How did the United States contain communism?

After World War II ended, the United States and the Soviet Union opposed each other in many places, often dealing with the spread of communism. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism, and we wanted to keep it from spreading.

The United States developed a policy called containment to stop communism from spreading. The basis of this policy was that communism would fail, and we needed to just keep communism from spreading. One example of...

After World War II ended, the United States and the Soviet Union opposed each other in many places, often dealing with the spread of communism. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism, and we wanted to keep it from spreading.

The United States developed a policy called containment to stop communism from spreading. The basis of this policy was that communism would fail, and we needed to just keep communism from spreading. One example of containment in action was the development of the European Recovery Plan, also called the Marshall Plan, where we offered economic aid to European countries trying to prevent communism from spreading to their country. We knew that countries with a strong economy were less likely to become communist. For example, the economic aid helped keep Greece and Turkey from becoming communist.

We also came to the aid of West Berlin. When the Soviet Union cut off all land routes to West Berlin in order to force the Americans, British, and French to abandon the city, we organized the Berlin Airlift. We flew supplies into West Berlin until the Soviet Union lifted the blockade.

When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, we went to the United Nations for action. North Korea, unprovoked, invaded South Korea in June 1950 in order to unite Korea into one country that would be communist. The United Nations, led by the United States, helped South Korea fight North Korea. North Korea was not able to conquer South Korea and make it communist.

The United States also developed a military alliance to deal with the spread of communism. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO for short, was a military alliance including the United States and many of the noncommunist nations of Western Europe. This alliance formed in case there was a conflict with the Soviet Union.

There were several actions the United States took after World War II ended to stop communism from spreading.