Briefly describe the policy of "containment" as is applied to U.S actions during the Cold War?U.S history

Containment was the idea of George F. Kennan, a diplomat
who worked in the US Embassy in the Soviet Union for 20 years.  He suggested in what is
known as "The Long Telegram" to Truman that containment was the way to deal with the
Soviets.  That is, do not directly threaten them or try to roll back communism where it
already existed, but contain the spread of it and be willing to fight to stop the
spread, or aid our non-communist allies to stop it for
us.

I like to compare it to the Free Soil Party of the
1840s US.  They did not seek to abolish slavery, only to stop it from spreading
west.