United States officials in 1947 and 1948 did not have precise (specific) ideas about how to implement Should containment be applied everywhere? Should it be applied militarily? Should the United States focus on economic aid to nations seeking to reconstruct their economies? Should the United States assign priority to occupation policies, especially in Germany and Japan? Initially, in what became known as the Truman Doctrine, the United States president proposed military aid to Greece and Turkey, and declared that the United States would contest totalitarian expansion everywhere. But his subordinates quickly recognised that they had to calculate priorities carefully. They decided that they should focus on economic reconstruction in Western Europe rather than military rearmament; that they should seek to erode (wear down) support for communist parties in France, Italy, and Greece; that they should manage the revitalisation (recovery) of Western Germany and Japan, and co-opt (choose) their future power. Containment meant that Soviet influence and communist ideology should be contained within the areas occupied by the forces of the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. In June 1947, the United States announced the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Europe. The governments of most Western European nations were happy to receive US money and participate in a reconstruction programme. But they possessed deep fears about the revival of German power. In order to get the French to cooperate, the United States promised to retain its occupation forces inside Germany. [From http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/pons/s2-9143.pdf. Accessed on 21 April 2021.] 1.1 Read Source 1A. (1 x 2) (2) 1.1.1 Explain the term containment in the context of the Cold War. 1.1.2 State THREE ways in the source that the United States of America could have used to implement the policy of containment. (3 x 1) (3) 1.1.3 Using the information in the source and your own knowledge, explain how the economic reconstruction of countries in Western Europe could have benefitted th ine in the loto 1940s (1x2)(2) 1.1.4 Comment on the usefulness of the information in this source to a historian researching the USA's policy of containment (1x2)(2)
