Kennan’s Long Telegram during the Cold War.

Introduction

            The Containment policy was important as it stopped the expansion of the communism and solved many problems. Containment has defended many nations from communist pressure and autocratic rule.  The objectives on containment were to address the division that was brought by the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. The Containment policy was the cold war military and economic strategy developed by the U.S to stop the spread of communism, limit its power over other countries and promote peace. The Long Kenna’s Telegram developed the containment policy and the enabled the U.S to promote its values, raise its hegemony, promote democracy, defeat the military regimes and increase collaboration with other democratic institutions.

 Kennan, who was the American ambassador in Moscow was against the Communism leadership due to its destruction of the rival powers in the West. The Soviet Union was interested in expanding its power to the world and to prevent this, Kennan wrote aggressive speeches and used military and economic power to deal with the Soviets (Sempa, 1).  He wanted to form a ‘strong resistance' and advised the senior policymakers in the U.S to make a non-adversary relationship with the rivals.  The foreign policy of containment brought remarkable changes since after challenging the Soviet Union and putting the Western powers in action, there was a notion of cooperation (Sempa, 1).

 On March 5, 1959, a meeting was held to discuss the courses of actions that were to be implemented in addressing the Berlin crisis. The president was against the Germany Democratic Republic and urged the United Nations to take positive action to fight the crisis (Eisenhower, 1).  The Berlin crisis created enmity between the U.S and the Soviet Union and the conflict led to the creation of the Berlin Wall.  Although there were capitalism, communism, and economic differences prior to the creation of the Berlin wall, the tension and conflict intensified since the Berlin wall  Russians the power to drive away the western Allies (Eisenhower, 1). The Kennan's Long Telegram and the U.S foreign policy served a significant role as it prevented the third world war. Kennan advised the U.S and its allies to be patient and aid Western Europe in rebuilding its economies.

 Another factor that influenced the United State in enforcing the containment policy is the Cuban Missile Crisis.   Both the U.S and the Soviet Union were powerful countries with different views since the US was democratic whereas the Society Union was a communist.    The Soviet Union believed that U.S would destroy the world whereas the U.S believed that the Soviet Union would take over the world. Due to these differences, they brought the Cuban Missile Crisis which could bring negative consequences such as loss of life if no effective measures were taken (Allison, 619). This event forced the U.S to establish strategic terms to prevent the Soviet Union from causing virtual destruction.  The U.S was required to come up with a local superiority and for this case, President Kennedy selected an Executive the senior administration officials who were assigned the task of researching the possible dangers and the effective courses of action to reduce the U.S vulnerability to missiles in Cuba (Allison, 621).

 The third factor that influenced the U.S in enforcing the containment policy was the Vietnam War. The cold war did not only bring enmity between the U.S and the Soviet Union but the U.S experienced a divisive conflict with North Vietnam. The Vietnam War brought devastating effects since many of the Americans were killed and others were injured (Library of Congress, 1). However, America focused on building a lasting peace with the Soviet Union through peaceful negotiation. The U.S established the ‘containment policy' for the purpose of stopping communist governments in the Soviet domain. Soviet Union was a potential enmity to the U.S and the role of the containment policy was to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding its communism (Library of Congress, 1). Despite the significant role of the containment, the policy failed in Vietnam and for this reason, America finds it hard to maintain the balance of power in Asia.

 

 Conclusion

The containment policy during the cold war prevented the Soviet Union and the West from developing the third world war.  Kenann focused on developing a coherent strategy that would stop the expansion of communism and the major part of the strategy was aiding Europe in its economic recovery. The containment policy brought new ways of life since through providing economic and political power to many countries and building strong ties with the countries, the communism was diminished and freedom, peace, and justice were promoted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Library of Congress.   Experiencing War. 2011. Retrieved from: http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.03512/

 

 Allison T Graham. Conceptual; Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The American Political Science Review  1969. Retrieved from:  http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~lorenzo/Allison%20Conceptual%20Models.pdf

 

Eisenhower D. S. John.  MEMORANDUM OF CONFERENCE WITH THE PRESIDENT. March 5, 1959. Retrieved from:  https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/1959-03-05.pdf

 

Sempa P. Francis.  George Kennan’s Other Long Telegram-About the Far East. 2017.  The Diplomat. Retrieved from: https://thediplomat.com/2017/12/george-kennans-other-long-telegram-about-the-far-east/