Reference no: EM133490802

Question

George Kennan was an American diplomat stationed at the United States Embassy in the Soviet Union, during the post-World War II era. In 1946, he wrote an analysis of the post-war Soviet Union. In 1947, this analysis, in the form of an article, was anonymously published in an American journal, Foreign Affairs. The article presented the idea that communism must be contained to prevent it's spread to other nations. This concept ultimately became the foundation for U.S. foreign policy for the next 40 years until the fall of communism. In the aftermath of WWII, the Cold War began. This was not a war in the same sense as the world wars, instead, it was a "battle" over ideologies (democracy versus communism). Each side believed their idea was the best and strove to remake the rest of the world in their image. Ultimately, this would lead to U.S. involvement in two "civil wars" in both Korea and Vietnam. They could be considered "civil wars" because each nation was divided over the ideologies espoused by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R (Russia). Read the following documents: "Sources of Soviet Conduct" (1947) (Links to an external site.). Truman Doctrine (1947).