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Containment During The Cold War

Decent Essays

What is Containment?

The Cold War was mainly the U.S vs the Soviet Union, it could have also been seen as capitalism vs communism. The war was surrounding the idea of communism, as America attempted using a strategy known as containment, which meant to try and prevent the Soviet Union and communism from spreading across the world. While on the other side of the war, the Soviets were constantly attempting to spread communism. During the Cold War, multiple events occurred, where America demonstrated their strategy of containment, events such as the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In West Berlin, America was in control, as they received that part of Berlin from the outcome of WW2, as Berlin was split and divided between the four powers. On June 27th, 1948, the Soviets decided to blockade shipments (including food) from coming into West Berlin. The goal here was to make West Berlin surrender to communism. Eventually the U.S, Britain and France would come to aid West Berlin, stopping the plans of the Soviets of spreading communism. This event is an example of containment due to how America did what they did just to prevent the spread of communism. …show more content…

This was the beginning of the Korean War. South Korea was supported by America and the UN (capitalism) while North Korea was heavily supported by China and the Soviet Union (communism). Again, the Soviets motive was to further spread communism. While America (and the UN) fought to, again, prevent the spread of communism. This event demonstrates how much America will fight and push to prevent the spread of communism which is also the strategy known as

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