Title: Was the US’s containment policy effective during the Cold War? | by August Frederico | Medium
Headings: Was the US’s containment policy effective during the Cold War?
Was the US’s containment policy effective during the Cold War?
Content: This encounter was the closest the US and USSR came to direct military conflict over the course of the entire Cold War, and served to reinforce the necessity of a strong containment policy, as the American’s saw the soviets were hungry and very dangerous. One of final notable military offenses was in direct reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The nation of Grenada, just 1,250 miles from US soil, had undergone a coup, placing a Marxist leader in control. As the one last great military act in accordance with US foreign policy, 60,000 marines were deployed to stabilize the nation as a new democratic and anti-communist government was put in place (Graebner, 1977, page. 118). Throughout this series of auxiliary military conflicts with the USSR, the US foreign policy was shown to be undoubtedly effective as it contained the spread of communism to very few nations over the course of the Cold War. While military action delivered repeated blows against the Soviet’s worldwide spread of communism, economic policies dictated by the US containment policy tied up, starved, and eventually collapsed the USSR and their international communist influence. Directly preceding World War II, Europe found itself in a catastrophic economic hole. America — worried that Europe’s vulnerable economic climate would cause these nations to turn to communism — implemented the Marshall Plan. Officially called the European Recovery Program (ERP), it sought to provide financial support to struggling European nations to prevent their succrumberment to communism.