Untitled Flashcards Set

8.1 Setting the Stage for the Cold War and Decolonization
At the February 1945 Yalta Conference, Stalin was allowed to keep the eastern part of Poland if he promised to respect the
independence of Eastern European countries. But, like Hitler after appeasement in the 1938 Munich Conference, Stalin reneged on his
promise. The Soviet Red Army rolled in to create the Communist Bloc. Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
and other Eastern European countries became Soviet satellite nations, with the exception of Yugoslavia and Albania, which were communist
but not aligned with the U.S.S.R. The U.S. and U.S.S.R. never directly engaged in battle with each other, but they competed in an arms and
space race and supported their respective allies fighting civil/proxy wars in other countries.
After WWII, Germany was divided into the Soviet-occupied East and American, British, and French-occupied West, and the capital
of Berlin, located within East Germany, was also divided (The capital of West Germany was Bonn). In the 1948 Berlin Blockade, the Soviets
cut off supplies to West Berlin, hoping the citizens would give in to communist control. In the subsequent Berlin Airlift, the Americans
responded by dropping supplies from airplanes to keep the city free. The “Iron Curtain” was the ideological division between the communist
East and democratic and capitalist West Europeans, whereas the Berlin Wall was the physical division of the East and West Berliners from
1961 until 1989.
8.2 The Cold War
The Marshall Plan was the U.S. General/Secretary of State’s Nobel Prize winning strategy to rehabilitate Western Europe, and the
Truman Doctrine was the U.S. President’s strategy to keep Greece and Turkey from falling to communism. Presidents Truman, Eisenhower,
Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan sought the “containment” of communism, advocated first by U.S. National Security
Advisor George Kennan. So, they intervened in civil wars and other conflicts to thwart the “domino effect”. The two Cold War alliances were
the democratic nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the communist nations in the Warsaw Pact.
Communism is both a political and an economic system. While democrats elect leaders, communists appoint them; and while
capitalists allow the market forces of supply and demand to determine the distribution of resources, communists do not allow private property
and instead allow the government to determine the distribution of resources. There are a few communist governments still in existence today,
including China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Cuba (maybe Venezuela, too). The U.S.S.R. existed as a communist country
until 1991, when it broke up into 15 developing democratic and capitalist countries (Russia is the largest).
For nearly a half century, the U.S.S.R. challenged the U.S., in an arms race and space race. In 1957, the Soviets launched the first
satellite, Sputnik (meaning ‘Little Traveler’); and in 1959, they sent the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin. In 1969, the Americans put the first
man on the moon, Neil Armstrong; and in 1983, they foreshadowed an intimidating missile system (ICBM and ABM) called the Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI) nicknamed “Star Wars” (although never developed, the Soviets took it seriously).
8.3 Effects of The Cold War
Stalin died in 1953, and the next prominent General Party Secretary, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced the dictator for his purges,
gulags, and “cult of personality”. Poland and Hungary took this as a sign that they could break free; but in 1956, both countries’ revolutions
were violently suppressed. Polish revolutionary Wladyslaw Gomulka was allowed to stay in power, but Hungarian revolutionary Imre Nagy
was executed for treason.
During the Cold War, the U.S. engaged in numerous coups to overthrow seemingly left-leaning or anti-western leaders. In 1954,
during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, the U.S. supported the coup d’état of Mohammad Mossadegh from Iran and Jacobo Arbenz
Guzman from Guatemala. There are mixed reviews on Juan and Evita Peron as militarist reformers in Argentina after WWII, but the country

was worse off when they were ousted; then, the ‘dirty wars’ happened (1976-83) and thousands disappeared. During Richard Nixon’s
presidency, Socialist doctor Salvador Allende won the Presidency of Chile but was ousted in a 1973 coup (financed by the U.S.) in favor of
Augusto Pinochet, who had a policy of state terror and secret police until 1990. During Ronald Reagan’s Presidency, in the 1980s Iran Contra
Scandal, the U.S. funded the Contras against the Sandinistas (inspired by early 20th century revolutionary Augusto Cesar Sandino) in
Nicaragua in their effort to combat communism.
In the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro replaced Fulgencio Batista, and thereafter the U.S. had a communist next-door
neighbor (just 90 miles south of Florida). In May 1960, the Soviets shot down a U-2 spy plane and captured CIA agent Francis Gary Powers.
In April 1961, the CIA and Cuban exiles tried to overthrow Castro in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, but they failed. Then, in October 1962, after the
CIA discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba aimed at the U.S., it seemed that the Cold War could turn hot. For 13 days, the world was on the
verge of WWIII. Fortunately, U.S President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikhita Khrushchev negotiated a peaceful conclusion to the
Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba and to remove the missiles from Turkey (aimed at the U.S.S.R.), and Khrushchev
agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba.
8.4 The Spread of Communism in Asia (East and also West aka Middle East)
China’s dynastic system ended in 1911, then there was a period of democracy under Sun Yat-Sen and Jiang Jieshi, followed by civil
war, WWII, and the communist revolution. China ‘fell’ to communism in 1949, and Mao Zedong became the leader of the country. Mao feared
that China would move away from him, so he became more radical rather than reasonable. In the 1958 Great Leap Forward, he ordered a
radical redistribution of land and organization into communes. It devastated the Chinese economy. In the 1958 attack on the Four Pests, he
ordered the eradication of rats, flies, mosquitos, and sparrows. It devastated the Chinese ecosystem. In the 1966, Cultural Revolution, he
called for a “purge of capitalist ideas and bourgeois thinking.” Mao’s quotes in The Little Red Book were mottos. The Red Guard traveled the
country destroying the old traditions and institutions and persecuting intellectuals. Millions of young people were sent to the countryside for
‘re-education’. Mao’s wife formed the Gang of Four to push the agenda. But, in 1976 Mao died, and the Gang of Four were arrested, the
Cultural Revolution stopped.
From 1910 to 1945, Japan occupied Korea, and after WWII, the U.S.S.R. occupied the North, and the U.S. occupied the South. In
1950, Kim Il-Sung and the North attacked Syngman Rhee and the South, and U.S. General Douglas MacArthur returned to Asia to support
the South (and he actually almost engaged in a war with China, but he was fired). In 1953, the Korean War ended with an armistice and
division along the 38th parallel.
By 1954, the people of Indochina kicked out the French imperialists. Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam became independent, but the
latter was divided in two along the 17th parallel per the Geneva Accords. From 1955 until 1975, the communist North fought the capitalist
South for total control. Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were Vietnamese by ethnicity but Catholic and ruthless to the Buddhists.
They were corrupt, violent, and assassinated in November 1963 the same month as U.S. President John F. Kennedy. No one had as much
support in South Vietnam as Ho Chi Minh had in North Vietnam. Americans were fiercely divided over the Vietnam War, which their soldiers
fought from 1964 until 1973. In 1964, after U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s cabinet fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident/Resolution,
U.S. troops under General William Westmoreland attempted to defend the South, as they had in Korea. After the 1968 Tet Offensive, U.S.
President Richard Nixon’s expansion of the war into Cambodia, and widespread protests, the Vietnam War looked like a quagmire and
perhaps a failure for the Americans. In 1973, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, which brought an
armistice. However, in April 1975, the North invaded the South again, and this time Saigon fell to the Communists and was renamed Ho Chi
Minh City. South Vietnamese and American people attempted to flee, and some tragically did not escape and faced terrible consequences.
The Vietnam War is one of the most controversial in American history, and it is the only war our country ever lost.
Like Vietnam, Cambodia was colonized by the French, conquered by the Japanese, and motivated by a communist movement.
However, their dictator Pol Pot and others in the government known as the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the death of one-quarter of the
country’s population. Millions were executed and starved. And, most targeted were ethnic minorities and political opponents (“The Killing
Fields”). Hmong people from nearby Laos were recruited by the French and Americans to fight on their side, so they had to flee, and many
live in California today.
In the Cold War in Southeast Asia, authoritarians gained and maintained control. The Vietnamese leadership was fiercely anti-
imperialist/Western; whereas the Filipino and Indonesian leadership was fiercely anti-communist. In The Philippines, President Ferdinand
Marcos (1965-86) was a reformer turned dictator, who was forced into exile with his wife Imelda (known for her expensive shoe collection),
after the People's/Yellow Revolution. Guinness Book calls the Marcos' reign 'the greatest government robbery in history.' Marcos' opponent,
Beningo Aquino, was assassinated; but his widow, Corazon, became the next president. The Marcos' song, Bongbong, then became
President of The Philippines. The widow of Sukarno (1945-67) was a dictator, deposed by an even worse dictator, Suharto (1968-98), who
killed over a million people. Suharto waged war against East Timor freedom fighters. As in The Philippines, the leadership in Indonesia tends
to run in two families (not two parties); Sukarno's daughter, Megawati, became President of Indonesia.

Around 132 AD/CE, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled Jews from Judea and changed the name of the province to Syria Palaestina.
The subsequent diaspora led most Jewish people to resettle in Eastern Europe. Zionists had talked about returning for centuries, but it was
not until after WWII, that the UN, led by Britain that had a mandate/colonial rule over Palestine, divided the ‘The Holy Land’ into separate
Jewish and Arab States, Israel and Palestine, but they did not consult those currently living there.
The first Arab-Israeli War was in 1948. Other Mid-East nations supported Palestine. There were attacks on villages from both sides,
including the Deir Yassin Massacre (107 Palestinians were killed). In 1948, Haganah, Irgun, Stern and other paramilitary groups forcibly
expelled 750,000 Palestinians (50% of the population) from their land in what is now known as the Nakba (meaning ‘catastrophe’). Since
then, Palestinians have fought to get their land back, in wars in 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, and 2023. Israelis argue they take more land
after each attack as buffer states for self-defense/security. Palestinians argue rather that Israeli forces have used self-defense as an excuse
to seize/annex more Palestinian land, and that in defeat, they have been subjected to decades of military rule/occupation, economic
blockades, and human rights violations.
Gamal Abdel Nasser led Egypt (1956-70) through decolonization, Pan-African Unity, and Muslim Brotherhood. He supported
modernization projects like the Aswan Dam and Helwan Steel Works, but he has also been accused of human rights violations. In 1956,
Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, so Britain, France, and Israel threatened to seize Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The Soviets threatened to
support Egypt. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower helped resolve the crisis.
At the 1972 Munich Olympics, Palestinian Christian Terrorists with the aid of Neo Nazis killed 11 members of the Israeli team. But,
the most serious threat to Israel was the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Golda Meir was Prime Minister. The U.S. openly supported Israel, and
as a result Americans endured the Arab Oil Embargo (OPEC was created in 1960).
In 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter mediated the Camp David Accords between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and
Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat; but Sadat was assassinated, and the peace was short-lived. Similarly, in 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton
mediated the Oslo Accords between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat; but
Rabin was assassinated, and the peace was short-lived.
In the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Ayatollah (religious leader) Khomeini and the Islamic fundamentalists deposed the Shah (king)
and established a religious state. The U.S. insulted Iran when they provided a safe haven for the Shah (who had cancer), and extremists held
52 Americans hostage for 444 days in Tehran. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein waged three wars: on Iran (1980-88) to lead pan-Arab
nationalism (also because Iran is majority Shia not Sunni), on Kuwait/Persian Gulf (90-91) for its oil and access to the sea, and then in
response to U.S. forces that feared Iraqi ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and ethnic cleansing of the Kurds. He was tried and executed by his
own people, but Iraq is still struggling.
On October 7, 2023 Hamas waged the deadliest attack on Jews since The Holocaust, and they murdered 1200 Israelis, committed
horrific acts of violence against women and children, and took hostage 251. Israel’s military subsequently waged war on Hamas in Gaza,
where they held the hostages, demanding their return. Hamas said they would return them when all Palestinian prisoners (not hostages, but
most convicted criminals) in Israeli custody were returned. It is estimated that 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza and 100,000 seriously
injured. 141 Israeli hostages have been released, and supposedly 60 still remain captive in tunnels in Gaza, meaning 50 have been killed. A
ceasefire and negotiations began in January 18, 2025.
Many blame Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu for the escalation of the conflict, and the war has been called ethnic
cleansing or a genocide due to the high death toll in Gaza, one of the few territories still occupied by the Palestinians. Gaza is currently
uninhabitable due to devastation from the war, but the Palestinians have no guarantees that they will be able to return to their land if they
leave for a period of reconstruction.