containment

US policy (adopted from the late 1940s) designed to prevent the spread of communism from the USSR. It was first stated by George Kennan, then director of the State Department's policy planning staff, in July 1947. The policy evolved from the Truman Doctrine (March 1947), under which the US government justified sending military support to the Greek and Turkish governments against communist rebels.

After World War II, US relations with the USSR began to deteriorate. The perceived threat of Soviet expansion fuelled anti-communist fervour that affected both domestic and foreign policy. The Truman Doctrine was the first incidence of containment policy in action. Other examples include the Marshall Plan (1948), under which the USA gave economic aid to (non-communist) European countries (in part to support their governments and economies against the spread of communist ideology), and the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 to defend Western Europe and the USA against the USSR. Containment impacted US foreign policy until the end of the Cold War in 1989.

Kennan defined the policy in an anonymous article in the July 1947 issue of the influential journal Foreign Affairs. He wrote: ‘It is clear that the main element of any United States policy towards the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.’