| The American foreign policy concept of containment evolved as a measured response to perceived expansionist Soviet policies in the aftermath of World War II. With the unveiling of the Truman Doctrine in March 1947, followed closely by the announcement of the Marshall Plan in June 1947, the policy of containment, which would serve as the foundation of a whole generation of American foreign policy decision makers from Presidents Truman through Johnson, was taking shape. Containment, which began as an initial strategy to check the outward spread of Soviet power by resisting expansion in Soviet peripheries, led the United States into a global effort to resist the spread of communism in every corner of the earth. The governmental decisions made during this period affected the United States and the world in every conceivable area, public and private, and left their mark on global international relations for the last half century. |
