Caden Arnold

Doc Research Essay

4/22/2015
Hist. 2710
From 1947 to 1991, the United States was experiencing a very difficult time in its history.
During this time period we were involved in a cold war as a result of our relations with the
Soviet Union. There were several things that transpired after World War II that sparked these
negative feelings between the two nations. Unfortunately, because the nations had two
completely different political views, it didnt help the nations in trying to oversee their actions
and differences, it only further increased those feelings. In the two documents that were given for
us to analyze, it is very clearly shown how the Soviet Union and the United States had little trust
they had in each other, and how both nations created accusations against one another; claiming
that htye were going to take over the world through political or military power.
In Kennans Containment Policy and Novikovs telegram, they showcase how the United
States and the Soviet Union displayed a strong distrust in the two countries methods of handling
situations in Europe, addressing issues between the two nations themselves, and their political
outlooks. The U.S. and the Soviets believed through these characteristics, their goals were to
spread their beliefs onto countries they had direct contact or alliances with, creating plans to stop
each other from completing their goals. In Kennans Containment Policy, he directly addresses
his concerns he had about the Soviets foreign policies and the want ot spread communism
around the globe.
Kennan states that the Soviet Union has a very bad outlook on the world outside of its
borders. They had grown to see the outside world as a hostile environment and their political and

economic systems were extremely faulty. They taught them that the outside world was hostile
and that it was their duty eventually to eventually overthrow the political forces beyond their
borders (Kennan). This gives the impression that the Soviets strongly disliked any nation whos
government were opposed to their political views. He also goes on in the policy to explaining
that now the Soviet people had adopted these views, they as a nation were led down the path to
believe the assumptions of the outside world to be true, giving them the want to put more trust in
the dictatorship. Because of this, Kennan states that the United States policy towards the Soviet
Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant, contain of Russian expansive
tendencies (Kennan). He wanted the United States to keep the Russians form expanding their
views to the outside world. Kennan stresses the fact that the United States needed to prevent
Russias desires of communist control over other countries, and eventually using containment to
trap it within the country, ultimately killing it in the process.
Kennan was completely convinced that the Soviet Union were preparing to take over the
world, this is why he desperately wanted the United States to apply a containment policy on the
Soviets. He believed that if the United States and its allies could prevent the Soviet Union form
doing this, then it would also have the chance of destroying communism as well, as he states in
the Containment Policy (Kennans Biographer). Even though the U.S. did apply a strategy of
containment later in the Cold War, it didnt follow Kennans proposal as closely. Some even had
some critiques of his policy, claiming that it would be too defensive or it proposed used direct
military action to deal with the spread of communism, which risks furthering our bad reputation
that already existed with the Soviets (Kennan and Containment).
The United States and George Kennan were not the only ones who believed their rival
was out to take over the world. In the telegram written by Nicolai Novikov, he stresses that the

United States is trying to seize control of the world through military and economic means. At the
beginning of the telegraph, Novikov describes how the United States were beginning to greatly
increase our military quite significantly in 1946. This action didnt agree with him because of the
fact that World War II had just ended, so there was no need for the U.S. to be wanting to build up
our military to great numbers by 1947. With our spending on the military and our push to
increase its size, Novikov directly related this to the U.S. wanting to take over the world through
the means of violence, all of these facts show clearly that a decisive role in the realization of
plans for world dominance by the United States is played by its armed forces (Novikov).
Novikov also believes that the United States is using it relationship with other countries,
primarily England, to take control of other countries in Europe, then ultimately the world. He
was already concerned about the fact that the United States had control of China and Japan as a
result of World War II, which placed the fear in him that the U.S. would use that leverage to
achieve control over Europe. Though he sees the relationship between the U.S. and England,
even though there were agreements going on between the two countries, as somewhat flawed.
The current relations between England and the United States, despite the temporary attainment
of agreements on very important questions, are plagued with great internal contradictions and
cannot be lasting (Novikov). This means that he believed our relationship with England would
eventually wither away, hindering our attempts at global domination. Even though he believed
our relationship with Great Britain would eventually fall apart, there was still the possibility in
his mind that we were still going to attempt to take control of the world and the Soviet Union.
He explains that the U.S. wanted to use the threat of its military and the atomic bomb to
orchestrate a third world war with the Soviet Union. Careful not should be taken of the fact that
the preparations by the United States for a future war is being conducted with the prospect of war

with the Soviet Union, which in the eyes of American Imperialists is the main obstacle in the
path of the United States to world domination (Novikov). He fully believed we were preparing
to launch strikes against the Soviet Union, beginning our path to dominate the world.
These two documents do a good job showing the growing suspicions between the two
nations at the beginning of the Cold War. Both the United States and the Soviet Union were
extremely worried that either country were going to take control of each other. These two
documents also give a brief example of the disagreements and negative feeling they had between
each other. Kennans main fear in his Containment Policy was the Soviet Union putting all their
efforts into spreading communism around the globe. At the same time, Novikov feared of a
United States take over through the use of our military. Our use of the atomic bomb in Japan
amplified this, allowing the Soviets to believe our next target would be the U.S.S.R., giving the
advantage in the race for global domination.
The use of violence was a shared suspicion between the two countries, while the Soviets
believed we would use our bomb to take control, we also believed the Russia would build up
their military to spread communism around the world through violence. No matter what each
country did, if they showed any signs of moving around militarily, then they would automatically
assume that one was going to carry out their plans to attack the other and began a third war.
Kennan and Novikovs documents prove the Soviet Union and the United States would
create constant superstitions and disagreements of each other throughout the Cold War. Both
built their military based on the accusations that either country were pushing towards total
conquest of the world, raising the mistrust and negative views between the Soviet Union and the
United States. These accusations created the opportunity for both countries to feed off each other,
raising the tensions between the two and spending years in constant worry and threat of violence.

Works Cited

A conversation with Kennans biographer. Economist.com. 28 Nov, 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2015

History.state.gov. Kennan and Containment, 1947. Web. 21 Apr. 2015

Revising and Contextualizing Reflection

This assignment has allowed me to understand studying history better because it gave me
the opportunity to see both sides of the issue the documents were about. It made me look at the
two versions of the same event and analyze the differences and the similarities between the two
documents. Very rarely did I get the chance to physically see the opposite sides of the argument
when it came to certain events in history. With the Cold War, I have only seen how the U.S.
interpreted the actions the Soviets were performing during that period, being able to see the how
the Soviets saw Americas actions during that time allowed me to gain a better understanding of
why both sides did what they did during the Cold War.
There are many events in history are presented in a way that may cause people to see
only one side of the argument/event, or gain the completely wrong understanding about the event
in general. World War II is a prime example of this. The real events are clearly documented
through records and retelling of the stories from the people who lived it, but there are several
ways out there that we can receive only one side of the war or misunderstand it altogether. An
example of this can be the relationship between the Japan and the U.S. before the war and how
their actions eventually led to war. There are a lot T.V. shows/documentaries, teachers, and
magazines that leave out the events between Japan and the United States that took place before
the war, like the peace negotiations or the Japanese invasion of China, that can be important
when trying to figure out how the war was actually started.