Zealous activity to halt or reverse the spread of communism, derived from profound fear and a sense of moral obligation to uphold capitalism, may be practised by staunchly capitalistic countries where there is little socialist challenge, or by fascist regimes where there has been a strong communist challenge. In the latter case, the ideal is not so much to uphold capitalism as to make use of it for extreme right-wing authoritarian 'National-socialist' aims.
The fight against Communism is weakened by ignorance of the totalitarian nature of the system. The millions of political prisoners who have died in the Gulags of the former Soviet Union; the harsh repression of the captive East European nations, two of which were invaded since World War II by the USSR; and the misery of every day life under Marxist-Leninism does not impact sufficiently upon those who are thousands and tens of thousands of kilometres away. The enemies of communism are not capitalists, they are freedom-loving peoples, including the free socialist parties of the world who are not Moscow's puppets.
Communism may be suppressed internally with censorship, intimidation, espionage and other methods. Externally it may lead to cold-war, or actual war; to the use of propaganda, and of trade, military and other agreements to influence other countries; to intervention and coercion. These tactics may be totally successful or they may promote weak dependent or puppet governments. Alternatively they may encourage broad sympathy for communism, especially among youth, where it might not have otherwise existed.
It is much too easy to assume that capitalism automatically safeguards democracy and human rights, by contrast with Communism. The horrors of apartheid were committed in the name of maintaining western values and defeating Communism, and were committed with the support of capitalist countries.