Containment essay

Intro

• - Postdam conference
• - Post war europe was poor
• - Satellite states
• - truman doctrine and marshal plan

P1: truman doctrine and marshall plan

• - Greece civil way and US send military supplies under the Truman doctrine
• - Stalin's response, told eastern europe not to accept any aid
• - US financially and militarily committed to containment
• - Committed to helping Germany recover under the marshall plan

P2: Berlin blockade 1

• - berlin had been divided into zones after ww2, US controlled west and USSR controlled east
• - Iron curtain speech, zero tolerance for communism
• - Deutschmark triggered crisis
• - Stalin instigated the blockade preventing US supplies to get to west berlin
• - Was a test for truman and his policy of containment

P3: Berlin blockade 2

• - US launched operation vittles
• - Stalin dropped the blockade after a year
• - success for containment
• - USA, canada, and western europe form NATO
• - Communist countries made the warsaw pact of 1955

P4: Korea under Truman

• - Truman under pressure from from mccarthyism and china falling to communism
• - after ww2 korea had been divided at the 38th parallel but soon the N invaded the S
• - the US boycotted the UN to condemn the invasion and sent troops to Korea
• - were successful at pushing back the commi's at first but pushed to close to the Chinese boarder
• - resulted in a stalemate
• - showed the US had a limit to their power

P5: Korea under Ike

• - Ike signs the peace treaty which he could do due to his background as a decorated soldier and truman could not
• - DMZ established along the 38th parallel
• - SK new ally for US
• - overall containment success

P6: Ike and decade of peace

• - He reduces military spending
• - concentrates on building the economy to improve how capitalism was viewed worldwide
• - Thaw in the cold war and death of Stalin
• - Supports France in Vietnam, but sends over no US troops
• - He stands up against the Military Industrial Complex
• - No knee jerk reaction to Cuba going communist in 1959

P7 (extra): Mccarthyism and the red scare

• - list of communists in the government (mccarthy)
• - house of un-American activities
• - red scare

P7: Kennedy and bay of pigs

• - Kennedy elected on his anti-communist campaign
• - He fails to remove Castro in the disastrous Bay of Pigs
• - attempts to assassinate Castro
• - Is ver inspirational and looks good "ich bin ein berliner"
• - Seemed, in theory, to be good at containment
• - BBay of Pigs prompted Castro to turn to USSR

P8:Kennedy and the Missile crisis

• - U2 spy plane spots missile bases
• - Kennedy addresses nation on TV
• - He is put under pressure by advisors to attack Cuba but choses to implement a navel blockade around Cuba to prevent any russian ships
• - after negotiation, USSR and USA missiles are moved to Turkey
• - minor achievement for containment

Conc

• - Truman = + M. plans and berlin blockade - Korea
• Ike = + Korea and peace - castro and mccarthy
• Kennedy = +cuban crisis - Bay of Pigs

OM argument

• All three presidents faced challenges in keeping communism contained, Ike was the most successful as his reputation in ww2 meant he could take a softer line on communism without appearing soft on communism. Truman lost china, started korea, but did good with the blockade and marshall plan. Ike did good all round. Kennedy responsible for bay of pigs and also somewhat for the crisis itself