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Cold War Containment Essay

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As soon as World War II ended, the world has entered the Cold War with the United States and the Soviet Union as its focus of the controversies over the postwar world. In contrast to Harry S. Truman, who desired the reconstruction of all European nations to stimulate the economy, Joseph Stalin sought to secure safety by creating “sphere of influence” in the nearby regions, including satellite nations. Although the tension grew between the Soviets and European resistances divided by the “iron curtain,” neither sides were ready nor willing to spark World War III. Therefore, the United States adopted the policy of containment and applied to the later efforts to contend with the Soviet Union in order to prevent the further extension of the red communism before they purify its origin. First of all, the United States didn’t contain the communists by surrounding them with the physical walls. Truman declared on March 12, 1947 to the Congress that “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” (The American Pageant, Pg.874). In other words, they aided the countries resisting …show more content…

In addition, they need to be cautious of those nations in chaos since they might turn to the Soviet in order to restore their devastated nations. Thus, in 1947, George Marshall proposed a plan that provides aid to all European nations in a nominal to go “against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos” (The Americans, Pg.606). This Marshall Plan not only strengthened the resistances in Europe, containing the red Soviets, but this also reconstructed the nations. As a result, by 1952, Western Europe flourished from $13 billion aid, and during the 1960s, it promoted the growth of the Common Market as Truman

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