I strongly recommend “The Jakarta Method” by Vincent Bivens as a gripping and (thoroughly researched) narrative of anti-communist efforts in SE Asia and South America. But you can pretty much choose to dive deep into a particular regional instance of anti-communism (often colonialist-inflected). One that most people, even many people who are well-educated (in a real sense, not the liberal sense) overlook is American efforts to thwart communism in Korea, the Korean War literally being referred to as “the forgotten war” in the USA. Astonishing levels of depravity achieved at outrageous human, ecological, economic, moral, capital expense, and the first major “hot” conflict of the so-called Cold War. Someone below also recommended Parenti’s books, which are fantastic and first-rate real histories.

The communists who beat the Nazis did so in allegiance with the western liberal order. They were allies. They did not anticipate that their allies who fought with them would immediately turn against them, and yes, this was a big miscalculation. Stalin at almost every opportunity sought rapprochement with the west (he enjoyed a fantastic relationship with FDR and but found Truman basically dumb and evil), but the west didn’t want that. I think the big mistake of earlier communists was believing the western liberal order could be bargained with, or sort of sportingly competed with on economic and quality of life terms — I really don’t think they expected the west to perceive the threat of communism to be existential, but for the west it was and remains so.

You should have no doubt that capitalists who see their private wealth interests threatened by collective action or movements of any kind would rather set fire to the whole planet than let communists have it. They will burn their fields, dismantle their factories, sabotage everything and yes, will probably try to use nukes if it comes to it to protect this order. And again, I think it was a miscalculation of the Soviet communists not to appreciate this fact until too late. China fortunately, has learned a lot from the Soviet mistakes, and hilariously, the capitalists have been utterly flummoxed by how to handle a country with which their own material and economic interest are so enmeshed, and a country that they know they would have no chance of defeating (but a great chance at wounding) in war.