.4
At the end of World War II in 1945 Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, made no secret of his intent to expand Soviet-style communism to Eastern and Central Europe and Asia as well as elsewhere. Alarmed at this perceived threat to American democracy, President Harry S. Truman endorsed the containment policy, which, in effect, was implemented to prevent communism from spreading globally. Under this policy, America has spent over 280 billion dollars in military and economic aid to foreign countries. The basic principles of the containment policy lasted over four decades under eight U.S. Presidents and helped lead to the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1989.
Questions:
A1. Who initially endorsed the containment policy?
A2. After which war was the containment policy enacted?
A3. How long did the containment policy last?
A4. How many U.S. Presidents supported the basic principles of the containment policy?
A5. What type of aid was given to foreign countries under Truman’s containment policy?
A6. Which Soviet leader desired to spread communism globally?
A7. Communism was perceived as a threat to what?
A8. What did the containment policy help lead to in 1989?
President Truman and his Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, were unhappy that the containment policy
failed to contain communism in China where the communist People’s Republic of China was established after World War II ended. They added the nation’s armed forces to military and economic aid to foreign countries in combating the spread of communism. President Truman used this tougher version of the containment policy when he fought the Korean War against North Korea in support of South Korea. North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union and later by communist China. Initially, North Korea invaded South Korea in an effort to unite all of Korea under communist rule of the Democratic People’s Republic. The result of this conflict was that Korea remains separated; the Democratic People’s Republic controlling the north and the Republic of Korea controlling the south. In this case, the strengthened containment concept worked in its function of curbing the spread of communism.
Questions:
B1. Who helped Truman strengthen the containment policy?
B2. What was his position under Truman?
B3. Who invaded South Korea?
B4. Did U.S. troops support South Korea?
B5. Did the Soviet Union support North Korea?
B6. Who did China support?
B7. Where did the containment policy fail to contain communism after World War II?
B8. What was North Korea’s intent when they invaded South Korea?
B9. Who now controls South Korea?
B10. Was the containment policy effective in controlling the spread of communism in Korea?
The containment
policy evolved into the Eisenhower Doctrine under the presidency of
Dwight D. Eisenhower with minimal changes, the most significant being
the threat of the use of nuclear weapons. Truman and Eisenhower provided
military and economic aid to South Vietnam in its civil war against
communist North Vietnam. The U.S. did not supply American troops or use
the threat of nuclear weapons. When John F. Kennedy took office as
President of the U.S., South Vietnam was on verge of falling to North Vietnam.
He committed military personnel as advisors to support South Vietnam and
increased military and economic aid. He then sent American troops to fight the
spread of communism, specifically, North Vietnam. Following the assassination
of Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson escalated American involvement.
He sent more troops and aid. The Soviet Union and China also
increased their support of North Vietnam with military and economic aid but not
troops.
Questions:
C1. What did Eisenhower call his containment concept?
C2. What country supported South Vietnam?
C3. Did China support North Vietnam?
C4. Did the Soviet Union support North Vietnam?
C5. Which U.S. President first sent U.S. combat troops to Vietnam?
C6. Was South Vietnam communistic?
C7. Did North Vietnam want to spread communism to all of Vietnam?
C8. Did U.S. forces fight Soviet troops in Vietnam?
C9. Did U.S. forces fight Chinese troops in Vietnam?
C10. Did President Johnson end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War?
When President
Richard M. Nixon came to power in the U.S. he was aware of the
domestic conflicts concerning U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He originally
supported the containment concept as well as American troops being sent to
Vietnam. However, he tried to negotiate with North Vietnam offering U. S.
withdrawal from Vietnam in exchange for internationally supervised elections to
be held in South Vietnam. The north refused. Nixon then tried to bolster South
Vietnam’s ability to fight its own war with an enormous infusion of military,
economic, and technological aid. He then heavily bombed North Vietnam, bringing
the horrors of war to the citizenry of the north. In 1972, Nixon and his National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, negotiated
directly with the main supporters of North Vietnam, China and the Soviet Union. Nixon agreed to support the admission of
China to the United Nations and to begin an ongoing cultural and economic
relationship with them. In negotiations with the Soviet Union, Nixon agreed to
American grain sales to the Soviet Union and also agreed to a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. Nixon, in 1973, was then able to negotiate
a cease-fire agreement between North Vietnam and South Vietnam wherein the
north were allowed to keep control of large sections of South Vietnam, U.S.
troops would withdraw from Vietnam, and North Vietnam would release American
prisoners of war. Nixon promised the South Vietnamese government that the U.S.
would “respond with full force” if the north restarted its conquest of the
south. Within two years, in 1975, North Vietnam again attacked the south. The
American President, Gerald Ford, asked Congress to send more aid to South
Vietnam. Congress rejected his request. Four months later, all of Vietnam was
under the communistic control of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Questions:
D1. Were there domestic disputes in America
concerning U.S. involvement in Vietnam?
D2. Who did not want internationally supervised
elections in South Vietnam?
D3. Who heavily bombed North Vietnam?
D4. Who was Nixon’s National Security Adviser?
D5. Who supported North Vietnam during the
Vietnam War?
D6. Who supported China’s admission to the
U.N.?
D7. Who agreed to limit strategic arms with the
Soviet Union?
D8. Which President withdrew U.S. troops from
Vietnam in 1973?
D9. Who attacked South Vietnam in 1975?
D10. Who asked
Congress to again support South Vietnam in 1975?
D11. Did Congress
all U.S. involvement to escalate in 1975?
D12. In 1975, would
you say that the containment concept was in effect in Vietnam?
D13. Who won the
Vietnam War?
E. A Different
Type of Containment in Berlin, Germany
In August of 1961 during the Kennedy Administration, the Soviet Union leader, Nikita Khrushchev, built the Berlin Wall separating communist-controlled East Berlin, Germany from Allied-controlled West Berlin, Germany. The Berlin Wall was built in an effort to
keep people in East Berlin as well as those in Eastern Europe from escaping
communism. It was built to keep people from getting out as opposed to
preventing people from getting in. Not exactly the same containment policy
endorsed by American leadership! The Berlin Wall was the single largest symbol
of the Soviet Union’s Iron
Curtain, an invisible boundary
separating territory controlled directly or indirectly by the Soviet Union from
anti-communist territory.
Questions:
E1. What country built the Berlin Wall?
E2. Who was leader of the Soviet Union when the
Berlin Wall was built?
E3. Who President of America when the Berlin
Wall was built?
E4. What country controlled East Berlin when
the Berlin Wall was built?
E5. Who controlled West Berlin?
E6. Why was the Berlin Wall built?
E7. What did the Berlin Wall symbolize?
E8. What was the invisible boundary of Soviet-controlled
territory called?
American President Ronald Reagan
continued the crusade against communism
choosing to stress his willingness to adhere to all of the principles of the Eisenhower Doctrine. He increased defense spending, anti-missile
technology, and America’s ability to respond quickly anywhere in the world to
communist aggression or, for that matter, any foreign situation that posed a
threat to American interests. He firmly believed in the original premise that
if the Soviet Union were to try to keep up in the arms race and match U.S.
military might, it would crush its economic stability. When Mikhail S. Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union, he apparently agreed to this
conclusion as he encouraged a policy allowing political debate and criticism
within the Soviet Union. This policy is known as glasnost. He also
tried to jump-start the lagging Soviet economy with another policy of
encouraging individual enterprise and decentralizing Soviet administration.
This policy is known as perestroika. Reagan continued to apply pressure by
expanding and modernizing America’s nuclear capabilities. Meanwhile,
Gorbachev’s reforms spread rapidly throughout the Soviet bloc nations.
Countries under Soviet control were promised by Gorbachev that the Soviet Union
would honor their desires to break away from the Soviet Union. While George
Bush was President of the U.S., Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and East Germany quickly
adopted more democratic governments, abandoning communist ideology. In 1989,
the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, the Iron Curtain disappeared as the Cold War came to an end, and Soviet Union collapsed. The containment policy was
effective in playing a large role in bringing about these changes and of
severely minimizing the threat of Soviet-style communism to American democracy
and capitalism.
Questions:
F1. Which U.S. President adhered
to the principles of the Eisenhower Doctrine?
F2. Theoretically speaking, what
would happen if the Soviet Union continued to try to keep up with the
U.S. in the arms race?
F3. What is glasnost?
F4. What is perestroika?
F5. Who brought about these
reforms (glasnost & perestroika)?
F6. What countries broke away
from the Soviet Union when assured Soviet force would not interfere?
F7. Does the Berlin Wall still
keep Germany separated?
F8. What basic form of
government did those nations that broke away from the Soviet Union adopt?
F9. Does the Cold War, which started
at the end of World War II, still go on?
F10. What policy had an effect on the collapse of the Soviet Union?
F11. Is threat of Soviet-style communism against American democracy today
hindered dramatically?
F12. What year did the Berlin Wall come down?
F13. What year did the Soviet Union collapse?
F14. Who was the U.S. President when the Soviet Union collapsed?