The policy of containment is the idea that ideology can be snuffed out if not allowed to spread. During the Cold War, a battle between democracy/capitalism occurs against communism. An ideology of communism is to spread and to bring the ideas to new nations. Quickly, the US and USSR found themselves competing for satellite nations which would mimic the government and economy of the parent country. Following treaty negotiations for World War II, each side received protectorate countries. However, to win a cold war, a country must grow in influence. As countries threatened to turn communist, the US turned to a policy of containment. The idea behind containment was to stop a country from turning to communism before it would spread to a whole area. An example of containment in action is US action in Vietnam. It was believed that if Vietnam fell to communist forces then communism would then spread to other SE Asian countries. If it could be stopped in Vietnam, then the communism would be contained. The last part of the theory, is the belief that containing communism would led to its eventual fall as without growth you eventually die.