Cold War: Asia

1945

Soviet Union declares war on Japan for just one week before Japan surrenders - Soviets demolish Japanese forces in Manchuria (Where the largest Japanese Army left was established) and push Japanese out of northern Korea helping Korean Communist leader Kim Il Sung but stop at 38th Parallel where they meet US forces

Indian Independence

1947- - Mohandis (Mahatma) Gandhi leads Indian independence movement
- India/Pakistan split into predominantly muslim Pakistan and predominantly Hindu India
- Jawaharlal Nehru - becomes India's first prime minister, opposed to supporting US or Soviet Union in Cold War
- Pakistan and India fight three wars between 1947 and 1980

1948

Korea is officially divided between Communist North and Capitalist South

People's Republic of China

1949 - Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong defeat Chinese Nationalists under Chang Kai-Shek and establish the People's Republic of China
- Nationalists flee to island of Taiwan and establish the Republic of China

Korean War

- Tensions rising between both sides, South Korean leader Syngman Rhee was an authoritarian dictator but supportive of US policy, also responsible for Jejune Island massacre in which South Korean forces killed over 12,000 suspected Communists
- War broke out in the summer of 1950, neither side claimed firing the first shot but fighting begins and the North pushes far south, defeating South Korean forces for two months until only a small section of the island was not under their control
- UN Security Council votes to use force to stop the North's invasion
- US leads multilateral forces into South Korea where they quickly push the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel completing their war objective
- However US decides to push further and unite Korea under South's rule
- Despite warnings from Chinese, US forces push all the way to the Yalu River, the border between Korea and China
- 350,000 Chinese troops invade and push the US and allies back, then retreat back to the mountains due to fears that the UN forces would invade China (US General Douglas MacArthur threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on China - He would eventually be fired by US President Harry S. Truman)
- UN forces once again pushes forward, Chinese invade again and push the UN forces back to the 38th Parallel
- Fighting continues but neither side is able to gain any major advantages and after 2 years a cease fire was declared ending the fighting with the border of the 38th Parallel - War technically not over despite no major fighting since 1953

Great Leap Forward

1958 - Chinese embark on project of industrialization by collectivizing agriculture, and by rapidly developing towns into major cities
- Attempt leads to major food shortages known as the Great Chinese Famine
- Chinese government estimates 15 million died, scholars estimate between 20-43 million died as a result of the failed attempt
- By 1961 Mao Zedong was largely pushed out of power in the Communist Party for this

Sino-Soviet Split

Border dispute and China's anger at being seen as a junior member of Communist nation leads to split between Chinese and Soviet Union, China declares its philosophy of Maoism as superior to the Marxist-Leninist philosophy of Soviet Union

Cultural Revolution

- Mao Zedong forces his way back into power by encouraging youth of China to take control of the Revolution
- 350 million copies of Mao's "Little Red Book" a collection of his ideas, are published and distributed throughout China
- Many people of the older generation are forced out of their jobs, sent to labor camps, many government officials are purged
- Chinese youth were encouraged to destroy relics of ancient China
- Mao returns to power in China

US/China opening of relations

1972 - President Richard Nixon seeking to exploit the Sino-Soviet split opens relations with the People's Republic of China

Vietnam War

- During WWII Vietnam was invaded by Japan, Vietnamese forces are able to push the Japanese out by 1945 due to leadership of Ho Chi Minh
- After war ends, French attempt to reclaim control of their former colony of Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos)
- Diem Bien Phu - Vietnamese forces defeat France forcing a French surrender, peace conference leads to division of Vietnam between Communist North and Capitalist South at 17th Parallel
- 1957 - US government begins supporting South Vietnam against a Communist insurgency led by the Viet Cong - largely unsupported by the North but after US intervention, North begins taking a more active role in supporting the Viet Cong (also called the National Liberation Front [NLF])
- 1965 - Tonkin Gulf incident leads to US sending large amount of forces to combat NLF and begin bombing North Vietnam
- US unable to establish dominance as NLF engage in guerrilla war
- 1973 - US withdraws majority of its troops due to large scale protests over the war in the US and inability to defeat NLF
- 1975 - US completely withdraws as North Vietnamese defeat South Vietnam and unify nation under Communist rule

Cambodia

- 1973 - Communist insurgent group, Khmer Rouge, with help of North Vietnamese Army, wins almost complete control over Cambodia
- Pol Pot - Khmer Rouge leader begins his program of Communism - attempts to empty cities and return population to agricultural lifestyle (most Cambodians were farmers but Pot still wanted to clear cities)
- Killing Fields - Khmer Rouge's forced agricultural leads to executions of any dissenters, particularly focuses on those who had been educated, leads to killing of estimated 21% of entire nation (1.4-2.2 million people)
- Khmer Rouge also begin executing non-Cambodians, ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.
- 1979 - Pol Pot, fearing Vietnamese attack, orders invasion of Vietnam
- Vietnamese forces quickly retaliate and push Pol Pot from power, restoring power to the King of Cambodia
- Pol Pot is never captured and dies in 1998, confined to a small section of the Cambodian rain forest

Indonesia

- The Indonesia independence movement was led by General Sukarno
- Sukarno defeated the Dutch after their attempt to recapture the island when the Japanese left near the end of WWII
- Sukarno was not a communist but allowed the existence of the PKI, or Indonesia Communist Party
- In 1955 Sukarno held the Bandung Conference in Indonesia which started the pro-Third World, Non-Aligned Movement
- The Non-Aligned Movement was made up of mostly Third World nations that opposed both the US and Soviet Union
- The original attendees of the conference aside from Indonesia included Egypt led by Nasser, Yugoslavia led by Tito and India led by Nasser
- The Non-Aligned Movement now includes most nations of the world, although with the end of the Cold War it is not as relevant
- In 1965, with tacit support from the US - Anti-communists in Indonesia went on a mass genocide of Indonesia Communists, killing over 1,000,000 people in a matter of a few months
- Sukarno did not support the killings but it was the first move in a coup that would eventually topple his government
- In 1968 pro-US General Suharto would overthrow Sukarno and rule Indonesia with an iron fist, squashing what remained of the PKI, for the next 30 years until his government collapsed in 1998