Compare And Contrast Truman And Kennedy Containment

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

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

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