> Behalf Of Dan Minette
> Where did you study modern history? You never heard of the
> Berlin Airlift?
> Kat, I marched in anti-war marches in the '60s and I still
> think that was a
> mistake. How best to coutner the Soviet Union is a
> reasonable question.
> But, if I understand correctly, you think that the Soviet
> Union would not
> have leaned on Europe if they were the strongest nation in
> the world with
> only the European armies to defend them.
I'm guessing you mean that you think the _Vietnam War_ was a mistake,
as opposed to the Berlin Airlift, which I think most people now agree
was a good idea.
> After WWII, the US decided that appeasment was dangerous,
> but didn't want a
> war with the SovUnion. So, the docterine of containment
> was established.
> The US would thwart the expansion of the Soviet Union, but
> not attack it
> directly. Since the Soviet Union had internal problems, it
> would fall of
> its own accord.
>
> I take it that wasn't taught? It was policy for all US
> presidents from
> Truman on. I think it was developed in 1948, I want to say
> Dean Atkinson,
> but Gautam can correct me if he isn't too busy celebrating
> finishing his
> final Harvard exam.
>
> Dan M.
Watching the Law & Order season finale at the moment actually - I
celebrated this afternoon thoroughly, and intend to continue it for
the next two weeks. :-) It was Dean Acheson, with George Marshall
and Truman helping, of course. Every American Administration
afterwards supported it. It is, by the way, an almost unprecedented
achievement in the foreign policy of a democracy - a coherent and
extremely difficult policy conducted without respite for almost 50
years, with 7 different Administrations all conducting what was, in
its essentials, the same policy. One of the traditional critiques of
democracies is that they can't plan for the long term. Anyone who
says that needs to explain the behavior of the United States - and, to
a lesser extent, all of the governments of Western Europe - for the 44
years of the Cold War.
********************Gautam "Ulysses" Mukunda**********************
* Harvard College Class of '01 *He either fears his fate too much*
* www.fas.harvard.edu/~mukunda * Or his deserts are small, *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Who dares not put it to the touch*
* "Freedom is not Free" * To win or lose it all. *
******************************************************************
