Were the methods used by the United States to contain communism justified?

The US used so many different methods in so many different
places, that it is practically impossible to generalize.  I would argue that some of the
methods used by the US were completely justified while others were
not.

An example of a completely justified method was the
Marshall Plan.  The Marshall Plan sought to contain communism in Europe by helping
Western European countries rebuild their economies after WWII.  The threat of Soviet
expansion was real and the method used to contain it was peaceful and benign.  In this
instance, then, US methods were completely
justified.

However, other methods were much less clearly
justified.  An example of this might be the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadeq in Iran. 
Mossadeq was not clearly a communist, so it is not clear that he was a real threat.  The
method used to contain his (alleged) communism was one which led to the creation of a
repressive government.  This is much less clearly
justified.

Overall, then, US actions must be examined on a
case-by-case basis to determine which were justified.