Cold War Containment Analysis

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Containment is a military strategy to stop the expansion of an enemy. It was used in the Cold War as policy of the United States to prevent the spread of communism abroad. The Strategy got the United states into many conflicts (Korean war, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam war, and aiding Afghanistan rebels) and failed to do what it was supposed to stop communism. The consensus is that containment lead to the end of the soviet union and the eventual end of communism but in reality communism died a natural death. The policy of Containment lead to no significant halt in communism growth and just lead to unnecessary conflicts and new enemies. It is clear that American foreign policy of containment was a costly, ineffective, miserable failure during the Cold War. …show more content…
Despite the huge amount of economic support the U.S. gave to europe there is no convincing evidence that the Marshall Plan caused Europe’s growth. U.S. assistance never exceeded 5% of the GDP of the recipient nations. As American economist Tyler Cowen points out, “The assistance totals were minuscule compared to the growth that occurred in the 1950s.”
Moreover, receipt of aid did not track with economic recovery. France, Belgium, Germany and Italy began to grow before the onset of the Marshall Plan, while Austria and Greece expanded slowly until near the program’s end. Great Britain, the largest aid recipient, performed most poorly. The true cause of the economic recovery was the when the Nazi regulations lifted and sound money established.The Marshall Plan may have been a generous act, but that doesn’t mean it spurred Europe’s