Containment of Communism

The Cold War is the closest the world has ever come to complete destruction. In this period of time, two world super powers were in a stalemate economically and militarily and were constantly competing to be the superior. The Cold War started as result of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had some differences on their perspectives of the world. United States being the richest country in the world promoted democracy and capitalism in the world. The newly formed Soviet Union thought that communism was a better political system because it transformed their economy and status in the world from nothing but a declining empire to a super power once again. The Cold War was a long series of events in which the communist tried to spread their ideas of government and socialist economy, known as expansionism, and the United States and some of the other Western powers such as Great Britain tried to contain it. Containment, a term introduced by George F. Kennan, was the foreign policy the United States practiced from 1946 to 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States saw the Soviet Union to be a direct threat to the free world. During president Truman and Eisenhower's administration the policy of containment evolved so drastically that American presidents would put anything on the line, including world peace.

It started with the Truman Doctrine (1947) that stated the United States would help any country financially and militarily that was interested in keeping the world free for democracy. The Truman Doctrine came about as direct result of communist guerillas in Greece trying to take over the government. American advisers believed that the guerillas were taking orders from the Soviets after they launched a civil war against the government. The United States decided to assist the standing government in Greece because they believed it would have a large impact on Europe and most importantly Turkey that was having its own problems with communism and