US Foreign Policy during the Cold War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

US Foreign Policy during the Cold War - Essay Example The foreign policies followed during the Cold War have always been a subject of debate and many books have been written on them. One such book is the Ugly American, authored by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick and set in the 1950s. The book exposes the incompetence of those who shape foreign policy. The novel struck a chord in many Americans who felt that the US was not following the right kind of foreign policies and that the Soviet Union might just get an upper hand in the Cold War. Several foreign policies were formulated and launched during the Cold War. One such policy was the European Recovery Program, known as the Marshall Plan. This plan, the details of which were announced by George Marshall, was meant to restore prosperity and thereby help in the growth of the European Union. George Kennan was the chief architect of the "Containment" policy wherein he called for the "containment of Russian expansive tendencies". He also believed that the poor economy of a country put p ressure on that country to adopt communism. According to Kennan, politics and economics were directly related. Healthy economies would cause the death of communism.