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American History, Discussion, Pages: 1

American Foreign Policy during the Cold War

American Foreign Policy during the Cold War

How the Marshall Plan and the Containment Were Effective Policies in Thwarting International Communist Expansion

Marshall Plan

According to Tarnoff (2018), President Truman and then Secretary of State George Marshall proposed the Marshall Plan to facilitate economic recovery in Europe following the war. The U.S. administration was concerned that by 1946, European recovery had slowed down, and Europeans were on the verge of starvation and other severe socioeconomic challenges. As a result, communism was creeping in in some European states, such as Italy and France: American Foreign Policy during the Cold War.

Apart from advancing economic interests, the funds under the program were used to undercut communist leaders in favor of moderate and liberal leaders. Besides, the money was used to lobby European leaders to implement policies derailing the spread of communism in their respective countries.

One specific event that worried the U.S. was when the Soviet Union was granted the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Although there were fears that the Soviet Union would want to extend its control to the South, Stalin was not ready to face off with the U.S. Nonetheless, these developments highlighted the Soviet Union’s willingness to subvert local powers and spread communism. By providing financial aid to European countries through the Marshall Plan, the U.S. prevented a repeat of North Korea’s situation elsewhere.

The Containment Policy

The containment policy is an economic plan implemented by the U.S. to curb the Soviet Union’s global influence birthed in 1946. It followed the realization that the Soviet Union was committed to destroying countries it perceived as powerful rivals. The containment policy would subsequently influence the United States’ military and foreign policy decisions for thirty years. One of the notable outcomes of the policy was the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947, which led to the establishment of the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (Corbett et al., 2024).

The CIA would go ahead to undertake surveillance and espionage in foreign nations. For instance, the CIA would facilitate local rebel groups to topple regimes considered pro-communist. The fear, real or perceived that the U.S. would topple communist regimes discouraged leaders from aligning with the Soviet Union.

References

Corbett, P. S., Janssen, V., Lund, J. M., Pfannestiel, T., Waskiewicz, S., & Vickery, P. (2024). U.S. history. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction

Tarnoff, C. (2018). The Marshall Plan: Design, accomplishments, and significance Curt Tarnoff specialist in foreign affairs. Congressional Research Service. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R45079.pdf

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Question

Required Resources:
Read/review the following resources for this activity:

American Foreign Policy during the Cold War

American Foreign Policy during the Cold War

Initial Post Instructions
In preparation for the initial post, consider two (2) of the following American Foreign policies:

  • Marshall Plan
  • Berlin Airlift
  • Containment
  • Anti-Communist Freedom Fighters
  • Vietnam (conflict) War
  • Détente’
  • SALT I & SALT II
  • Camp David Accords
  • Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed “Star Wars”)

Then, in one (1) to two (2) paragraphs, address one (1) of the following:

  • Explain how each of your choices was an effective policy to thwart international communist expansion.
  • Based on your selections, analyze if the United States should have feared international communist subversion during the Cold War era (1945–1991).