Saturday, September 7, 2013
Containment: a good idea in theory?
When Truman first articulated the policy of containment, it was relatively popular, especially among American civilians. But we know based on the reading that it was extremely difficult to execute, and ultimately backfired in many cases. Why do you think Congress and the American public were willing to support an idea that we know in hindsight to be a failure?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i read the article, but im not exactly sure what the real plan was, so if we could go over that in class that would be great! but this was right after the red scare, right? so im assuming that after that the people were just so hyped up on fear that any drastic measure would have seemed fair and like a good idea. plus, how could they know with out the power of hindsight that it would be an utter failure?
ReplyDeleteSo I kind of understand how the containment policies were created to "contain" communism as much as possible so that it does not spread all over the world. However, I do not understand much more that that. Like Sydney, I would also appreciate an explanation of this all during class. So my answer to this blog post is going to be quite general here. I think that people were willing to support this idea because, in most cases, it is better to try something and have it fail than to do nothing at all. Perhaps this is the mindset that America had at the time. They knew they couldn't just wait around and have communism take over the world. They had to do something, even if what they planned to do only had a slim chance of success.
ReplyDeleteI think this idea was supported because maybe this made people feel a little more secure after the red scare. The text says that "The fight against communism influenced popular culture..."; this shows that the public was exposed to these ideas which effected their mindset, as Nicki mentioned. One thing that stood out to me was the ending of the reading when it says that America ignored the economic and social needs of Latin America, but expected support from those countries. I completely agree; this was a little selfish of the United States.
ReplyDeleteThe policy of containment essentially was to prevent the spread of communism to go world wide. I think Americans had the mind set of to not back down from an obstacle no matter how big or difficult it may look. Obviously there wasnt much they could do. This policy is to give a sense of just that. Even though it doesn't look to be in their favor are they going to just throw in the towel and let communism take over? Or are they going to do every bit in their power to stop it. In hind sight, yes obviously it results in failure but its better than doing nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteThe policy was intended to cage the possible spread of communism, and to give some people the peace of mind after the red scare. I think that both the US government and people were so willing to support the policy because it seemed like the right decision at the time. It is easy to see the flaws in something with the luxury of hindsight, but this was obviously not possible at the time so they made a call and stood with it.
ReplyDeleteThis was Americas time to prove her dominance. After the second world war, America was starting to be looked at as a possible threat to the "powers" of the world. To continue this "eye-brow" raising trend that was starting, America knew it was time to show everyone what they really had packing. America had the most powerful military and government stability, and she knew that communism only lead to violence and death. With finally enough courage after the second world war, America took out the big guns and let everyone knew who was in control. This was also comforting to citizens, knowing they had a government that was rock solid and willing to spread their beliefs and ways to other countries. This is Americas way of trying to promote peace, but we all know this is not the case.
ReplyDeleteCongress and the American people supported the containment acts of the Truman administration because they wanted to keep the communists at bay and stop the whole world from going into a communist like state. The American people saw these acts as ways to protect their freedoms that they had just fought for and to ensure that the America they lived in wouldn't become like the USSR. Congress saw these acts as ways to keep the American military and government in charge and act as the "boss" of the world. Coming out of WW II the "clear" winner, Congress and the Government wanted to keep that winning streak going and claim America as the big dog that no one was to question.
ReplyDeleteWell the textbook didn't really say specifically what policy of containment was, but it was probably about promising countries support as long as they wouldn't turn into communistic nations, because that what the US seemed to be doing to a lot of Latin American countries. Appearantly, only few of those promises were fulfilled and there were countrier that developed comunist government, so in this way the containment policy was a failure.
ReplyDeleteDuring this time period, "stablity, not democracy, became a goal in the fight against communism". The United States went through with the containment since they, unlike us, did not have the ability to "hindsight" as mentioned in the intro to this blog. Like others mentioned in their posts, I am not exactly sure what the containment entailed, but I know it basically was just a pressing act for a united approach to hemispheric defense against communism. The US seemed most concerned with potential communism in Latin America, which led to the Mutual Security Act of 1951. So to answer the question, I like relating this time period to Nazi Germany; the people were so desperate for help that they hailed Hitler, not knowing he was evil.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the ways that a new leader is able to pass any law or bill during a time of widespread public fear, the Containment Act passed without a hitch post Red Scare I believe. Communism was a huge fear of the American public and the government. They saw the Containment Act as a way of preserving their way of life.
ReplyDeletecontainment was one of those 'solve-everything' plans. it was meant to prevent the spread and development of communism. a political and economic system that seemed to be a direct threat to the american way of life. the loss of democratic china was perhaps the proverbial nail in coffin that truly committed the american people to preventing the spread of communism; and setting an ultimatum of extinguishing communism as whole. but perhaps the most debatable argument is that the true end goal of america involving the containment act was not infact containment but rather the (usually forced)spread of their own ideals.
ReplyDeleteAccording to last night's reading, my understanding of President Truman's CONTAINMENT is meant to be sheer communism combating military defensive and margining all economical and social aid.
ReplyDeleteThe way President Truman was rather appealing, ambitious and may be somehow misleading in a way because some finical provision policies were hard to execute considering the later on marginalization of technical and finical aid. I agree with niki that the only reason that President Truman was well supported just because there weren't much of a option and it is always better to do something rather sit and wait.