26.2: The Policy of Containment

A. The Truman Doctrine 1.While FDR favored diplomacy and compromise, Truman was committed to a get- tough policy with the Soviets. 2.When civil war threatened the governments in Turkey and Greece, the United States warned of a communist coup and provided $400 million to defeat the rebels. 3.The Truman Doctrine committed the United States to a policy of trying to contain communism.

B. The Marshall Plan and the Berlin Crisis 1.The Marshall Plan provided $13 billion to rebuild Europe. 2.The plan had the long-term impact of revitalizing the European capitalist economy and driving a further wedge between the West and Soviet Union. 3.The gap widened when the western zones of Germany merged. 4.When the Soviets cut off land access to West Berlin, the United States airlifted supplies to the city.

Located deep within communist East Germany, West Berlin was suddenly cut off from the West when Josef Stalin blockaded all surface traffic in an attempt to take over the warn-torn city. Between June 1948 and May 1949, British and U.S. pilots made 272,000 flights, dropping food and fuel to civilians. The Berlin Airlift successfully foiled the blockade, and the Soviet Union reopened access on May 12, SOURCE:The Granger Collection,New York.

C. NATO and Atomic Diplomacy 1.The United States also created an alliance of anti- Soviet nations, NATO, and the Soviets responded with the Warsaw Pact. 2.The East/West split seemed permanent. 3.The American policy of containing communism rested on the ability to stop its expansion by military means. 4.After the Soviets developed nuclear weapons, both sides amassed lethal stockpiles. The U.S. and Soviets could not come up with a plan to control them. Within a few years both sides had a stockpile of hydrogen bombs.