The Containment Policy -2-

I will examine the main differences between Containment Policy and Appeasement Policy. The second one is Containment and USA.

  In its broadest sense, the concept of Containment can be defined as the foreign policy strategy developed by America against Soviet Russia in the post-World War II period (Gaddis, 2005). This strategy is America's most effective method against Soviet Russia during the Cold War. The foundations of this effective strategy were laid by George Frost Kennan in 1947 (Soddu, 2012).

  Although Fredrik Logevall described this strategy as a vague method in most respects, he said that at some point it was a clear strategy. According to him, American and Soviet cooperation with Russia is impossible due to the dependence and dissatisfaction of the leaders of both states with power. The Containment Policy is also a strategy that clearly describes this impossibility. The prospect of a negotiation between the two sides is impossible without a regime or change of ideology on either side. Because the leaders of both states have considered their own power before the national interest (Logevall, 2004).

Henry Kissenger, on the other hand, explained the contention between America and the Soviets in a manner similar to Logevall and his definition of Containment policy. He made a definition of the Containment Policy as a metaphor: “Containment allowed no role for diplomacy until the climactic final scene in which the men in the white hats accepted the conversion of the men in the black hats.” (Kissinger, 1994a).

USA'S CONTAINMENT POLICY AGAINST USSR AND STALIN

  George F Kennan, who laid the foundations for Containment Policy, was a Soviet diplomat before becoming a key figure in strategizing America's foreign policy. By 1947, he had become the key figure in America's containment strategy, drawing the attention of George Marshall (Gaddis, 2005). In 1947, Kennan who had the opportunity to get to know and study Russia and other Soviet Countries closely during his time as a diplomat published an article called“Sources of Soviet Conduct” in Foreign Affairs magazine. But underneath the article is not Kennan's own name and signature. It was signed by Mr. X. Along with this anonymous article, Kennan also published the main arguments of the Containment Policy. The points in this article were actually the points that Kennan focused on in his message called “Long Telegram”, which he sent to the United States Department of State in 1946. A year after this message, he incorporated the containment strategy into American foreign policy in a more expanded form (Ozcan, 2019). Kennan's most important contribution to containment policy and foreign policy was his success in explaining the internal structure of the Soviets. According to him, the attitude towards democracies stemmed from the internal structure of the Soviet world and communism which was the form of government of the USSR. The Soviet Union wanted to adapt the international order to its internal structure and therefore had a very strict attitude towards the outside world. In order to oppose this attitude of the Soviets and Stalin, it was necessary to implement a rather harsh containment strategy at the moment when they tried to do the slightest damage to the peaceful environment in international relations (Kissinger, 1994b).

  As a result of this Containment Policy, on March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman announced a doctrine that would later be named after him. According to this doctrine, because Greece and Turkey are facing the threat of communism, President Truman mentioned $ 400 million in aid to them. Thus, America's foreign policy has been defined as helping free peoples who resist foreign pressures. The external pressure mentioned here was the danger of the Soviet Union and communism (Merrill, 2006). In this doctrine, they aimed to strengthen Greece and Turkey geopolitically and dissuade the Soviets from their aggressive policies. For example, about the communist guerrillas that the Greek state was dealing with, it sought to destroy these guerrillas (Evered, 2010)

On the other hand, this Containment Policy was implemented with the Marshall Plan in Europe. Along with this plan, the economic focus seen in the Truman Doctrine has been replaced by a more military dimension. The Marshall Plan which played an important role in the Western world's war against communism continued from 1948 to 1951 (The Marshall Plan Lessons Learned for the 21st Century: Lessons Learned for continued from 1948 to 1951, the 21st century, 2008). Established in 1949, NATO is one of the most concrete examples of Containment policy after The Truman Doctrine. First, this formation, which aims to gather the North Atlantic countries under one roof, has over time become part of the Middle East countries. Over time, it has become a basis for the military actions of the Containment Policy applied to the Soviet Union(Özcan, 2019).

  Containment Policy, especially with the establishment of the people's Republic of China in 1949 and the Korean War in 1950, went beyond a geographical limitation. Along with this policy aimed at the Far East, preventing the spread of the Soviets has become a goal not only for Central Europe but also for the entire world. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization and the Baghdad Pact emerged as a result of this policy. Along with these developments, the Domino Theory, which the United States uses as a basic principle in foreign policy, has also been shaped. In fact, this theory, which was founded on the containment policy, briefly says that if a country is lost, neighboring countries will also be lost like dominoes. This example was put forward through Vietnam, and it was explained that if Vietnam was lost, its neighbors would also be lost, resulting in each of them coming under Soviet protection (Soddu, 2012).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Evered, K. T. (2010). The Truman Doctrine in Greece and Turkey: America’s cold war fusion of development and security. The Arab World Geographer/Le Geographe du Monde Arabe, 13(1), 50-66. 

Gaddis, J. L. (2005). Strategies of containment: a critical appraisal of American national security policy during the Cold War: Oxford University Press.

Kissinger, H. (1994a). Diplomacy: Simon and Schuster.

Kissinger, H. (1994b). Reflections on Containment. Foreign Aff., 73, 113. 

Logevall, F. (2004). A Critique of Containment. Diplomatic History, 28(4), 473-499. 

Merrill, D. (2006). The Truman doctrine: Containing communism and modernity. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 36(1), 27-37. 

Özcan, G. (2019). Çevreleme Politikası. Güvenlik Yazıları. Retrieved from https://trguvenlikportali.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Cevreleme_GencerOzcan_v.1.pdf

Soddu, M. (2012). Truman Administration’s Containment Policy in Light of the French Return to Indochina. Foreign Policy Journal, 1-7.