Download Unit 6 - Cold War - Solon City Schools

Reasons for the Cold War
1. Economic Differences. The USSR was a communist state and under their influence, so were the
Eastern Bloc countries. While the Western nations such as France, West Germany, Britain, and
Rear
the US
were capitalists.
2. Political Differences. The USSR was led by a series of dictators who resented the Western
democracies criticism of the Soviet system and how their people lacked any real freedom.
3. Competition. The USSR and America emerged after the war as the major economic, political,
and military powers. These positions of equal strength create a natural rivalry that plays itself out
through a war of words, wars of spreading influence, and wars of proxy.
THE U.S.S.R. after WORLD WAR II
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The USSR emerges as a victor after WWII
Stalin rebuilt much of the nation, especially the military to defend
the nation against Germany. After the war, these factories continue
to produce military technology and equipment.
Stalin wanted Eastern Europe to be a buffer between the Europe
and his country. His argument was that the German invasion so
decimated the USSR, he needed Communist friendly countries to
assure Russia would never be attacked again. These countries
would become part of the Eastern Bloc or as Churchill called it, the
Iron Curtain.
o The Communists sphere of influence was established at the
Yalta Conference in 1945. Some historians claim that FDR
and Churchill gave too much to Stalin by allowing the Red
Army to invade Berlin and thus control eastern Germany.
This allowed the Soviets to get the upper hand following
WWII. Some historians claim that FDR’s poor health might
have clouded his judgment and led him to appease Stalin
and the Soviets.
After the war, Stalin believed conflict with the West was inevitable.
The needs of consumers were not met:
o Soviet Bloc of nations: command economy (government
determines what to make, how much to make, and the price)
o U.S. & West: market economy (let the market,
supply/demand determine products and price) or
o Mixed economy – some government interference in the
market economy
 most nations of the world are mixed economies
today
Harry Truman, unlike FDR, mistrusted Stalin and believed that
1953: Stalin dies – struggle for power ensues
his true intention was to control the whole of Eastern Europe
in the same ruthless way he controlled Russia. Almost
immediately following the war the two sides move away from
allies and begin look like rivals. The Cold War name comes
from the idea of “cooling of relations.” The economic and
political differences further polarized the two countries.
The United Nations was created in April of 1945. 50 Nations
gathered in San Francisco to draft a charter for the United
Nations. 5 Permanent members of the UN were Great
Britain, China, France, US, and the Soviet Union. They were
given the ability to veto any decision made by the UN.
Unlike the League of Nations, the UN could send troops into
battle and try war criminals. However, with the veto power
of the 5 permanent members often led to a deadlock.
decisions
From Allies to Enemies  The Truman Doctrine / Policy of Containment This is a policy that the expansion
of Communism into other countries needs to be contained to Russia and Eastern
Europe. It was developed by a state department expert called George Kennan.
He believed the Soviets true intention was to expand their territory without using
war, but rather by expanding their influence.
 The Martial Plan was instituted by the American Secretary of State George
Marshall. The idea was that the US needed to take the lead in rebuilding Europe
after the devastation of WWII. Along with the US, other allied nations donated 13
billion dollars over 10 years to the Western nations of Europe. The Eastern Bloc
countries refused to participate because the Soviet Union did not want to link
Communist countries with donations from Capitalistic nations like the US.
 Creation of the Iron Curtain
 Albanian and Yugoslavian become communist. The leaders of these two
countries were communist and they originally opposed the Germans.
 Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria were in firm control of the Soviet Army and
the Soviets worked hard to make sure Communist leaders were elected to
positions of leadership. Later, breaking a promise he made to Churchill
and FDR, Stalin refused to allow free and fair elections. Only communist
leaders were appointed by the Soviet Union in the Iron Curtain.
Within Germany Zones of Occupation were established with the Soviets controlling
Eastern Germany and the allies supply Western Germany. The capital of Berlin was
split in two, and the Soviets wanted to force the allies to give up their sector of the city.
In June of 1948, The Soviets blocked all access to the city of Berlin cutting Western
Berlin off from its supplies. Rather than going to war, America, Britain, and France
decided to conduct airlifts into Western Berlin. These airlifts continued for 11 months
until finally the USSR lifted the blockade. This event was known as the Berlin Airlift.
The Allies eventually give all control back to the Germans allowing them to create the
country of West Germany. The Soviets would create East Germany and the country
would still be controlled by the communists.
The Cold War
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
 NATO was created on April 4th, 1949.
 NATO headquarters are in Brussels Belgium.
 NATO was formed to deal with what was perceived to be Soviet Aggression
and the ambition on the USSR to spread its communistic influence in
Europe.
 The original twelve members of NATO in 1949 were the United States, the
United Kingdom, Canada, France, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway,
Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
“The Parties of NATO agreed that an armed attack
against one or more of them in Europe or North
America shall be considered an attack against them all.
Consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack
occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of
individual or collective self-defense will assist the Party
or Parties being attacked, individually and in concert
with the other Parties, such action as it deems
necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore
and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
The Warsaw Pact – The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance
 The Warsaw Pact was created on May 15, 1955
 USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and
Romania
 Created in response to NATO and perceived threat of the Western Democratic
Alliance. The strategy of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was dominated by the
desire to prevent, at all costs, the recurrence of an invasion of Russian soil as
had occurred under Napoleon in 1812 and Hitler in 1941-44, leading to extreme
devastation and human losses in both cases, but especially in the second; the
USSR emerged from the Second World War with the greatest total losses in life of
any participant in the war.
The Cold War
Stalin died on March 5th, 1953 after suffering from a stroke. He was never prosecuted
for the estimated at least 10 million people who were killed as a result of his leadership.
One death is a
tragedy; one million
is a statistic. Stalin.
Nikita Kruschev comes to power as head of the Communist Party 1953 – 1964.
He moves to remove the legacy of Stalin which was
millions of his own people dead or imprisoned.
Khrushchev keeps the 5 Year Plans and grants some
freedoms including freeing some political prisoners. At
first, Cold War relations begin to improve or “thaw.”
“Peaceful coexistence” was the new Soviet policy
towards the West. Khrushchev launches a consumerfocused effort to improve technology and to modernize
USSR.
In 1957, the Soviets launch Sputnik I which is the world’s 1st successful satellite.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet
Union sent into orbit Sputnik 1, the
first artificial satellite in history.
Then a month later, an even larger
and heavier satellite, Sputnik 2,
carried the dog Laika into orbit.
Sputnik’s launch came as an
unnerving surprise to the United
States. The space age had dawned
and America’s Cold War rival
suddenly appeared technologically
superior. Source - Smithsonian
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Sergei Korolev is
the chief
engineer for the
USSR’s Space
Program. He
creates the
Soviets first
inter-continental
missile along
with Sputnik.
The massive military buildup on both sides continued despite the thaw
o IC BMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) were developed by both Soviets
and the US.
o Missiles could be launched from Russia and hit the U.S. and vice versa.
Why would a non-militaristic satellite like Sputnik spur on a new arms race?
The Cold War
In 1959, Khrushchev visits the
American President
Eisenhower to ease tensions.
Eisenhower was set to visit
Moscow, but U.S. spy plane is
shot down over Russia.
This U-2 spy plane incident is embarrassment to the U.S.
o Gray Powers was shot down while spying on the USSR and the mistrust
continues.
 1960 – John F. Kennedy elected U.S. President
o Young, brash – wants to show U.S. strength
The Berlin Wall
Khrushchev tries to pressure the West to leave West Berlin and builds
a wall to prevent citizens from leaving East Berlin. On August 12 at 4
p.m. Walter Ulbricht, the East German leader, signed the commands to
close the border. Next Sunday at midnight the army and police began
to bolt the city. The wall is built and separates the city into two parts for
more than 28 years.
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Cuban Missile Crisis – October, 1962 –Khrushchev attempts to put nuclear
missiles in Cuba
o Cuba had fallen to Fidel Castro’s rebels in 1958 and aligned himself with
Soviets
o U.S. spy planes see the missiles … U.S. demands they be removed
o Soviets refuse – want U.S. missiles removed from Turkey
o Kennedy orders U.S. Navy to blockade Cuba and stop any Soviet ship
heading to island nation.
o Tensions high for 13 days in October, 1962 – closest world came to WW III
o Eventually, Khrushchev backs down, removes missiles and U.S. agrees to
take missiles out of Turkey
o US/USSR agree to respect each others power
 Both agree to a hotline between the nations to avert a catastrophe
 Agree to new treaties to ban nuclear testing in the atmosphere
Korean War
Korea's liberation from Japanese occupation at the end of World War II
was short lived, as the United States and the Soviet Union each sought
post-war influence in Korea. To administer the surrender of Japanese
troops in Korea, American and Soviet negotiators hastily agreed, in
August 1945, to an administrative division of the peninsula at the 38th
parallel. As tensions between the two superpowers intensified, the
administrative division hardened into a political division of the
peninsula.
In the north, Soviet-educated Kim Il Sung was installed as
the leader of a provisional government; while in the south
American-educated Syngman Rhee was elected president
of the Republic of Korea. By 1948 the nation was divided
between two opposing political systems, each claiming to
represent all the Korean people. In 1949 American combat
forces were withdrawn from the peninsula, leaving behind
little more than a poorly-equipped Korean defense force.
By contrast, to the north a well-trained army grew, supplied
and trained by the Soviet Union. The seeds of civil war had
been planted, but the tragic drama would be played out on
the world stage against the backdrop of Cold War
maneuverings among the major powers of China, the
Soviet Union, and the United States.
Korean War
Korean War - June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II, Korea was
divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Korean) and U.S. (South Korean) zones of
occupation.
Relations between them became increasingly strained, and on June 25, 1950, North
Korean forces invaded South Korea.
 The United Nations quickly condemned the invasion as an act of aggression,
demanded the withdrawal of North Korean troops from the South, and called upon
its members to aid South Korea.
 On June 27, U.S. President Truman authorized the use of American land, sea, and
air forces in Korea; a week later, the United Nations placed the forces of 15 other
member nations under U.S. command, and Truman appointed Gen. Douglas
MacArthur supreme commander.
 In the first weeks of the conflict the North Korean forces met little resistance and
advanced rapidly. By Sept. 10 they had driven the South Korean army and a small
American force to the Busan (Pusan) area at the southeast tip of Korea. A
counteroffensive began on Sept. 15, when UN forces made a daring landing at
Incheon (Inchon) on the west coast.
 North Korean forces fell back and MacArthur received orders to pursue them into
North Korea.
 On Oct. 19, the North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured; by Nov. 24,
North Korean forces were driven by the 8th Army, under Gen. Walton Walker, and
the X Corp, under Gen. Edward Almond, almost to the Yalu River, which marked
the border of Communist China.
 As MacArthur prepared for a final offensive, the Chinese Communists joined with
the North Koreans to launch (Nov. 26) a successful counterattack. The UN troops
were forced back, and in Jan., 1951, the Communists again advanced into the
South, recapturing Seoul, the South Korean capital.
 After months of heavy fighting, the center of the conflict was returned to the 38th
parallel, where it remained for the rest of the war. MacArthur, however, wished to
mount another invasion of North Korea. When MacArthur persisted in publicly
criticizing U.S. policy, Truman, on the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
removed (Apr. 10, 1951) him from command and installed Gen. Matthew B.
Ridgway as commander in chief. Gen. James Van Fleet then took command of the
8th Army. Ridgway began (July 10, 1951) truce negotiations with the North
Koreans and Chinese, while small unit actions, bitter but indecisive, continued.
Gen. Van Fleet was denied permission to go on the offensive and end the “meat
grinder” war.
 The war's unpopularity played an important role in the presidential victory of
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had pledged to go to Korea to end the war.
Negotiations broke down four different times, but after much difficulty and nuclear
threats by Eisenhower, an armistice agreement was signed (July 27, 1953).
Casualties in the war were heavy. U.S. losses were placed at over 54,000 dead and
103,000 wounded, while Chinese and Korean casualties were each at least 10
times as high.
CHINA AFTER WORLD WAR II:
 Bitter civil war rages after the Japanese are defeated
o Chiang Kai-Shek’s nationalist forces (with Western help) VS Mao Zedong’s
communist forces (with help from USSR)
o 1949 – Mao’s forces chase Nationalists onto island of Formosa
 Chiang forms new nation of Republic of China (Taiwan)
 Mao declares new nation – People’s Republic of China
 THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC 1949-60
o Many nations refused to recognize one or other of the 2 Chinas
o “Red China” and the USSR signed economic pacts
 Help comes to Mao’s new nation to help him industrialize
o Mao announces his own Five-Year Plans to build industry and farms from war
 Farmers had to join cooperatives
o 1958 – Mao announces 2nd Five-Year Plan – the “Great Leap Forward”
 Called for public ownership of all farms … FAILS BADLY – not enough
food was grown
o Relations with Soviets worsened in the 1950s
 Kruschev’s friendly moves toward the West angered Mao
 China backs communist North Korea in its battle with South Korea from
1950-53
 This split with USSR shows there really was no one form of communism
 RED CHINA IN THE 1960s & 1970s
o Mao impatient with pace of change by 1960s
 Ancient ways for 1 billion people makes for slow change
o Cultural Revolution for social change is undertaken
 Movement to turn Chinese society upside down
 Doctors, professionals all forced to farm now
 Laborers and farm workers forced to the cities!
 Workers were told to root out anyone who deviated from communist
thought
 Many in positions of influence were persecuted, imprisoned
 Young members of the Party carried “little red books”
 Members of the Red Guard who lead the revolution
 Thousands of lives ruined, education and technological advances came to
a halt … Mao eventually even stops the Red Guard (out of control purges)
REFORM & REACTION
o 1969: Chinese-Soviet relation so bad by now a border military scuffle occurs
 U.S. sees a chance to split communist nations further apart
o Early 1970s: several moderate leaders move to replace Mao as he aged
 They sought to learn from technology of the West
o 1971: US Sec’y of State Kissinger visits China to ease relations – huge step!
o 1972: Pres. Nixon visits China – 1st US President to do so – policy of détente
 Works to play the Chinese off of the Soviets
o 1976: Mao and Zhou Enlai both die – the Chinese Communists argue over
which direction to take the nation
o Deng Xiaoping emerges as new leader of PRC
 A pragmatist (deals with reality) … most to interpret communist less strictly
 Efforts made at modernizing and seeking help from the West
 Chinese students allowed to study abroad (now hundreds of thousands do
so all over the world)
o 1989: Government sees an increase in demand for free speech and an end to
corruption
 Tiananmen Square in capital Beijing – large student protest for more
freedoms held … lasts six weeks before government grows impatient
 Tanks and troops called in and thousands killed –
 Gov’t shuts down all news broadcasts so truth still not know of how many
 Change not permitted to come too quickly
o Early 1990s: more free economic market activities permitted
 Trade with the west expands greatly
o TODAY – the free market is expanding greatly in China
 What was once a few pockets of capitalism are spreading
 Foreign investment is massive and Chinese now investing in other nations!
 DANGER – as they continue to modernize the standard of living is
increasing and the need for electricity skyrocketing
 China on its way to becoming the #1 emitter of greenhouse gases
 Building about 1 power plant a week with little environmental
regulation … very laissez-faire economy today.
 BIG QUESTION – can you have capitalism and not democracy????
TAIWAN
o Still considered part of mainland China by PRC … not recognized by the UN
o Modern nation with strong economy – tiny compared to PRC
o US had pledge to protect it from any attack by PRC but fear of Red China
persists
Japan at the end of World War II:
 Demoralizing loss for proud Empire
 Was fiercely independent from foreign control and now under Allied occupation
 Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP) governed Japan
o U.S. was dominant force – General Douglas MacArthur knew he should not
create a system to punish Japan …
o SCAP put forward massive reforms of Japanese system
st
 1 – A new constitution
o Stripped royal family of any real power – merely a figurehead now
o Forced Emperor to relinquish any claim to divine authority
o British style of gov’t put in place –
 Cabinet … Parliament (“Diet”) would be elected by any registered voter
age 20 or older … Bill of Rights created
o Article 9 of Constitution – prohibited ALL military except a defense force
 Allows nation to focus on rebuilding its economy instead of military
nd
 2 – Economic Reforms
o Zaibutzu was to be broken up (large monopolies of industry and banking)
o Only limited success in doing this … still around today in some form
o Farmers themselves would dominate and own the land, not absentee owners who
lived in the cities … new rural prosperity grows
 1951 – Official occupation of Japan ends … U.S. keeps military bases though (still there
today)
 Problems from prior to WW II still existed
o Poor natural resources … limited room for growth … large population
 Japan’s new gov’t moves to work closely with corporations to creatively move it forward
to modernize
o 1st area of focus – home electronics – soon they dominate world markets
o 2nd area of focus – automobile industry
 Share of world market: 1960: 3% 1980: 29%
 Today Toyota passed up General Motors as #1 automaker
 Government/Industrial cooperation creates an intense atmosphere for industry to grow
and compete … it replaces the government/military cooperation of WW II and before.
 Turning A Former Weakness Into A Strength:
o Japan’s need for raw materials meant it became a world player in the economy
b/c it bought from all over the world … instead of militarily conquering … do it
with $$
o Japanese banks invested worldwide and had an interest in the affairs of those
nations’ economies and internal political stability
 Japan was a world economic power by the 1970s
 The U.S. encouraged this strong economy throughout the Cold War to fend off Soviet
influence in Asia and after the Cold War b/c the Japanese have invested so much in the
U.S. economy.
 BY THE 1980s:
o Japan was competing directly with the U.S. economically
o U.S. had a trade deficit with the Japanese for first time (we imported more
Japanese good than they imported of our stuff)
 Japan created strict barriers to stop many imports or foreign control of companies
o Very homogenous nation – creates a loyalty to Japanese products
 Politically – Japan had to decide if it was going to wield its new economic power in other
ways
o More involved in United Nations operations
o Became a major donor of aid to developing nations in the 1980s
o Had to decide whether to send troops overseas in peacekeeping missions?
 THE 1990s:
o Japan continued to wield economic power and dominated Asia
o 1992 – sends troops as part of UN forces to keep peace in Africa and Bosnia
o 1996 – economic recession hits Japan and Asia –
 This tells Japanese had to loosen its tight restrictions on economic
regulations and foreign investment
 Cost of doing business in Japan rising too quickly – high wages
 TODAY
o Japan still recovering from economic slumps
o Has built automobile and electronic goods factories all over the world
 Ohio has 2 Honda plants employing thousands of people
o Now struggling with China to see who will dominate the Asian market
o Japan still quite a pacifist nation (anti-war) but some nationalist feeling still come
forward at times
o One of most modern nations on earth but still keeps ancient traditions
1964 – Khrushchev is forced out of power
He had lost Cuban missile crisis and spend too much money on heavy industry
and not enough on consumer goods.
New leader – Leonid Brezhnev – would rule for next 18 years
o He reinstitutes Stalinist powers. He attacks intellectuals & critics within
USSR
o Dissidents - outspoken opponents of government faced harsh prison
gulags terms or banishment in Siberia or out of the country)
 Alexander Solzhenitsyn (author) flees to U.S.

Dr. Andrew Sakharov – scientist who helped Soviets develop
hydrogen bomb and critic of government put in internal exile.
Brezhnev launches a new massive military buildup
o He creates an economy that is at least 20 years behind the West
 No domestic technology for farmers, goods
o Détente by 1972 Brezhnev ready to reduce tensions
 Détente – improvement in US-USS relations
 U.S. Pres. Nixon and Brezhnev sign the SALT treaty
 Strategic arms limitation talks
 Both agree to limit number of nuclear warheads
The Cold War continued
US was just getting out of Vietnam by mid-1970s after 10 years
 Unpopular war that cost US 58,000 lives, billions of dollars and
divided the nation – still see effects today
 US had claimed it was to fight communism’s spread in SE Asia, but
we supported a corrupt government to do so when people of
Vietnam wanted communism.
By Professor Robert K. Brigham, Vassar College
The Second Indochina War, 1954-1975, grew out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam. In July 1954,
after one hundred years of colonial rule, a defeated France was forced to leave Vietnam. Nationalist forces under the
direction of General Vo Nguyen Giap trounced the allied French troops at the remote mountain outpost of Dien Bien
Phu in the northwest corner of Vietnam. This decisive battle convinced the French that they could no longer maintain
their Indochinese colonies and Paris quickly sued for peace. As the two sides came together in Geneva, Switzerland,
international events were already shaping the future of Vietnam's modern revolution.
The Geneva Peace Accords
The Geneva Peace Accords, signed by France and Vietnam in the summer of
1954, reflected the strains of the international cold war. Drawn up in the
shadow of the Korean War, the Geneva Accords represented the worst of all
possible futures for war-torn Vietnam. Because of outside pressures brought
to bear by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, Vietnam's
delegates to the Geneva Conference agreed to the temporary partition of their
nation at the seventeenth parallel to allow France a face-saving defeat. The
Communist superpowers feared that a provocative peace would anger the
United States and its western European allies, and neither Moscow or Peking
wanted to risk another confrontation with the West so soon after the Korean
War.
According to the terms of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam would hold national
elections in 1956 to reunify the country. The division at the seventeenth parallel, a temporary separation without
cultural precedent, would vanish with the elections. The United States, however, had other ideas. Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles did not support the Geneva Accords because he thought they granted too much power to the
Communist Party of Vietnam.
Instead, Dulles and President Dwight D. Eisenhower supported the creation of a counter-revolutionary alternative
south of the seventeenth parallel. The United States supported this effort at nation-building through a series of
multilateral agreements that created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
South Vietnam Under Ngo Dinh Diem
Using SEATO for political cover, the Eisenhower administration helped create a new nation from dust in southern
Vietnam. In 1955, with the help of massive amounts of American military, political, and economic aid, the
Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN or South Vietnam) was born. The following year, Ngo Dinh Diem, a
staunchly anti-Communist figure from the South, won a dubious election that made him president of the GVN.
Almost immediately, Diem claimed that his newly created government was under attack from Communists in the
north. Diem argued that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam) wanted to take South
Vietnam by force. In late 1957, with American military aid, Diem began to counterattack. He used the help of the
American Central Intelligence Agency to identify those who sought to bring his government down and arrested
thousands. Diem passed a repressive series of acts known as Law 10/59 that made it legal to hold someone in jail if
s/he was a suspected Communist without bringing formal charges.
The outcry against Diem's harsh and oppressive actions was immediate. Buddhist monks and nuns were joined by
students, business people, intellectuals, and peasants in opposition to the corrupt rule of Ngo Dinh Diem. The more
these forces attacked Diem's troops and secret police, the more Diem complained that the Communists were trying to
take South Vietnam by force. This was, in Diem's words, "a hostile act of aggression by North Vietnam against peaceloving and democratic South Vietnam."
The Kennedy administration seemed split on how peaceful or democratic the Diem regime really was. Some Kennedy
advisers believed Diem had not instituted enough social and economic reforms to remain a viable leader in the nationbuilding experiment. Others argued that Diem was the "best of a bad lot." As the White House met to decide the
future of its Vietnam policy, a change in strategy took place at the highest levels of the Communist Party.
From 1956-1960, the Communist Party of Vietnam desired to reunify the country through political means alone.
Accepting the Soviet Union's model of political struggle, the Communist Party tried unsuccessfully to cause Diem's
collapse by exerting tremendous internal political pressure. After Diem's attacks on suspected Communists in the
South, however, southern Communists convinced the Party to adopt more violent tactics to guarantee Diem's
downfall. At the Fifteenth Party Plenum in January 1959, the Communist Party finally approved the use of
revolutionary violence to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem's government and liberate Vietnam south of the seventeenth
parallel. In May 1959, and again in September 1960, the Party confirmed its use of revolutionary violence and the
combination of the political and armed struggle movements. The result was the creation of a broad-based united front
to help mobilize southerners in opposition to the GVN.
The National Liberation Front
The united front had long and historic roots in Vietnam. Used
earlier in the century to mobilize anti-French forces, the united
front brought together Communists and non-Communists in an
umbrella organization that had limited, but important goals. On
December 20, 1960, the Party' s new united front, the National
Liberation Front (NLF), was born. Anyone could join this front as
long as they opposed Ngo Dinh Diem and wanted to unify
Vietnam.
The character of the NLF and its relationship to the Communists
in Hanoi has caused considerable debate among scholars, anti-war
activists, and policymakers. From the birth of the NLF, government officials in Washington claimed that Hanoi
directed the NLF's violent attacks against the Saigon regime. In a series of government "White Papers," Washington
insiders denounced the NLF, claiming that it was merely a puppet of Hanoi and that its non-Communist elements
were Communist dupes. The NLF, on the other hand, argued that it was autonomous and independent of the
Communists in Hanoi and that it was made up mostly of non-Communists. Many anti-war activists supported the
NLF's claims. Washington continued to discredit the NLF, however, calling it the "Viet Cong," a derogatory and slang
term meaning Vietnamese Communist.
December 1961 White Paper
In 1961, President Kennedy sent a team to Vietnam to report on conditions in the South and to assess future
American aid requirements. The report, now known as the "December 1961 White Paper," argued for an increase in
military, technical, and economic aid, and the introduction of large-scale American "advisers" to help stabilize the
Diem regime and crush the NLF. As Kennedy weighed the merits of these recommendations, some of his other
advisers urged the president to withdraw from Vietnam altogether, claiming that it was a "dead-end alley."
In typical Kennedy fashion, the president chose a middle route. Instead of a large-scale military buildup as the White
Paper had called for or a negotiated settlement that some of his advisers had long advocated, Kennedy sought a limited
accord with Diem. The United States would increase the level of its military involvement in South Vietnam through
more machinery and advisers, but would not intervene whole-scale with troops. This arrangement was doomed from
the start, and soon reports from Vietnam came in to Washington attesting to further NLF victories. To counteract the
NLF's success in the countryside, Washington and Saigon launched an ambitious and deadly military effort in the rural
areas. Called the Strategic Hamlet Program, the new counterinsurgency plan rounded up villagers and placed them in
"safe hamlets" constructed by the GVN. The idea was to isolate the NLF from villagers, its base of support. This
culturally-insensitive plan produced limited results and further alienated the peasants from the Saigon regime.
Through much of Diem's reign, rural Vietnamese had viewed the GVN as a distant annoyance, but the Strategic
Hamlet Program brought the GVN to the countryside. The Saigon regime's reactive policies ironically produced more
cadres for the NLF.
Military Coup
By the summer of 1963, because of NLF successes and its own failures, it was
clear that the GVN was on the verge of political collapse. Diem's brother, Ngo
Dinh Nhu, had raided the Buddhist pagodas of South Vietnam, claiming that
they had harbored the Communists that were creating the political instability.
The result was massive protests on the streets of Saigon that led Buddhist
monks to self-immolation. The pictures of the monks engulfed in flames made
world headlines and caused considerable consternation in Washington. By late
September, the Buddhist protest had created such dislocation in the south that
the Kennedy administration supported a coup. In 1963, some of Diem's own generals in the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam (ARVN) approached the American Embassy in Saigon with plans to overthrow Diem. With Washington's
tacit approval, on November 1, 1963, Diem and his brother were captured and later killed. Three weeks later,
President Kennedy was assassinated on the streets of Dallas.
At the time of the Kennedy and Diem assassinations, there were 16,000 military advisers in Vietnam. The Kennedy
administration had managed to run the war from Washington without the large-scale introduction of American combat
troops. The continuing political problems in Saigon, however, convinced the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson,
that more aggressive action was needed. Perhaps Johnson was more prone to military intervention or maybe events in
Vietnam had forced the president's hand to more direct action. In any event, after a dubious DRV raid on two U.S.
ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Johnson administration argued for expansive war powers for the president.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
In August 1964, in response to American and GVN espionage along its coast, the
DRV launched a local and controlled attack against the C. Turner Joy and the
U.S.S. Maddox, two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin. The first of
these attacks occurred on August 2, 1964. A second attack was supposed to have
taken place on August 4, although Vo Nguyen Giap, the DRV's leading military
figure at the time, and Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara have
recently concluded that no second attack ever took place. In any event, the
Johnson administration used the August 4 attack as political cover for a
Congressional resolution that gave the president broad war powers. The
resolution, now known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed both the House
and Senate with only two dissenting votes (Senators Morse of Oregon and
Gruening of Alaska). The Resolution was followed by limited reprisal air attacks
against the DRV.
Throughout the fall and into the winter of 1964, the Johnson administration
debated the correct strategy in Vietnam. The Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to expand the air war over the DRV quickly
to help stabilize the new Saigon regime. The civilians in the Pentagon wanted to apply gradual pressure to the
Communist Party with limited and selective bombings. Only Undersecretary of State George Ball dissented, claiming
that Johnson's Vietnam policy was too provocative for its limited expected results. In early 1965, the NLF attacked two
U.S. army installations in South Vietnam, and as a result, Johnson ordered the sustained bombing missions over the
DRV that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had long advocated.
The bombing missions, known as OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER, caused the Communist Party to reassess
its own war strategy. From 1960 through late 1964, the Party believed it could win a military victory in the south "in a
relatively short period of time." With the new American military commitment, confirmed in March 1965 when
Johnson sent the first combat troops to Vietnam, the Party moved to a protracted war strategy. The idea was to get the
United States bogged down in a war that it could not win militarily and create unfavorable conditions for political
victory. The Communist Party believed that it would prevail in a protracted war because the United States had no
clearly defined objectives, and therefore, the country would eventually tire of the war and demand a negotiated
settlement. While some naive and simple-minded critics have claimed that the Communist Party, and Vietnamese in
general, did not have the same regard for life and therefore were willing to sustain more losses in a protracted war, the
Party understood that it had an ideological commitment to victory from large segments of the Vietnamese population.
The War in America
One of the greatest ironies in a war rich in ironies was that Washington
had also moved toward a limited war in Vietnam. The Johnson
administration wanted to fight this war in "cold blood." This meant that
America would go to war in Vietnam with the precision of a surgeon
with little noticeable impact on domestic culture. A limited war called
for limited mobilization of resources, material and human, and caused
little disruption in everyday life in America. Of course, these goals were
never met. The Vietnam War did have a major impact on everyday life
in America, and the Johnson administration was forced to consider
domestic consequences of its decisions every day. Eventually, there
simply were not enough volunteers to continue to fight a protracted war and the government instituted a draft. As the
deaths mounted and Americans continued to leave for Southeast Asia, the Johnson administration was met with the
full weight of American anti-war sentiments. Protests erupted on college campuses and in major cities at first, but by
1968 every corner of the country seemed to have felt the war's impact. Perhaps one of the most famous incidents in
the anti-war movement was the police riot in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Hundreds of
thousands ofcpeople came to Chicago in August 1968 to protest American intervention in Vietnam and the leaders of
the Democratic Party who continued to prosecute the war.
The Tet Offensive
By 1968, things had gone from bad to worse for the Johnson administration. In late January, the DRV and the NLF
launched coordinated attacks against the major southern cities. These attacks, known in the West as the Tet Offensive,
were designed to force the Johnson administration to the bargaining table. The Communist Party correctly believed
that the American people were growing war-weary and that its continued successes in the countryside had tipped the
balance of forces in its favor. Although many historians have since claimed that the Tet Offensive was a military defeat,
but a psychological victory for the Communists, it had produced the desired results. In late March 1968, a disgraced
Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek the Democratic Party's re-nomination for president and hinted
that he would go to the bargaining table with the Communists to end the war.
The Nixon Years
The secret negotiations began in the spring of 1968 in Paris and
soon it was made public that Americans and Vietnamese were
meeting to discuss an end to the long and costly war. Despite the
progress in Paris, the Democratic Party could not rescue the
presidency from Republican challenger Richard Nixon who claimed
he had a secret plan to end the war.
Nixon's secret plan, it turned out, was borrowing from a strategic
move from Lyndon Johnson's last year in office. The new president
continued a process called "Vietnamization", an awful term that
implied that Vietnamese were not fighting and dying in the jungles of
Southeast Asia. This strategy brought American troops home while increasing the air war over the DRV and relying
more on the ARVN for ground attacks. The Nixon years also saw the expansion of the war into neighboring Laos and
Cambodia, violating the international rights of these countries in secret campaigns, as the White House tried
desperately to rout out Communist sanctuaries and supply routes. The intense bombing campaigns and intervention in
Cambodia in late April 1970 sparked intense campus protests all across America. At Kent State in Ohio, four students
were killed by National Guardsmen who were called out to preserve order on campus after days of anti-Nixon protest.
Shock waves crossed the nation as students at Jackson State in Mississippi were also shot and killed for political
reasons, prompting one mother to cry, "They are killing our babies in Vietnam and in our own backyard."
The expanded air war did not deter the Communist Party, however, and it continued to make hard demands in Paris.
Nixon's Vietnamization plan temporarily quieted domestic critics, but his continued reliance on an expanded air war
to provide cover for an American retreat angered U.S. citizens. By the early fall 1972, U.S. Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger and DRV representatives Xuan Thuy and Le Duc Tho had hammered out a preliminary peace draft.
Washington and Hanoi assumed that its southern allies would naturally accept any agreement drawn up in Paris, but
this was not to pass. The leaders in Saigon, especially President Nguyen van Thieu and Vice President Nguyen Cao
Ky, rejected the Kissinger-Tho peace draft, demanding that no concessions be made. The conflict intensified in
December 1972, when the Nixon administration unleashed a series of deadly bombing raids against targets in the
DRV's largest cities, Hanoi and Haiphong. These attacks, now known as the Christmas bombings, brought immediate
condemnation from the international community and forced the Nixon administration to reconsider its tactics and
negotiation strategy.
The Paris Peace Agreement
In early January 1973, the Nixon White House convinced the Thieu-Ky regime in Saigon that they would not
abandon the GVN if they signed onto the peace accord. On January 23, therefore, the final draft was initialed, ending
open hostilities between the United States and the DRV. The Paris Peace Agreement did not end the conflict in
Vietnam, however, as the Thieu-Ky regime continued to battle Communist forces. From March 1973 until the fall of
Saigon on April 30, 1975, ARVN forces tried desperately to save the South from political and military collapse. The
end finally came, however, as DRV tanks rolled south along National Highway One. On the morning of April 30,
Communist forces captured the presidential palace in Saigon, ending the Second Indochina War.
USSR decided to get into its own Vietnam in 1979
o Soviets invade Afghanistan in 1979 to reinforce communist government
 Soviets dragged into 10 year guerrilla war that costs them thousands
of soldiers and much money – unpopular at home.
 US support the mujahedeen and their war against the Soviets.
 One of these members of the mujahedeen was a Saudi born fighter
by the name of Osama bin Laden. He would later come to resent the
US for leaving Afghanistan without building schools and
infrastructure. He also hated American ways of religious freedom
and open societies. He will work with an organization called Al
Qaeda to commit terrorist attacks against the US including the
September 11th attacks. Since Afghanistan government led by the
Taliban aided Al Qaeda, the US invaded the country in 2001. The war
continues to this day.
End of the Cold War
In 1980 Republican Ronald Reagan is elected President.
 He peruses an aggressive policy towards the Soviets.
 He seeks a Missile Defense Shield around the US which the Soviets dislike since
they see it as hurting the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD. This
is the concept that nuclear war will always be avoided since both countries and
the world will be destroyed. The missile defense shield starts a new arm race that
bankrupts the Soviet Union.
 In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power. Realizing the Soviet system
prevents economic growth, Gorbachev begins a program towards moving away
from communism called Perestroika.
 By 1990, The Soviet Union and the Communists are overthrown in a bloodless
coup.
o The Soviets give up the communist system and become Russia again.
o The Berlin Wall falls and East Germany finally gets its independence. They
would reunite with West Germany in 1990.
o Many of the old Soviet Satellites (like Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and
Uzbekistan) would get their independence.
o Eastern bloc countries like Poland, Romania, and Hungry move towards
capitalism as well.
Today the US and Russia have a much different relationship. Although the Cold War
has ended, there is still somewhat of a rivalry. Although Russia adopted some
capitalistic methods, they are not a true democracy with the country being controlled
largely by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.