After World War II, the United States initiated a policy called containment, which was a massive campaign against communism throughout the world. From 1945 to 1975, the execution of containment was an obvious failure in Asia, and the victories that America claims to have had were actually only of limited success.

Containment was a failure in Asia throughout this time period, which is seen by the fact that numerous countries turned communistic despite massive American opposition. First and foremost, this is seen in 1949, when China fell to the communist leader Mao who had overthrown the American supported anti-communist leader Chiang. Chiang’s corrupt leadership alienated his people, causing the Chinese to support Mao. The Chinese people started to rebel against American troops, and so Truman had no choice but to either completely take over the government or leave. By choosing the latter option, Truman allowed China to fall under communist leadership, showing the first failure of containment in Asia. A greater example of the failure of containment in Asia is seen in Vietnam, which despite a lengthy, gruesome war that lasted nearly 2 decades, the U.S. failed to stop the spread of communism. The historian Zinn writes, “[the U.S.] made a maximum military effort…to defeat a tiny, peasant country – and failed” (460). Though some argue that we never lost the Vietnam War, but we strategically retreated, the winner of the war is not really important. What is key is that Americans left the Vietnams without having beat the North, and this allowed for the communist North to invade a defenseless south in 1975, and successfully take it over, with the United States reduced to a mere spectator (Brinkley 862). Not only did the North Vietnamese reunite the North and the South, but the entire country was now an established communist nation, proving yet again another failure of containment in Asia. The ripples of the actions that occurred in the Vietnam War, in accordance with the Domino theory, caused a communist revolution in two nearby countries, which the U.S. once again could do nothing to stop. In 1975, a communist regiment led by Lon Nol took over Cambodia. Also in 1975, a communist leader named Pathet Lao took over the Laos government (CIA). This occurred because during the Nixon years, the American government extended the bombing into Laos and Cambodia in order to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail. But by doing this, they drove communist rebels deeper into the country and embittered them. After the U.S. left Vietnam, the two regiments took over their respective governments. Thus, the failure of containment can be seen undeniably because the U.S. had failed to prevent the conversion into communism of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

However, many would argue that there were some successes in containment in Asia, mainly in Iran and in South Korea. However, a deeper study of these two circumstances reveals that the U.S. wasn’t really successful in preventing the spread of communism. First off, the coup that Eisenhower staged in Iran to prevent the spread of communism in the country was merely a misguided rationalization to use force for the protection of American economic interests. It would be incorrect to say that Iran was a success in containment because in reality, there was no threat of communism to begin with. The new Iranian president, in order to keep more money in Iran, nationalized the oil industry to the horror of Britain and the U.S who had invested in Iran’s oil resources. The British representative who asked the Americans for help with the coup said to an aid, “If I ask the Americans to overthrow Mosaddeq in order to rescue a British oil company, they are not going to respond…I’m going to tell the Americans that Mosaddeq is leading Iran towards Communism” (US). Thus, a democratically elected leader was overthrown because of an alleged threat of communism, which didn’t really exist. Therefore, Iran cannot be seen as a success of containment. Korea, on the other hand, is perhaps the only successful victory of containment in Asian between this time period because the eventual treaty that the parties came in terms with reiterated the two distinct Koreas separated by the 38th parallel, where the South half would remain anti-communist. However, an important fact to note is that the U.S. was unable to beat the communist forces in the war. Also, we were unable to get rid of communism in North Korea. Therefore, Iran and the Korean debacle cannot be seen as complete successes in containment.

“CIA – The World Factbook — Laos.” Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. 28 Mar. 2009 .

“US-Iran (1952-1953).” History Commons. 28 Mar. 2009 .