why was U.S. trying to contain Communism despite the fact that some countries wanted it anyways?
414802
Because the USA is owned and run by corporations that need the capitalist system to thrive.
782371
You bring up a good point.\n\nAs I began to educate myself concerning 20th century USA history, a compelling question leaped out at me, '..since all the wars evolved around stopping the spread of communism, WHY or HOW did communism threaten our way of life or our capitalist structure?"\n\nI mean seriously... our leaders felt so threatened by the spread of communism that they literally went to war REPEATEDLY and sacrificed American lives to stop it. Why? If communism is so bad and capitalism is so grand then what is the threat? Wouldn't the ppl themselves reject it?\n\nI honestly think the answer to that question is that when ppl truly do understand the fairness and equality of communism they tend to choose that over the class system of capitalism... that is what we feared. That is my opinion.\n\nBtw, your 80s data is a little off. We didn't have an encounter with Iran in the 80s. There was the Iran/Contra scandal in 1979 but that didn't result in military action. Gulf War 1, involving Iraq, was in 1989.
363073
At the end of WWI, the US very much wanted to help rebuild and bring Germany back into the fold-in fact rebuilding Europe as a more integrated continent was forfront the the US devising of the League of Nations.  Unfortunately, the other allies very much wanted to punish Germany, to teach it a lesson, since they are still stuck in the "great powers" mindset.  This devastated the country, and allowed the growth of a "victim" mentality-used against Jews as internal enemies and the other European countries as external enemies.  At the end of WWII, the US was in a position this time to dictate that Germany would be rebuilt and reintegrated.  Though we don't like to see anything particularly good about Stalin's Russia (and there werent that many good things) they also kept punishment to a minimum, and integrated East Germany into their system..the cause of the poor conditions in East Germany was much more a factor of the system than it was of any punishment.  The German people themselves have maintained a very clear and active analysis of their collective guilt, which has been far more effective in resolving issues than external punishment.
115391
One way to structure an answer is to look at the resources the United States had and now has to deter Communism abroad. During the Cold War vitually our entire military capability was focused on deterring the Communist threat to the U.S.  Today in spite of 1.5 Communist nuclear equipped countries (China 1.0, N. Korea .5), virtually none of our defense budget is directed against this "threat".  Economic globilization has (since the wall came down in Germany) and will continue to "protect our six" from Communism
967743
There are many communist (China, N Korea, Cuba) and socialist countries (Sweden, Russia, France) where your ideas and assistance would be appreciated. Forgive me if I don't rush out in a lather to follow in your wake.
133097
based upon the governments decisions to accept communism as their political ideology.  The nothern part of the respective countries were influenced by China and the USSR, while the southern part of the country accepted the ideology of the western free world of captializm.
220254
Because they say the future of what would be needed in world community.  The US, except for President Wilson, was still in the isolated mode.  Without the US support the League of Nations did not last.
820497
The USA is attempting to install freedom in Vietname (as in all countries) with trade rather than militarism which has proven to not work there. The idea is that once these people of Vietnam and China becomeused ot free trade, good benefits of trade, better and more modest living conditions they will not return to the communist governents of yesterday.\nI think this  actually working better than military (if the unemeployed of america can withstand all of  these free trade agreements which are costing them their jobs).\nAutocracies \nThe government is trying to install democracies the old fashioned way. Slowly accustomizing the public with goods, services and better living conditions.
51833
Because they were actually waging war against their favorite enemy. No, not the vietnamese but the soviets. During the war, vietnam was divided into two. the northern part wanted to have a communist government, the bottom half wanted a democratic one. Though, it was the vietnam war, it was actually more of a US - USSR war. it can be remembered that Soviet Union (USSR, now mainly Russia) was a communist government while the US believed democracy. And so ever so often their ideologies would clash in wars like this. But the vietnam war was certainly more than about belief, it was also the newest world event for a military arms fashion show. The north was "backed" by the soviets and the south by the Americans. This was an oppurtunity for them to showcase their advancement in warfare. Each side were eager to show to each other and to the world their "impressive" toys and guns and thus informally crown who among the two was the stronger world power. Of course, neither would easily surrender but in the end the americans retreated and the south was captured by the north. Now, the vietnam war is always glorified by the USA as a symbol of their continued struggle for democracy in the world but in truth in that war as it now with iraq, the US was merely showing off their deadly jewelry even if it means meddling with the internal affairs of other countries leaving them in destruction.
276312
I love the naivete of the responses so far, but they did nail it on the head in theory.  What Americans don't understand is that Communism was a "corruption to the core" of society, not just at the top.  Everyone did what they could to get along, meaning lying, cheating, and stealing under the regimes.\n\nThe people here are not necessarily "pro-American", but more "pro-sucker"...as in, "Come bring your dollars to us so we can take them and cheese you guys off until you leave."  Some countries (like Bulgaria and Poland) have managed to reverse this mentality and thrive.  Others, like Romania, Moldavia, and Ukraine, have never had a significant "middle-class" in their history, and hence, have no idea what capitalism really means.  Materialism and corruption of values is substituted for any semblance of fair business and working ethic to a horrible effect on general society.\n\nTo answer in a nutshell though, the common folks here believe that America = Money.  Money is the only thing that matters any more, and the idea is reinforced by corrupt leadership.
758475
The American government decided that the Communism that was spreading into Viet Nam from China was unacceptable. They went in to try to stop it. The south of the country sided with the Americans in wanting to have democratic government. The north wanted to be Communist like their Chinese cousins. The war was fought. America lost and needed to evacuate quickly before being overrun by communist forces in 1975, abandoning their former allies (only SOME of whom were evacuated with them). South Viet Nam was converted to communism and absorbed into one country.\n\nAny of this sound familiar?
619219
Marshall Plan was a catalyst that stimulated many countries in the Soviet Unions influence to "go west" and choose democracy and capitalism instead of east and accept communism. It showed the economic advantages of it through the aid they received, and worked flawlessly to show up Stalin, and communism, who chose to build a wall instead of trying to improve the part of Germany in their influence, or any other nation. Germany's loans to pay off its war reparations, and by other nations for reconstruction, from US soon became part of the whole foreign policy and American influence ordeal. As now they had ties with US, that allowed it to exert more control over these foreign entities.
699440
we were trying to stop Communism.  there was a thing called the domino effect and it said if it starts to spread to another country then it will fall onto the next country and so on.
468397
I believe it is the domino theory. It states that if a non-communist government falls in a region, then a communist one will come in to replace it. The policy of the United States against the domino theory was the policy of containment, which meant to push Communism out of anywhere it tried to expand.
894329
There are countries with great military might who do not hold the same values as the western democracies.\nAs global resources dwindle, the race is on!\nWe will always use diplomacy first of course. we have a duty to defend ourselves against those who would wage war upon us.\nthe overwhelming american nuclear threat can be thanked for protecting europe from soviet dominence during the cold war.\n\ntheodore roosevelt: speak softly and carry a big stick
293204
Well, in a nutshell, keeping American backyard free of communist tentacles spreading through the world. Almost all of the interventions in LA were based on some of this propaganda.\n\nInterests of the US in LA were various though, but mainly to protect US companies (especially banana producers) and to guarantee free entry to LA resources. That would be it.
416495
A government in Afghanistan friendly to the Soviet Union was threatened by a coup thought to be engineered by the USA so the Soviet high command sent in the 20th Army. The coup was an attempt to thwart the social modernizations the communist government had instituted such as allowing women into schools.\n\nIt is ironic, most of the time we go into a country to undo the problems caused by communism, this time we went in to try to bring Afghanistan back to the level of prosperity they had enjoyed under the communists.