Containment policies - Essay Example

? Containment policy According to Divine, Breen, Williams, Gross, and Brands, (23) define containment policy as an American foreign policy that was employed by Harry Truman’s administration in 1947. It was operating on the principle that the communist governments will in the long run disintegrate on condition that they are deterred from expanding their communist influence to other nations. The Divine et al. (28) outlined that it prevented the actions of Soviet Union of spreading of communism ideology and doctrines across Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. This policy was utilized to justify the US engagement in the Vietnamese war and Korean War. Containment policy was a component of cold war and was formulated by George Kennan after the Second World War between the years 1940 to 1950’s. The US viewed communism as threat as it controlled the private life and the thoughts of its citizen (145). However, the policy lost its influence in the year 1953 after the demise Stalin. Originally, the policy was applied in 1947 by Turkey and Greece after being promised of military support, technical assistance and economic support by the American government and other non-communist nations (156-161). An analysis of three examples of the containment policy in both Europe and Asia As cited by Divine et al. (176-189) amongst the three examples of containment policies in both Europe and Asia included: the Korean War, NATO formation, and mutually assured destruction. First, the rise of communism in the Asian continent is the last place the Soviet Union thought it would introduce communism. The Korean War is a manifestation of how the containment policy proved to be a success. After the withdrawal of the UN and USA troops from Korea, the North Koreans took advantage of the situation and invaded South Korea on June 1950. No sooner had the US received news regarding the invasion than the containment policy was put into play. The containment policy aim was to drive back North Korea back towards the north from South Korea. It is here that the containment policy was acknowledged to be successful and deterred the spread of communism from North Korea towards South Korea. There was a proposal to abolish the communism power in North Korea. Although the UN and American forces failed to stop communism, they indeed managed to contain it (216-232). Secondly, the military treaties such as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949 April by the U.S with a membership of twelve countries that decided to come together after the second world to assist each other in case one of them was attacked by their rivals. Among the members of NATO included: the US, France, Canada, Britain, Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Italy. However, the membership increased significantly since the year 2009 and after Soviet Union lost its popularity in promotion of Communism. The aim of NATO was to establish nuclear powers with an objective of creating some deterrence mechanism in order to defend western countries from the influence of communism spread by Soviet Union. However after the U.S had formed NATO Alliance, Soviet Union responded by forming Warsaw Pact. The formation of the two alliances between the U.S and Soviet Union established the basis of Cold War (233-246). Lastly, the containment policy was also applied to Southeast Asia: this region was considered to be very crucial to America and Truman did not want to return Indochina to France. Even though Ho Chi Minh was not viewed as one of the worst American enemies, Divine et al. (253) assert that Truman always considered his perceptions. He did not consider the option of excluding Vietnam and Indochina from the policy of containment policy; the main aim was that after the Communist victory in China in 1949, the US Government could not face the political damage of another loss to a communist power in Asia (308-321). Three examples of domestic consequences of the containment policy A view shared by Divine et al. (324-335) asserted that the three domestic effects of the policy of containment policies included: expansion of the governments, establishment of Iron Triangle and the current war on terror. The first consequence of expansion entails on effects by the government. There was formation of special government entities that were tasked with ensuring that they provided intelligence information in relation to those leaders in the US who were allies to the communist nations (347). Secondly, the war on terror was intensified, whereby the containment policy enabled formation of the government and agencies for instance, National security agency was which formed to deal with various world perceptions that were emanating from the world during cold war (348). Finally, the policies on containment policies led to the establishment of military industrial complex commonly known as iron triangles. The triangle comprised of pentagon, congress and business. Whereby, corporation between members of pentagon and congress was established. This relationship provided congress with necessary resource to purchase the required military tools/weapons (350-352). In addition, the establishment of the iron triangle enabled congress to become popular due to the numerous developments that were established. How Truman’s administration implemented containment policy in Europe and Asia in 1945-1952. Soon after the Republicans gained of the Congress in the 1946 elections, President Harry Truman made a dramatic speech that marked the commencement of the Cold War. He made a pledge to the Congress to appropriate $400 million to assist Turkish and Greek government to fight communist subversion (45-46). This pledge was later referred to as the Truman doctrine. The crisis in Greece and Turkey with left labels was aimed to implement the Truman doctrine and prevent the spread of communism through utilization of the United State military and economic support. The Truman doctrine cautioned that if Greece accepted communism ideologies a situation of lawlessness could have spread in the entire Middle East. The speech marked the adoption of the containment policy as an official U.S policy. Truman’s administration implemented containment policy in Europe and Asia by formulating both military and economic support to assist all those countries that did not support Soviet Union communist policies and ideologies. This was done in an effort to counter the spread of communism ideologies in Asia and Europe. He further asserted that the US would offer technical assistance to all nations that supported democracy. He further added that the U.S could utilize both internal and external forces to those who supported communist ideologies (54-59). President Truman and his establishment implemented containment policies for three main reasons: to preserve stability in the international arena; to maintain a balance of power; and to express disapproval of totalitarian, non-democratic regimes (43). Therefore, the US intervened in Vietnam in order to prevent democratic elections that would have seen the communist Ho Chi Minh elected by his people into leadership. Moreover, the ideology of containment was also applied to Southeast Asia when the US pushed back North Korea after they invaded South Korea in 1950, thus containing the spread of communism. Under the guidance of Dean Acheson Truman followed up his speech with a succession of measures to control Soviet influence in Europe, including the Marshall Plan, NATO, a military alliance between the American forces and Western European countries created in 1949. Works Cited Divine, Robert A., T.H. Breen, R. H. Williams, Ariel J. Gross, H.W. Brands. America: Past and Present. New Jersey: Pearson Education: Prentice Hall, 2012. Read More