USA and USSR started a cold war after ww2. The USA with many western democratic countries formed NATO, then USSR with many eastern communist countries formed Warsaw Pact.The Berlin Wall which divided eastern/western Berlin, also divided the eastern world/ western world. Both the USA and he USSR had bombs, planes, rockets, and nuclear warheads. Both of them also wanted to spread their political ideas into the third world. The tension was getting bigger, as both sides sides joined in an armed race and also participated in many proxy wars. (Chinese Civil War, Korean War, and Vietnam War). The US wanted to contain communism. The tension continued all the way until the berlin wall fell in ’89, and the break down of Communist Party in Russia in 1991.

Containment was used to keep communism only within the countries that it already was in. Truman used containment by sending many aid packages to the countries in Europe and Asia to “help those countries help themselves”. The US helped these countries protect themselves from the USSR and becoming communist countries. The truman doctrine and marshall plan both came into effect in hopes that communism would not spread and become any more of a threat to the world and to the US.

The communists of china led by Mao Zedong overthrew the leader of china. Because the US would not step and in and help much, ion fear of WW3, the communists were too strong. Eventully the non-communists of china had to flee and they ran to the island of Taiwan. This feared many people of the US, for we had failed at containment in that now CHina was communist and communism was spreading. The two countries were divided at the 38th parallel. North Korea backed by the USSR, south Korea