What were the major foreign policy issues of the 1950s Justify your Essay

What were the major foreign policy issues of the 1950s Justify your response by addressing the significance of each. (Do not just list them) - Essay Example The Truman Doctrine was created by President Truman in 1947. Although this policy was created before the 1950’s, the substance of the Truman Doctrine helped create the Containment Policy. The Truman Doctrine basically â€Å"provided an ideological shield to permit U.S. aid to pro-capitalist, and presumably anti-communist, nations† (Bacevich, 2007: 8). This allowed for the U.S. to become partially involved in Vietnam in 1950, and then escalate to an outright war. The Marshall Plan was created in 1947. This policy was created before the 1950’s, but helped post-WWII countries rebuild their economies in an effort to stop communism from spreading farther into Western Europe. Billions of American dollars were spent on economic support to help countries return to their economy before the war. It also served to unify the Western European countries and the United States as allies. The Americans offered money from the Marshall Plan (knowing the Soviets would not accept), but as expected the Soviets refused. This refusal created the division in Western and Eastern Europe (Hook and Spanier, 2006: 59). The Iron Curtain fell in Europe, but Western Europe was economically stable through the Marshall Plan. The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan had common goals of stopping communism. These measures were the foundation for the Containment Policy. The Containment Policy was a policy of stopping communism at all cost. If this meant setting up a puppet government under U.S. influence, so be it. The main goal was to fight communism, not consider what was best for the local population. The U.S. could not imagine a world of peaceful coexistence with the Soviets. Communism was a threat to the foundation of democracy according to the U.S. government. The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan had stopped the flow of communism, but when China fell