Was America's Policy of Containment a Success?

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In 1946, Winston Churchill drew an Iron Curtain in Europe, a metaphor for the ideological and political divide between the Soviet sphere of influence and Western Europe. In the same year, the USA ended its isolationist policy for a policy of containment. The containment policy was adopted by America to prevent the spread of communism beyond the Iron Curtain. In short, the policy was aimed to contain the expansionist tendencies of the Soviet Union. A focus of the American foreign policy during the Cold War, the containment policy was largely a success. The containment policy was a political success due to the Truman Doctrine. US President Harry S. Truman decided that America must stop communism from spreading. In 1947 he announced the Truman Doctrine, which turned America into a "world policeman". America would aid any country threatened by communism. For example, the US provided economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey as their governments were fighting against communism in their own countries. Truman believed that weak states like these were highly susceptible to a communist takeover. The Truman Doctrine also provided the basis of the Domino Theory, which states that if the US does not stop the spread of communism, countries would fall under communism one after another, just like dominoes creating a toppling chain. Agreeing with Truman's sentiments, the American Congress voted $400 million dollars of aid to Greece and Turkey. It was a success and the two countries remain free of communism's grasp until this day. Thus the containment policy was a success politically because through the Truman Doctrine, the USA was able to contain the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union's communistic ideologies. Another way in which the containment policy was a success through the Marshall Plan, an economic strategy to counter the spread of communism, introduced
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