Kennedy Doctrine - Cold War Containment

Cold War Containment

A dominant premise during the Kennedy years was the need to contain communism at any cost. In this Cold War environment, Kennedy’s “call for military strength and unison in the struggle against communism were balanced with... for disarmament and global cooperation.”2 Another common theme in Kennedy’s foreign policy was the belief that because the United States had the ability and power to control events in the international system, they should. Kennedy expressed this idea in his address when he stated, “In the long history of the world only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom from its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.” 1