“Explain Kennan’s idea of containment and the development of the Four Pillars of American foreign policy “;
Unit 3:1. Explain Kennan’s idea of containment and the development of the Four Pillars of American foreign policy – containment, deterrence, intervention, and creation of an economic liberal order, including a discussion of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. How do the Berlin Blockade, Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam War reflect America’s containment policy?
FINAL ESSAY
George Kennan was a historian and an American diplomat who was instrumental in designing and developing the main US foreign policy in the post WWII era. In 1933 he was involved with establishing the first US embassy in the Soviet Union in Moscow and he served as the charge d’affaires in the US embassy prior to WWII. As both a historian and a diplomat, Keenan developed a keen insight into what he thought was the mentality and motivation of the communist leadership of the Soviet Union. He is famous for his 8,000 word telegram, and his many writings and lectures thereafter, which provided the basis for understanding the Soviet leadership’s mindset, and the US policy towards the Soviet Union. George Keenan’s views and the policies and actions that resulted from those views came to create the history that Americans lived for more than two decades following WWII.
Historical Background
The Soviet Union came into being as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The revolution’s leaders were followers of the communist philosopher, Karl Marx, who envisioned a collision between the downtrodden working class on one side and the wealthy capitalists who owned or controlled the means of production and wealth on the other side. Marx believed that the defeat of capitalism was an inevitable part of history, and that workers revolutions would ultimately be victorious. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was the leader of the revolution, whose motto was “Workers of the World Unite!” They believed the communist struggle was a global struggle, and that the Soviet Union’s role in the world was to lead and encourage workers around the world to overthrow capitalist governments. The socialist and communist movements were not new to the twentieth century, but Russia was the first government to fall to a communist revolution.
While the Soviet Union was created from the Russian empire, it supported other socialist and communist movements around the world, creating an international organization for this purpose called the Communist International or Comintern. The aim of the Comintern was to achieve a communist victory and utopia around the world. Its early targets were the countries that had capitalist leaders and had developed rich ruling classes and impoverished working classes as a result of the industrial revolution. These included the nations, empires, monarchies, and even democracies of Western Europe (Great Britain, France, Germany, Norway, Netherland, Denmark, Japan, and even the US.
The Russian Revolution and its aftermath resulted in a bloody civil war. With the support of the extremely poor peasant and workers class in Russia, the communists overthrew the ruling Russian Imperial Romanov family, ultimately executing Czar Nicholas II and his family. In Europe, many ruling families were related, and Czar Alexander was related to the British royal family. Needless to say this created both fear and hatred between the Soviet Union and the traditional rulers of Europe. Prior to WWII, the rulers of Great Britain, and other capitalist nations considered the Soviet Union to be their ideological enemy and primary threat to their internal stability and order.
World War II
Despite the ideological differences between the Western capitalist democracies and communist Soviet Union, the greater threat of Nazi Germany and its powerful war machine created a “congruence of interests” between these ideological enemies. During WWII, Great Britain, Russia and the US looked past there difference and became allies dedicated to defeating Germany. At the same time that they fought Germany, they also each looked at the future from their own ideological perspective, with the communist – capitalist struggle continuing beneath the surface. At the conclusion of the war, much of the territory that was gained from defeating Germany and Japan was split between the two sides of the ideological divide. The division represented areas under Soviet or allied control when Germany and Japan surrendered and WWII ended.
George Keenan’s 8,000 Word Telegram
As Germany and Japan were being defeated, the post-war settlement was being influenced by the ideological struggle between capitalism and communism. With the threat from Germany and Japan gone, the shared interests disappeared. The Soviet Union, under their wartime hero leadership of the brutal Joseph Stalin, became the chief concern of western capitalist nations and democracies.
George Kennan was assigned to the US embassy in Moscow after WWII. He was one of a very view in the US government who had extensive experience and knowledge of post-revolution Russia/USSR and what made it tick. In 1946 he wrote the 8,000 word “Long Telegram,” that described his views of what communist Soviet Union was all about and how the US and western powers should deal with it. The many reasons why he thought this are contained in the actual text of the “Long Telegram” which is attached to the end of this essay (from US Archives). It contained five sections as follows:
(1) Basic features of post-war Soviet outlook.
(2) Background of this outlook
(3) Its (Soviet) projection in practical policy on official level.
(4) Its (Soviet) projection on unofficial level.
(5) Practical deductions from standpoint of US policy.
In the telegram, Kennan concluded that “the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” He recommended an aggressive policy of confronting and actively countering the Soviet Union, rather than a cooperative approach to relations with the Soviet Union. This became known as the policy of “Containment”, and was the framework for US foreign policy for more than two decades, and with the exception of a pause for détente under Presidents Nixon and Carter, it was the US policy towards the Soviet Union and its communist allies until the Cold War ended around 1989. Containment not only sought to counter against Soviet expansion, it also applied to combatting the spread of communist ideology and influence anywhere in the world. This included efforts by the Soviet Union, its communist competitor China, or any number of independent countries, such as North Korea, or proxies such as Cuba, Viet Nam, Iran, Greece, Angola, Latin America, and other places.
Containment was accompanied by a sophisticated and holistic strategy that became the “Four Pillars” of American foreign policy. The Four Pillars of this strategy included integrating and applying American ideological and political influence, military and (nuclear capability, willingness to employ US military power, and economic power and will. It took the form of:
Containment:
contain communist ideological and territorial expansion
Deterrence:
deter the Soviet Union from engaging in military expansionism through war/conflict. This was accomplished through creation of alliances at key regions in the world, and by ensuring that Soviet inspired conflict would pose too high a price to the Soviets or its proxies.
Intervention:
In cases where deterrence fails, intervene to halt or turn back Soviet communist aggression
Economic Power (Creation of an economic liberal order):
use American economic strength to financially support governments
These four forms of power were used alone and in different ways and combinations to confront and counter various Soviet threats around the world.
The Truman Doctrine
As soon as one year after the end of WWII, civil war in Greece and communist insurrection in Turkey, both backed by the Soviet Union, threatened the loss of friendly countries to communism. In March and July 1947, President Truman announced his policy to Congress to support any regime threatened by Soviet communism and to guarantee the freedom of peace loving and free peoples. This became known as the Truman Doctrine. In essence, it was Keenan’s recommendations translated into a national security policy and strategy.
In Greece and Turkey, the US did not intervene with direct military force. Instead, the US provided military and economic aid to both Greece and Turkey. Successful economic intervention was followed by the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defense alliance, which both Greece and Turkey joined, which was aimed at deterring
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan represented the ideological and economic pillars of containment. During WWII, much of Europe and Japan were in ruins. Keenan, Truman, and Truman’s Secretary of State, George Marshall, thought that poverty and hopelessness in Europe and Japan were potential breeding grounds for communism. It was decided to use US economic and financial strength to rebuild Europe, including Germany. This was seen as a way to show the world the strength of capitalism and move them politically and ideologically against communism. The Marshall Plan was officially called the European Recovery Program. The US provided over $12 billion US taxpayer dollars to rebuild Western Europe. Meanwhile, Eastern Europe, under communism, fell far behind and highlighted the relative economic advantages of capitalism over communism.
Berlin Blockade & Airlift
At the end of WWII, the German capital Berlin was occupied by the Soviet Union, British, French, and US, each of which controlled its own sector. Berlin soon became the center of the Cold War in Europe, and in 1948, the Soviet Union cut off all access to the British, French and American sectors in Berlin. This was an attempt by the Soviet Union to use military force to exert control over East Germany and Berlin. The US responded with a military airlift of food and supplies to Berlin that lasted more than a year. This demonstration of the military and economic pillars of containment showed the US commitment to support free people against totalitarianism and Soviet aggression. In the end, the US succeeded in forcing the Soviet Union to stand down from the blockade and made a positive ideological statement to people around the world.
Korean War
Just before the end of end of WWII, the Soviet Union entered the WWII against Japan. At the end of the war, the Korean peninsula was divided by the Soviets into communist North Korea supported by the Soviet Union, and South Korea, supported by the US. In June 1950, North Korean forces under the leadership of Soviet supported communist Kim Il Sung, attacked and invaded South Korea.
The US response was to call upon the United Nations to declare North Korea the aggressor and to authorize an international military force, led by the US, to confront North Korea. This was the first time since WWII that US citizens were called into service to intervene in a war or conflict. The Korean War went on for three years. In the end, Soviet (and Chinese) backed communist aggression was halted, as the military intervention pillar was used to confront and counter communism. The cost to the US was almost 37,000 American soldiers were killed in the war. Keenan’s pillar of containment through military intervention now had a direct impact on American lives and history.
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Revolution of 1959 resulted in its leader, Fidel Castro, embracing the Soviet Union and communist ideology. In October 1962, US intelligence learned that Castro had allowed the Soviet Union to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, only 100 miles from the US. President Kennedy responded with military force and intervention in the form of a naval blockade of Cuba. While no American forces were engaged in combat against Cuba, US policy makers drew a line and forced the Soviet Union to remove its missiles from Cuba. Containment was accomplished through military and diplomatic force. Rollback was never accomplished.
Vietnam War
Following the fall and the withdrawal of French forces from Indochina, the US slowly replaced them to confront, and later fight a major war against what was thought to be a Soviet supported communist insurgency in Viet Nam. In 1961, the US signed a signed a military and economic aid treaty with the government that represented South Viet Nam. Once again, containment of the Soviet communist influence took the form of military intervention. In the case of US determination to confront communism, was based on the idea that if Viet Nam fell to the communists, other Southeast Asian countries would soon follow, in what was known as the Domino theory. The US commitment to this conflict lasted until 1975, when the US finally withdrew from Vietnam in defeat. Did military intervention work to contain the Soviet Union in Viet Nam? More than 58,000 Americans had lost their lives in Viet Nam when the war ended in 1975.
The perspective of Lee Kuan Yew's (founder of Singapore) reflects not the individual loss of life, but the broader strategic goal. “I think we have been fortunate here in Southeast Asia, first because the Americans decided to enter Vietnam and stopped the region from going communist. Otherwise, if the Americans had left Vietnam, I think the region would have gone communist. I think that was the benefit we got out of the price the Americans paid, that also brought about the industrialization of Southeast Asia.''
Conclusion
Keenan had an insightful understanding of the Soviet Union that was adopted by US foreign policy leaders during the Cold War. It became the basis for the activist post-WWII relationship that sought a number of different methods to confront and counter Soviet supported communist governments, movement, and insurgencies. Countering Soviet supported communism became the chief foreign policy agenda of almost 45 years of American leaders. Consequently, countering Soviet supported communism became the chief preoccupation of the American people for the same period of time.
Works Cited
"George Kennan's "Long Telegram"" George Kennan's "Long Telegram" N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.