In late 2016, a film was released dubbed Miss Sloane, in which the leading character, played by Jessica Chastain, makes an attempt to define the essence of lobbying. She states that “lobbying is about foresight. About anticipating your opponent’s moves and devising countermeasures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition, and plays her trump card just after they play theirs. It’s about making sure you surprise them, and they don’t surprise you.” What is important to grasp from this is not how to define lobbying, rather the importance of foresight. In the context of the Cold War, it is clear that the aforementioned skill played a major role in constructing US foreign policy.
In early 1950, the US Department of State and Department of Defense developed the United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, otherwise known as NSC-68. The policy paper recommended an expansion in the military budget, increased military aid to US allies, and the development of a hydrogen bomb, stating that the issues facing the United States were monumentous, involving the fulfillment or destruction not only of the Republic but of civilization itself. Moreover, the document analyzed the capabilities of both the United States and Soviet Union from a political, psychological, and militaristic standpoint while establishing the de facto national security strategy of the US.
Having taken into account the theory of containment and understood the significance of NSC-68, the question of application and effectiveness comes into play. How is it possible to deter communist expansion without coming into direct conflict with the USSR? In its essence, NSC-68 was the answer — proxy war policy. The first official test proxy war policy and containment would be the Korean War and later Vietnam.
The International Review 