1. Changes in presidents from Truman through Johnson did indeed have little effect on the conduct of U.S. foreign policy with respect to the containment of Soviet Communism. Containment as a policy became so increasingly entrenched through the succeeding administrations that it carried the strength of an addiction for the leadership of the country. The very basis of U.S. foreign policy from Truman through Johnson---indeed, through Bush---was the ideology of the Cold War which saw the world controlled by two forces---the U.S. and its evil enemy the Soviet Union.
Once this policy was in effect, it had a life of its own, and no leader of the U.S. had the courage or wisdom or political independence to try to alter that policy in any significant way. From Truman through Johnson, at the very least, Presidents followed a policy which erroneously and disastrously assumed that all political and economic reform movements in Third World nations were not indigenous but were inspired instead by the evil Communist leaders of the Soviet Union. This philosophy of fear, hatred and ignorance was at the heart of the containment policy of the U.S.
It is not surprising, after World War II and the division of Europe into West and East, that Truman adopted George Kennan's containment policy. The Cold War, with all its paranoia and military build-ups, seems in retrospect almost inevitable in the wake of the horrors of World War II. It seems reasonable that some aggressive policy toward the perceived enemy---the Soviet Union---was adopted (Gaddis 59).
However, for a foreign policy to be sane, at the very least, and, at best, effective in achieving desired goals, that policy must be based on the latest accurate information. Presidents from Eisenhower through Johnson had to have deliberately ignored such information which made clear that revolutions in Third World nations were not inspired by Soviet intrigue but were expressions of indigenous rage...