Explain the development of the Cold War and the containment policy of the United States. How was the containment policy applied? What were the...

The Cold War developed after World War II because the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the strongest powers in the world. The ideological, economic, and political differences between the two countries made them natural enemies. The United State was a democratic republic that believed in free-market capitalism. The Soviet Union was a party dictatorship with a command economy. After World War II, the Soviet Union wanted to create a buffer zone between itself and Western Europe, particularly Germany. It acquired a number of Eastern European countries as satellites. The United States, however, wanted to establish free markets in Europe to enhance trade.  This enhanced the differences between the two superpowers further.  

The policy of containment was the brainchild of George Kennan, a career American diplomat. It was a strategy of stopping the spread of communism to new states and not focusing on the countries that were already communist. Containment was used in a variety of ways, from the foreign aid of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, to the proxy wars that were fought in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.