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Compare And Contrast Truman And Kennedy Containment

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live during a time when nuclear war was always a threat? That was the time during the Cold War. Around every corner lurked the threat of nuclear war, and it was scary. Many people feared what would happen to their country if nuclear tension got too high. Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy used the idea of containment, each in their own ways. They each had their own ideas on how to use containment, but they all used the same basis, trap and destroy communism. Eisenhower was in office when the idea of communism was fabricated, and he liked the idea. Truman liked the idea, but he also wanted to destroy it. Kennedy also agreed with the idea, but he favored the idea of Flexible response. Flexible …show more content…

Truman agreed with this, as Eisenhower did, but they each had their own ideas. Eisenhower wanted to trap it, and figure out how to deal with it, while Truman wanted to outright destroy it. Kennedy liked the idea as well, but he favored Flexible Response. Flexible Response was the idea of not resorting to the use of nuclear weapons. Kennedy used this idea, but he realized that he might not have a choice when it came down to it, so he still used the idea of containment.
Containment was created by George F. Keenan. At the time of its creation, Harry S. Truman was in office. That explains why he is so strongly associated with the idea of containment. Eisenhower agreed with the idea, and just changed it up to his liking. Kennedy came up with the idea of Flexible Response, and he made it to his liking, but he also kept the idea of containment, because he might not have any choice to use Flexible …show more content…

Harry S. Truman was in office when containment was created. He helped other countries by sending supplies and money to help their army and economy (Truman 13). Eisenhower used the U.S.’s military to help defend other countries from communism (Ayers 820). Kennedy sent the U.S.’s weapons to other countries to help them defend themselves from communism (Kennedy 9). Truman likes the idea of helping, but not directly, so he sent them supplies, so they could defend their countries themselves, just with our help (Truman 13). Eisenhower liked helping them directly by sending his military to countries in need, to defend them while they got their economy back on its feet (Ayers 820). Kennedy, like Truman, didn’t want to help them directly, so he sent weapons to defend them from communism, while they defended their country and economy. (Kennedy 9). Each president had their own ideas on how to help countries. Some were more direct than others. With each President’s idea, the countries gained the strength to defend themselves from communism with the help of the United States. We did not want countries to fall to communism, due to the Domino Theory, the idea that if one central country fell, many others around it would

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During World War 2, the United States and Soviets were allied as they had common enemies. In the war, the United States saw major differences in government and also the Soviet ambition to become the world power. These ambitions became clearer as the Soviets took control of East Europe after the war and made them communist states. The United States came up with the Containment policies to prevent the spread of communism. The ways that the United States uses to contain communism are through aid supplies, aid forces to fight, and negotiation.

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Foreign Policy: FDR vs. Truman Since the ending of the Second World War, much controversy has floated around through conversations in history as to whether or not the atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan. The global war lasted from the years 1939 to 1945, with many years of carried conflict and grudges held before and afterwards. The two Presidents most involved in this war were 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and 33rd President Harry S. Truman. Each of these leaders initiated and finished with significant actions during this war.

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Laurelle Cornelius Mr. Malinowski Modern American History May 5th, 2023 Cold War DBQ “How did the United States utilize the policy of containment during the Cold War?” When the Cold War began, Harry Truman, the current president, made it his duty to protect and aid the United States and its allies. A prominent proclamation of those duties was found in the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine was a document that discussed the United States and how we would handle the Cold War. There was a lot of focus on the idea of containment.

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During the period of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a conflicting era of confrontation. It created an environment of hostility, competition and security on both ends. It was a war on propaganda, economic, diplomatic haggling and intermittent military clashes. There was no actual warfare among the nations it was at a competition to see who's government ideology was the "strongest". The United States had many goals but one successful one was to prevent communism from spreading, so they took preventive measures to help prevent communism from spreading a lot more than it had been.

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The United States has established itself as a superior nation that is concerned with struggling minorities subjected to oppressive and tyrannical forms of government often associated with the death of individuality. Throughout the twentieth century, widespread fears of communism contributed to a prominent desire to protect weaker nations from this destructive form of leadership that could ultimately defer trade and spark national tensions. From this fear arose the controversial containment policy, which granted the United States the ability to intervene in foreign nations if it would potentially assuage communist revolutions. The underlying futility of these attempts was exposed as miscalculations of opposing power caused great monetary loss

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The Presidents of the Cold War What were Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy's ways of dealing with the Cold War? Both Truman and Eisenhower used the policy of containment when dealing with the Cold War. Kennedy used flexible response in the war instead of containment. Containment is to keep things under control (Ayers 819).

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World War II caused many tensions in the world, even in the allied nations. After the war, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were especially tense. The communistic ideals of the Soviet Union clashed with United States capitalism on many occasions. The Soviets wanted to expand their empire and economy to other areas of the world; the U.S. wanted the opposite. They were determined to keep communism where it is, which brings up the question: how did the U.S. contain communism?

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Truman’s Policy of “Containment” was made in March 1947.Truman’s Policy had economic, cultural, and political aspects. The Political aspect of his policy was the Truman Doctrine which said that the United States of America would support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside forces or pressures. The cultural aspect of this doctrine was the freedom and choice government versus totalitarian and no choice government, so pretty much, you never got to choose anything and you were forced to do the things that the Soviet Union wanted you to do. Then lastly the economic aspect of this doctrine was the Marshall Plan which said that it would prevent countries from falling to communists and it would aid the Americans. The Marshall Plan also gave $17 billion to 16 countries(not the soviet union).

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The Cold War was a time when The United States not only secured it’s place as an influencer of international affairs, but explored its new standing as a rival to other world leaders. Immediately following World War 2, The USSR and America’s relationship began to dissolve as fundamental differences in basic beliefs for government and military organization became clear, and without a common enemy to unite the two, tension and conflict would separate the superpowers for almost 45 years. The policy of containment, The Truman Doctrine, and NSC-68 would each play a pivotal role in the Unites States stretching its hand of democracy into foreign lands, and using military force against the regimes that began to stand in freedom’s way. Beginning in 1946, the Policy of Containment was proposed by George Kennan in a document now titled, The Long Telegram. He presented his hopes that the United States would attempt to keep communism and regimes within their current borders.

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The attack comes without warning and President Harry Truman, with the help of the United Nations, vows to defend democratic South Korea. The Containment Policy stated that the US would support any nation that are being oppressed by communism and cannot protect themselves from it. This became America’s major reason to intervene in the Korean War. However, the policy of containment came under attack due casualties and economic issues that the policy created. One of the major effects that over extended the powers of American foreign policy is that it gave the US a reason to interfere with any war they wanted as long as it involved communism.

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This tug of war between Roosevelt representing an interventionist minority and the isolationists in Congress resulted in little effective headway made in either direction until the United States was once again forced into a world war. In President Harry Truman’s speech, The Truman Doctrine, given on the twelfth of March, 1947 before a Joint Session of Congress, Truman voiced, “I believe 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.” After World War Two, the United States realized that a lack of involvement and aid for war torn countries allowed communism and totalitarianism to spread. The Soviet Union took control of many Eastern European countries, and this was called the Iron Curtain by Winston Churchill. Unlike in World War One and the beginning of World War Two, Truman had support from more well liked figures such as George F. Kennan and George C. Marshall. Kennan’s idea was based around providing economic and financial aid to struggling countries, and this heavily shaped the plan America would use.

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President Truman saw the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. The Cold War brought a new world foe: communism. When President Eisenhower came to office, he inherited the containment policy because communism was still a threat. President Truman dealt with communism through his endeavors to revitalize Europe but was invoked into war on the Asian front. President Eisenhower was the one to push for a conclusion to that war causing their policies to differ while seeking and obtaining the same goal of limiting communism throughout the world.

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With this being said, the president, John F. Kennedy, believed in containing communism (Source C) and

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Eisenhower put an emphasis on nuclear weapons, even though many army leaders disagreed (Funk & Wagnalls). “The cold war rhetoric sometimes grew hot, but for eight years Eisenhower kept the country at peace…” (Parshall). Dwight preferred to use the nuclear weapons as a strategy of massive retaliation opposed to a solution directly related to the situation. “Despite temporary thaws, the cold war with the Soviet Union continued throughout his presidency.”

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showed their policy of containment is at the Cuban Missile Crisis. At this event in time the U.S.S.R. had missiles in Cuba that threatened the U.S. In (DOC A) it tells the president that they need to take the U.S.S.R. with caution and distance. The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the times they had to take it with distance and precaution. (DOC D) shows a map of what happened at this dangerous event.

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