AN APPRAISAL OF THE US COLD WAR POLICY OF CONTAINMENT, 1947-1953

Abstract

The Containment Policy of the United States of America in the 1940s was one of the most crucial and strategic post-war policies ever employed or implemented by a Western superpower in the face of adversity, warfare and strife in the history of Western civilization. World War II was coming to a close and the Soviet Union was advancing its influence and political will in Europe and other parts of the globe. In order to quell such influence marching and advancing from the Soviet Communists, the United States government conceived a divisive and inconceivable policy at the behest of the country’s political and economic survival in order to maintain US hegemony and military monopoly in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This paper examines the role of the US Cold War Containment Policy in international politics during the 1940s and 1950s and the ways in which the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan influenced the policy in America’s dealings with the Soviet Union and China, her antagonizing rivals in the Cold War. This paper also analyzes the nature of the Truman Doctrine in the world of international affairs and the pivotal importance or significance the doctrine played in importing Western democracy and hegemony to Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.