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“Containing the Containers”

J. Mastracchio

(3/20/08)

Containment was the foreign policy strategy of the United States in regards to

Communism. The purpose was to stop nations from moving towards SovietCommunism. In 1947 President Harry S. Truman made a proclamation known as the

Truman Doctrine. In the proclamation Truman called upon the United States to "support

free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outsidepressures.” Essentially Truman wanted to protect countries that did not want to change

politically. Historians often mark the start of the Cold War with Truman’s remarks,

which may have been directed towards the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the

Soviet Union).The United States has fought many “Proxy-Wars” in the name of containment. In

the past, conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, Korea, Vietnam, and others were a direct

result of the United States policy of containing the “soviet menace.” During these wars

the United States often supported malevolent dictators, who opposed Soviet Communism,because they would fall from power. The United States has even backed coups in order 

to topple a country's democratically elected socialist President. Soviet Communism wasperceived as a threat to the American way of life.

In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States no longer had a need to

fight in proxy-wars. But the “threat” of communism exists even today; seen through the

US Trade Embargo placed on Communist Cuba. The embargo has little effect on theCommunist Government, which declared itself a socialist republic in 1961. Cuba doesn’t

seem like much of a threat anymore; without the Soviet Union, Cuba seems to be an

isolated Communist nation. Even still, the embargo remains in place because Cubans donot operate under the same system as the United States.

The United States currently has a policy of a “War on Terror,” whose goal seemsto be the spread of democracy. The goal being to give those “oppressed peoples” achance to live under American Democracy. The United States has shown through the

conflict in Iraq that it will spread democracy by using military force, overthrowing

current governments to change the politics of the country. The current United Statespolicy is to spread Democracy through the barrel of a gun; a policy that is in direct

conflict with the Truman Doctrine.

There are insurgents in Iraq who are resisting subjugation by outside pressures

(the United States). There are Iraqis who do not want to change, who do not wantAmerican Democracy shoved down their throats. It seems hypocritical for a self 

proclaimed Democratic nation to change the governments of other countries in the name

of Democracy.Democracy must be realized by the people, they must choose to rule themselves.

It is a right bourn from the blood of revolutionaries. The spread of Democracy should

not be motivated by Democratic nations, but by the people who desire something more.The United States has become no better than the Soviet Union, converting countries to

their way of life by force.

Freedom is a price that must be paid by those seeking it. Puppet governments and

conflicts to spread our way of life make us no better then the “communist menace.”

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