The main
drive behind most
foreign policy of the
United States, roughly from the end of
World War II to the fall of the
USSR. Said to have offically began with the
Truman Doctrine (March, 1947). The
idea was to
contain Communism, i.e., to keep it from
spreading to any other
nations, particularly nations in
the West, on the grounds that, if the
Communist ideology did not spread, it would eventually
crumble because of its inherent weaknesses.
On the basis of
containment, the
US has gotten involved in many
shady things, including the
Vietnam War and the
installation of various
two-bit anti-Communist
dictators, especially in
Central America and
South America.