n.
Strategic U.S. foreign policy of the late 1940s and early 1950s intended to check the expansionist designs of the Soviet Union through economic, military, diplomatic, and political means.
It was conceived by George Kennan soon after World War II. An early application of containment was the Truman Doctrine (1947), which guaranteed U.S. aid to "free peoples" resisting "armed subjugation" by communist forces. See also Marshall Plan .