NSC-68 General Address Analysis
The sweeping rhetoric and universal language the President used in his address was not an accurate representation of the objectives and goals of the new foreign policy, however. Many feared the policy was too ambiguous and reaching. The address gave the impression that the US would intervene on behalf of any and every country facing communist threat, that it would be the United States’ responsibility to defend free people everywhere. This overall impression left many with intense reservations regarding the policy. Even Kennan quietly argued it was best to be forgotten, and Marshall sought to add limits to the objectives. (Gaddis, 1974)
Despite the universal tones of the President’s address, however, the actions of the administration showed …show more content…
No longer possessing an edge over the Soviet’s, Truman ordered a reexamination of US foreign policy and objectives by the Departments of State and Defense. The National Security Council also began an assessment of the global threat with the intention of updating NSC-20, a series of reports regarding containment overseen by Kennan. Eventually the two groups merged with Nitze chairing the review, and the resulting report was NSC-68. (Nitze & Drew, 1994)
Despite being derived from NSC-20, NSC-68 completely reoriented containment. Unlike its predecessor, NSC-68 dogmatically asserted the Soviets were intent on eventually waging war against the United States. It also took the idea of containment a step further, advocating a “roll back” of Kremlin influence:
[the] risks crowd in on us, in a shrinking world of polarized power, so as to give us no choice, ultimately, between meeting them effectively and being overcome by them . . . it is clear that a substantial and rapid military building up of strength in the free world is necessary to support a firm policy necessary to check and roll back the Kremlin’s drive for world domination. (Young,
Despite the universal tones of the President’s address, however, the actions of the administration showed …show more content…
No longer possessing an edge over the Soviet’s, Truman ordered a reexamination of US foreign policy and objectives by the Departments of State and Defense. The National Security Council also began an assessment of the global threat with the intention of updating NSC-20, a series of reports regarding containment overseen by Kennan. Eventually the two groups merged with Nitze chairing the review, and the resulting report was NSC-68. (Nitze & Drew, 1994)
Despite being derived from NSC-20, NSC-68 completely reoriented containment. Unlike its predecessor, NSC-68 dogmatically asserted the Soviets were intent on eventually waging war against the United States. It also took the idea of containment a step further, advocating a “roll back” of Kremlin influence:
[the] risks crowd in on us, in a shrinking world of polarized power, so as to give us no choice, ultimately, between meeting them effectively and being overcome by them . . . it is clear that a substantial and rapid military building up of strength in the free world is necessary to support a firm policy necessary to check and roll back the Kremlin’s drive for world domination. (Young,