The containment was a policy of the United States that used numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad.
A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of measures by the Soviet Union to expand its sphere of communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea and Vietnam. It represented an intermediate position between distension and regression.
1 .- The word containment is most strongly associated with the policies of the president of the United States, Harry Truman (1945-53), including the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact.
2.- President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-61) played with the rival doctrine of backsliding, refused to intervene in the Hungarian uprising of 1956.
3.- President Lyndon Johnson (1963-69) cited the containment as a justification for his policies in Vietnam.
4.- President Richard Nixon (1969-74), rejected the contention in favor of friendly relations with the Soviet Union and China; This distension, or relaxation of tensions, involved expanded commercial and cultural contacts.
5.- President Jimmy Carter (1976-81) emphasized human rights instead of anti-communism, but decreased detente and returned to contention when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
6.- President Ronald Reagan (1981-89) denounced the Soviet state as an "evil empire". ", Intensified the Cold War and promoted the setback in Nicaragua and Afghanistan.