WWII didn’t work. We ended up giving the commies nearly everything we fought Japs and Nazis for. Except for France, Holland, Belgium, etc. In Western Europe. But I don’t figure that to have been worth it.
In that respect, it was the Cold War that didn’t work. Of course, the Cold War was just a continuation of WWII essentially.
Don’t know how true it is, but the movie “Patton” had the titular general mentally preparing to go to war with the USSR, and even saying that it would have to be the next war that the USA would have to fight after Germany and Japan was beaten.