Of course, capitalists want to maximize profits - so long as their power isn't threatened. And in all three of these cases, they wanted to send a message to any other countries that would dare not toe the line: "you could be next".

While they certainly would have preferred different outcomes in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, they may well have succeeded in "containing" communism and intimidating independent thinking - certainly Gaddafi got the message and hoped letting in western oil companies would be enough appeasement. And we know how that turned out...