Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Containment was the central concept defining US foreign policy in the cold war . First articulated by State Department official George F. Kennan in a 1947 Foreign Affairs article, containment committed the US to block expansion by the Soviet Union beyond those areas occupied by its troops in 1945. Containment began as a nonmilitary strategy for frustrating Communist political agitation and was exemplified by the M arshall P lan . To counter Communist guerrilla movements and offset the large Soviet military presence in eastern Europe, containment became explicitly military through the T ruman D octrine , B erlin A irlift , and E isenhower D octrine . US policymakers encouraged three major mutual defense treaties to restrain Soviet aggression: NATO, SEATO, and CENTO. After China became Communist in 1949, Asia replaced Europe as the focus of containment. The K orean W ar confirmed US fears of a Communist threat in Asia. The cynosure of containment then shifted to Indochina. Influenced by the domino theory , the US became deeply involved in assisting the South Vietnamese and Laotian governments to suppress Communist insurgencies based in North Vietnam. The V ietnam W ar – which failed to prevent Communist takeovers of South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia – discredited containment among a large body of the US public and resulted in the policy's severe modification in the N ixon ... log in or subscribe to read full text