Research paper: Prompt 3

For people doing prompt 3, here are some examples of containment that you can write about.

The Korean War: In the Korean War, the U.S. decided to intervene between the North and the South. President Truman decided to send troops in Korea as the importance of keeping Korea increased. The Americans did not want to lose another factor in the cold war and felt that if they did not enter this war, the domino effect would happen and lead to the domination of communism.

The Berlin Wall: After the Americans were successful in their Berlin Airlift plan, a few years later, the Berlin Wall was built. While the Soviets demanded that U.S., Britain and France withdraw their troops from West Berlin with a 6 month deadline, the U.S. refused as they did not want communism to spread to West Berlin. Kennedy believed that not only was it a threat to the west, it was a threat to worldwide. The Americans decided to stand their ground and let their troops stay and prepare for a fight. Instead, the Soviets decided to build a wall making the Americans feel relieved. Though they protested the wall, the Americans were able to contain communism without having the military fight.

Other strategy of containment can be seen in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam war. In the Vietnam War, containment was not successful but in the Cuban Missile crisis it was.

Prompt 3: The Korean war

When Soviet Union and America decided to divide Korea at the 38th parallel, the Soviets got the North while the Americans got the South. In the South, anti-communist leader Nyngman Rhee created the Republic of Korea and communist Kim II sung created the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the North.  The agreement of the division was fine until the two separate leaders in Korea wanted to rule all of Korea instead. This lead to a civil war and allowed the UN to step in. While Korea was being used by the superpowers, they both rather not have Korea reunified as they did not want Korea to become communist or non communist and lose an ally. However, the UN declared the Republic of Korea to be the government in Korea.  This soon led to an all out war. The Soviet supplied the North with military weapons and soon after, The North invaded the South.  This invasion was to be quick so the U.S. could not intervene and it would not lead to a greater war. Even though Korea was not in America’s defense perimeter, the U.S. decided to intervene. But why did the U.S. decide intervene when officials have implied that the South was not at their interest?  This time, the Americans went to help the South because they feared that the soviets were dominating. From the success in the atomic bomb to the loss in china, the Americans feared for the Domino effect. They believed that if Korea became communism, the communist would take over Asia and eventually Europe. So, the Americans decided that containment in Korea was necessary to stop communism from dominating. This containment was both successful and unsuccessful. It was unsuccessful in the way that it contained war. With the military confrontation it led to deaths which defied the idea of not wanting to go to war. However it was also successful as the Americans were able to contain the North from spreading.