Download Scoring Criteria Students should write an essay assessing the

Scoring Criteria
Students should write an essay assessing the effectiveness of the “adroit and vigilant
application of counter-force” used in the U.S. policy of containment in TWO of the
following
regions:
� Central Europe:
The first major crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union took place after
World War II in West Berlin, when the Soviets blockaded the city, cutting it off from its
Western allies. The United States flew in supplies with a massive airlift that saved the
city
from communist takeover.
The Truman Doctrine demonstrated containment as a foreign policy when the United
States pledged money and other forms of aid to Greece and Turkey to contain the
spread
of communism in Europe. At the same time, the United States, through the Marshall
Plan,
also committed billions of dollars in aid to European nations in an economic form of
containment. Both programs were considered successes.
U.S. efforts did not keep the Soviet Union from establishing communist governments in
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and East Berlin. European showdowns also led to the
establishment of the defense alliances, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and a nuclear
arms
race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
In 1956, Hungary attempted to break free of Soviet control, requesting outside help for
its
liberation efforts. The United States, fearing a world conflict with the Soviet Union, sent
no
direct military aid. The Soviets put down the revolt in Hungary through force.
In general, the foreign policy of containment in Central Europe was considered a
success
because it stopped the spread of communism into Western Europe and West Berlin.
� Southeast and East Asia:
The United States entered the Korean War in 1950 as part of a United Nations “police
action” to repel the invading communist North Koreans. The United States supplied the
vast
majority of troops and weaponry for the mission. The three-year war ended in a
stalemate,
with postwar boundaries very similar to those drawn before the war.
Adherence to the policy of containment and belief in the “falling domino principle,” which
said stopping the spread of communism in one Asian country would prevent its spread
to
other countries, led the United States into the Vietnam War. The United States sent
military
advisers and supplies to Indochina during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations
and engaged in full war during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The Vietnam
War
did not stop the spread of communism.
Containment did not prevent China from becoming communist in 1949. After President
Nixon visited China in 1972, the policy of containment in Southeast and East Asia was
effectively finished.
In general, containment in Southeast and East Asia was not as successful as in Central
Europe.
� Cuba:
Answer Key
1)
Communist leader Fidel Castro seized control of Cuba in 1959 and accepted Soviet
support. A CIA operation attempting to remove Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion in
1961 was a miserable failure for the United States.
In 1962, the United States discovered Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba.
President Kennedy, determined to have them removed, ordered a naval blockade, or
quarantine, of advancing Soviet ships carrying more missile supplies. After several days
of
near-nuclear war, the advancing Soviet ships turned back. The United States secretly
negotiated with the Soviet Union to not invade Cuba and to remove offensive missiles
from
Turkey if the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba.
Containment did not succeed in Cuba, but it did prevent the Soviets from placing
offensive
missiles close to the coast of the United States during the Cuban missile crisis.