1. Containment Policy
• Truman’s #1 Goal – Stop
Communism
• Authored by George Kennan
• Fundamentally changes US
Foreign Policy forever
• Learned our lesson from WWII
▫ Appeasement @ Munich
▫ Soviets want to expand, we need
to push them back!
3. Truman Doctrine
• Announced March 12, 1947
• “It must be the policy of the
United States to support free
peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or from
conquest by outside
pressures.”
4. Marshall Plan
• European Recovery Act
• April 3, 1948
• Aid package to prevent the
countries of Western Europe
from turning to communism
• $12 Billion to France & Italy
to stay strong and free
• $400 million to Greece &
Turkey
5. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• July 12, 1949
• 9 Western European nations, US,
Canada
• 1st time in US history where we
joined into a “defensive alliance”
• “If any one country is attacked it
is regarded as an attack on all.”
• Supreme Commander-Dwight
Eisenhower
6. National Security Act (1947)
• July 26, 1947
• Created the Department of
Defense
▫ All Military Forces under 1
Command
▫ Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
• Created Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA)
• Created the National Security
Council (NSC)
▫ Ensure coordination between
branches of military and White
House
