Title: Was the US’s containment policy effective during the Cold War? | by August Frederico | Medium
Headings: Was the US’s containment policy effective during the Cold War?
Was the US’s containment policy effective during the Cold War?
Content: Actions both militarily and financially were extremely effective in containing the spread of communism as dictated by the Truman Doctrine, however the most distinguished aspect of the Cold War was the extensive political warfare. US agencies like the CIA were primarily responsible for extensive espionage as they attempted to contain the spread of communism by assassinating political figureheads, rigging elections, and planting relentless international espionage networks in the interest of supporting US foreign policy. The US was responsible for a number of assassinations (up to 81) in their effort to prevent communist sympathizing leaders from coming to power. These included lower profile political malefactors attempting coups and Eastern-supported political movements in nations such as Guatemala, Iran, Greece, Turkey and The Democratic Republic of Congo (Donnelly, 1965, page. 94). By covertly eliminating the key instigator in alarming movements, the US was able to effectively contain rogue communist action without mass violence. In other nations, however, the US targeted established power figures in the hopes the same strategy would help prevent the need of continued violence with stronger nations. The most well known of these was t