Like any foreign policy that covers a period of time,
there were successes and failure. Overall I believe containment was one of the more
successful foreign policies we have ever exercised, but the Soviet Union had
considerable resources at its disposal to challenge us, and we could not protect the
world, simply put.
I believe in the time frame you mention
that containment was quite successful in Europe, as communism did not expand into a
single country outside of the original Soviet bloc in East Europe. It was also
successful in Korea and Taiwan during that time
period.
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all fell to revolutions
during that same time, and the US was unable to prevent Cuba from going communist, or
the Sandinistas from taking power in Nicaragua. Through assassination and espionage,
Marxist-leaning governments in Guatemala and Chile were
overthrown.
So it was a mixed bag of success,
essentially.
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