A walk through West Berlin: Containment of Communism
After WWII , The United States made great efforts to contain communism from spreading around the world. Containment was the idea that the Soviet Union and Soviet communism should not be allowed to spread.
A short passage, from a telegram that was secretly sent to U.S. State Department officials on February 22, 1946 from an American foreign service officer in Moscow makes it clear that Joseph Stalin and the Soviets believe communism is better than capitalism.
“In these circumstances it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long term, patient but vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” (Document A - “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”)
If the Soviet policy was expansion, then the US policy was containment.
The U.S. …show more content…
would support “free peoples” who were suffering threats from communists, like those in Greece and Turkey whose country's stability was threatened. “I believe that it must be policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed military minorities or by outside pressures." (P. Harry Truman, 1947)
This example of U.S. containment is known as the Truman Doctrine.
The Truman Doctrine was followed by the Marshall Plan which was designed to spark economic recovery. ‘restore the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.’ (Marshall Plan, 1948)
It channeled over 12 Billion dollars between 1948 and 1951 to aid the recovery of European democracies like France and West Germany. He was also responsible for the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) when his tactic persuasion brought the Western European powers together.
The concept of the Truman Doctrine was to supply the countries with resources to reduce their attraction to communist
After WWII , The United States made great efforts to contain communism from spreading around the world. Containment was the idea that the Soviet Union and Soviet communism should not be allowed to spread.
A short passage, from a telegram that was secretly sent to U.S. State Department officials on February 22, 1946 from an American foreign service officer in Moscow makes it clear that Joseph Stalin and the Soviets believe communism is better than capitalism.
“In these circumstances it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long term, patient but vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” (Document A - “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”)
If the Soviet policy was expansion, then the US policy was containment.
The U.S. …show more content…
would support “free peoples” who were suffering threats from communists, like those in Greece and Turkey whose country's stability was threatened. “I believe that it must be policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed military minorities or by outside pressures." (P. Harry Truman, 1947)
This example of U.S. containment is known as the Truman Doctrine.
The Truman Doctrine was followed by the Marshall Plan which was designed to spark economic recovery. ‘restore the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.’ (Marshall Plan, 1948)
It channeled over 12 Billion dollars between 1948 and 1951 to aid the recovery of European democracies like France and West Germany. He was also responsible for the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) when his tactic persuasion brought the Western European powers together.
The concept of the Truman Doctrine was to supply the countries with resources to reduce their attraction to communist