Sunday, December 8, 2013
Long Telegram
In light of our Cold War Research paper being due this week, I wanted to give an important Cold war event that may be valuable to your paper. The Cold war event that I feel had the most profound effect on US-Soviet relations was the Long Telegram. The Long telegram was an 8,000 word telegram form senior diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Moscow George Kennan talking about Soviet intentions and how the U.S> should deal with them. It gave the basis for the United States policy of containment. Containment was a huge source of tension in the Cold War, and the Cold war was solely a war of tensions. Containment caused the United States to engage in proxy wars with the Soviet Union, or wars where they supported opposite sides of a war in another country and fought each other through these countries. The oppositions caused much strain in the countries' relationships. It also conflicted with the Soviet goal of expansion, and the communist goal to have a one-world communist society. Also, the Telegram said war was inevitable with the Soviet Union, and the United states would eventually have to fight them. Coming from a someone with deep knowledge of current Soviet affairs, it is easy to see why this would cause unrest.
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Was the Long Telegram successful in spreading anti-communism/US containment?
ReplyDeleteI think that the Long Telegram was a crucial document in the war that showed the United States that there is lots of tension between the two countries that will ultimately lead to war. The United States needed this document to realize that they must contain Communism because it is a threat to the American's well being.
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely think that the long telegram helped the containment of communism because it let the US know of Russia's desired power, which was a serious threat to the US.
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