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pointers would be the US presence in West Germany, South Korea and Vietnam as well as supporting Taiwan (Nationalist China) in order to prevent the advancement of Communism!.

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Truman Doctrine of Containing
communism - this is where it all began after WWII when the Soviet Union became the enemy of the West!.

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Containment Under Kennedy & Johnson led to Vietnam
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President Regan was in office when the Soviet Union collapsed 1989!.
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Now I am an Australian not an American so my approach to this may be a little different to yours!. Adapt this information to suit your assignment as you wish!. We had troops in South Korea, Vietnam and also in Malaysia as part of the containment of communism!. The Malaysian part of it for us comes into it because Malaysia and Australia along with Canada and New Zealand are British Dominions!. They are part of the Brisith Commonwealth of Nations and were part of the British Empire which was disbanded after WWII!.

However the countries like Canada, Australia New Zealand took part in the containment of communism by sending troops to countries that had been or still were part of the British Commonwealth of Nations!. This organisation still exists today and its leaders meet every two years with the Queen of Great Britain - Queen Elizabeth II present!. Australia sent troops to Malaysia where there were communist insergents!.

It goes without saying that the USA has done the lions share in the containment of communism across the years!. I hope that this information is of some help to you in understanding what the containment of communism is all about!. It has not disappeared entirely!. There are still Marxist states in North Korea!. Moaist China is still a communist state where no democratic elections occur and inspite of affluence for a few there is not a lot for the 1!.3 billion population!. Russia is reverting to communist or dictatorial type of government!. We always have to be vigilant about maintaining democracy!.

Good Luck with your assigment!.
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The problem with your question is where to start!. So, let's start with the end of the first World War!. Czarist Russia, economically weak and politically unstable, entered the war on the side of Britain and France!. The war did not go well for the Russians and defeats to Germany on the Eastern front combined by food shortages in major cities led to the February Revolution in 1917!. Lenin and the Bolsheviks took power following the October Revolution that year!.

Following the end of WW1, Britain and the U!.S!. landed troops in Russia in support of White Russian forces who were battling the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War!. And, in 1919, the Bolsheviks founded the Comintern in Moscow, which was a front for Soviet leaders to spread Communism throughout the world!. So, even before World War 2, there was a great amount of tension between the Soviet Union and Western Europe/U!.S!.

Despite an initial non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, WW2 found the U!.S!. and Britain on the same side as the Soviet Union!. Toward the end of the war, when it was apparent that Germany would be fought, American and British leaders started to express concerns about life with the Soviets!. The Soviet Union pushed German forces back into Germany, "liberating" most of Eastern Europe!. And, after WW2, Germany and Berlin was divided among the four allies (Russia, Britain, U!.S!. and France)!. Relations between Western Europe/U!.S!. and the Soviet Union soon broke down!. The Soviet Union maintained political dominance over the countries it had "liberated" at the end of WW2, prompting Winston Churchill to say that an "Iron Curtain" fell over Eastern Europe!.

With this as the backdrop, the bywords for the United States became the "domino theory" and "containment!." The thought was that if any one nation in an area became communist, the nations near it would also become communist!. Containment was the idea that it would be too difficult to push communism back to Russia, but it could be contained in the nations it then existed in through the employment of diplomatic, military, economic, political and covert strategies!. The first three battlegrounds were France, where a political strategy "won" out, Greece, where support of the Athens military government won out, and Korea, where the United States and its UN allies conventionally expelled North Korean armies from South Korea!.

In the 1850s and 60s, France had conquered Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia!. As part of the Vichy peace deal in 1940, Germany forced France to allow Japanese occupation of Indochina!. In 1945, at the end of WW2, France wanted Indochina back and threatened to ally itself with the Soviet Union if Britain and the U!.S!. did not support its claims to the area!. Britain and the U!.S!. caved to French demands!. But, in 1954, the Viet Minh defeated the French army at Dien Bien Phu!. Four nations rose from the French defeat: Cambodia, Laos, South Vietnam and communist North Vietnam!. South Vietnam was intended to be the primary anchor of containment policies in Indochina and the U!.S!. replaced the French as the chief political and military supporter of non-Communist groups in Indochina!.

The fear, then, was that Communist forces, operating out of North Vietnam, would cause the fall of the Western supported governments of Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam!. There as also a fear that Thailand would also fall to communism!. So, the United States involvement in South Vietnam was intended to contain Communism to North Vietnam!.

In the end, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and united the nation under Communism in 1975!. The Maoist Khmer Rouge take power in Cambodia under Pol Pot and kill between 1/4 and 1/3 of the nation's population before being pushed out by the Stalinist Vietnamese!. The Pathet Lao take Laos!. Thailand, which is much better political and economic shape than Cambodia or Laos, is able to defeat the Communist insurgency directed at it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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After World War II, the United States viewed with dread the might of the USSR!. Thus a policy of containment policy was formed to stop the spread of communism!. It was believed that if a country's government changed to communism, that one by one the neighboring countries would also( the so-called domino effect)!. Thus, the U!.S!. and its allies in Western Europe tried to contain communism to the countries where it already existed in order to stop other countries being ruled by a communist power!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Ok Thesis America's attempt at containing Communism after WW2 coalesced into the Vietnam War!. Ok three main reasons for containment of Communism are protect of democracies, stopping the spread of Communistic ideals, and the threat of Nuclear War!. These are the three main reasons now all you have to do is go into more detail!. I basically have just set you up!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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