To what extent was the USA successful in containing Communism in Europe 1947-49? The containment policy has been pursued since 1947 by the USA against the USSR and characterizes the break-up of the anti-Hitler coalition. The aim of this policy was to prevent or contain the spread of communism and Stalinism and to provide military support to countries threatened by Soviet influence. This marked the beginning of the Cold War. In 1945, the Second World War in Europe ended at the beginning of May with the surrender of the German armed force. The post-war period begins. In the West, the democratic Federal Republic of Germany is founded and in the East, the socialist German democratic republic is founded on the Soviet model. The post-war years were dominated by the allied victorious powers of Great Britain, the USA, France and the Soviet Union. Germany is divided into four occupation zones and Berlin into four sectors. At the Potsdam Conference in 1945, the allied occupying powers agreed on political and economic principles for a common German policy. These principles are demilitarization, denazification, decentralization, democratization and decartelization of the economy. In the period from 1947 to 1949 there were two phases. Between 1945 and 1947 the fronts were formulated. Between 1948 and 1953 the power blocs formed and the Cold War escalated. The causes of the Cold War included conflicting interests of the USA and the Soviet Union. Between the two victorious powers there were repeated clashes. The USA opposed the Soviet Union’s striving for expansion, which they perceived in this way, with its concept of containment. On 12 March 1947 Truman officially presented the containment strategy for the first time. He pointed out the danger that if the communist expansion was tolerated, not only the freedom of other states, but not least the USA itself would be threatened. Truman undertook to support all free peoples who resisted subjugation by armed minorities or external pressure. The reason for this‘Truman Doctrine’ was the situation in Greece and Turkey. These countries should be protected from the feared communist danger. The intellectual model for the Truman doctrine was the ‘Long Telegram’, which the American diplomat George F. Kennan had sent to Washington from the American embassy in Moscow in February 1946. Kennan’s radical conclusion that there could be no modus vivendi (way of living together, political arrangement) with the Soviet Union and communism due to the diametrically different political culture quickly prevailed in US government circles. The Marshall Plan proved to be an important component of the containment policy with the aim of strengthening the European countries and thus preventing a sudden takeover of Western Europe by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union refuses to participate. In order to implement the Marshall plan, a currency reform was necessary. Instead of the worthless Reichsmark, the Deutsch Mark was introduced (June 20, 1948). The Soviet Union reacts by blocking all land and water connections to West Berlin. The US military governor Lucius D. Clay hired an air lift to supply the 2.1 million people of West Berlin. Another Example is when the United States government sent troops into an Asian country during the Vietnam war to prevent the spread of communism. Their policy of containment, the prevention of the spread of communism, in this case, was a spectacular disaster. They have not only lost the war, but also any support and got negative global attention. In it’s practical sense Containment failed. Also the introduction of the North Atlantic Treaty on the 24th of April, 1949 is to be seen as a safety-political component of the Containment politics. With reference to the Truman doctrine the USA supported the royalists in the Greek civil war, South Korea during the war against the communist north and France during the Indo-China war. The Containment politics was carried out not only in connection with Europe. Specific economic aid of the USA was also performed to developing countries without reaching, nevertheless, the same economically positive effect like in Europe. the Containment failed Also in case of the republic China: the decisive outside politicians (George C. Marshall, George F. Kennan and Dean Acheson) as well as president Truman came to the conviction that the corrupt and anti-reform military dictatorship Chiang Kai-sheks was also not able to assert itself with American help any more against the communist civil war armies. Moreover,the example China and the US foreign affairs in the Latin America countries shows that the USA were ready for the containment of the „communist danger“ to support dictatorships. The Containment politics of the era Truman found her continuation (and radicalization) in the era Eisenhower and after this named Eisenhower doctrine. Besides, the rather defensive principle of the Containments was modified in favour of the more aggressive rolling forecastle politics. Containment did not appear at the beginning of the 1950s more than opportune means to the fight of the Stalinist-communist expansionist policy. However, really it came in the era Eisenhower to a sort of mixing draught between Containment and rolling forecastle. The ‘containment strategy’ was far too passive for its critics in the Republican Party. As late as 1947, the foreign politician John Forster Dulles presented the opposite model of the ‘liberation strategy’(rollback policy). While the Democrats’ containment policy waited until the Soviet Union decided to expand further - so the criticism was - the rollback policy (also called liberation policy) attacked communism in its own sphere of power. In concrete terms, they wanted to support opponents of the regime, encourage attempts to overthrow it and exert economic pressure. In fact, a ‘Political Planning Staff’ was set up in 1947 under Kennan’s leadership, which planned and coordinated attempts to overthrow communist states in the following years. Until 1953, ‘containment strategy’ and ‘liberation strategy’ grew together. Containment policy marked the beginning of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union. The USA thus broke all cooperation with the Soviet Union and pursued a worldwide containment of communism. As a result, the unstable states of Iran, Greece and Turkey received military support to prevent a communist government from seizing power. This is how the bipolar world came into being. Characteristic of this policy was the Korean War that broke out in 1950, in which the USA and the Soviet Union each supported their own parties. All in all, the USA felt comfortable with the policy of isolation and this was confirmed when they saw what they were doing, due to Marshall aid. The majority of the people did not go over to communism. However, there were not only advantages and successes in the USA’s policy of isolation. It came to a sudden appearance of communism in Asia. This came as a surprise, as it was at least expected spread of communism in Asia. The Korean War is a good example of the success and functioning of the containment policy. The containment policy was also introduced in Cuba, but it ended in failure. Two of the biggest failures in containment were China and later Vietnam. However, the Marshall Plan must be considered an overall success. But since there were no economic components in US foreign policy, the containment policy went downhill. Ultimately, communism can only be contained by economic policy. In conclusion, American policy of containment of communism and Soviet’s influence was not as successful as it was hoped to be. he Americans managed to contain the spread of Communism to a certain extent during the Korean War and to a limited extent during the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the reasons for the South Korean success was that the Korean terrain was familiar and there was tremendous support from the Korean people. On the other hand, the Vietnam War was a thorn in the side because American troops were not familiar with the Vietnamese rainforest terrains. Despite setbacks in other areas, the American policy of containment was successful at keeping the Soviet Union from conquering American allies in Western Europe and North-east Asia. Summed up I can say that the spread and influence of communism was definitely curtailed and democracy thrived in many parts of the world.