George Keenan's Philosophy Of Containment

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George Keenan formed the philosophy of containment based upon the want to stop the spread of Communism. He believed that if Communism could be isolated from other countries and not be spread, then it would die off on its own. The Containment Policy involves military and financial support to democratic nations rebuilding from war, those who live in Communist countries but do not want to be Communist, and the developing nations, which blame European Imperialism and American capitalism for their country’s poor state of being. The first way it was implemented was through the Truman Doctrine, which gave the U.S. the ability to aid countries in Europe on the brink of being taken over by a Communist government. This Doctrine came about due to the U.S.S.R’s demand for control over the Dardanelles’ …show more content…

The Marshall Plan, which offered economic support to any European countries, including those under Soviet control, to rebuild their economies. This plan made communism seem less appealing to the countries who accepted it. This implies that it most likely convinced the majority of the population of these countries that democracy was stronger as they were able to rebuild unlike the Eastern countries, who did not accept the Marshall Plan and did not recover as rapidly. When Britain, France, and the U.S., combined their zones as well as their areas in Berlin to form West Germany, the Soviet Union were angered because they believed that this would hurt their chances for war reparations and blockaded West Germany’s part of Berlin, which was in the U.S.S.R. zone. The only way West Germany could get supplies to their section of Berlin was by plane and they did this for a year before Stalin stopped the ban of West Germany’s supplies. This event proved that the U.S. would not back down against Russia. In addition, it displayed that the U.S. was determined to contain Communism and the U.S.S.R.’s

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