Containment was the US strategic doctrine of the Cold War holding that communist expansion should be met with steady, patient counter-pressure at every point it threatens to expand, rather than confronted by rollback or accommodated through appeasement. First articulated by the diplomat George F. Kennan, it shaped US military deployments and alliance commitments (NATO, SEATO, bilateral basing) for the whole Cold War period. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin Year1947 marks George Kennan's 'X article' in Foreign Affairs, which named and publicly articulated the doctrine; Kennan had outlined the same thinking privately in his 1946 'Long Telegram' from Moscow. Disputed
Core ClaimCommunist expansion should be met with steady, patient counter-pressure at every point it threatens to expand, rather than confronted by rollback or accommodated by appeasement. 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Wikipedia: Truman Doctrine
Source Wikipedia: Containment
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Containment
Wikipedialead paragraph
Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II.
history/origins section
The use of the word "containment" originates from this so-called "X Article": "In these circumstances, it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies."
Origin (1944-1947) section, Kennan's later clarification
by containment he meant not the containment of Soviet Power "by military means of a military threat, but the political containment of a political threat."
Associated With: Vietnam War, Vietnam section
Johnson adhered closely to containment during the Vietnam War.
View the Source Wikipedia: Truman Doctrine
WikipediaAssociated With: Truman Doctrine, lead paragraphQuote, Associated With: Truman Doctrine, lead paragraph
a U.S. foreign policy that pledges American support for U.S.-aligned nations against alleged authoritarian threats
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Core Claim
Kennan said later that by containment he had meant the political containment of a political threat, not the containment of Soviet power by military means or the threat of one, and he admitted the X Article never specified where in the world containment was meant to apply or that the United States could sustain it everywhere. This challenges the plain reading of this entity's core-claim, which frames containment as the broad, globally applied military-diplomatic strategy later administrations actually practiced rather than the narrower political concept Kennan says he intended.
A dissenting reading, from George F. Kennan (the strategy's own originator, dissenting from the later militarized reading of his 1947 X Article)Wikipedia: Containment, Wikipedia
Frequently Asked Questions
Who first articulated the doctrine of containment?
The diplomat George F. Kennan, whose formulation shaped US strategy for the whole Cold War.
The American diplomat George F. Kennan first articulated containment as US Cold War strategy: meeting communist expansion with steady, patient counter-pressure at every point it threatens to expand, rather than confronting it with rollback or accommodating it through appeasement. The doctrine went on to shape US military deployments and alliance commitments, including NATO and SEATO, for the whole Cold War period.
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