Unit 3 - Transformation & Tension

Background in Eastern Europe

• 1947 - Bulgaria, Rumania, Poland, Hungary, and Albania all had communists governments

• Czechoslovakia which was democratic before WWII held out until 1948 before elections gave communists the majority

• SU organized the economics of the Soviet Bloc to work in its favour

  • each country specialized in a few industries to make them dependant on SU and each other

Background in the West

• In Western Europe countries were occupied with their individual problems

• War left communists in a strong position and has a reaction to their strength, right wing parties emerged in France and Italy

• Br - no strong communist party but empire was quickly falling apart and they were financially devastated- clearly not a world superpower

• The us, now occupying Germany, Austria, and Japan, couldn’t retreat into isolationism

  • took on role as the defender of the “Free World”

“Two Halves of the Same Walnut” - The Truman Doctrine

• The us worried about the spread of communism

• When the Br inform us in 1947 that they can’t afford to help the Greek Royalists against the communists, Truman announces that they will help any country threatened by communism

• The us passes the U.S. National Security Act of 1947 (to better defend country)

  • Department of Defence, Nation Security Council, and Central Intelligence Agency (KBG is SU counterpart)

Two Halves of the Same Walnut” - Marshall Plan

• In June 1947, General George Marshall, the new American secretary who feared major economic collapse in Europe, outlined his plan

• Billions were made available to countries prepared to cooperate with each other to bring about economic recovery

• In return, those countries were expected to buy American goods and provide investment opportunities for American capital

• Everyone was welcome as long as they agreed to share info about resources and became members of a permanent organization to oversee the working on the plan

• Truman asked congress but they refused until Czechoslovakia fell to Communism

• April 1948, the OEC (Organization for European Economic Cooperation) set up

• 13 billion between 1948-1952 to Europe → it worked, no more communism inroads into Europe

  • Stalin retaliates with Comecon = Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

Early Germany

• By 1947, partition between Germany looked more permanent

• June 18, 1948 - new currency (Deutschmark) introduced into the western zones

• Soviets respond by introducing new currency in their zone - including all of Berlin

• June 23, 1948 - Deutschmark introduced into West Berlin Zones

• Soviet retaliate - June 24, 1948 - they close off all roads, rail lines, and waterways that linked West Berlin to the western zones

Berlin Airlift (48/49)

• West had to decide whether to give up Berlin but they didn’t want another country to fall to communism and into the Soviet sphere of influence so they fought back creating a massive airlift operation to fly in everything West Berliners needed

• A flight left for West Berlin from bases in West Germany zones every 30s

• May 12,1949 - the soviets lifted the blockade as it wasn’t working and it was clear the West wasn’t going to give up

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

• During the Berlin Blockade, many nations began making plans in case they were attacked: result was NATO in which 11 founding nations agreed to defend each other in case of attack (April 4,1949)

• West Germany would join in 1955

SU with their first A-bomb

• They detonate it

• Truman is now able to get more money to build up armies of Western European nations - see us become power house that’s hard to undo

Federal Republic of Germany (West)

• Established in August 1949

• Konrad Adenauer was First Chancellor

• System still used on modern Germany

German Democratic Republic (East)

• Established October 1949

• Walter Ulbricht became Gerneral Secretary in July 1950

Warsaw Pact

• Created in 1955 by SU

• Was a military alliance of communist states in response to the West’s NATO

Khrushchev Thaw

• Easing harsh political and social climates - could better enjoy benefits of communism

• Production of more consumer goods

• Better standard of life

• Built new housing in cities to encourage people to move

• Censorship relaxes and pop culture thrives

• Intellectuals write again

• Political prisoners are freed

• HOWEVER he basically started collective farming again and famine

• Communism struggled to care for people - infrastructure crumbles

Peaceful coexistence

• Everyone can exist peacefully without needing a war to settle disputes

• Avoided WWIII

• slowed down the arms race

• Cultural exchange for countries to try to understand each other

• Came to an end when Francis Gary Powers’s U2 spy plan was shot down and he was taken prisoner (Russian spy was also found in America

Destalinization

• Related to the Khrushchev thaw

• Eastern European nations heard about it and hoped they would be allowed to redefine communism for themselves

Poland revolt

• Weren’t satisfied with their low wages and long work days

• Became more vocal during the thaw

• Resolved peacefully and their leader (Gomulka) learned that he had to listen to Khrushchev to maintain power

Hungary revolt

• Hungarians toppled a statue of Stalin and removed the communist coat of arms from their flag

• Withdrew from Warsaw Pact and announced they were neutral in the Cold War

• SU felt threatened bc it was a revolution against communism

• Losing an ally, especially a buffer between the west

• TANKS sent in

Berlin Wall

• Erected to prevent brain drain (intellectuals leaving)

• 15 000 people every day were leaving

• Barbed wire before brick

• Went through buildings and streets

• Fully built in the 70s

• Shoot and kill order for any East Germans that go near the wall

• Individual check points for each sector

• West all around West Berlin

• Wall, barbed wire, tank stoppers, watch tower, no man’s land, other wall → hard to escape

• Under ground tunnels built

Korean War

• North attacked the south and backs them into a small corner

• MacArthur retaliates up to the river between NK and China

  • MacArthur fired for this

• China attacks back

• Ceasefire between them to this day

• First real UN mission - USSR didn’t vote because they were boycotting UN

• Communism Vs capitalism

• Cold War showdown

• UN

• Geral assembly where everyone has a vote

• Security council with 5 permanent members and 10 temporarily elected members (each had a veto and military action couldn’t pass unless they all agreed)

• Secretary general had to remain unbiased in disputes and mediate international disputes

• Only really step in in Rwanda, Somalia (don’t do a good job) and Korean War

Cuban Missile Crisis (the set-up)

• US puts missiles in Turkey

• U.S.S.R. retaliates with missile sights in Cuba

Cuba before

• Under Batista and allowed American involvement in business

  • Military dictator

• 1959 - Castro comes to power

  • 800 guerilla soldiers into Havana and overthrew Batista

  • Wanted less American involvement (more nationalist than communist but still scare US) to improve welfare

  • Us stats they won’t trade with Cuba anymore

  • Cuba gets a closer relationship with USSR

Cuban Missile Crisis (bay of pigs)

• 1961

• When Castro came to power, some fled to the US and planned and invasion with the CIA

• Kennedy authorizes them to attack bay of pigs with Airforce help

• Invasion is easily crushed by Cuba

• CIA thought Kennedy would give in and send ground soldiers but but he doesn’t

• Results in embarrassment for US and Cuba is convinced it needs U.S.S.R. military assistance

• Alliance for progress

  • Shoving money into countries with economic hardship so they won’t fall under the Soviet sphere

Cuban Missile Crisis (missiles in Cuba)

• By October it’s clear missile bases are being built

  • International crisis with the potential for nuclear war

• Brinkmanship

  • Brink of war

  • Waiting for the other to make a move

  • The us has three choices : nuclear strike, air and land attack, or naval blockade

  • Choose blockade but call it a quarantine so it’s not an act of war

  • SU ships with dangerous materials turn around, let the ones with food through

  • Privately Turkey missiles are dismantled

Cuban Missile Crisis (Results)

• Kennedy’s reputation is improved

• Better communication is set up with a hot line between Washington and Moscow to avoid future instances of brinksmanship

• Signing of a partial test-ban treaty in 63 by US, SU, and BR

  • Agreed to ban all tests of nuclear device except those underground

• US still refused to trade with Cuba - LASTS DECADES

Establishment of Communism in China (a doozy)

Background

• Europeans and Japanese Chad economic spheres of interest in China

• 1900-boxer rebellion against foreigners was unsuccessful

Revolution of the double Tenth

• Manchu dynasty felled by Sun Yat-sen

  • Wanted to created a new China based on nationalism, democracy, and socialism

• Proclaimed the Republic of China i! 1912

KMT (Kuomintang)

• Created by Yat-sen in 1912

• Nationalist

• Different people vying for power

• Chiang Kai-shek becomes leader in 1925

Chinese Communists Party

• Created in 1921

• 9 founding members including Mao Tse-tung

  • Philosophical ideologies

  • Former librarian

KMT turns on communists

• Warlords (feudal system)in the North are a large threat to the two groups agree to work together

• Chiang wanted to be the sole ruler of China and needed backing of powerful businessmen who didn’t like the communists

• April 1927 → Chiang orders his forces to turn on Communists who escape to the south

  • Easily recognizable with the red

  • Killed in the streets

  • Pretty successful

Mao regroups

• Focus on peasants rather than industrial workers

• “People’s Liberation Army” created and became well trained in guerilla tactics

The long march

• Started with 100 000, ended with 20 000

• 24 miles a day

• Lots of rivers and mountains

• 1934-35

• After capturing Peking and the rest of China in 28, Chiang looks back to the communists and encircles them in the south

• Mai and his followers set off on a year long march of the northern province of Shensi where they created a new base at Yenan

• Along the way, they treated peasants well and spread their communists ideals

  • Get mad at landlords but don’t take land

  • Gain support

Japan invades Manchuria

• 1931

• Chiang more concerned with communists so they don’t really resist

• 37 → japan invades rest of China

• Common enemy to defeat J

• Mao does most of the fighting

• Us backs the nationalists but they sit back to they are strong to fight Mao later

• People see Mao is fighting for them, results in more support

WWII end

• Us helps KMT seize most of southern China and cities in the north

• Comm. Hold north countryside and got no help from retreating soviets trying to get back Manchuria

Civil war resumes

• KMT outnumber communists 3 to 1, controlled air and were supplied by the us

• 48 - Mao’s army is 3 mil and in 49 they take Peking

• Red army pushes KMT back onto modern day Taiwan

China under Mao

Government

• Democratic dictatorship

  • All four Social classes represented and met in local assemblies but controlled by Mao

• Freedom of speech if it didn’t go against the gov.

• “Mandate of Heaven”

• Labour camps and reeducation for political opponents

• Purges - killed 5.5mil in 5 years

Economy

• Followed Stalin’s plans

• Ended private land ownership, but distributed the land unequally and people were killed if they complained

• Collective farming

• Five year plans - 1st doubled industrial output in 2yrs

GLF

• 1958

• Wanted to catch up to rest of world

• Focus on engineering and science

• Everyone contributed to steel, coal, and electrifying (quantity went up, quality went down)

• Less time on agriculture

  • Great Famine (20-43 mil dead)

  • Actually a disaster

• One of the five year plans

cultural Revolution

• GLF created divisions in the party

• Mao was being questioned by Deng Xiaoping

• 1965

• To regain authority Mao gets students to get rid of counter revolutionaries

• Guided by Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (1964)

• Got out of hand and he had to call in the army

• Weakened party unity

• Escalated tensions with USSR & PRC

• Version of a purge

Sino-Soviet split

• Stalin always advised Mao

• Stalin stood up for Mao (boycotted UN)

• Mao didn’t like Khrushchev( criticized GLF and Stalin)

• 1960- USSR stops giving money

• 1962 - didn’t send military in border dispute with India

• 1964 - PRC gets the A-bomb

• More American involvement with PRC and potential for trade

China after Mao

Hundred flowers Campaign

• 1957

• goal was to win over the intellectuals to join communism

• Invited debate and criticism and then they would explain

• Had to be shut down bc there was too much criticism

Mao dies

• Deng Xiaoping wins struggle for power in 1981

• Pursued “four modernizations”

  • Agriculture, industry, science and tech, military

• Workers were paid bonuses , herd uni entrance exams rather that political records (good communists got to go to school), favoured small and medium industry, students could study abroad

modern issues

• State capitalism - allows more private industry but no political freedom

• Tiananmen Square

  • June 1989

  • Same year as Berlin Wall coming down

  • Student protests in the square against corruption (1gov), lack of transparency, and no freedom of speech

  • Martial law imposed and tanks sent in to fire on unarmed protesters

  • Hibger straieks and tear gas

  • Thousands injured

  • Foreign media expelled but not before it was broadcasted

  • Hong Kong - private business allowed

  • Taiwan - still ongoing and showmanship in the waterways

  • Human rights issues

Mao

• Unified the country

• Centralized the gov

• Increased industrial output

• Increased literacy rate (20% → 76%)

• Major military power

• Made the A-bomb

• No freedom of expression

India

After WWII

• moving away from British ruler

• During war, Indian Congress Party mounted campaign of civil disobedience and leaders were imprisoned under the slogan of “British quit India”

• British attitudes changed after the war and they let them go because it was too expensive

  • new Labour Leaders (basically the NDP) were socialist and voted in

  • BR and couldn’t been seen exploiting India

• Salt March

  • Br increased taxes on salt

  • Gandhi marched to the ocean and boiled down water for salt

• Country was city states with many different ethnicities

  • Mainly Hindu and Muslim

• Congress Party

  • Hindu supported

  • Led by Nehru

  • India

• Muslim League

  • Supported by Muslims

  • Pakistan

  • Led by Jinnah

• BR hoped to give independence to a UNIFIED country but there were huge divisions and violence between religious and political groups

• BR says they’ll leave by June 48 and make a partition between the groups - UN asked to help with handover that took place on August 15, 1947

  • India - under Nehru for Hindus and Sikhs

  • Pakistan under Jinnah for the Muslims

• Millions of people had to move to the different sides - resulted in lots of people killed

  • Bloodshed was avoided when Gandhi went on a hunger strike when Hindu refugees threatened to kill remaining Muslims in Delhi

  • Killed by Hindu extremists (his own religion)

  • Violence lessened

Kashmir

• Didn’t originally join either side

• Hindu ruler but large Muslim population - religious tensions

• Oct. 47, groups from Pakistan invade and K appeals to India for troops - they supply it

• 49 - UN arranges for a ceasefire line to be put in place, splits Kashmir between both sides

• 65-66 - another clash but USSR facilitates negotiations at the Tashkent Conference

• 99 - conflict again but between two nuclear nations

  • India gets bomb in 74, Pakistan gets it in 98

Internal turmoil

• Industrialises and modernises but it can’t keep up with large population growth

• Most people are illiterate into the 60s

• Trouble choosing official language because there are so many

  • 65 - Hindi is chooses - riots break out

• 66 - Indira Gandhi (Nehru’s daughter and first female leader in a modern country) becomes PM

  • pushes for modernisation but also declares “state of emergency” for 2 years, suspending democracy

  • Leads non-alignment movement - nice to both sides of the Cold War

Creation of Bangladesh

• East Pakistan (lots of flooding) is poorer than the western part and more populated

• The Bengla Desh (Free Bengal) movement wants a free East Pakistan - civil war

• thousands die and millions of Hindus flee to India

• Indira orders troops into East Pakistan Dc. 4, 71

• Dec. 16 - P army surrenders

• New country of Bangladesh is created

• Pakistan supported by US, India by USSR

Pubjab

• had been divided by the partition, mostly sikh

• 83 - sikh extremists demand independence from India (country will be called Khalistan)

• June 84 - Indira orders Indian troops to the Golden Temple in Amritsar (headquarters for extremists)

  • 300 sikhs killed and the temple is destroyed

  • Oct 84 - Indira is assassinated by her sikh bodyguards

  • Terrorism continues in Punjab

• Sri Lanka is its own country

Sides in the Cold War (middle east)

• Us - Israel, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan

• USSR - PLO, Egypt, syria, iraq

The Suez Crisis

• Nasser (Egypt) seized control of the Suez Canal to raise money for the Aswan Dam to make more fertile land after the U.S. pulled out of their loan to Egypt - gonna raise money from the canal

• BR and FR were mad they were losing money

  • Fr contacted Israel and got them to help with a military attack

  • OCT 1956, Br and Fr attacked from the air, and Israel led the ground and got control over the Sinai region which was now covered with Un peacekeepers

• US and USSR condemmed the attack, forces were removed, and the canal was reopened

• Nasser is seen has a hero who stood up to imperial powers

civil war in Lebanon and violent peace

• refugees from Israel upset the peace between religious groups in the nation which resulted in 15yrs of civil war

• PLO launched attacks on Israel from Lebanon

• Camp David Accords (terms for settling Suez canal and sinai region disputes) made a border between Israel and Egypt and created a format for negotiations for a palestine homeland

Middle east background, six day war, yom kippur War

• 1917 - Balfour Declaration - BR in favour of making a Jewish state in Palestine

• During WWII Br indicated P could be independent but they ended as a mandate

• Sympathy for Jews after the Holocaust

• Br asked the Un to come up with a partition plan for P and Arabs rejected it but Israel was declared in May 1948

• conflict about each decade

• refugee issue to refused to be solved until the issue of P and I are solved

• June 1967

• Nasser orders Un troops out of Sinai and Gulf of Aqaba and builds up his military

• Israel strikes and defeats Egypt, Syria, and Jordan - they now control Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, and Goban Heights

• See Arab states can’t protect P homeland

• Superpowers are more determined to support their sides

• UN calls for withdrawal from newly aquired territory

• 1973

• Anwar Sadat replaces Nasser

• OCT 6, E and S attack I

• US and USSR force a ceasefire

• Egypt has east side of Suez canal and Israel is allowed to use it

• Oil is a weapon

arab unity, revolution, war, gulf war

• syria built up their army with the help of USSR and replaced E as the driving force behind Arab nations struggle against Israel

• Support for palestine united countries but wasn’t enough

• political fragmentation

• contrasts between secular ideologies and Islamic fundamentals

• 1978 - opposition to the regime of Shah (king) Pahlevi dynasty (us friendly) from various groups

• JAN 1979 - massive street demonstrations forced the king into exile and power was assumed by fundamentalist Islamic movement

  • no american

• oil shortages

• Nearby Muslim fundamentalism is threatened - weakens Turkey

  • pro-west regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt

• Soviets worried about spread into Afghanistan

• Teheran Hostage situation

• 1980-1988

• Saddam Hussein becomes pres in 79 and thought he could profit from the internal upheaval in Iran and invaded in 1980

• By 1982 is was clear it would be a quick victory

• Saw himself as heir to Nassar - mobilizing Arabs against Iran and Israel - failed

• 1991

• Iraq invades Kuwait to get the oilfields and threatens Saudi Arabia

• UN approves military sanctions to remove Iraq from Kuwait

• UN forces us SA as staging ground for troops

• Mostly air war but ground forces were sent into battle and quickly pushed troops back into iraq

recent

• first Intifadah - 1987

• Oslo accords - 1993/95

• Second infadah - early 2000s

• Hamas wins Palestine elections - 2006

• Hamas Israel conflicts - 08/09, 12, 14, 21

• I builds settlements in Occupied Territories despite UN resolutions for them to stop and international court saying it’s illegal

• Hamas launched and attack from Gaza killing 1200 people and taking 250 hostages, Israel responds with invasion