Title: The History of Containment Policy
Headings: The History of Containment Policy
The History of Containment Policy
George Kennan and American Foreign Policy During the Cold War
Containment Policy
The Creation of NATO
Containment in the Cold War: Vietnam and Korea

Content: The message arrived in Washington, D.C., on February 22, 1946, and was circulated widely around the White House. Later, Kennan published the document as an article titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" — which became known as X Article because Kennan used the pseudonym "Mr. X."
The policy of containment was adopted by President Harry Truman as part of his Truman Doctrine in 1947, which redefined America's foreign policy as one that supports the "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures." This came at the height of the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949 when much of the world was waiting to see which direction Greece and Turkey would go, and the United States agreed to help both countries to avoid the possibility that the Soviet Union would lead them to communism. The Creation of NATO
Acting deliberately (and at times aggressively) to involve itself in the border states of the world and prevent them from turning communist, the United States spearheaded a movement that would eventually lead to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The group alliance represented a multi-national commitment to halting the spread of communism. In response, the Soviet Union signed an agreement called the Warsaw Pact with Poland, Hungary, Romania, East Germany, and several other nations. Containment in the Cold War: Vietnam and Korea
Containment remained central to American foreign policy throughout the Cold War, which saw rising tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1955, the United States entered what some historians consider a proxy war with the Soviet Union, by sending troops into Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese in their battle against the communist North Vietnamese. The United States' involvement in the war lasted until 1975, the year the North Vietnamese captured the city of Saigon.