read the following passage :

Berlin, Korea, and Cuba: How Did the US Contain Communism?
It was a glorious meeting. On April 25,
The Soviets had suffered terribly in World
1945, at the Elbe River in Germany, two power-
War II, losing more than 27,000,000 soldiers
ful armies met. Coming from opposite ends of and civilians. Stalin was determined that Europe, the Americans and Russians had cut
Germany would never be able to strike Russia
Hitler's Germany in two. Now at the Elbe,
again. To protect Russia, Stalin wanted a buffer
soldiers from the Red Army of the Soviet Union
zone in Eastern Europe, but he wanted more. It
reached out their hands to their American
was no secret that Stalin and his successors
counterparts. It was a time for great happiness.
wanted to expand the Soviet empire.
World War II, the deadliest war in all of human
If the Soviet policy was expansion, then the
history, was nearly over.
American policy was containment. Contain-
Unfortunately, the warmth of the handshakes ment was the idea that the Soviet Union did not last. The Soviet Union and the United and Soviet communism should not be allowed States had serious differences. Their greatest to spread. One example of containment was the difference was over a political and economic
Truman Doctrine. In 1947, President Harry
system called communism. In its pure form,
Truman declared that the United States would
communism is a belief that private property should be
support "free peoples," like those in Greece and
replaced by community
Turkey, who were being
ownership. In the Soviet
threatened by communists.
Union, this idea was not
The Truman Doctrine was
easily accepted by the
followed by the Marshall
people. Russian leaders
Plan, which gave over 12
Vladimir Lenin and Joseph
billion dollars in aid to
Stalin were ruthless in their elimination of those who had different
help rebuild European democracies like France
ideas about Russia's future. In the 1930s, Stalin and West Germany. The idea was to give these was responsible for killing several million
countries resources so that communist ideas
Soviet people who he believed were in his way.
would not be so attractive.
Soviet communists did not like capitalism.
By 1947, the United States and the Soviet
They opposed the private ownership economies
Union were clearly on a collision course. Stalin
of the United States and its allies. Russian leaders and his successors were always looking for believed that capitalism was dying and that
weak spots to push and probe. This Mini-Q fea-
communism would spread throughout the world.
tures three occasions where the Soviets tested
This caused great tension and the emergence of
American containment policy. Your task is to
a new kind of war, a Cold War. In the words of Winston Churchill, it was as if an "iron curtain"
examine the maps, then answer the question:
Berlin, Korea, and Cuba: How did the U.S.
had been drawn between the Soviet-controlled
contain communism?
countries in Eastern Europe and the Western democracies.