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Escalation and Détente
After Khrushchev became the leader of the Soviet Union in
1953, his management of politics and economics marked a
crucial transition. He pursued a course of reform and
shocked his fellow delegates when he denounced the "cult
of personality1" that surrounded Stalin, and accused Stalin
of the crimes committed during the Great Purges.
Khruschev promoted reform of the Soviet system and began
to place an emphasis on the production of consumer goods
rather than on heavy industry. He sought a thaw in the
Cold War, calling for a “peaceful coexistence” with the West.
day standoff was the closest the world has ever come to
World War III, but cooler heads prevailed and a compromise
was reached, and the Soviets agreed to remove their
missiles. In turn, the Americans removed their outdated
missiles from Turkey six months later (as not to look as if
they had given in to a threat).
Re-Escalation
In 1960, just days before a summit conference between
President Eisenhower and Premier Khrushchev, a U.S. U-2
spy lane was shot down over Soviet airspace. The incident
turned out to be a great embarrassment for the U.S. and the
summit talks collapsed. This event would only be one of
many that would reignite the tensions between the
superpowers.
In 1959, Fidel Castro led a small guerilla army to victory
in Cuba. Quickly, he turned Cuba into a communist state,
nationalizing sugar-plantations, and giving enormous plots
of land to the peasants. Although some development took
place, dissenters and critics were jailed or killed, and
hundreds of thousands fled to the United States.
As Castro increasingly turned to the Soviet Union for aid,
the CIA backed a failed coup attempt in 1961. Around 1,500
Cuban exiles were either killed or captured during the Bay
of Pigs incident after President Kennedy called off air
support fearing an escalation into war directly with the
Soviet Union. The next year, the U.S. imposed an embargo
on Cuba, crippling the Cuban economy.
Castro, seeking closer ties and financial aid from the Soviet
Union, allowed the building of nuclear missile sites on his
soil – just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. This maneuver
set off the dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis. In October
1962, President Kennedy declared a quarantine of Cuba and
demanded that the Soviets remove their missiles. This 13
1
When a country's leader encourages praise of himself and
his deeds to such a degree that this praise affects nearly
every facet of the country's culture.
Events back in Europe also increased the tensions between
the superpowers. In 1961, with the approval of Khrushchev,
East Germany built the Berlin Wall. It was constructed in
an effort to stop the drain of labor and economic output
associated with the daily migration of huge numbers of
professionals and skilled workers from East to West Berlin,
and the attendant defections, which had political and
economic consequences for the entire Communist bloc. The
Berlin Wall became one of the most iconic symbols of the
Cold War. It certainly speaks volumes when a country must
create barriers and use secret police to keep people within
their borders. Years later, the Soviet Union would be
confronted with a greater threat of defection.
In January 1968, Alexander Dubček, the leader of
Czechoslovakia, enacted several democratic and capitalist
reforms. This experiment known as the Prague Spring
lasted until August, when Soviet and Warsaw troops
invaded the country, arrested Dubček and his supporters,
and placed a more Soviet-friendly government in control.
The policy of the USSR to enforce Soviet-style governments
among its satellite states, through military force if needed,
became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, named after
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who had been in power since
1964.
The Space Race
The Space Age began on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet
Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first space satellite,
into orbit around Earth. Then in 1961 the Soviets built a
rocket with enough power to put a person into orbit around
Earth, and Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first
person2 to orbit Earth.
Under the Great Leap Forward, the Chinese government
hoped to increase industrial output to the point where it
matched or exceeded that of many Western European
countries. To reach this goal, China purchased modern
machinery and tried to increase output by running this
machinery almost continuously in factories. The government
even encouraged the Chinese people to make their own iron
and steel in small backyard blast furnaces.
The United States had already begun its own ambitious
program for space exploration. Now, however, the United
States space program expanded rapidly. In 1958 the United
States successfully launched an unmanned satellite into
space, and in 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American
to travel in space. In March 1965 the first Soviet astronaut
walked in space and by August the United States had
responded with its own 20-minute space walk.
On July 20, 1969, the
United States won the
intense race to put the
first person on the moon.
The Apollo XI mission
transported
three
American
astronauts—
Neil Armstrong, Edwin K
Aldrin, Jr., and Michael
Collins—to the moon
aboard the spaceship Columbia. While Collins stayed behind
on the Columbia to help coordinate the mission, Armstrong
and Aldrin descended to the surface of the moon aboard the
lunar module, the Eagle, making the famous quote, “That’s
one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The “Space Race” was not just a competition for bragging
rights between the two superpowers, it was a way for each
side to develop a technological advantage over the other.
We can attribute much of today’s technology to the efforts of
the thousands individuals who worked to invent the means
by which space travel could occur.
Communist China
Impatient to accelerate progress, Mao’s government
announced the Great Leap Forward. This plan aimed to
speed up economic development while simultaneously
developing a completely socialist (communist) society.
Backyard Furnaces During the Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward also established huge collective
communities, called people’s communes, that incorporated
agricultural activities and small industries. Life on a
commune bore a strong resemblance to life in the military
with dormitories and communal dining halls. Often,
children were taken from parents to be raised in separate
dormitories. People worked long hours in the fields or
factories under strict supervision, and everyone received the
same pay, regardless of how much he or she produced. This
led the people to work only as hard as they had to; a
common problem with communist economies.
Many of the changes made under the Great Leap Forward
reflected Mao’s rejection of individualism. The Communist
Party controlled almost every aspect of people’s lives on the
communes. Furthermore, the Communists stressed loyalty
to the Communist Party and to the state, moving away from
the Chinese people’s traditionally strong ties of family
loyalty
The Great Leap Forward failed dismally. Industrial output
decreased, and there were food shortages. In fact, it has been
estimated that more than 20 million people starved in China
between 1958 and 1960. The failure of the program also led
to disagreements within the Communist Party. Faced with
falling productivity and constant criticism from workers and
peasants, the government abandoned the Great Leap
Forward.
The Cultural Revolution
2
The Soviet Union had earlier launched a dog into orbit, and
the United States launched a monkey into orbit soon after.
In the early l960s, after the failure of the Great Leap
Forward, Mao’s prestige within the Communist Party
hierarchy was seriously damaged. Mao was forced to give
up the day-to-day administrative tasks of running the
country to another leader, but he remained in his position as
Communist Party chairman. Although peasants still had to
work on the communal farmland, they also had small
private plots of land, on which they could raise their own
crops. They were also given monetary incentives to raise
more crops. Mao was highly critical of these policies.
return after the war, the Viet Minh, a communist-led guerrilla group that had fought the Japanese, now began to resist
the French. Nonetheless, by the end of 1945 the French had
regained control of much of Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh, hoped to negotiate
a quick settlement of the independence question. However,
the French would agree only to recognize Vietnam as a free
state within the French empire. In 1946 fighting broke out
between the French and the Viet Minh. The war dragged on
for years. After a major defeat in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu
(dyen byen foo), in which the Viet Minh captured some
13,000 French troops, French leaders were finally ready to
negotiate an end to the war.
Painting of Mao, Youth, and Their "Little Red Books"
In 1966 Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution, best known as the Cultural Revolution, a
violent attempt at social change. Mao aimed to rid China of
the “Four Olds”—old customs, old habits, old thoughts, and
old culture—replacing them with a new socialist culture,
Mao chose China’s young people to lead this revolution.
These radical high school and college students soon became
known as the Red Guards. Student members of the
Communist Party were encouraged to carry copies of Mao's
Little Red Book of quotations. Acting under Mao's
leadership, these "Red Guards" used his quotations in their
mission to weed out intellectuals.
The Red Guards went on a rampage throughout China,
vandalizing historic buildings, ruining ancient works of art,
burning books, and destroying anything they considered
part of what they called the “old way.” However, they saved
their greatest zeal for those people who did not comply fully
with Mao’s teachings. The Red Guards denounced these
people, publicly humiliated them—and sometimes beat, tortured, or even killed them. Those who survived punishment
by the Red Guards lost their jobs and their Communist Party
membership. The Cultural Revolution had a disastrous
effect on the Chinese economy. Agricultural and industrial
production fell dramatically, and the country’s economic
development plans suffered a severe setback.
The Vietnam Conflict
In the late 1800s, the French became the dominant power
in the eastern part of the peninsula of Indochina, an area
roughly equivalent to the present-day countries of Vietnam,
Laos, and Cambodia. However, during World War II, the
Japanese took control of the area. When the French tried to
The Geneva Accords, signed in 1954, divided Vietnam
into two zones at the 17th parallel. With Chinese and Soviet
assistance, the Viet Minh began to consolidate their
economic and political strength, building a communist state
in the north. By contrast, the south ruled by totalitarian
methods, attempting to suppress all opposition to the
government. Leaders also refused to hold the proposed
elections in 1956.
By the late 1950s the Viet Minh formed the National
Liberation Front (NLF) with the goal of reuniting Vietnam.
The NLF, a mixture of Viet Minh members and dissidents
from the south, soon became known as the Viet Cong, or
Vietnamese Communists. With conditions in the south
growing more and more chaotic, a group of army officers
assassinated Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South
Vietnam, and took control of the government in 1963. Over
the next three years, several different military groups ruled
South Vietnam.
American troop strength began to reach significant
numbers in the mid- l960s under President Lyndon Johnson
after an alleged military assault by the Viet Cong against
U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Johnson
administration explained the increasing American military
presence in a number of ways. First, communism had to be
contained. Second, the administration cited the domino
theory, the belief that if South Vietnam fell to communism,
all of Southeast Asia would follow.
At the beginning of 1968, North Vietnamese, troops and
the Viet Cong launched a major offensive. American and
South Vietnamese forces drove bad the attackers, inflicting
heavy casualties. Even so, the Viet Cong considered the Tet
Offensive—named for the Vietnamese New Year
celebration, during which the attack began—a psychological
victory. Many Americans, after seeing television pictures of
the fierce fighting, openly questioned United States
involvement in the war (Vietnam was America’s first “living
room” war – because citizens were able to see the horrors of
war in their homes for the first time).
During 1969, the first year of Richard Nixon’s presidency,
there were 540,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. Nixon announced
a policy of ‘Vietnamization.” This involved allowing the
South Vietnamese gradually to take over fighting the war
while the United States supplied them with arms,
equipment, air support, and economic aid. As a first step in
this process, he announced the gradual withdrawal of
American troops. Yet at the same time, Nixon expanded the
war by allowing the invasion of neighboring Cambodia.
Many Viet Cong troops were able to move along the “Ho
Chi Minh Trail” – the name given to the loose network of
roads and trails through the jungles in and around Vietnam.
The Americans used “Agent Orange,” an herbicide that
turned out to be toxic & even carcinogenic, to eat away at the
jungles to better see the enemy.
In 1973 the major parties in the Vietnam War reached a
cease-fire agreement. Under this agreement, known as the
Paris Peace Accords, the United States withdrew its
remaining troops from South Vietnam. In return the North
Vietnamese were to release American prisoners of war.
However, fighting continued in Vietnam in violation of the
accords. The South Vietnamese army, without American
support, could not hold back the enemy advance, and in
April 1975, North Vietnamese troops entered Saigon. Within
24 hours the South Vietnamese government surrendered.
Estimates of civilian and military casualties for both North
and South Vietnam range from 1.3 million to more than 2
million. American combat casualties totaled more than
58,000 killed and some 300,000 wounded.
After the war, North Vietnamese officials controlled and
administered all of South Vietnam, Then, in July 1976, the
two Vietnams united as one country—the Socialist Republic
of Vietnam—with Hanoi,
in the north, as the
capital.
The
former
southern capital, Saigon,
was renamed Ho Chi
Minh City, after the North
Vietnamese
president,
who died in 1969.
Even before unification,
the North Vietnamese had
begun to reform the south
along communist lines.
Economically, this reform
involved
nationalizing
property,
imposing
controls
on
private
enterprise, and moving
the population from cities to rural areas. As a result, more
than 1 million South Vietnamese fled their country. Some
left because they feared punishment by the North
Vietnamese. Others left because of food shortages. However,
most people moved on because they did not want to live
under a communist government. Many of these “Boat
People,” as the refugees were called, died at sea. Those who
survived spent months in crowded camps, waiting for
permission to settle permanently in another country. Many
eventually made their way to Western countries - most
commonly to the US.
Détente
Efforts to improve relations with the Soviet Union and
Communist China began under President Richard Nixon. In
1972, Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Moscow.
During his visit, President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, or
SALT. This agreement limited each country’s production
and deployment of certain nuclear weapons. Nixon and
Brezhnev also signed several accords related to
environmental,
health-related,
and
technological
cooperation. The general improvement in Soviet-American
relations that followed became known as détente (dayTAHNT), a French word meaning an easing of strain.
Chinese-Soviet relations worsened during the 1960s as
both countries began to station troops along their common
border.
As a result, a number of clashes occurred.
However, China became more willing to come to terms with
the United States. The first major sign of change came in
1972, when a US Ping Pong Team was sent to China for a
goodwill competition. This seemingly random visit resulted
in something much more substantial when President
Richard Nixon visited China. Soon after, the two nations
began to permit the exchange of other sports teams,
journalists, educators, artists, and business leaders. While
many Americans saw opportunities for investment and
trade in China’s rapidly growing economy, mutual distrust
of the Soviet Union provided much of the basis for the
improvement of Sino-American relations. Finally, in 1979,
the United States gave full diplomatic recognition to the
People’s
Republic
of
China.
At
about
the
same time, the
United States
withdrew its
recognition of
the Nationalist
Chinese
government in
Taiwan.