Cold War Containment question help?

Hello,

I have this question- how consistent was the USA's anti-Communist strategy during the Cold War? I am not too sure how to answer it, as I know they had containment strategies but I am not sure about the other side, about how they weren't consistent.

I have another two questions-
How accurate is it to describe America's approach towards communism during the Cold War as 'containment'?
and
To what extent was the USA driven by a quest for the containment or the roll back of communism during the Cold War?

All these questions seem pretty similar, I know I have to mentions ways in which they were using containment such as the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan but I know I need to talk about ways in which they didn't use containment. I am also not too sure about the containment strategies later on in the Cold War, I'm only familiar with the few at the beginning.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
:smile:

Reply 1

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Reply 2

jamstar1

Hey, sorry if this reply is too late!

You could argue that in some cases the USA did not intervene with other communist states such as the fall of Czechoslovakia to communism in 1948 and other satellite states but i'm not sure if this would be too early on in the Cold War?
You could also argue that they went through peaceful-coexistence after Stalin's death as Khrushchev and Eisenhower pursued the easing of tensions (although this ultimately fails) and the period of detente in which both the US and the USSR developed policies such as SALT to help ease relations. The latter two may be harder to explain but the gist is that they were willing to work in partnership with a communist state rather than trying to get rid of them.
At the end of the Cold War, containment wasn't really a strategy as such that the US government adopted. With Reagan it was more the eradication of communism from the USSR and its powerful threat to the US and capitalism, and after, the two countries were again, trying to cooperate.

With the question 'How accurate is it to describe America's approach towards communism during the Cold War as 'containment'?' I would be inclined to look at it in two halves; the containment theory adopted in the first half of the cold war that seems to dissipate as you go further along in time.
I am not so sure about the second question though!!

Don;t know if any of this helps or anyone else has any other recommendations?