How successful was the containment policy? Explain your answer. [12]

Introduction:

The containment policy was first suggested by George Kennan. Its primary was to stop the spread of communism through political and economic means.


Main Body:

The containment policy had been quite successful in the initial stages. Politically, the Truman Doctrine was to provide funding, weapons and supplies to governments who were fighting against the communist threat. It successfully helped Greece and Turkey in resisting a communist takeover. As an economic strategy to counter the spread of Communism, the Marshall Plan was introduced as it was perceived that prolong poverty would result in more people believing in communism. Therefore, through the Marshall Plan, Europe would recover from the Second World War and become prosperous again. With prosperity, countries would reject communism. The Marshall Plan was a success as Western Europe regained its prosperity and Communism could not spread to that region. The formation of NATO was also part of the containment policy. Consisting mainly of countries in Western Europe, it provided a form of deterrence against any Soviet aggression to spread communism to Western Europe. This ensured Western Europe remained free of communism. Finally, the Berlin Airlift also demonstrated the success of the containment policy. It took a strong stand against communism and also ensure that Berlin would not be taken over by the communists.

However, the containment policy had its limitations. Firstly, it could only stop the spread of communism in Europe but not elsewhere. For example, the containment policy was not extended to places in Asia, which resulted in China and Vietnam becoming communist. Even in Korea, US involvement was under the UN banner and not really an extension of the Truman Doctrine, although South Korea was resisting a communist takeover. No assistance in the scope of the Marshall Plan was offered to any country outside Europe too. Secondly, the containment policy had no relevance to countries within the Soviet sphere of influence. When Hungary tried to break away from communist rule in 1956, the US did not provide any assistance to the Hungarians. Thus, there was no consistency in the application of the Truman Doctrine.