What impact did the policy of containment have on the US during the Cold War?

The Cold War (1941–91) found two world superpowers with radically contrasting ideologies in a standoff: the USSR, with their stated goal of establishing an international and global communist state; and the United States, seeking to prevent that at all costs through their foreign policy, as highlighted in the 1947 Truman doctrine: “The free people of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms.” (Truman Doctrine, 1947, page 2). This containment policy was effective in preventing the spread of communism.

The Cold War was called so as it technically never heated up into a direct USSR — US war, however the US’s containment policy put these two powers at odds through a series of outside conflicts in a number of theaters internationally. These military bouts served to further the containment policies goal by preventing the spread of communism through direct military action.

The first of these actions the two sides were involved in took place directly after World War 1. The USSR cut off supplies to the western controlled West Berlin, causing the western nations to jointly organize an international airlift, highlighting the early formation of USSR-US backed blocks. These blocks would be paramount in the formation of close US allies with whom the US could aid and trust to support their foreign policy. Over the course of the airlift, 8,893 tons of necessities were delivered daily by the combined Air Forces of the western block, making it the greatest airlift of all time and proving the strength of the US and its allies (Donnelly, 1965, page. 19).

While this action was direct and military-driven, the first time US troops were seen on the ground due to the foreign policy was Korea in the 1950’s. Communist-backed North Korea invaded the South, allowing the US their direct battle on communism under the containment policy. After three years and 7,750 deployed US soldiers, a ceasefire was agreed on and the two sides remain divided by their political backing to this day (Rudolph, 2008, page. 103). The US containment policy was shown to be effective and successful over the course of this campaign.

Almost identical to the Korean conflict, The Vietnam struggle began as the communist influenced North threatening to engulf the South. The US foreign policy exploded, pouring in 2.7 million soldiers over the course of the engagement (Donnelly, 1965, page. 22). The sheer number of soldiers and magnitude of the US’s reaction are due to a relatively new concept; the domino effect. This is the belief that if one nation is allowed to fall to communism, other nations in that region will continue to topple like a chain of dominos. The only viable solution to this is to prevent the fall of the first few nations in order to prevent the fall of many. This war came as a spectacular failure both at home and away, the US unable to continue public support as well as taking heavy losses from the deadly vietcong (the militarized pro-communist citizens of Vietnam) (Cunningham, 2/20/18, N/A). This conflict is one of few majorly detrimental actions to the US’s foreign policy, however, other nations in the region failed to succumb to communism, showing the US did successfully complete the overall objective of preventing the dreaded “domino effect.”

Following this couplet of expensive direct military actions, a series of smaller, but no less threatening conflicts ensued, the most prominent of which was the nuclear buildup by the soviets in the nation of cuba, just an alarming 1,518 miles from US soil (Graebner, 1977, page. 127). Suddenly, US foreign policy is forced to deal with a direct threat to its nation. At this moment, total nuclear war seemed inevitable if the US was to survive against the communist forces. However, an agreement was reached to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for declared Cuban sovereignty as a nation and the removal of US nukes in Turkey (Halle, 1991, page. 93). This encounter was the closest the US and USSR came to direct military conflict over the course of the entire Cold War, and served to reinforce the necessity of a strong containment policy, as the American’s saw the soviets were hungry and very dangerous.

One of final notable military offenses was in direct reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The nation of Grenada, just 1,250 miles from US soil, had undergone a coup, placing a Marxist leader in control. As the one last great military act in accordance with US foreign policy, 60,000 marines were deployed to stabilize the nation as a new democratic and anti-communist government was put in place (Graebner, 1977, page. 118).

Throughout this series of auxiliary military conflicts with the USSR, the US foreign policy was shown to be undoubtedly effective as it contained the spread of communism to very few nations over the course of the Cold War.

While military action delivered repeated blows against the Soviet’s worldwide spread of communism, economic policies dictated by the US containment policy tied up, starved, and eventually collapsed the USSR and their international communist influence.

Directly preceding World War II, Europe found itself in a catastrophic economic hole. America — worried that Europe’s vulnerable economic climate would cause these nations to turn to communism — implemented the Marshall Plan. Officially called the European Recovery Program (ERP), it sought to provide financial support to struggling European nations to prevent their succrumberment to communism. Over the course of the Cold War, the US foreign policy directed over $140 Billion (adjusted for inflation) via the ERP to prop up weakened states (Fogarty, 2/20/18, N/A).. It was one of the most brilliant plans to come in support of US foreign policy, as it provided Europe money that stabilized its economy and thus prevented the spread of communism, while the very money the US provided circulated back to the US as Europeans bought goods from them.

While the Marshall plan was undeniably effective, acting as a strong preventative measure against European communism while continuing to increase America’s economic power in Europe, it was not a direct action against the USSR and allies. To directly target opposing nations, the US placed numerous and harsh embargos against the soviets and their allies through the National Security Decision Directive. This directive sought to choke the USSR of what little economic power they had while driving wedges between them and their allies by placing similar but lighter embargos on any nation tied to the Soviet Union. This included a number of Eastern European nations, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, and China (Donnelly, 1965, page. 45).

In hopes of strengthening the power of these embargos, the US strongly encouraged it’s allies to assess similar embargos on their enemies. This recommendation was supported by the Battle Act, a policy in which the US would refuse assistance to nations that did not embargo the USSR and their allies (Donnelly, 1965, page. 46). This policy not only acted to further alienate the communist world powers, but also was a huge factor in the eventual collapse of the USSR. The Western Block’s collective embargos on oil trade with the USSR destroyed the USSR’s largest source of national income and thus, starved it of its economic power.

While the aforementioned financial strategies were effective on large and established countries, in order to prevent developing nations from falling to communism, the US supplied massive amounts of foreign aid worldwide. A number of nations received this financial support, including Ethiopia, Somalia and the Horn of Africa, Iran, and the Philippians. The total amount of foreign aid given over the course of the Cold War is unclear, but is estimated to be around $25 Billion (Graebner, 1977, page. 160). This aid served in making allies with these infantile nations and exposing them to lucrative capitalism in the hopes they turn towards capitalism over communism. For the most part, this aid was beneficial in strengthening weak, developing economies, and served to prevent both Iran and the Philippians from ever completely succumbing to communism despite internal political movements towards it (Graebner, 1977, page. 163).

US foreign policy during the Cold War dictated far more powerful actions against communist forces than simply direct military deployment. Through uses of a number of powerful economic strategies and policies, the US was able to tie up, starve, and helped to orchestrate the eventual collapse of the USSR.

Actions both militarily and financially were extremely effective in containing the spread of communism as dictated by the Truman Doctrine, however the most distinguished aspect of the Cold War was the extensive political warfare. US agencies like the CIA were primarily responsible for extensive espionage as they attempted to contain the spread of communism by assassinating political figureheads, rigging elections, and planting relentless international espionage networks in the interest of supporting US foreign policy.

The US was responsible for a number of assassinations (up to 81) in their effort to prevent communist sympathizing leaders from coming to power. These included lower profile political malefactors attempting coups and Eastern-supported political movements in nations such as Guatemala, Iran, Greece, Turkey and The Democratic Republic of Congo (Donnelly, 1965, page. 94). By covertly eliminating the key instigator in alarming movements, the US was able to effectively contain rogue communist action without mass violence. In other nations, however, the US targeted established power figures in the hopes the same strategy would help prevent the need of continued violence with stronger nations. The most well known of these was the attempt on Fidel Castro’s life. While unsuccessful, it highlighted the ambition of the CIA and other US covert operation departments (Fogarty, 2/20/18, N/A).

As usual, the US explored indirect methods of containment in conjunction with their direct (assassination) actions. One of theses method utilized by the CIA was the repeated rigging of elections in the favor of both pro/anti government organization the US chose. This action is looked down upon, but it allowed the US to achieve their goal of containing communism without unnecessary casualties that would be guaranteed in a military action. While never directly confirmed, it is currently considered that the US had a heavy hand in rigging elections in the same nations that it conducted its number of assassinations: Guatemala, Iran, Greece, Turkey, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and nations of similar political unrest. A few political groups the US supported evolved into more alarming threats, one of the main being Al-Qaeda in Iraq as they used US support to acquire funds and weaponry (Halle, 1991, page. 142). Despite seemingly questionable actions, these political strategies, in conjunction with a generous foreign aid, allowed the US to win the favor of and support anti-communist movements and organizations worldwide, and thus advance the goal of the Truman doctrine.

The most prominent political aspect of the Cold War was both the US and USSR’s extensive spy networks. These spies worked on intelligence and counterintelligence with the goal of constantly remaining one step in front of their opposition. Throughout the war, the US worked relentlessly to gain intelligence on the USSR’s international movements as they attempted to spread communism. This intelligence, when recovered, allowed the US to more effectively contain communism as they knew what the Soviets were planning on doing, and were thus able to stop it (Fogarty, 2/20/18, N/A).

While the actions conducted by the CIA appear at times questionable, these tactics were necessary and often extremely successful in stopping the spread of communism worldwide.

“[The seeds of totalitarian regimes] reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive.” (Truman Doctrine, 1947, page 2) The US’s Cold War containment policy was undeniably effective in it’s stated goal of preventing the spread of communism to the world. By the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US had allowed few states internationally to succumb to communism while simultaneously orchestrating the collapse of the USSR. True to the dreams of President Harry S. Truman, the US foreign policy had prevented the seeds of totalitarian regimes from reaching their full growth as the US kept hope alive.

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