APWH CH 35 - Cold War: East Asia

Pacific Rim

region including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan; typified by rapid economic growth, expanding exports, and industrialization; either Chinese or strongly influenced by Confucian values; considerable reliance on government planning and direction, limitations on dissent and instability.

Liberal Democratic Party

moderate political party that monopolized Japanese governments from 1955 into the 1990s.

Korean War

fought from 1950 to 1953 between North Korea (People’s Democratic Republic of Korea) and its Soviet and Chinese allies and South Korea (Republic of Korea) and United Nations’ forces directed by the United States; ended in stalemate.

Hong Kong

British colony in China; became a major commercial and industrial center; returned to China in 1997.

Chiang Ching-kuo

son and successor of Chiang Kai-shek as ruler of Taiwanese government in 1978; continued authoritarian government; attempted to reduce gap between followers of his father and indigenous islanders.

People’s Republic of China

communist China; founded in 1949 by Mao Zedong.

party cadres

basis of China’s communist government organization; cadre advisors were attached to military contingents at all levels.

People’s Liberation Army

military and dominant arm of the communist structure in China.

Mass Line

economic policy of Mao Zedong inaugurated in 1955; led to formation of agricultural cooperatives that then became farming collectives in 1956; peasants lost land gained a few years earlier.

Great Leap Forward

economic policy of Mao Zedong introduced in 1958; proposed small-scale industrialization projects integrated into peasant communities; led to economic disaster and ended in 1960.

pragmatists

Chinese communist politicians determined to restore state direction and market incentives at the local level; opposed the Great Leap Forward.

Cultural Revolution

initiated by Mao Zedong in 1965 to restore his dominance over the pragmatists; disgraced and even killed bureaucrats and intellectuals; called off in 1968.

Red Guard

student brigades active during the Cultural Revolution in support of Mao Zedong’s policies.

Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD)

middle-class revolutionary organization during the 1920s; committed to the violent overthrow of French colonialism; crushed by the French.

Communist Party of Vietnam

the primary nationalist party after the defeat of the VNQDD in 1929; led from 1920s by Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen Ai Quoc)

shifted to a revolution based on the peasantry in the 1930s; presided over the defeat of France in 1954 and the unsuccessful U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

Viet Minh

Communist Vietnamese movement; fought the Japanese during Word War II and the French afterward.

Vo Nguyen Giap/Dien Bien Phu

military commander of the Viet Minh and the victor at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Dien Bien Phu was the most significant victory of the Viet Minh over French colonial forces in 1954; gave the Viet Minh control of northern Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem

became president of South Vietnam with U.S. support in the 1950s; overthrown by the military with U.S. approval.

Viet Cong

the communist guerrilla movement in South Vietnam during the Vietnamese war.