ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the National Security Council,

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the country's leading supplier of security guards.

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And take a look at this excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, and the question:

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Which established foreign policy was the National Security Council Report used to solidify?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ] All right.

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Okay, all right. What clues can we glean

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from this National Security Council Report? Hmm?

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It says that the act of force is "a last resort

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for a free society." Right there.

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And should be only be allowed

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"when another society seeks to impose its will" on others.

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Different "will."

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So we need to figure out which established

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foreign policy in the answers benefitted

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from this new forceful rationale.

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Was the National Security Council Report used

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to solidify A - intervention in Vietnam?

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Well, that seems like it could work, but take a look at the question again.

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We're looking for an established

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foreign policy, and this report came out in 1950.

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We didn't "intervene"

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in Vietnam with ground troops until 1965.

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So that eliminates A.

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Was this report used to back up B -

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key points of the Monroe Doctrine?

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[ chuckles ] The Monroe Doctrine was about European

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intervention in North and South America

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during the 1800s.

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Long time ago.

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The National Security Council Report was based on the Truman Doctrine,

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which was a U.S. policy designed to stop

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Soviet expansion during the Cold War.

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Monroe you didn't. It's not B, either.

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Could the National Security Council Report have been used to support C -

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isolation following World War II?

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Well, quite the opposite, actually.

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The emphasis on intervention over diplomacy pushed the U.S.

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far away from the isolationist

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policies it had held after World War I.

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So that forces out C, as well.

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Which means that this report was used to solidify D -

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Cold War containment of communism.

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The policy of containment designed to prevent the spread

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of Communism was a big priority at the start of the Cold War.

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By detailing specific situations and cases where

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force could be used, the National Security Council Report

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solidified the idea of containment in a practical sense.

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So D is the correct answer.

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When it was first published in 1950, the NSC Report was

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classified top secret,

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and it wasn't made public until 1975.

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Even the best-sealed containers have an expiration date.

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Yeah. Remember that "best if used by" thing?

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Well, maybe this wasn't that.

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[ crash ]

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