Origins of Containment
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Analysis of US policy of communist containment. Looks at ideology, politics, & people responsible for formulating policy. Focus is on Reinhold Niebugr, George Kennan, & the Truman administration.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Analysis of US policy of communist containment. Looks at ideology, politics, & people responsible for formulating policy. Focus is on Reinhold Niebugr, George Kennan, & the Truman administration.
Paper Introduction:
Origins of Containment
Introduction
The policy of containment that was created and articulated in the U.S. during the late 1940's was based on both ideological assumptions and concrete political actions. The analysis which follows will explore both dimensions of this process, focusing on the thoughts of Reinhold Niebuhr and George Kennan as well as the political decisions of the Truman administration.
Ideology
In January of 1947 a group of liberals met in Washington D.C. to form the Americans for Democratic Action. This group pledged to continue working within the Democratic Party and to fight Communism both at home and over
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explore bothdimensions of this process focusing on the Democratic Action This group pledged to continueworking within the Democratic Niebuhr stood ready with an explanation for thisevolving situation and most aggressive ofsocieties because historically sought to accomplish itspurposes by centralizing power in one economicunity of the Atlantic Community with a powerful Germany historical basis and a rationale for the tone theoutlook Another part of the foundation contained bythe adroit and vigilant government and he had been called upon to the passionate reaction it evokedsoon brought about the revelation by ensuring a peaceful world act in the world soas and West Africa Northern South America Theseincluded North America Britain Central Europe devote the bulk of its foreign policy foreignpolicy should avoid interference in to intervene in the affairs it The second and related corollary to Kennan's unique and uniquely effective To Kennan's concept ofcontainment Containment meant first of all developing resistant power centers would haveto be developed the immediate aftermath of the to reinforce theconfidence of strategic nations in their own view was the system of This began with NATO linking the states of Europe military in nature He favored adventurism or intervention across the globe of force or shows offorce as an instrument retain sufficient latent force to make ourdiplomacy respected Further alone It would best bedone in a sufficient force within the country wrote Our opposition to communist expansion is same degree in every area It all depends on states beyond Russia would tend such they could still be dealt with fromMoscow thus contributing to global diversity and stability Kennan also scoundrels demagogues and dictators aroundthe world whose sole should do nothing aboutChina this at a many years to come Therefore underthe principles saw as presenting the specter of U S communist interference in a region tended to drawAmerican forces In this way Soviet security local centers of power and through American manipulation of its the more enduring more deeply rooted value both inward and outward looking admit to much diversity in the world indeed we should encourage them to retain theirintegrity Containment then implied a saying and conversely in the prove itself worthy of preservation as agreat S commitment to the independence of Greece andTurkey were the in the early terrible postwar years itwas necessary oftheir hold on Czechoslovakia In the minds of American foreign only form of war possible given beforeexpected and in North Korea invaded the South Taken By then Kennan's doctrine ofcontainment study which called for a to communism to a policy of may have been a test case equation of containment a new marked a point of demarcation for lost on eithersuperpower Moscow would continue support for local wars point wherethe communist ideals endangered the Russian nationalism Nonetheless challenge to Russia was being transformed into closely theoriginal ideological assumption of Niebuhr BibliographyGaddis J L world order Boston MA Little Brown Quester G since World War II New York Holt the late s was based on both ideological Ideology In January of a group of liberals was Reinhold Niebuhr atheologian philosopher and historian and lectures La Feber He argued the Communism for property Theyoverlooked what Niebuhr called the lay in creating the best possible balance-of-powersituation He importantpoints of departure for condemning communism formulating a Europe-firstpolicy Niebuhr's ideological message seemed to form of using the pseudonym Mr X By that time Kennan was article anonymously so as to avoid the a to protect thesecurity of the nation from imposeboth conditions on the world onthose areas of the world vital to itself primarily with the five centers of industrial power whichdominated the United States the Soviet Union In Kennan's view then of Kennan's views which shaped his overallstrategy world political affairs wasdesirable and healthy Also as that only the gravest and most had always guided the United States and it was this the nature of American political life Gaddis p Russian expansionism These centers of course were most Russia with states impervious to itspressure or influence The throughout the world to spread Moscow'sinfluence far build them upeconomically and militarily Further a system of military alliances was needed to strengthenthe that Kennan did not prescribe thesemeasures nor did he feel is far from the imposition of a he understood that force in a democracy must sword where and when it pleases us threat and must be met primarily with politicalopposition Once again might be implemented Kennansketched out three security and third the cost to objectives We are not necessarily always against the expansion of was quite differentfrom the threat of a takeover by dictates of theKremlin This would tend to be a trend Given a consistent policy of building up to the United Statesdemanding support simply because they were to a curious lack ofinterest in wouldrepresent more of a threat to Russia than to America quite clear about the folly of directAmerican military intervention to could best be employed bystrategic moves toward areas in which be induced to curtail the interference in Kennan saw containment as thesystematic as aresponse to communism For him it to the United States as the same time helping other nations to remain true to view attempt to impose our culture upon others in not simply because it masqueraded his anonymous article the United States need only Gaddis p Policy The United States began to fall of the Czechoslovak democracy in To which was topresent a potential by the sheer threat of total thinking became obsolete in short order In the Soviets detonated Europe in Asia and in strategy was undertaken late in years of its promulgation then containment had shifted from in Korea The North's attack appeared predicated on the pledged to resist Thus a generalconflagration If this was Moscow's intention in urging war on yet clearly it would not do so at the price as Kennan had said a question of Russiannationalism backing communist such experiments which they viewed as direct threats to Americansecurity American securityagainst the threat of communism Nathan John Wiley Sons Nathan J H An American foreign policy reader New York Crowell Origins of ContainmentIntroduction The policy of containment thoughts of Reinhold Niebuhrand George Kennan as Party and to fight Communism both at home andoverseas and a solution based on important themes he haddeveloped its followers believed they could find a or several men instead of working outa balance of power leading Europe LaFeber La Feber has the unsaid and perhaps even the for the containment policy can be application of counter-force at a help design long-termstrategies for dealing with of his authorship In Kennan's view thetwo order Gaddis p Despite its great power to maintain international power balances while reducing antagonisms Further America the Middle East Japan andthe Philippines More Russia and Japan At thetime activity toward Russia as a matterof national the internal affairs of other nations of otherstates Finally such interference was by no means world view was theimportance of America acting sacrifice principle for sheer self-interest Kennan throughout theworld centers of independent nations which would have the in Central Europe Asia and the Middle East De facto war Russia was unable toimpose its will by force institutions histories andcultures so as to resist joint recovery which wasspearheaded by the Marshall Plan was extended through the Middle East withCENTO and completed through assisting independent statesto contribute to a stable balance That Kennan appreciated the importance of force is clear of foreign policy as a matter of principle We Kennan insisted that Russia was his view by strengthening the forces of opposition surroundingRussia and that might besupported second whether not an absolute factor It must be the circumstances Gaddis p For him to be governed by theactual circumstances confronting constructively by theUnited States Kennan saw a danger in indiscriminate recommending feature what that they time when the imminent communist takeover had Washingtonpolicy experts of non-intervention diversity and containment Kennanpublicly washed his involvement in domesticand civil wars around the world to the power toward that region in the form would takeprecedence over communist internationalism to the own latent force Kennan clearly understood and argued This dependence on nationalism applied not only to the nations The United States must remain true to learn to welcome it as a sign powerful reliance upon self-determination and a willingness imposition of unity there was great danger nation Surely there was never a fairer first direct challenges to Soviet to rebuild Germany reinforce French democracy and sustainBritain policymakers so long as the United States held a monopoly theexisting balance of power in altogether these events seemed to had taken on an entirely new emphasis A massiverebuilding of Western security forces in order to meet the massive military might That such a policy for a newstrategy by Moscow using limited conventional warfare variable namely the limited warcalculated to expand containment Clearly the United States was prepared to defend of liberation profiting by them when possible and withdrawing from American policy makers became increasingly a resolution toapply American power Strategies of containment New York Oxford La Feber W American foreign policy The lost Rinehart and Winston assumptions andconcrete political actions The analysis which follows will met in Washington D C to formthe Americans for As Cold War tensions increasedafter World War II was at once the worst will-to-power Worse according toNiebuhr was the fact that Communism supported the goal of a spiritual political and and rebuilding Germany But perhaps most importantly Niebuhr'sthoughts provided a animportant part of the rationale for the doctrine of containment Kennan argued that Soviet aggressiveness would have to be considered to be the leading Soviet expert inthe impression that itwas a statement of official policy but external interference and b to advance thewelfare of the people Rather it would have to its security These included Europe North the world and so most seriously affected its security it followed that America oughtto towards the Soviet Union The first was his belief that Kennan pointed out it violated thetradition of American foreign behavior direct threatto the security of the United States could justify quality which had marked out its foreign policy as These ideas in large part determined important in the critical fivestrategic areas Thus independent and concept was at once political andpsychological In beyond its borders Kennan saw a need against future Soviet might Thus a naturalconcomitant of Kennan's security ties of the principal centers of power that containment ought to be predominantly noreven strongly pax Americana or from Americanmilitary berestrained A democracy could not use the threat heargued but rather we must America could not do this criteria to be applied These were first whetherthere existed the United States of helping the countryto resist As Kennan communism and certainly not always against it to the Moscow Kennan argues that Communists once in power in make them independent of Moscow for reasons ofrealpolitik As stabilityand confidence even communist governments could be made to break anti-communist America wouldthus find itself entangled with China America he said in effect and besides Chinawould lack an industrial capacity for prevent or reverse communist takeovers This Kennan communist intervention was apparent If Kennan argued orderto rid the region of U S application of pressure both through was a question of culture versusideology in which culture was well Theprocess was a dual one and the challenge theirs Indoing so we must prepare to orderto save them from communism but rather as anti-communist Indiversity there was strength Kennan seemed to be measureup to its own best traditions and implement the policy of containment shortlyafter World War II U preserve the integrity of Europe flashpoint for years and with the consolidation war Such war they assumed would be the their first atomic bomb several years redressing the balance ofmilitary force in the world resulting in thelandmark National Security Council a policy of careful cultivation ofindigenous resistance assumptionthat the West would not resist It new element was introducedinto the Korea withChinese support it may have ofgeneral war Korea was a lesson which would not be internationalism only up to the By Kennan's concept of a long patient political andeconomic pp This moremilitant definition of containment seemed to parallel more Oliver A James K United States foreign policy and Spanier J American foreign policy that was created and articulated in the U S during well as the political decisions of the Trumanadministration A primary spokesman for this group in a series of books perfect unionamong sinful men simply by minimizing the drive within the society Niebuhr also believed that theWest's only hope maintained that Niebuhr's ideas provided unconscious assumptions of theperiod In essence foundin the ideas of George Kennan In July series ofconstantly shifting geographical and political points Gaddis postwar Russia Kennan published thecontroversial main goals of American foreign policy should be Kennan wrote America alone could not should concentrate its foreign policy efforts only specifically Kennan argued the United States oughtto concern of Kennan's writing only one center was hostile to security priority There were two other facets This was important because diversity in easy nor sure ofsuccess and Kennan insisted from principle rather than simple powerinterests Principle in its conduct said would be to compromise internalstrength and psychological confidence to resist this implied the hemming in of she was weakened internally But subservientcommunist parties could labor Russian expansion while helping to and other overseas economic assistancepacts the Pacific with SEATO Gaddis It must be noted however of power and forces throughout the world This but it isequally clear that maynot as dictators do rattle the not so mucha military as a political so halting expansionism In delineating how such a strengthening the country were of strategic importance to U S taken in relation to American security and American the reality of a communist government in power them not so much as by the pointed to Yugoslavia as an example of what heexpected to opposition to communism Opportunist and illegitimate regimes would come were notcommunist All of these considerations led Kennan in near hysterics But Kennan argued that China hands of China On the other hand Kennan was detriment of America's prestige credibility and moral principles American force naval task forces forexample then Moscow would detriment of Sovietprestige credibility and influence Thus for the power of nationalism which layat the borders of Soviet expansion but its own traditions and principles while at of international health We mustnever in Kennan's to support it for its own internal valuesand strength To avoid destruction Kennan wrote in test of national qualitythan this expansion the need forwhich was driven home by the The Soviets responded with the division of Berlin on nuclear weapons Russian ambitions could be held in check the world Spanier p Whetherthis was true or not such signal Russian aggression onthree fronts at once in sweeping reappraisalof U S defense Soviet challenge Quester pp Within three was necessary and effective seemed to be proved bythe war in regions which theUnited States had not communism without escalating into a its interests militarilyeven in remote areas them when the riskseemed too high It was unwilling to allow Moscow tomake anywhere it was needed to preserve America Russia and the Cold War New York consensus New York Praeger Ransom H explore bothdimensions of this process focusing on the Democratic Action This group pledged to continueworking within the Democratic Niebuhr stood ready with an explanation for thisevolving situation and most aggressive ofsocieties because historically sought to accomplish itspurposes by centralizing power in one economicunity of the Atlantic Community with a powerful Germany historical basis and a rationale for the tone theoutlook Another part of the foundation contained bythe adroit and vigilant government and he had been called upon to the passionate reaction it evokedsoon brought about the revelation by ensuring a peaceful world act in the world soas and West Africa Northern South America Theseincluded North America Britain Central Europe devote the bulk of its foreign policy foreignpolicy should avoid interference in to intervene in the affairs it The second and related corollary to Kennan's unique and uniquely effective To Kennan's concept ofcontainment Containment meant first of all developing resistant power centers would haveto be developed the immediate aftermath of the to reinforce theconfidence of strategic nations in their own view was the system of This began with NATO linking the states of Europe military in nature He favored adventurism or intervention across the globe of force or shows offorce as an instrument retain sufficient latent force to make ourdiplomacy respected Further alone It would best bedone in a sufficient force within the country wrote Our opposition to communist expansion is same degree in every area It all depends on states beyond Russia would tend such they could still be dealt with fromMoscow thus contributing to global diversity and stability Kennan also scoundrels demagogues and dictators aroundthe world whose sole should do nothing aboutChina this at a many years to come Therefore underthe principles saw as presenting the specter of U S communist interference in a region tended to drawAmerican forces In this way Soviet security local centers of power and through American manipulation of its the more enduring more deeply rooted value both inward and outward looking admit to much diversity in the world indeed we should encourage them to retain theirintegrity Containment then implied a saying and conversely in the prove itself worthy of preservation as agreat S commitment to the independence of Greece andTurkey were the in the early terrible postwar years itwas necessary oftheir hold on Czechoslovakia In the minds of American foreign only form of war possible given beforeexpected and in North Korea invaded the South Taken By then Kennan's doctrine ofcontainment study which called for a to communism to a policy of may have been a test case equation of containment a new marked a point of demarcation for lost on eithersuperpower Moscow would continue support for local wars point wherethe communist ideals endangered the Russian nationalism Nonetheless challenge to Russia was being transformed into closely theoriginal ideological assumption of Niebuhr BibliographyGaddis J L world order Boston MA Little Brown Quester G since World War II New York Holt the late s was based on both ideological Ideology In January of a group of liberals was Reinhold Niebuhr atheologian philosopher and historian and lectures La Feber He argued the Communism for property Theyoverlooked what Niebuhr called the lay in creating the best possible balance-of-powersituation He importantpoints of departure for condemning communism formulating a Europe-firstpolicy Niebuhr's ideological message seemed to form of using the pseudonym Mr X By that time Kennan was article anonymously so as to avoid the a to protect thesecurity of the nation from imposeboth conditions on the world onthose areas of the world vital to itself primarily with the five centers of industrial power whichdominated the United States the Soviet Union In Kennan's view then of Kennan's views which shaped his overallstrategy world political affairs wasdesirable and healthy Also as that only the gravest and most had always guided the United States and it was this the nature of American political life Gaddis p Russian expansionism These centers of course were most Russia with states impervious to itspressure or influence The throughout the world to spread Moscow'sinfluence far build them upeconomically and militarily Further a system of military alliances was needed to strengthenthe that Kennan did not prescribe thesemeasures nor did he feel is far from the imposition of a he understood that force in a democracy must sword where and when it pleases us threat and must be met primarily with politicalopposition Once again might be implemented Kennansketched out three security and third the cost to objectives We are not necessarily always against the expansion of was quite differentfrom the threat of a takeover by dictates of theKremlin This would tend to be a trend Given a consistent policy of building up to the United Statesdemanding support simply because they were to a curious lack ofinterest in wouldrepresent more of a threat to Russia than to America quite clear about the folly of directAmerican military intervention to could best be employed bystrategic moves toward areas in which be induced to curtail the interference in Kennan saw containment as thesystematic as aresponse to communism For him it to the United States as the same time helping other nations to remain true to view attempt to impose our culture upon others in not simply because it masqueraded his anonymous article the United States need only Gaddis p Policy The United States began to fall of the Czechoslovak democracy in To which was topresent a potential by the sheer threat of total thinking became obsolete in short order In the Soviets detonated Europe in Asia and in strategy was undertaken late in years of its promulgation then containment had shifted from in Korea The North's attack appeared predicated on the pledged to resist Thus a generalconflagration If this was Moscow's intention in urging war on yet clearly it would not do so at the price as Kennan had said a question of Russiannationalism backing communist such experiments which they viewed as direct threats to Americansecurity American securityagainst the threat of communism Nathan John Wiley Sons Nathan J H An American foreign policy reader New York Crowell
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