Containment

At the end of world war 2, many countries in europe and asia destructed leaving the united states and the soviet union as the sole global superpowers.During WWII the usa and the ussr were allies, however their different ideologies cause a rift and severe tensions.The USSR under stalin forced communism on it people, leading to genocide. The US believed in capitalism and democracy, causing a cold war. Although the two superpowers never fought directly there was tremendous tension and fear of nuclear war, while the ussr wanted to spread communism throughout the world the usa was guided by the foreign policy of containment stopping the spread of communism; Two successful cases of american containment were the cuban missile crisis and the korean war.

One of the most tense moments of the cold war was the missile crisis. In 1959 cuba became communist after fidel castro took over,in 1962 the soviet union secretly began shipping 40,000 troops 60 missiles and 150 nuclear warheads to communist cuba. Not long after, US spy planes found range nuclear missile sites rapidly installed in cuba pointing at the US. The US caused a blockade against ships carrying ships to cuba. In october the soviet union removed missiles from cuba to avoid crisis. A couple months later the US agreed with the soviets in a quiet manner to remove missiles from turkey. The cuban missile crisis was an example of containment because the US applied there containment policy by planning a blockade against the soviet ships carrying weapons to cuba that assured destruction against the US.

When communist north korea invaded south korea, as a supporter president harry truman vowed to help, american forces were sent to defend south korea. Mac Arthur staged a risky yet successful attack. North korean forces were pushed back all the way to the yalu river the border of north korea and china. In 1950 communist china joined to war to defend north