Containment.

As World War II was winding down, the alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States, brought together by a common foe, was deteriorating. Tensions between the two nations had existed since the Russian Revolution of 1917, and within a few years after World War II the two powers were engaged in a cold war. Following the war, the Truman administration made containment the cornerstone of all American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. The policy of containment was originally devised by George Kennan, chargé d'affaires at the American embassy in Moscow. He argued that the United States and the Soviet Union could not coexist because the Soviet Union was by its very nature expansionist. The goal of the United States, according to Kennan, should be to apply counterpressure against Soviet attempts to expand, thus containing the Soviet empire. Successful containment of the Soviet Union, according to the plan,...