Philosophy of Containment

Time magazine recently published an essay entitled "Let Your Enemies Crumble" by Peter Beinart. In it he discusses an extremely important lesson of the Cold War that the U.S. forgot or ignored when it came to Iraq. I found the article interesting because I did wonder why this important lesson hadn't been discussed as an option, instead of war. I felt vindicated because the article made a case for a foreign policy I believed was superior to Bush's choice of 'preemptive war', which Beinart said he had initially supported but now acknowledges was a failure.

The gist of Beinart's essay is about the policy of 'containment' America devised to deal with the ideological expansion and military build-up of its arch enemy, the Soviet Union (USSR). This foreign policy was adopted during the Truman administration, following WWII. The idea behind it was that instead of going to war with the USSR, as many wanted, to prevent it from becoming a political and economic threat to the U.S., the USSR would be 'contained' through a number of measures that would limit and thwart its expansion. The idea was that the U.S. would patiently wait out the USSR until it could no longer compete with the U.S. The belief was that eventually the USSR would collapse and crumble of its own accord because its system was inferior and corrupt. In those days, thought, as was with the Iraqi war, it was conservatives who pushed for war. Fortunately, it was liberals who prevailed with their policy of containment, which in the end did the trick. Beinart wondered why liberals didn't evoked this example when it came to Iraq.

One reason America adopted the policy of containment when it did was that America was in no mood to get into another war soon after finishing one. Also, there was fear that a war with the USSR might trigger a third, even more dangerous world war. Under the circumstances, the policy of containment was a prudent choice. Because it didn't start another war, instead, America was free to employ its energies to build and reinforce its democratic institutions, which helped contain the USSR. America's efforts to reinforce democracy at home and abroad succeeded, by way of comparison, in exposing and portraying the USSR's system of governance for what it was, fraudulent and a bad alternative.

This is Wikipedia's definition: "Containment refers to the foreign policy strategy of the United States in the early years of the Cold War in which it attempted to stop what it called the Domino Effect of nations moving politically towards Soviet Union-based Communism, rather than European-American-based Capitalism."

As Wikipedia added, the strategy and policy of containment became a tactic. The tactic was one of military and economics. Militarily, the idea was to continually keep one step ahead of the Soviet Union through advancements in military technology. That technological advancement could only be achieved if the U.S. invested heavily in science and education, which it did and could. Having a military advantage also acted as a deterrent, which was an intended consequence of containment. Another tactic the U.S. had, which it naturally has at its disposal, was capitalism and the free-market. This was a huge advantage the U.S. had over the Soviet Union - which prohibited free-market enterprise - because the competition generated by capitalism and the free market continually developed and produced the best possible military equipment. This tactic came to a climax under President Reagan, whose huge increases in military spending was virtually the straw that broke the back of the USSR, causing it to crumble. The Soviet Union could not keep up or compete with the U.S.'s industrial-military complex, scientifically or financially. This is a classic example of how the U.S containing the USSR.

The main idea behind containment is that an adversary can be kept at bay and eventually defeated through the superiority of ideas rather than through the use of military power. The practitioners of democracy knew they had a superior product to communism because democracy catered to human nature and its predisposition, unlike communism which tried to subvert and alter it. The pioneers of containment were convinced that the best way to combat the expansion of communism was to promote and cultivate democracy in as many places as possible so as to not only stand-up to communism but to show the world its exceptionalism in comparison. After the second world war The Marshall Plan was set-up specifically to do just this. The Plan's intention was to economically redevelop Europe in free market, democratic principles so that countries there would not be susceptible or vulnerable to communist take over. Communism prayed on economically and politically weak nations. The Marshall Plan was meant to off-set the allure of communism's false promises. The intention was to encircle and contain communism with shining examples of democracy and capitalism, as beacons. Japan and South Korea are other example of America's democracy building for the purpose of resisting and containing communism.

Communism and the USSR were contained and defeated in the manner the original practitioners of containment had envisioned. However, the the policy of containment didn't do it all on its own. It had help from within the enemy that was been containing. Communism essentially brought about its own demise because unlike Democracy it was a stagnant economic and political systems, incapable of reform or reinventing itself. The USSR and communism eventually atrophied and collapsed of its own accord. Containment essential hastened the process because one of the provisions of containment was that no trading be done with the enemy (except for humanitarian aid) that might help sustain it, such as much needed technology, financial assistance or anythings that might help prolong its life. The USSR's economy was inherently such that it was incapable of developing the technologies or financing then so as to keep it up with America or the modern world. This kind of containment, Beinart argues, could have also brought down Iraq because it too was vulnerable to such pressure,

That is the lesson the U.S. forgot when it came to Iraq, that instead of going to war, the U.S., with its allies, could have contained Iraq economically and politically, without firing a shot or killing so many people. And, as it happens, Iraq was on the verge of crumbling anyway. Moreover, because the U.S. couldn't contain its desire for war with Iraq it has seriously damaged its image around the world for being a pragmatic and thoughtful nation. However, the irony is that because of its war and its image problem, it is the U.S. that has been contained. With the Bush doctrine of preemptive war the U.S. acted unilaterally. But as the U.S. has found, to its consternation, containment can also work in reverse. The world, because of its distrust of America's unilateral behavior, has essentially contained the U.S. The majority of world has indicated to the U.S. in various ways that in this modern, globalized world it is imprudent and foolish to act unilaterally, ignoring institutions like the U.N. and bilateral treaties. To compound it all, the cost of the failing war in Iraq has been another self-containing mechanism for the U.S. Because of the expenditure and poor results, the U.S. will now think twist before starting another war, instead relying more on the the time tested policy of containment.