Cold War -Containment

Introduction

The Cold War, which began after World War II and lasted until 1980 geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union on the ground in the ideological rivalry between capitalism and communism. The Cold War was concerned about the external and internal threats to American power, social stability and security, and, in particular, the abundance of materials, lifestyles, middle class, and cultural norms of masculinity. Guided by the fear of castration, feminization and homosexuality, the Americans with anxiety defined their nation and their way of life in a culturally associated with masculinity, including energy, diplomatic and military power, economic success, sexual and physical power, moral rectitude and patriotism (Epstein, 21-44). The term 'Containment' refers to the US policy toward the Soviet Union, c. 1947-1990. The premise of this ambitious strategy was that denying the Soviet Union opportunities to expand its political influence would force it to abandon territorial and ideological imperialism and address its own severe, internal contradictions. It utilized the combined armed forces of many nations in several alliances as a deterrent to the instrument of war, but also contributed to several episodes of actual warfare against Soviet proxies (Paul, 1980, 63).

Discussion

Origin of the Cold War

The origin of the cold war, remains the subject of contentious debate, with some revisionist historians place in 1919 the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. While this school is indentified cause of the Cold war and Soviet insecurity, most traditional scholars focus on the aggressive policy of Moscow after World War II foreign. Soviet repression in Poland Democratic elections in 1946, and Stalin's speech in February same year forecast global fight against the West were soon followed by the speech of Winston Churchill in March denouncing the “Iron Curtain” descending across Europe. Action followed the words as both sides pressed for advantage in a series of crisis (Richard, 1991, 96)

Containment

Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States existed before the end of World War II. The tensions, however, increased after the end of the war, and the allies became enemies. Winston Churchill called the border between Communist Europe and Democratic Europe the Iron Curtain (Richard, 2006, 191). The Containment was the doctrine developed in the early years of the Cold War to prevent the spread of Soviet communism, and its threat to the international capitalist economic order (Ian, 2008, 111).

In a famous letter, Mr. X (later revealed to be George Kennan), an American attaché in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, predicted in 1947 the beginning of the Cold War, “For ideology, as we have seen, taught [the Soviets] that the outside world was hostile and that it was their duty to overthrow the political forces beyond their borders.”

Once the Truman administration realized that the Soviet Union was also trying to spread its ideology and influence beyond its borders (or the borders of the communist bloc), it decided to launch a new policy that was called containment. This policy was part of a four-pillared policy. The first pillar was ...