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The U. S. ‘s main goal was to prevent the spread of communism and they did everything diplomatically, militarily, and economically in their power to do so. During the 1 sass and 1 sass, the policy of containment was a sensible approach to the potential threat that the Soviet Union inflicted upon the United States. Although there were some mistakes in the domestic and foreign policy to the policy of containment, the U. S. Did what they thought was needed to protect the nation. One of the actions the United States took o limit the spread of communism was limiting freedom of speech.
Congress has no right “abridging freedom of speech” (First Amendment). Freedom of speech is the political right to communicate one’s opinions and ideas, to express any beliefs without consequence. The main purpose of limiting freedom of speech was to ease the fear of communism. Instead, limiting freedom of speech enacted more fear upon Americans because they worried that they could be accused of being a part of the communist party. Although their intentions were meant for the good of the United States, Congress did ore harm than good. Another domestic policy that went too far was the Smith Act.
The Justice Department used this to jail Communist Party leaders. The Smith Act limited the free assembly of groups for whomever “encourage[d] the overthrow or destruction [of the United States] by force or violence; or becomes a member of, or affiliates with, any… Group… Knowing the purposes… ” (Smith Act). Membership in the Communist party itself is not enough proof that the leaders wanted to overthrow the government. Being a part of this group could just mean that they liked the communist ideology either, Congress shouldn’t have assumed that the Communist Party as a whole were bad people/ guilty.
The Smith Act went too far for the punishments, The punishment for defying the Smith Act was to “be fined under the title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both and shall be ineligible for unemployment by the United States… ” (Smith Act). Because the Congress were so strict on enforcing the Smith Act, it caused unnecessary paranoia throughout the U. S. The United States limited the spread Of communism by the U. S. Intervention in Korea which became the Korean War. Korea had been controlled by the Japanese during WI and had been temporarily split between the U. S. N the South and the Soviets in the North. With the outbreak of the Cold War, a plan for reuniting Korea wasn’t done. The North Koreans decided to unify the country through war, not knowing that the U. S. Would move to stop them. When the North Korean troops had pushed their way into South Korea, the U. S. Knew that the South Koreans would soon fall to communism if they didn’t interfere; so the S. Joined the united Nations in sending troops. Under the command of General MacArthur he U. S. Troops fought the North Koreans and pushed them back past the parallel border between South and North Korea.
General MacArthur kept pushing farther into North Korea and was going to push right up to the border with China. The Chinese then invaded North Korea to keep the U. S. Troops from completely reuniting Korea. The U. S. Troops fell back across the 38th parallel into South Korea. A truce was later declared because the goal of containment had been reached because South Korea was free from the North Koreans and communism… Letting them become the democratic nation they re today. The limited war was successful in stopping the expansion of communism.
In this foreign policy, the United States went just far enough because they prevented World War Ill from occurring. During the sass and sass, the U. S. ‘s policy of containment was a sensible approach to the potential threat posed by the Soviet Union. Despite the domestic and foreign policy mistakes to the policy of containment, on the whole, it was the right policy to protect the nation. The U. S. Hated communism and wanted with all its power to stop it and fought for years to do so. With actions like the orientation of the Smith Act and the limited First Amendment.