History of the Americas Notes IBDP Y2 SL (but also HL) TOPICS

2/4/2025

Reasons for Détente:

• Nuclear Parity: By 1969, the USSR matched the U.S. in nuclear arms, leading to negotiations on equal footing.

• USSR’s Needs: Economic stagnation, desire for consumer goods, and technology transfer from the West. The USSR sought to isolate China and needed better relations with the West.

• U.S. Motivations: Nixon’s realpolitik aimed to use détente to pressure the USSR and China to end the Vietnam War and enhance global influence.

Key Figures:

• Henry Kissinger: Nixon’s national security advisor, skilled negotiator behind SALT and the Vietnam peace talks.

• Willy Brandt: West German Chancellor, promoting East-West relations through Ostpolitik.

Achievements of Détente:

• SALT I (1972): Limited missile defenses and nuclear arsenals, ensuring mutual deterrence.

• SALT II (1979): Expanded missile limits, but was never ratified due to growing tensions.

• Agreements with Germany and the USSR: Moscow Treaty (1970) and Basic Treaty (1972) formalized borders and increased trade between East and West Germany.

• U.S.-China Relations: Nixon’s visit to China, the UN seat for the PRC, and reduced restrictions marked a thaw.

• Helsinki Accords (1975): 33 nations agreed on European security, economic cooperation, and human rights (controversial for Soviet repression).

Factors Undermining Détente:

• Soviet Actions: Involvement in the Yom Kippur War, Angola, and Ethiopia eroded trust in détente.

• U.S. Criticism: Economic recovery reduced interest in détente, and OPEC's oil embargo worsened the West’s economic situation.

• Soviet Economic Decline: Stagnation and inefficiencies limited Soviet growth, fueling discontent.

Carter’s Impact:

• Carter Doctrine: U.S. intervention in the Persian Gulf and rejection of SALT II due to Soviet actions in Afghanistan.

Reagan and the “Second Cold War”:

• Reagan’s aggressive anti-Soviet stance led to increased defense spending, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and support for anti-communist insurgents (e.g., in Nicaragua and Afghanistan). He deployed missiles in Europe and restricted trade, intensifying the arms race.

Gorbachev’s Role in Ending the Cold War:

• Perestroika: Economic restructuring aimed at privatization, but led to chaos.

• Glasnost: Openness to criticism, leading to political and social unrest.

• Nuclear Disarmament: Gorbachev’s willingness to abandon the arms race and reduce military spending helped thaw relations.

Collapse of the Soviet Union:

• Chernobyl Disaster (1986): Heightened fears about nuclear power and contributed to public disillusionment.

• Zero Option (1985): Reagan and Gorbachev discussed eliminating intermediate-range missiles, leading to the INF Treaty (1987).

• End of the USSR (1991): Economic failure, nationalist movements, and the inability to reform led to the USSR's collapse. Gorbachev resigned after failed coup attempts, and the Soviet Union dissolved.

Historiography:

• Post-Revisionists: View détente as successful in reducing tensions and preventing nuclear war.

• Right-Wing Critics: Argue détente prolonged Soviet power, suggesting Reagan’s hardline policies were crucial to the Soviet collapse.

1/31/2025

Sino-American Relations → China, the United States and the Cold War

Background

• During WWII, the US had some direct contact with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

  • Given material assistance to fight the common enemy at the time: Japan

    • Much more aid went to Nationalist Guomindang Party (GMD)

• Following Japanese surrender and withdrawal, these two sides fought each other in the Chinese Civil War

  • Despite the US giving material support and advice to the Nationalists, Mao and the CCP would come to power in 1949

  • Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) and the nationalists flee to Taiwan

    • US ensures that Nationalists on Taiwan and not Communists People’s Republic of China were initially given China’s seat at the UN

• Taiwan becomes a major area of dispute, but this tension between the US and China is only starting

Hugh Brogan, on Early Sino-US Relations:

• “ The Chinese looked at the Americans through the same sort of telescope as that which the Americans were pointing at them. They too seemed to be a self-confident aggressor power making the first moves in a campaign that, unless unchecked, might lead on to world conquest.”

• The Pelican History of the United States of America pp. 625-626

• USA is concerned with Chinese nuclear development in 1950s

1950s – Increasing Tension

• Tibet 1950

  • Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invades

  • Mao considers this to be a domestic issue – whereas much of the rest of the world (especially the West), viewed this as a foreign policy issue

    • Chinese perspective: consolidation of CCP control over the mainland and the reunification of former Chinese territories

• Reality: Brutal suppression of the people of Tibet

  • US will condemn China for expansionism, and horrific bloodshed

  • Dalai Lama will flee, calls the actions of the Maoist regime to be considered a “cultural genocide”

Dalai Lama

• spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people

• The current Dalai Lama was exiled from Tibet in 1959 after a failed Tibetan uprising against the Chinese. He led the Tibetan government-in-exile for many years but since 2011  has passed his political authority to democratic institutions

• Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lamas are the manifestation of the Buddha of Compassion and are enlightened beings, who have chosen to take rebirth (reincarnation) in order to serve humanity. The first Dalai Lama was identified in the 15th century.

• The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born on July 6th 1935 in Amdo, Tibet. He was recognised as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama when he was two years old. When China invaded Tibet in 1950, he was forced to assume political power although he was still a teenager.

• After fleeing to India in 1959, the Dalai Lama became the highest-profile global advocate for Tibet and a highly respected religious and moral leader. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and continues to travel the world giving teachings on spiritual and ethical issues.

• The Dalai Lama’s institution (Gaden Phodrang Labrang) and senior Tibetan Buddhist lamas identify the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama according to Tibetan Buddhist practices and tradition. The process also includes testing candidates to see if they can identify belongings of the previous Dalai Lama. Traditionally the Panchen Lama (the second highest Lama in Tibet) would be an important part of this process. In 1995, Ghedhun Choekyi Nyima, who had been identified by the Dalai Lama as the new Panchen Lama, was abducted by China and replaced with its own candidate. The Beijing-approved Panchen Lama is rejected by almost all Tibetans.

• The 14th Dalai Lama has said that that the next Dalai Lama may be a woman or born outside Tibet. He has also said that that he may not be reincarnated at all, and the line of Dalai Lamas could end with him. Despite being an officially atheist regime, China's Communist government has strongly rejected his position, claiming that the appointment of Dalai Lama’s is a matter for the government in Beijing. China's appointment of their own Panchen Lama is seen by many as an attempt to take control of the selection process for the next Dalai Lama when the time comes.

China and the Dalai Lama Today

• China strongly criticizes the Dalai Lama both inside and outside Tibet. It accuses him of seeking to rule Tibet and being a “splittist” who seeks Tibetan independence. His image is banned inside Tibet and Tibetans may be jailed for calling for his long life or publicly praising him. In jail, as well as in religious institutions, Tibetans are frequently ordered to denounce the Dalai Lama.

• The Dalai Lama has passed all political power in the exile Tibetan community to a democratically elected parliament and prime minister. While he continues to advocate for the preservation of Tibet’s religion, culture, language and environment, he does not support Tibetan independence and has proposed a Middle Way Approach, in which Tibet remains a part of the People’s Republic of China but has greater control of its own affairs.

• Because of his profile and popularity, China objects strongly to political leaders from other nations meeting him. In recent years, senior figures in the governments of the UK, France, Germany, Norway and South Africa among others have avoided meeting the Dalai Lama, although US presidents have continued to receive him.

Sino – American Relations: Korean War 1950-53

• US State Department believed the invasion by North Korea in 1950 is under the direction of Stalin and Mao

  • Believed this was a new joint venture by the new Asian Communist bloc

    • Reality: Mao is not a part of the planning

      • More concerned with Tibet

• Soviet Union is boycotting the UN over the US’s refusal to recognize the PRC

  • Therefore no Veto on UN vote to send troops to Korea

• Mao views the US to be the aggressors, not North Korea

  • Zhou Enlai, Chinese foreign Minister to the UN in November 1950

    • “The American aggressors have gone too far. After making a five-thousand-mile journey across the Pacific they invaded the territories of China and Korea. In the language of the American imperialist  that is not aggression on their part, whereas the just struggle of the Chinese in defense of their land and their people is aggression. The world knows who is right and who is wrong…”

Korean War: US and China

• PRC organized mass protests in China and warned the Americans that it would be forced to intervene if there was any push into the North

  • There already were thousands of volunteers of the PLA fighting with the North Koreans

• In October of 1950, UN troops under Douglas MacArthur crossed north over the 38th parallel

  • PRC launches attack when they get close to the Yalu river

    • Millions of Chinese fight in the war, by 1953 truce, China has suffered nearly a million casualties

Kissinger on China and the Korean War

• On China p.132:

• “What was most unlikely was Chinese acquiescence in an American presence at the border that was a traditional invasion route into China and specifically the base from which Japan had undertaken the occupation of Manchuria and the invasion of Northern China. China was all the less likely to be passive when such a posture involved a strategic setback on two fronts: The Taiwan Strait and Korea… The misconceptions of both sides compounded each other. The United States did not expect the invasion; China did not expect the reaction. Each side reinforced the other’s misconception by its own actions. At the end of the process stood two years of war and twenty years of alienation”

Impact of Korean War

• Led to open conflict between USA and PRC

  • Panmunjom Armistice did not bring about improvement in the relationship

    • America is now committed to defending Taiwan

    • Mao is less in awe of American military power

• China is weaken significantly by the war

  • Large casualties

  • High economic costs of conflict

Us State Department Bulletin, July 15, 1953

• “On the Chinese Mainland 600 million people are ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. That party came to power by violence, and, so far, has lived by violence. It retains power not by the will of the Chinese people but by massive, forcible repression. IT fought the United Nations in Korea; it supported the Communist War in Indo-China; it took Tibet by force. It fomented the Communist Huk rebellion in the Philippines and the Communist insurrection in Malaya. It does not disguise its expansionist ambitions. It is bitterly hateful of the United States, which it considers a principal obstacle in the way of its path of conquest. As regards China, we have abstained from any act to encourage the Communist regime – morally, politically, or materially. Thus: we have not extended diplomatic recognition of to the Chinese Communist regime. We have opposed seating in the United Nations. We have not traded with Communist China or sanctioned cultural exchanges with it.”

Taiwan: 1954 and 1958

• In early 1950, Truman states:

  • “The United States has no desire to obtain special rights or privileges or to establish military bases on Formosa (Taiwan) at this time. Nor does it have any intention of utilizing its armed forces to interfere in the present situation. The United States government will not pursue a course which will lead to involvement in the civil strife in China”

• However, by 1953, Americans include Taiwan in a part of their containment perimeter.

China and Taiwan

• PRC had not attempted to take Taiwan because:

  • Taiwan was well defended and PRC was not confident it had air power or the landing craft necessary

  • US Navy 7th fleet was based in the area

  • At the end of the Korean War, US has stated it will defend Taiwan

• 1954 Mao decides to test the commitment of the US – shelled the islands of Quemoy and Matsu – right off the coast of China

  • Eisenhower responds by suggesting Nuclear retaliation is on the table if Taiwan is directly threatened

Why did the US Respond so Forcefully?

• John Lewis Gaddis:

  • “… when Mao began shelling the offshore islands in September 1954… Chiang claimed the psychological effects of losing them would be so severe that his own regime in Taiwan might collapse. Eisenhower and Dulles responded as they had to Rhee: Chiang got a mutual defense treaty that bound the United States to the defense of Taiwan.”

    • The Cold War p. 132

Taiwan

• In 1958 Mao began shelling Quemoy and Matsu again, and begins building up PLA troops.

  • US fires upon Taiwan strait, prepares for a full scale war that does not come.

• US pursues the following policies against China

  • US trade embargo with the PRC.

  • Obstruction of the PRC’s entry to the UN

  • Huge economic and military aid to Taiwan

  • An aid program for the region

  • Instigation of a regional containment bloc – SEATO

  • Bilateral defense treaties with Asian states seen as under threat from PRC

Sino- American Relations in the 1960s

• McCarthyism had a significant impact on the American policies towards China during the Eisenhower administration, and these policies continued under Kennedy

  • Containment and isolation

• US government used the failure of the Great Leap forward to highlight to the public and the rest of the West that excesses of the “Marxist-driven economic experiment and the PRC’s willingness to sacrifice millions of Chinese people in pursuit of its Communist ideology

United States, China and Vietnam

• Lyrics to a Chinese children’s song:

• “There is an evil spirt: His name is Johnson. His mouth is all sweetness, but he has a wolf’s heart. He bombs Vietnam cities and hates the people. Chinese and Vietnamese are all one family: we will certainly not agree to this! I wear a red scarf and join the demonstrations with Daddy. With small throat but large voice I shout: US pirates get out, get out, get out.”

PRC and decolonization

• PRC is interest in supporting revolutionary/decolonization movements in the developing world was not simply a pursuit of limited ideological goals in those specific countries.

  • It aimed to replace the USSR as the world leader of international revolution, and to end Western imperialism by supporting anti-colonial movements.

• Bandung Conference in 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai asserted that the US was the key danger to world peace

  • Conference is a reaction to SEATO

  • 29 Asian and African states asserted their neutrality.

1966: USA policy towards China

• Dean Rusk, Secretary of State

  • The USA does not seek to overthrow the PRC

  • USA objects to PRC involvement in the affairs of other countries: that is, encouraging revolutionary forces worldwide by providing training

  • Although the PRC is more violent in word than action, it still should not be underestimated

• Overall, China did not have the resources to make a definitive difference in the developing world. 

• China had developed nuclear weapons, but did not have a delivery systems to use them in wars of decolonization

Sino-American Détente in the 1970s

• “Naturally I personally regret that forces have divided and separated the American and Chinese peoples from virtually all communications during the past 15 years. Today the gulf seems broader than ever. However, I myself do not believe it will end in war and one of history’s major tragedies.”

  • Mao in 1965 to journalist Edgar Snow

• Detente begins in 1969 when US begins to loosen trade restrictions

• Major turning point: US changed its policy towards the PRC membership in the UN

  • Ping-Pong Diplomacy

    • American table tennis team was invited to compete in China and secret talks took place between Kissinger and Zhou Enlai

Nixon Visits China

• 1972

• Joint Communique was issued

  • Relationship officially established between the nations

Why did the US want Détente?

• Kissinger:

  • “Nixon did not believe that one could end a war into which his predeccessors had sent 500,000 American soldiers halfway across the world by pulling out unconditionally…. Nixon know that whatever the agony of its involvement in Vietnam, the United States remained the strongest country in alliance against Communist aggression around the world, and American credibility was critical. The Nixon Administration… therefore sought a staged withdrawal from Indochina… In this design China played a key role.”

• Situation in Vietnam had led the US to believe that containment was not possible there, and it wanted the PRC’s assistance in its exit strategy

• USA wanted to put pressure on the Soviet-American attempts at Détente

• Nixon wants to make history

• Public support for more constructive strategies

• PRC had ICBM capability, now it’s the American view that its dangerous not to have contact with the Chinese

• US wants to reduce Asian commitments while retaining Pacific bases

Why Did China Want Détente?

• 1960s and 70s PRC sees USSR as its main rival – wants to reduce tensions

• China could gain concessions on key foreign policy issues

  • UN Membeship, Taiwan, US withdrawal from Vietnam

• PRC is worried about resurgent Japan

• Believed Détente would be temporary

• Moderation on stance could improve PRC’s standing in developing World

What does China gain from Detente

• UN Membership

  • 1965 Adalai Stevenson outlined why PRC should not be a member state

    • CCP was not the legitimate government of China

    • It had a record of aggression

    • Sponsorship of revolutionary groups

    • Taiwan had an honorable record and should not be expelled

• 1970, UN General Assembly voted in favor of recognizing China, but did not reach 2/3 majority

• Two China’s policy rejected by Taiwan and China

  • Taiwan is expelled from UN, PRC is recognized

Taiwan and China

• Always the PRC view that Taiwan belonged to China

• Nixon in 1972 – The ultimate relationship between Taiwan and the mainland is not a matter for the US to decide

• Jimmy Carter establishes full diplomatic relations with China in 1979

  • Halt arms sales to Taiwan

• Reagan recommits  to protecting Taiwan, resuming arm sales

• Today, we officially recognize one China, and do not support Taiwan independence, Taiwan remains semi-autonomous.

1/29/2025

The Cold War and China - CHINA USSR RELATIONS

China and the Soviet Union: Background

• China and Russia have a long history of troubled relationships

  • Shared 4,500 mile boarder

  • During Tsarists times there was much tension along the boarder and China lost territories to Russia

  • China tried to reclaim territory after the fall of the Manchu Dynasty in 1911

  • Bolsheviks come to power in Russia, suggests that all territory outside of Russia would be given up – this doesn’t happen

    • Bolsheviks seize Outer Mongolia

    • At the end of World War II, Soviets strip $2 Billion dollars worth of industrial equipment and machinery from Manchuria

Stalin and Mao 1945-1953

• Key differences between USSR and Chinese Communists were ideological

  • Stalin did not like Mao’s interpretation of Marxism

    • Mao: peasants as the basis for revolution

      • Genuine Marxism: features workers leading an urban based class war

• Stalin does not give support to Chinese Communists Party in Chinese Civil War

  • Feared Mao as a rival for leadership of the Communists World

  • Did not want the Cold war to spread to Asia

  • Knew that Chiang Kai-Shek’s Guomindan (GMD) – Nationalist Party – would recognize Soviet claims to the disputed boarder territory along frontiers in Manchuria and Xinjiang

  • Underestimated the CCP and believed that the GMD was the strong party. He urged the CCP to merge with the GMD, even in the late 1940s, when the CCP victory was looking inevitable

• Mao became convinced that Stalin wanted a divided and weak China to leave the USSR dominant in Asia

  • Saw Stalin as self-interested rather than true to the revolutionary doctrine of Communism

  • Mao claims that Stalin refused China permission to carry out a revolution and that he told the Chinese “Do not have a Civil War: collaborate with Chiang Kai-Shek. Otherwise the Republic of China will collapse.”

Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance

•  Mao is invited to Moscow in 1950 after winning Chinese Civil War

• Trip produces first treaty between the countries

• USSR became more enthusiastic about the CPP after its victory

  • Soviet Praise of Mao

  • Mao later says “This was the result of struggle. Stalin did not wish to sign the treaty; he finally signed it after two months of negotiating”

• Treaty offered PRC the promise of Soviet expertise and low-interest aid

  • Chinese however were offended by the rather “unfriendly” treatment they received

    • Soviets had been superior

    • Not bothered to entertain the Chinese guests

    • Mao thought the accommodations were poor 

    • Khrushchev later “It was an insult to the Chinese people. For centuries the French, English, and Americans have been exploiting China, and now the Soviet Union was moving in.”

Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance

• Soviet aid would be loans, the Chinese would have to repay with interest

• Soviet planners and engineers initially developed 200 Chinese construction projects in the 1950s

• Soviet scientific technology was prioritized over Western technology in China

  • Seen as best, even if it was less effective

• PRC accepted Soviet military assistance was necessary, at least until they had their own nuclear program

USSR, THE PRC, and the Korean War 1950-1953

• When the American forces (UN forces) came close to the Chinese border on the Yalu river, Stalin encourages PRC to send troops into Korea

  • Soviets gave material assistance to one million Chinese troops engaged in battle

  • Mao bitterly complained when the Soviets demanded that China pay for all weapons and materials the USSR had supplied

    • “The costs of Stalin’s trust was high: China sent a million “volunteers” to intervene in the Korean War and had to pay the entire 1.35 billion for the Soviet equipment and supplies necessary for the venture, and Mao lost a son in the war.”

      • Immanuel Hsu, The Rise of Modern China p. 675

Mao, Khrushchev and the “split” - 1956-1964

• Despite the chance for improvement in Sino-Soviet relations during Khrushchev’s leadership, three issues undermined the potential for easing of tensions

  • “Secret Speech” by Khrushchev in Moscow on February 24, 1956 attacking Stalin’s crimes against the party, including comments about the “cult of personality,” which Mao saw as an attack on his own style of leadership

  • The crushing of the Hungarian Uprising in October/November of 1956

    • Mao saw problems in East Germany and Poland as failures by the USSR to contain reactionary forces

  • Khrushchev's doctrine of “peaceful coexistence,” which implied that global revolution could be achieved by means other than armed struggle. Mao saw this as ideological heresy

• Soviets were dominated by revisionists (those straying from Marxism)

Conference of Communist Parties 1957

• Mao attended this conference – second time leaving China

  • Hoped Yugoslavian leaser Josip Tito would appear, but he didn’t

• Mao calls for USSR to abandon revisionism

  • International revolution could not be supported by working alongside “class enemies” (Western Capitalists)

  • Mao also believes that USSR was initiating détente with the west to further isolate China

• Deng Xiaoping was the Chinese chief spokesperson

  • Put forward the Chinese ideological stance

  • Out argued leading soviet theorist Mikhail Suslov

  • Proletarian world revolution could only come through force and that Capitalism had to be crushed in violent revolution

• China leaves the conference viewing themselves as the “real” leaders of international revolutionary communism

Khrushchev visits Beijing 1958

• Mao goes out of his way to make Khrushchev uncomfortable

  • Visit is in summer – makes him stay in hotel with no AC and the hotel is infested with mosquitos

  • Mao arranges one round of talks in his swimming pool – Khrushchev hates swimming

    • Was given a too tight bathing suit and had to stay afloat using an innertube

• Deng attacks Soviet policy

  • Soviets had betrayed the international Communist movement

  • Soviets were guilty of viewing themselves as the only true Marxists-Leninists

  • Soviets had sent spies posing as technical advisers into China

Taiwan 1958

• Mao gears up to take Taiwan in 1958, without Soviet approval

  • Test US’s willingness to defend

  • Builds up forces, but does not launch attack after US begins to gear up for war.

  • Can’t take on US without Soviet support

• Khrushchev – not prepared to go to war with the US

  • Accused Mao of being Trotskyist in pursuing international revolution at any cost

  • Soviets: Mao is fanatical

  • Soviets withdraw their economic advisors in China and cancelled commercial contracts with China

Great Leap forward and Sino-Soviet

• Great Leap Forward was initiated by Mao in January 1958

  • Rapidly develop China’s agricultural and industrial sectors simultaneously

  • Believed sheer force and will would get around the necessity of importing heavy machinery

  • Focus on grain and steel production

    • Promotes backyard steel furnace in every commune – poor quality and strips local communities of needed fuel

  • Public works projects fail due to deliberate lack of experiences and expert leadership

  • China experiences widespread famine

    • Millions starving

    • Mao insists on exporting grain even though his people are starving

• Great Leap Forward ended in 1961

  • Massive failure, millions of Chinese died (starvation) (estimated 45 million premature deaths)

  • Mao steps down as state chairman in 1959, realizing blame would be put on him, remains head of CCP

Soviets denounce GLF

• 1959 – Soviets call rapid industrial change aspect of GLF: faulty in design and erroneous in practice”

  • Mao furious, humiliated – Staff Marshall Peng had given information to the Soviets about widespread starvation

• Mao is determined to strike back

  • Starts backing any communist country that dissented from Moscow

    • Albania

      • Soviets withdraw aid to Albania – Khrushchev Albania Communism is Stalinist and backward – Chinese take this as an insult

      • Chinese offer to replace Soviet aid and technical assistance

• Diplomatic relations between China and Soviet Union severed

  • Khrushchev  Mao is “Asian Hitler” and “living corpse”

  • Mao  Khrushchev “redundant old boot”

Sino Soviet relations and the Cultural Revolution 1966-1976

• Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution launched May 1966

  • Wants to eliminate creeping return of liberal and bourgeois thinking and behavior

    • Hopes to reignite the revolutionary class strength that he thought had petered out

      • Historians agree this was Mao’s relaunch

• Main tools of the Cultural Revolution:

  • The young – encouraged to denounce their elders, teachers, and parents and send them for re-education

    • Little Red Book

• Mao declares the revolution over in 1969

  • Attacks on “old culture” results in nearly 500,000 deaths

• Khrushchev leaves office in 1964, no reconciliation between USSR and China

• Soviets denounce Mao’s Cultural Revolution as pure fanaticism

China USSR and Nuclear Weapons

• Mao requests Soviet Nuclear weapons

  • China “If you are our friend, you should want to help us develop our own nuclear program”

  • Soviet Union: “As you are our friend, you do not need your own nuclear program as we will look after you”

• Chinese develop their own nuclear program

  • Named first bomb 59/6 – date at which Soviets pulled their scientists from China

• China launches their own satellite in 1970

• Overall, Mao is less weary of Nuclear destruction then USA and USSR, believes it to be an effective diplomatic tool

Sino-Soviet Border War 1969

• 1969, according to the Chinese, Soviet Union had violated the Chinese border 4189 times in the period up to 1969

• March 2nd, 1969

  • Chen-pao/Demansky Island in the Ussuri River – fighting breaks out

  • Fear of nuclear war

    • Mao fears Soviet invasion, digs tunnels and supplies are stored in preparation

• There is no escalation, but full out war had been close

Sino-Soviet Clashes over Cambodia and Vietnam

• Soviets have influence over Vietnam post Vietnam war

  • Chinese attempt to influence Cambodia

    • Cambodia turned Communist in 1975 under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge party

    • Brutal Maoist leader, 2.5 million die in cultural revolution

• 1978 Vietnam signed a military alliance with USSR and invades Cambodia in 1978

  • Goal – overthrow Pol Pot, expel Chinese in Cambodia

• 1979 – China invades Vietnam

  • Soviet increase their support for Vietnam

    • Vietnam wins, but China claims Victory after withdrawing

Sino-Soviet Rapprochement 1982-2000

• Relaxation of tensions because

  • Mao dies in 1976

  • Overthrow of the Gang of Four in China

  • Adoption of new PRC leader – Deng Xiaoping, who was more tolerant of the west

  • Brezhnev’s death in 1982

• Tiananmen Square 1989

  • Chinese brutally crush pro-democracy movement

    • Stark difference to loosening up of Communism in Soviet Union

  • Before Gorbachev’s visit on April 16, 1989, students began peaceful protests for more political freedom

    • “Down with the buracracy”

    • Between April 21st and 22nd: 100,000 people demonstrated

    • On May 13th 1989, 3000 students begin a hunger strike in the Tiananmen Square – two days before Gorbachev arrives

      • Protestor’s welcome Gorbachev – had instituted Perestroika and glasnost

    • May 19th, 1 million people protest

    • May 20th, Martial Law declared

    • June 4th, Troops disperse crowd, it is estimated that thousands died

• Soviet Union Falls, China no longer has a communist competitor

1/21/2025

Vietnam - A striking failure of US containment policy

Background – How did the US Get Involved?

• Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) was a French Colony

  • Occupied by the Japanese during WWII

  • During this time, nationalist movement grows in Vietnam – most noteworthy nationalist at the time is Communist Ho Chi Minh

    • Leads a movement known at the Vietminh that is actively against the Japanese, but also doesn’t want to see Vietnam return to French rule

    • When the Japanese are defeated in 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

• French intend to take the colony back, hostilities break out between French and Vietminh in 1946

  • President Roosevelt had tried to get the French to relinquish their claims over Vietnam

  • Truman administration is much more hardened towards Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh

    • As Cold War tensions increase, Ho Chi Minh’s Communist credentials are emphasized over his nationalism

      • The assumption grows that he was being directed by Moscow

How did the US get Involved?

• In March of 1950, aid was sent to help the French defeat the Vietminh

  • Aid is continued by Eisenhower (1954):

    • “You have the specific value of a locality in its production of materials that the world needs. You have the possibility that many human beings pass under a dictatorship that is inimical to the free world. You have the broader considerations that might follow what you would call the “falling domino’ principle… You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is certainty that it will go over very quickly.”

• Domino theory is now entrenched in US foreign policy

• Although the US is funding 80% of the war by 1954, Eisenhower makes the decision not to directly intervene.

  • French are defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu

  • 1954 Geneva Accords

    • French would withdraw from Indochina

    • Temporary division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel – Ho Chi Minh would control the northern territory

    • Free elections to unite Vietnam in 1956

    • No foreign bases

    • Laos and Cambodia would be recognized as independent states

How did the US get Involved?

• The USA does not sign the Geneva Accords

• Instead, USA tries to strengthen the area south of the 17th parallel

  • Supporting a non-communist government that would be able to resist invasion

  • Establish SEATO – signed by Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand

    • Countries agreed to meet together if there was an attack, and if the vote was unanimous, to take action

    • In violation of the Geneva Accords, SEATO included South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia as its “protected area”

      • This is the legal basis for the US action in Vietnam

• US backs Ngo Dinh Diem to lead South Vietnam

  • Catholic, US educated

  • 1955, declares the Republic of Vietnam

    • US starts sending aid to the country, by 1960, almost 1000 Americans were serving as military advisors to the country

How does the US Get Involved

• In 1956, Diem, with US support, refuses to hold elections

  • He claimed that he was not bound by the Geneva Accord

    • Reasoning – Communists could not be trusted to hold fair elections

      • Reality: Diem would have lost. It is estimated that elections would have resulted in a united, Communist, Vietnam

      • Ho Chi Minh likely would have received roughly 80% of the vote

• With no elections, military opposition to Diem became the only viable alternative in the South

  • Groups of Communist, known as the Vietcong or VC, formed themselves into military units with a political arm known as the National Liberation Front (NLF)

    • North Vietnam supported the VC, as did much of the local population in the South

    • USA grows concerned with its ally Diem, and doubted his ability to maintain its preferred option of the “two Vietnam” policy

Kennedy Escalates the Conflict

• Kennedy is elected in 1960

  • Policy towards communism is “Flexible Response”

    • Expansion of fighting communism:

      • Increasing the number of US military advisors in the South – 17,000 at his death

      • Starting counter-insurgency operations against Communist Guerrillas in the South

        • Search and destroy missions against the Vietcong, spraying defoliants, such as Agent Orange, to destroy the jungle that gave them cover

        • Strategic Hamlets Program: resettlement of villagers into fortified villages where they could be “kept safe” from Communists

      • Introducing a new US counter-insurgency force, the Green Berets, who were trained in guerrilla fighting

    • Encouraging Diem to introduce social and political reforms

• None of this limits the growing success of the Vietcong

  • In fact, many of the policies alienate the local peasant population further

Diem Becomes increasingly Unpopular

• 1963: laws passed banning the celebration of Buddha’s birthday

  • Buddhists organized mass protest

    • Included rallies, hunger strikes, and self-immolations

• First lady (Diem’s sister-in-law)

  • “Let them burn and we shall clap our hands”

    • International negative reaction

• Kennedy starts to cut off aid to Diem’s regime

  • Diem and his brother are killed in a coup that US intelligence knew about in advance

Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam

• Kennedy is assassinated in 1963, Lyndon Johnson becomes President

  • Inherited a situation where there no longer was a stable government situated in South Vietnam

  • Johnson is committed to win “war against Communism”

• Johnson needs to increase the US commitment in South Vietnam, but also needs justification to obtain the support of the US public and Congress

• “Excuse” – Gulf of Tonkin Incident

  • On the night of August 2nd, 1964, the American naval destroyer Maddox was fired on by North Vietnamese patrol boats while gathering intelligence in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the North Vietnamese coast.

  • Two days later, on August 4th, 1964 the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy were allegedly fired on.

    • Ship radar showed that they were under attack, but there was much confusion, and no physical evidence of an assault was found

    • Johnson called this attack “open aggression on the high seas”

      • United States immediately bombed North Vietnamese installations

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Authorized the President to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression”

  • The is the legal basis for intervention in Vietnam

• Post passing of Gulf of Tonkin, USA response in Vietnam:

  • Launching a sustained campaign bombing of North Vietnam: Operation Rolling Thunder

  • Sending 100,000 ground forces to South Vietnam in  1965 led by General William C. Westmoreland

    • US carried out search and destroy missions

    • By 1968, there were 520,000 troops in Vietnam

• Bombing of targets in South Vietnam also took place

  • Goal of attacking enemy supply lines

  • Large numbers of rockets, bombs and napalm were dropped on South Vietnam – devastating effects on local population

The Tet Offensive

• Johnson in 1967 – “light at the end of the tunnel”

• January 30th, 1968 – on the Vietnamese New Year (Tet), 70,000 Communists launched a surprise attack

  • Communists attacked more than 100 cities, including Saigon

  • Hue – half the city was destroyed, 5800 civilians were killed

  • It takes 11 days for the US and ARVN forces to regain control of Saigon

  • Overall Tet was a military failure for the Vietcong

    • It does not trigger a popular uprising as they had hoped

    • They fail to hold on to any of the cities captured and lose more than 40,000

• However, public opinion within the United States turned decisively against the war

  • People are sickened by the images broadcasted by the news – this is the first televised war

    • See US embassy being attacked by VC, saw a South Vietnamese police chief execute a VC in the street

• Anti-War protesting increases

  • Bombing of North Vietnam stops, peace talks initiated

• Johnson shocks the nation by announcing he would not seek re-election in 1968

Nixon and Vietnam

• Nixon is elected in November of 1968

  • Wants to withdraw, but was not prepared to accept peace at any price

    • Wanted “peace with honor”

      • No way the US could withdraw – did not want the appearance of defeat

• Nixon pushes for settlement that would give South Vietnam a chance at surviving

  • Would take 4 more years, result in the loss of 300,000 Vietnamese lives and 20,000 American lives

• Nixon selected Henry Kissinger as his key foreign policy advisor

  • Starts “covert” 14 month bombing campaign along the Ho Chi Minh trail inside of neutral Cambodia

    • Does not force the north to agree to peace

•  Vietnamization

  • Gradual withdrawal of US troops, and handing over the war to the South Vietnamese

    • From 1969-1973 US troops numbers were scaled down

Nixon Doctrine

• Moving away from Truman Doctrine – nations were responsible for their own defense:

  • “The nations of Asia can and must increasingly should the responsibility for achieving peace and progress in the area with whatever cooperation we can provide. Asian countries must seek their own destiny for if domination by the aggressor can destroy the freedom of a nation, too much dependence on a protector can eventually erode its own dignity. But it is not just a matter of dignity for dependence on foreign aid destroys the incentive to mobilize domestic resources – human, financial and material – in the absence of which no government is capable of dealing effectively with its problems and adversaries”

Paris Peace Talks

• Opened on May 13th, 1972, ended January 1973

• Kissinger negotiated with the North Vietnamese

• Neither side is willing to compromise

  • North demanded representation in the government of the South

  • Both sides try to win an advantage at the negotiating table by achieving an upper hand on the battlefield

    • Americans use their airpower to put pressure on the Communists – even bombing targets that had previously deemed too sensitive (civilian danger)

• Americans attempt to détente with the Soviet Union and China – try to get them to pressure North Vietnam into reaching a peace agreement

• Peace settlement signed on January 27th 1973

  • All American troops would withdraw from Vietnam

  • North and South Vietnam would respect the 17th parallel as a dividing line

• US troops withdrawn two weeks after the signing of the agreement

• North Vietnam advances on the South, takes Saigon by April 1975 – country falls to Communism

  • Cambodia and Laos would also fall to communism

Conclusions on US Policy of Containment in Asia

• Up to 1949, US policy of containment in Europe had been successful

  • Communism made no gains after 1947, Berlin Airlift had thwarted an attempt at expansion

  • Marshall plan stopped the Communist Party from growing in other countries

• Containment in Asia – less successful

  • Mao in China

  • North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

    • However Thailand, Malaysia and other countries did not fall to Communism

  • Though the US had tried to stop Soviet expansion, these revolutions in Asia had a much more nationalistic feel, and as a result, the US ended up fighting more local movements

    • Thus the US never could be as successful as it had been in Europe

12/19/2024

Cold War - Peaceful Co-existence: new Leaders, new Ideas?

Eisenhower and Dulles

• Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected US President in 1952

  • Distinguished military background – commanded Allies in Normandy in 1944

  • After WWII served as US Army Chief of Staff, Commander-in-Chief of NATO

  • He and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles are strongly anti-communist

    • Dulles: “Soviet Communism believes that human beings are nothing more than… superior animals … and that the best kind of world is that world which is organized as a well managed farm is organized, where certain animals are taken out to pasture, and they are fed and brought back and milked, and they are given a barn as shelter over their heads… I do not see how, as long as Soviet Communism holds those views… there can be any permanent reconciliation… This is an irreconcilable conflict”

    • Dulles wants a “roll back” of communism in Eastern Europe – no attempt is made under Eisenhower to do so.

      • US quietly supports uprisings in Eastern Europe in 1953 and 1956 but the Soviets stomped these out.

New Look: changes to Containment

• Preventing the extension of Soviet Communism outside of areas it was already established by:

  • Setting up alliances to encircle the Soviet Union – NATO, SEATO

  • Using military power to protect vulnerable areas – West Berlin

  • Assisting forces that were fighting Communism: Diem’s government in Vietnam

  • Using the CIA for covert operations more extensively then ever before: spies, sabotage, resistance

  • Initiating an increased reliance on nuclear weapons – 1953 national security document “conventional weapons would thus play a smaller role”

  • Brinksmanship: Massive Retaliation – policy of threatening Nuclear war if attacked

Khrushchev and Co-Existence

• Stalin dies in 1953

• Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev rise to power as the top replacements – Khrushchev won the struggle

• Peaceful Coexistence:

  • Capitalism and Communism should accept the continuing existence of one another rather than use force to destroy each other

    • Claimed capitalism would die out anyway due to its own inherent weaknesses

East West Relations in the 1950s

• Agreement over Austria

  • Austrian State Treaty ended the four power occupation of Austria, created a neutral and independent country

  • An example of improving relations in 1950s

1955: Geneva Summit

• Soviet Proposals

  • Mutual disbandment of NATO and Warsaw Pact

  • Withdrawal of all foreign troops from Europe followed by the drawing up of a European Security Treaty

  • Free elections to be carried out for a reunified German government

• US Proposals

  • An Open Skies proposal. This meant that each side would exchange plans of military installations and allow aerial surveillance of each other’s installations

• US Reaction

  • Hostile. These ideas were unacceptable to the West European Governments, and no agreement was reach on any of these proposals

• Soviet Reaction

  • Hostile. The Soviets did no even bother to make a formal reply. They dismissed it as “nothing more than a bold espionage plot” and Khrushchev said it would be like seeing into our bedrooms. However, the US went ahead and used the U-2 reconnaissance plane.

Geneva a Failure?

• Failure to achieve concrete progress – Yes

  • No reunited Germany or disarmament

• Still discussions were carried out in a cordial manner

• East West-Tension Increases after 1955

  • Khrushchev: de-Stalinization speech – loosening of Moscow control in some satellite states

• Suez Crisis

  • Raised fears of growing Soviet influence in the Middle East:

    • Leads to Eisenhower Doctrine in 1957 – United States would help any country in the Middle East to fight against Communism

The Technology Race

• On October 4, 1957 Soviets launched the world’s first artificial Satellite – Sputnik

  • Followed by Sputnik II a month later

• Americans sent into a state of panic – became convinced of Soviet superiority in missile technology

• Khrushchev makes the most of this situation

  • Used every opportunity to insist he could wipe out any American or European city

The Missile Gap

• US Congress and media promoted the idea of a “missile gap”

  • Confirmed by the Gaither Report – findings of a top-secret investigation committee

  • Recommendations:

    • Vast increase in offensive defense power, especially missile development

    • Build up of conventional forces capable of fighting a limited war

    • A massive building program of fallout shelters to protect US citizens during nuclear attack

• US Air Force U-2 planes flying over Soviet Russia had revealed that despite Khrushchev’s threats, there was no missile gap

  • To calm US anxiety, Eisenhower supported the creation of NASA in 1958 and provides federal aid to promote science education in schools

Events of 1958-1960

• 1958, Eisenhower was confident about US nuclear superiority – wants to ban atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons

  • US stops this form of testing in October of 1958

  • Soviet Union also stops preforming this type of test

• Hope of formal test-ban treaty

  • Khrushchev then issues ultimatum for the West to leave Berlin in 1959 within 6 months

    • Khrushchev has to back down

• Khrushchev accepted an invitation to visit the United States in September of 1959, would be the first Soviet Leader to visit and arranged for Eisenhower to meet with him in Paris, May of 1960

The U-2 Incident

• Meeting between Eisenhower and Khrushchev had been a success of generating a positive atmosphere – nothing concrete was produced

• A few days before the scheduled meeting in Paris, the Soviets announced that an American plane had been shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1st 1960

  • Americans tried to claim it was a weather plane

  • Soviets realized it was a high altitude photo-reconnaissance plane

  • Pilot Gary Powers had been captured and confessed to the spying nature of his work

  • Eisenhower admits the existence of the U-2 planes and accepts responsibility

    • Does NOT apologize – at Paris calls it a “distasteful but vital necessity”

• Khrushchev cancels Eisenhower's planned visit to the Soviet Union

  • Tensions once again are high, “thawing” of relations is over

12/17/2024

The Cold War Goes Global - The Korean War

USA Foreign Policy: 1949-1950

• Reminder: NATO Established: April 1949

  • USA is optimistic that Communists had been contained in Europe

    • Truman Doctrine

  • NATO is a cheap option: why?

    • Power rests in the atomic bomb, no need to invest huge sums of money into developing conventional forces to match the Soviets

      • But USA has little choice but to rely on nuclear threat, as it had demobilized its army following WWII – the Soviets had not

• Fall of 1949 – two key events shift the balance of power in favor of USSR:

  • Soviet Union becomes an atomic power

    • Its not that the US didn’t think that USSR would never have the bomb, but that they had anticipated it taking roughly ten more years of development.

  • China fell to the Communist forces of Mao

China Falls to the Communists: Chinese Civil War: 1945-1949

• Nationalists: Led by Chiang Kai-shek

  • US had given limited support to the nationalists

• Communist Guerilla Forces: Led by Mao Zedong

The White Paper

• During the summer of 1949, the state department, headed by Dean Acheson, produced a study of Sino-American relations. 

• The document known officially as United States Relations with China with Special Reference to the Period 1944–1949, which later was simply called the China White Paper, attempted to dismiss any misinterpretations of Chinese and American diplomacy toward each other.

• Published during the height of Mao Zedong's takeover, the 1,054 page document argued that American intervention in China was doomed to failure. 

• Although Acheson and Truman had hoped that the study would dispel rumors and conjecture, the paper helped to convince many critics that the administration had indeed failed to check the spread of communism in China.

• Ultimately it suggests that Chiang Kai-shek and his forces were too unpopular with the Chinese people – it had been more of a case of Nationalist collapse than a Communist “victory”

The White Paper

• “The reasons for the failure of the Chinese National Government appear … not to stem from any inadequacy of American aid. Our military observers on the spot have reported that the Nationalists armies did not lose a single battle during the crucial ear of 1948 through lack of arms or ammunition. The fact was that the decay which our observers had detected in Chongqing early in the war had fatally sapped the powers of resistance of the Guomindang. Its leaders had proved incapable of meeting the crisis, confronting them, its troops had lost the will to fight and its government had lost popular support. The Communists on the other had, through a ruthless discipline and fanatical zeal, attempted to sell themselves as guardians and liberators of the people. The Nationalist armies did not have to be defeated; they disintegrated. History has proved again and again that a regime without faith in itself and an army without morale cannot survive the test of battle.”

• To sum it up: American experts believed they had done what they could

The Red Scare: McCarthyism and the Anti-Communist crusade in America

• Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin

  • Soviet Union had a conspiracy to place Communist sympathizers in key positions in American life

    • Accusations led to “purges: and show trials of those accused of “Un-American behavior”

• Trials affected every level of US society, no group, institution  or individual was safe from suspicion

The Anti-Communist Crusade in America

• 1950s – Anti-Red crusade reaches its peak

• McCarthy goes as far as to call for a purge of “comsymps”

  • Claims Truman administration was under Communist influence, and that all American Liberals were Communist sympathizers

• Acheson was forced to make a speech appeasing McCarthyites

  • Goes back on the White Papers, says that Mao was “completely subservient to the Moscow regime (it wasn’t).” 

  • Two state department advisers on China who said the Nationalists were not worth saving lost their jobs

    • This is the impact of McCarthy

• Truman refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the new Chinese government

The Anti-Communist Crusade in America

• Most infamous trial: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

  • Convicted of spying for the Soviets, executed in 1953

  • They were instrumental in the transmission of information about top-secret military technology and prototypes of mechanisms related to the atomic bomb, which were of value to the Soviet nuclear weapons program and also provided top-secret radar, sonar, and jet propulsion engines to the Soviet Union.

NSC-68: Total Commitment

• NSC-68 was a report of the US National Security Council produced in 1950

  • Warned how all Communist activity EVERYWHERE could be traced back to Moscow.

    • Recent developments had a global theme and that they indicated the growing strength and influence of the USSR

    • Monolithic view of Communism – all communism fed back to the nerve center in Moscow

  •  Report warned of an indefinite period of tension and danger

  • Advises the US government to be ready to meet each and every challenge promptly.

    • Suggested an immediate increase in military strength and spending 35-55 billion

    • Encouraged military and economic aid to be given to any country perceived by the USA to be resisting Communism

NSC-68

• “Secret statement in National Security Council Report 68, State and Defense Department, Washington, April, 1950:

• [We advocate] an immediate and large scale build-up in our military and general strength and that of our allies with the intention of righting the power balance and in the hope that through means other than all-out war we could induce a change in the nature of the socialist system…

• The United States … can strike out on bold and massive program of rebuilding the West’s defensive potential to surpass that of the Soviet world, and of meeting each fresh challenge promptly and unequivocally… This means virtual abandonment by the United States of trying to distinguish between national and global security. It also means the end of subordinating security needs to the traditional budget restrictions; of asking “how much security can we afford?” In other words, security must henceforth become the dominant element in the national budget, and other elements must be accommodated to it…

• The new concept of the security needs of the nation calls for annual appropriations of 50 Billion, or note much below the former wartime levels.”

North Korea Invades South Korea: 1950

• Truman’s Democratic Party faced difficult congressional elections in 1950

  • Truman needs to shelve the issues of recognizing China, commitment in Asia, and recommendations of NSC-68 until after the election

• However, North Korea launches an invasion of South Korea June 25th, 1950

  • 90,000 soldiers

• Truman does not have time now to balance whether total commitment on a global scale was a wise policy to follow

  • North Korean attack is seen as an example of Soviet Expansion

    • North Korea seen as following the orders of Stalin

  • The fear: failure to take action would undermine the credibility of the USA in its determination to resist Communism

North Korea Invades: Domino theory

• Domino effect  Truman “If we let Korea down, the Soviets will keep right on going and swallow up one piece of Asia after another … If we were to let Asia go, the Near East would collapse and no telling what would happen in Europe… Korea is like Greece of the Far East. If we are tough enough now, if we stand up to them like we did in Greece three years ago, they won’t take any more steps”

  • US response to Korea: containment

USA aids Korea

• USA sponsored a resolution in the United Nations, calling for military action against North Korea

  • If the UN ignored the North Korean Invasion, it would be making the same mistake as its predecessor the League of Nations – that is, not standing up to aggressor states

  • USSR was boycotting the Security Council, in protest at the refusal of the USA to allow Communist China a seat on the Council, the resolution was passed on June 27th, 1950

    • July 1st, US troops arrive in Korea, soon to be joined by 15 other nations under a UN commander – General Douglas MacArthur

Background to Korea

• Japan Annexed Korea in 1910

  • Was occupying when WWII ended

  • Korean Nationalists, who had led a revolution in 1945, and who included many communists, were not allowed to decide the fate of Korea in 1945

    • USA and USSR agree the two superpowers would take joint responsibility for repatriating the Japanese forces there

      • 38th parallel line of latitude was taken as the dividing point, with the USSR occupying Korea north of the line, USA occupying South

  • This was supposed to be temporary

    • Council of Foreign Minister’s Moscow Conference in December 1945, USA and USSR agreed on the creation of a Korean provisional government, followed by a short period of international trusteeship or supervision, leading eventually to independence

      • This was difficult to achieve

        • USA and USSR relationship is deteriorating

        • Despite Moscow Agreement: separate administrations develop on either side

          • South: Syngman Rhee – rebel who had spent much of his life in exile

          • North: Kim Il-Sung – Russian trained Korean Communist who had been a guerilla fighter

          • Both are nationalists and want to unite Korea

Korean War

• 1947: US persuades the UN to establish a commission to supervise Korean elections

  • Commission is refused entry into North Korea, but observes a separate election in South Korea in May of 1948

  • Although most Koreans opposed partition, the Republic of Korea (ROK) was established in May of 1948

    • Undemocratic, strongly Anti-Communist administration, UN recognizes it as legitimate

  • Response: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

    • Founded by Kim Il Sung in September of 1948

      • Immediately recognized by Communist Bloc

• USA supports ROK with economic and military aid, but US does not expect to station troops there long term – had left by mid 1949

  • Soviets had left North Korea in 1948

  • Acheson – Perimeter Speech – 1950 (Jan) – both South Korea and Taiwan were publically excluded from the American defensive perimeter in the Western Pacific

Why Did the Superpowers Get Involved?

• Remember, both USSR and USA have withdrawn troops

• Orthodox view of History, follows the US views of the 1950s

  • This is an attack initiated by Stalin

• Revisionist History later claimed that Stalin had no role in the invasion, and that the North was possibly responding to attacks from the South

  • Historian Bill Cumings, 1981, claims that Soviet control over the DPRK was flimsy at best, and Kim Il Sung could have acted independently of the Soviets, since DPRK was not solely reliant on Soviet Arms

  • Opening of Soviet Archives Clarifies this – Kim Il Sung pushes for the war and Stalin give approval.

Role of Kim Il Sung in Starting the War

• Kim Il Sung is key to explaining the war

• Both he and Synman Rhee want to unify the country, a civil war was inevitable

  • But both sides are not strong enough to unify the country alone

  • Kim Il Sung put a huge amount of effort into lobbying Stalin to back an attack on the South

    • Stalin initially is not interested in the slightest

• Thus Pyongyang is really pushing for war, not Moscow

• Thus Truman administration is wrong in its assumption that Stalin initiated the war, but his support of Il Sung was key in allowing the war to move forward

Role of Stalin in starting the War

• Reasons Stalin may have changed his mind on Korea

  • Stalin may have been more hopeful about the chances of world revolution. Communists had won the Chinese Civil War, Soviets now have the bomb, and the West has economic difficulties – time to push forward in spreading Soviet influence in Asia

  • United States larger role in Japan – Soviets can try to match this in Korea

  • Stalin’s general opportunism

    • Historian John Lewis Gaddis – Stalin had a tendency to advance himself in situations where he thought he could do so without provoking too strong of a response. Acheson’s “Perimeter Speech” could have  provided Stalin with a “tempting opportunity”

• Despite changing his mind, Stalin was cautious about Korea, warned the DPRK not to expect great assistance because it had more important challenges to meet than the Korean problem

  • Made it clear that Kim Il Sung needed to get support from Mao too

  • “If you get kicked in the teeth, I will not lift a finger. You have to ask Mao for all the help.”

• Despite this, Soviet commanders were involved in all aspects of the preparation and execution of the attack

The Role of Mao in the Outbreak of the War

• Kim Il Sung visits Mao to convince him to help with the invasion

  • Mao is skeptical about the success of the invasion, but Kim Il Sung gives off the impression that Stalin was more enthusiastic about it then he actually was

    • Mao wants to invade Taiwan and knows he needs Soviet support

    • Worries that if he is against North Korean plan, that Stalin wouldn’t back his Taiwan invasion

    • Mao asks Kim if he needs troops stationed on the Korean boarder in case the Americans intervene, but Kim says this isn’t necessary

    • Mao doesn’t pay much attention to the actual preparations for the invasion

• When North Korea attacks, it surprise South Korea, America and Mao

The Course of the War

• There were several dramatic changes in the course of war over the first few months, followed by a stalemate situation, which lasted until the armistice in 1953

  • Technically the two countries are still at war today

• The initial push by the North Koreans took them deep into South Korea, leaving only a small corner of the peninsula under the control of South Korea.

  • South Korea and American troops are pushed back to Pusan (Busan)

• General MacArthur led the UN forces in an amphibious landing at Inchon, cutting off the North Koreans. Within a month, MacArthur has retaken Seoul and driven the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel

The Course of the War

• A stalemate develops around the 38th parallel

• Truman realizes that US needs to go back to the policy of containment

  • MacArthur disagrees, claiming “here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest. Here we fight Europe’s war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words.”

    • MacArthur is relieved of command. 

• Peace talks started in 1951, with a focus on the repatriation of POWs

• The war continued for another two years

  • 40% of American casualties happen during this time

  • US puts pressure on China by threatening to use atomic weapons

• Armistice is signed at Panmunjun in July 1943

Results of the Korean War: Europe

• Actions of the United States

  • NSC-68’s recommendation to triple the defense budget was implemented

  • US land forces in Europe were greatly strengthened

  • NATO was strengthened

    • Greece and Turkey added

      • Military bases set up in Turkey (boarders USSR)

  • The need to integrate West Germany into NATO and arm the country was given top priority

• Most of these policies were under consideration before the Korean conflict but the timetable for these was accelerated

Actions of the US in Asia

• Treaty of San Francisco with Japan 1952

  • US maintains military bases in Japan

    • US focused on building up Japan’s economy

• Taiwan had to be defended as well

  • 7th fleet had already been sent to the Taiwan strait to defend the island against possible invasion

    • Continued to send Chiang Kai-Shek military and economic aid, US recognizes Taiwan as the only official Chinese state until the 1970s (Nixon visits China)

• China was isolated by the United States, condemned by the UN as an aggressor, and prevented from taking a seat at the UN security council

• US was committed to supporting other regimes in Asia believed to be resisting communism. 

  • Led to involvement in Philippines and Vietnam

• SEATO – Southeast Asia Treaty Organization was formed as an anti-communist bloc 

What did the War mean for Korea?

• Cost of human lives and property was vast

• No hope of reunification

• No longer a local issue but a Superpower issue

• Ceasefire line turned into a heavily armed Cold War frontier

• North Korea is still communist today

• South Korea has become a model Capitalist success story, with the help of heavy American and Japanese investment

What did the Korea War mean for China? 

• Isolated by the US

• China’s reputation grew greatly, becoming a major power in the region

  • Preserved its own revolution and took on America – saved North Korea

• Mao’s reputation is increased, and the Chinese revolution is strengthened

• However, resources were diverted from recovery to the war effort

  • Also made China’s aim of uniting Taiwan and China more difficult

• Stalin’s reluctance throughout the war to help Mao with substantial military commitments also meant that Mao would be less likely to rely on Soviet help, and would be less concerned with following Moscow’s lead

What did the Korean War Mean For USSR? 

• USSR had kept out of direct conflict with the US

  • But results are not good for USSR

• USA has decided to triple its defense budget, rearm West Germany, maintain troops in Europe, and fight Communism in Asia

• Soviet Union was now facing an even more intense and broader Cold War standoff than had existed in 1950

  • Any advantages that Soviets once held were being matched by the US

What did the Korean War mean for Southeast Asia?

• USA perception of monolithic communist movement meant it would continue to intervene wherever it saw the threat of Communism on the move

• Southeast Asia is now involved in the Cold War

• This made it harder for nationalist groups in the region to triumph over the remaining vestiges of imperialism and colonialism

  • Forces nationalist groups, which may not have been very communist, into increasing their dependency on China and the USSR

    • Vietnam is the only instance though where the USA, USSR and China are directly involved in the fighting

Effects of the Korean War on the Cold War

• The Korean War caused the globalization of the superpower rivalry and confrontation

  • Asia and Europe, later spreading to other parts of the developing world – Latin America

• US defense spending increases dramatically, running around 10% of GDP in the 1950s

• European military spending increases, boosting economic prosperity

• Soviet Union increases troop levels from 2.8 million troops in 1950 to around 6 million by 1955

  • Stalin’s successors would cut military spending sharply after 1955, but continued nuclear developments

Warren I Cohn on Korea
America in the Age of Soviet Power 1945-1991 p. 66

• “ Arming the North Koreans and agreeing to the invasion of South Korea proved to be Stalin’s most disastrous Cold War gamble. It postponed a thaw in relations with the United States for twenty years. It intensified a confrontation that continued for forty years at enormous cost to the major antagonists. The war shifted the balance of forces within the United States, allowing them to divert the attention and energies of the American people from needed reform to the hunt of Communists at home and abroad. It allowed the creation of a military-industrial complex that consumed the productive power of the American economy and fueled conflict all over the world. The Korean War altered the nature of the Soviet-American confrontation, changing it from a systematic political competition into an ideologically driven, militarized conflict that threatened the very survival of the globe

11/12/2024

The Cold War; The Breakdown of the Grand Alliance

Key Developments: 1946-1947

• Soviet moves for consolidating influence

  • Salami Tactics

    • Term coined by Hungarian Communist leader, Matyas Rakosi – When commenting on how the USSR secured Communist control in Eastern Europe stated “like slicing off salami – piece by piece

      • Stage 1: the Soviets supervised the organization of governments in the Eastern European states, initially establishing a broad alliance of anti-fascists

      • Stage 2: each of the parties was sliced off, one after another

    • the communist core was left, and then ultimately the local Communists were replaced, if needed, with Moscow trained people

Baggage Train Leaders

• Baggage Train Leaders

  • Men who had spent much of the war in Moscow, and were considered by the Soviets to be “trustworthy”

    • Bolesław Bierut was a Polish Communist leader, NKVD agent, and a hardline Stalinist who became President of Poland after the Soviet takeover of the country in the aftermath of World War II.

    • Vasil Petrov Kolarov was a Bulgarian communist political leader and leading functionary in the Communist International (Comintern)

    • Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Ana Pauker became the world's first female foreign minister when entering office in December 1947. She was also the unofficial leader of the Romanian Communist Party right after World War II.

    • Mátyás Rákosi was a Jewish Hungarian communist politician. Froom 1949 to 1956, he was the de facto ruler of Communist Hungary. An ardent Stalinist, his government was a satellite of the Soviet Union.

• These leaders made sure that the post war governments of their prospective countries would be backed by Moscow – backed “Stalinist” communists

• Free elections promised by Stalin at Yalta – to occur in a matter of weeks – were not held until January 19, 1947. 

  • Prior to these elections, there was a campaign of murder, censorship, and intimidation. 

  • An estimated 50,000 people were deported to Siberia prior to elections

Case Study: Poland

• During the election in Poland in January of 1947:

  • Stanisław Mikołajczyk, Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile during World War II and leader of the Polish Peasant Party, saw his party have:

    • 246 candidates disqualified from the election

    • 149 candidates and members arrested

    • 18 candidates/ members murdered

  • 1 million voters were taken off of the electoral register

  • Desmond Donnelly, Struggle for the World, “ in these appalling circumstances of intimidation, it was not surprising that Bierut’s Communists secured complete control in Poland” (1965)

• Soviet Perspective on these elections was quite different from that of the West – who saw this as a breach of Yalta – Soviets saw this as a victory over “Western expansionism”

Nikita Khrushchev, Krushchev Remembers (Little, Brown and Co. 1970) vol. 2, p. 166

• “The political goals set by Mikolajczyk in cahoots with Churchill required that Warsaw be liberated by (British and American) forces before the Soviet army reached the city. That way a pro- Western government supported by Mikolajczyk would already be in control of the city by the time that Soviets arrived. But it didn’t work out that way. Our troops under Rokossovsky got there first”

• Overall a pattern emerges similar to that in Poland in Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary, all had been occupied by the Red Army. Only Czechoslovakia and Finland had a semblance of democracy

Soviet Pressure on Iran

• USSR tried to increase its political control in Iran in the aftermath of WWII

• At Tehran, it had been agreed that both the British and Soviets would withdraw their troops from Iran after the war. 

  • British remove their troops

  • Stalin left 30,000 troops in the northern part of the country, claiming that they were needed to help put down internal rebellion

    • Unsurprising, these troops encouraged a Communist uprising

      • Iran asks US and Britain for help, seeing this as a breach of the wartime agreements

        • On January 1, 1946, Stalin refuses – wants access to Iranian oil

• Four days later, in a letter to Secretary of State James Byrnes, Truman reveals that he thinks the Soviet Union will invade Turkey and the Black Sea Straits

  • “unless Russia is faced with an Iron Fist and strong language, war is in the making”

• Iran had to make a formal protest to the UN concerning the continued presences of Soviet forces. This was the first crisis faced by the UN

  • Moscow agrees to pull its troops out

Instability and Communist Parties Elsewhere in Europe

• Instability in Greece and Turkey

  • Post WWII, anti-imperialist, nationalist, and somewhat Pro-Communist rebellions in these countries

    • British, and to a slightly lesser degree the US, believed that these rebellions were being directed and supported by the Soviets.

    • Stalin does assert that he wants Soviet control of the Straits of Constantinople, rather than Turkish control of the area

•  Communist Parties in Italy and France

  • Grew stronger in post war Europe.

    • Membership increasing due to the economic hardships experience at the end of the war

      • Americans and British are worried that these parties are receiving encouragement from Moscow (not nearly as much as in Eastern Europe), and are worried that these countries could be weak links in anti-Communist Western Europe

Kennan’s Long Telegram

• February of 1946, US diplomat in Moscow, George F. Kennan, sent a telegram to the US State Department on the nature of Soviet foreign policy and conduct

  • His views in this telegram, on the motives behind Soviet foreign policy, will have lasting influence on the State Department

    • Key idea: the Soviet system is buoyed by the “threat” of a “hostile” world outside its borders, and that the USSR was “fanatically and implacably hostile to the West: Impervious to the logic of reason Moscow [is] highly sensitive to the logic of force. For this reason it can easily withdraw – and usually does – when strong resistance is encountered at any point.”

      • Kennan is arguing:

      • The USSR’s view of the world was a traditional one of insecurity

      • The Soviets want to advances Muscovite Stalinist ideology (not simply Marxism)

      • The Soviet regime was cruel and repressive and justified this by perceiving nothing but evil in the outside world. That view of a hostile outside environment would sustain the internal Stalinist system

    • The USSR was fanatically hostile to the West – but it was not suicidal

  • Kennan’s logic of force argument helped harden attitudes in the US and helped play a key role in the development of the policy of containment

NV Novikov, Soviet Ambassador to the US

• Sends telegram to Stalin in 1946, after the Kennan telegram

  • Set out concerns about US actions he saw as imperialist and thus a threat to Russia:

    • “The foreign policy of the United States, which reflects the imperialist tendencies of American monopolist capital, is characterized in the postwar period by a striving for world supremacy. This is the real meaning of the many statements by President Truman and other representatives of American ruling circles; that the United States has the right to lead the world. All the forces of American diplomacy – the army, the air force, the navy, industry, and science – are enlisted in the service of this foreign policy. For this purpose broad plans for expansion have been developed and are being implemented through diplomacy and the establishment of a system of naval and air bases stretching far beyond the boundaries of the United States, through the arms race, and through the creation of ever newer types of weapons.”

• Kennan and Novikov’s telegrams indicate the suspicion that was emerging in both the United States and Soviet Russia

Basis for Iron Curtain Speech

• By 1946, Soviet dominated governments in:

  • Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria

  • This was in spite of hopes at Yalta that there would be free and democratic elections in Eastern Europe post WWII

• Communist regimes not tied to Moscow had also been established:

  • Albania, Yugoslavia

• By 1949, communism had expanded to include:

  • East Germany and Czechoslovakia

• Red army is still occupying much of Eastern Europe, and thus a cloak of secrecy descends upon Eastern Europe soon after the war

Soviet Reaction to Churchill’s Speech

• Swift response: Outrage

  • Within a week, Stalin compares Churchill to Hitler

    • Saw the speech as racist and a call to war with the Soviet Union

• USSR takes the following steps within 3 weeks of the speech:

  • They withdrew from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

  • They stepped up the tone and intensity of anti-Western propaganda

  • They initiated a new five-year economic pan of self-strengthening

• The iron curtain speech led to a further hardening of opinions on both sides. Churchill had publically defined the new front line in what was now being seen as a new war

The Truman Doctrine

• Truman makes a key speech to the US Congress on March 12th, 1947.

  • Put forward the belief that the US had obligations to “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”

    • This becomes known as the “Truman Doctrine”

• Culmination of shift in US foreign policy: isolationist to interventionist

  • Woodrow Wilson WWI – ran in 1914 on “he kept us out of war”  then enters WWI on promise to “make the world safe for democracy”

  • Roosevelt – WWII lend-lease program

• Truman doctrine is a response to unstable situations in Turkey and especially Greece

  • British had restored the Greek monarchy following WWII, but communist guerillas continued to resist in the countryside.

    • British could no longer support Greek government and army financially, as its own economy had been devastated by the war, and is roughly 3 billion pounds in debt

The Truman Doctrine

• In February of 1947, British told the US that they could no longer maintain tropps in Greece

  • US cannot afford a potential Communist takeover

  • Greece is at a strategic location in Europe – gateway to Western Europe

• US aid sent to Greece

  • Roughly 400 million dollars in financial aid

  • Military advisors are sent to Greece to help combat communists

• Soviet perspective

  • Evidence of the determination of US to expand its sphere of influence

    • Soviets believe US involvement in Europe is not legitimate

• Both the long telegram and iron curtain speech influence Truman before making his “doctrine”

  • Correct perception of expansionist threat of Soviets

    • Beginning of the policy of containment of Communism – will draw the US into the affairs of nations well beyond Europe

Political Historian Walter LaFeber

• On the longer-term significance of the Truman Doctrine

  • “The Truman Doctrine was a milestone in American History … the doctrine became an ideological shield behind which the United States marched to rebuild the Western political and economic system and counter the radical left. From 1947 on, therefore, any threats to that Western system could be easily explained as Communist inspired, not as problems which arose from difficulties within the system itself. That was the most lasting and tragic result of the Truman Doctrine.”

    • America, Russia, and the Cold War, 5th ed. (Knopf, 1985) pp. 57-58

• Directly for Greece and Turket, expansion into the Marshall plan and containment

The Marshall Plan

• In January of 1947, Secretary of State James Byrnes resigned, and was replaced by General George Marshall.

  • Marshall believes that the economies of Western Europe needed immediate help from the USA

    • “Patient is sinking while the doctors deliberate”

• Marshall plan – an economic extension of the ideas outline in the Truman Doctrine

• The Marshall plan – Dollar Imperialism?

  • Designed to give immediate economic help to Europe

  • Set down strict criteria to qualify for American economic aid

    • Involved allowing the US to investigate the financial records of applicant counties

• Stated aims of the Marshall Plan:

  • Revive European Economics so that political and social stability could ensue

  • Safeguard the future of the US economy

• US wants to avoid the interpretation that they were coercing European governments to accept the plan, so it was made clear that the initiative had to come from Europe

• The bill allocating the money did not pass Congress until March 1948

  • 17 Billion dollars

    • Successfully passed after the Czech Coup in February of 1948

Marshall Plan Money

• Yugoslavia 109 Million

• Turkey 221 Million

• Denmark 271 Million

• Austria 677 Million

• Netherlands 1.079 Billion

• Italy 1.474 Billion

• United Kingdom 3.176 Billion

• France 2.706 Billion

• West Germany 1.389 Billion

• Greece 694 Million

• Belgium/Luxembourg 556 Million

• Norway 254 Million

• Ireland 146 Million

• Sweden 107 Million

Soviet Reaction and Response

• Soviet Union Rejects the Marshall Plan – because Americans had asked to see recipients financial records

  • This is an example of American dollar imperials in Soviet minds

• Marshall plan soon evolved into military alliances – LaFeber

• Soviet Response

  • Molotov Plan

    • Series of bilateral trade agreements that aimed to ties the economies of Easter Europe to the USSR

      • Creation of COMECON in January of 1949 (Council for Mutual Economic Assistence)

        • Designed to stimulate and control their economic development and support the collectivization of agriculture and development of heavy industry

Cominform and the “two camps”

• Cominform

  • Communist Information Bureau is created in 1947

    • Created as an instrument to increase Stalin’s control over the Communist parties of other countries

      • Initially comprised of communists in USSR, Yugoslavia, France, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania

        • West is concerned that the organization would spread communism (thus destabilizing the democratic governments) in its own backyard (think France, Italy)

• Stalin’s two camps doctrine

  • Idea developed by Stalin in 20s and 30s – dividing up Europe into opposing camps

    • The aftermath of WWII makes this a reality.

    • Stalin gives “two camps” speech in 1946 before Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech.

• Two Camps idea is discussed at first Cominform meeting

  • One Camp: American organized “anti-Soviet” bloc which was influencing from Europe to Latin America to Asia

  • The other: USSR and “new democracies” in Eastern Europe

    • Also included countries the Soviets deemed sympathetic at the time: Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Egypt, and Syria

Red Army Occupation of Eastern Europe 1945-1947

• Soviets control Eastern Europe by creating what is known as a “satellite empire.”

  • Countries keep their separate legal identities, keeping them technically separate from each other and Russia

  • However, they were tied to following Moscow by the following factors:

    • Soviet Military Power (eventually formalized in Warsaw Pact in 1955)

    • Salami tactics, which transferred the machinery of government into the hands of obedient, pro-Soviet Communists

    • State police and spy networks

    • COMECON

• One Eastern European Country where salami tactics are slow going: Czechoslovakia

  • Stalin opts to set a coup in motion to speed up the process

• By the end of 1948, the satellite states were economically and militarily controlled by the USSR

  • Western Allies saw the “occupation” of Eastern Europe as a direct breach fo the agreements made at Yalta and Potsdam, and as clear evidence of Soviet expansionist policies in action

The Czechoslovakian Coup, February 1948

• Stalin is worried about Czechoslovakia receiving Marshall Plan aid

  • Country is considering it

• The west, perhaps feeling guilty after the Munich Agreements in 1938, doesn’t want to abandon the Czechs again

• Stalin organizes for pressure to be put on the Czech coalition government

  • 12 non communist members are forced to resign

  • Communists Party leader demands the formation of a communist government

• Under heavy pressure from Moscow, and loosely veiled threats of armed intervention, Czech President Edvard Benes agrees to terms

• Two weeks later, independent Czech foreign Minister Jan Masaryk was found dead under suspicious circumstances

  • This is used as evidence by Truman against the Soviets, becomes the final push to get the Marshall Plan through congress

The X Article -- 1947

• Written by George Kennan, under the pseudonym, Mr. X

• Argued that the long-term policy of the United States towards the Soviet Union had to be that of containment of Soviet Expansion

• The US should regard the Soviet Union as a “rival” not partner

• Kennan was a strong influence on Truman and his reputation as the United States key expert on Soviet Policy gave him a tremendous amount of influence over the American public

• Czech Coup happens months after publishing, shows evidence of dangers of Soviet Union

The Berlin Crisis of 1948 (THERE ARE TWO BERLIN CRISIS, THIS LEADS TO BERLIN AIRLIFT, THE ONE IN 1960 LEADS TO BERLIN WALL)

• Post War Germany

  • Germany had been invaded on two major fronts, making it extremely difficult to leave it undivided during occupation at the conclusion of the war

  • Germany split into for zones, administered by the Allied Control Council (ACC)

    • Berlin, in the eastern portion of the country, was governed by the Allied Kommandantur, made up of four military governors

  • All of this was supposed to be temporary

  • It was the intention that all of Germany be treated as one economically, and that a German state would once again emerge as a state

  • By 1949, German was permanently divided into two separate states (eventually reunified)

Why did the post-war powers fail to unify Germany? 

• Germany’s key strategic position and the differing aims of the main powers

  • Center of Europe

  • Potential economic strength – had been an industrial power

  • USSR does not want to see a resurgent united Germany that would pose a security threat

    • But it does want to get as much reparations as possible out of Germany

  • France feared a united Germany rising again on its eastern boarder

  • USA thinks rapid economic recovery of Germany would be best for health of western Europe

    • Would contain spread of communism

    • British backed this view, although they were bankrupt post war

Why did the post-war powers fail to unify Germany? 

• The increasing lack of trust between East and West as the Cold war developed

  • The differences in aims and attitudes of the allied powers had in 1945 would have been enough on their own to delay any permanent peace settlement for Germany

    • But mutual suspicions between the USSR and the West began to harden, making it more difficult

    • Both sides worry about Germany joining the “other side” and tipping the fragile balance of power

  • James Byrnes gives “Speech of Hope” promising that Germany would be rebuilt and would not be divided economically, and that Germans would be allowed to govern themselves democratically

    • He also commits US troops to Germany as long as there is an occupation

    • “to win the German people … it was a battle between us and Russia over minds…”

Why did the post-war powers fail to unify Germany? 

• Specific Disputes between the post-war powers within Germany itself

  • Economic conflict

    • Reparations are key

      • USSR was to take 25% of German industrial equipment from the Western Zones in return for supplying those zones with food and raw materials

        • This did not work

        • Food was a huge problem in war-torn Germany

          • Compounded by a swell of refugees from Eastern Europe

          • USSR was not delivering enough food to the Western zone

            • Also increasingly secretive about what is going on in their zone

        • USA and UK stopped supplying the Soviet zone

      • German coal was another area of disagreement

        • Soviets want western coal, Americans want to use this coal to assist in the economic recovery of Western Europe

          • 25 million tons exported to Europe, not Soviets

  • In early 1947, British and US zones are merged into a new unit called Bizonia

Why did the post-war powers fail to unify Germany? 

• Specific Disputes between the post-war powers within Germany itself

  • Political Conflict

    • Stalin is planning as early as June 1945 to reunify Germany and incorporate it into Russia’s sphere of influence

    • Red army controlled Soviet zone, and Communist Party of Germany (KDP) would attempt to get popular support

      • First step, merge the Social Democrats in Soviet zone with KDP, creating the Socialist United Party (SED)

        • Party did not win over West Germans however

  • The London Conference of Ministers 1947

    • Should have considered the German peace treaty, ends in Soviets and the West throwing accusations at each other, showing that agreement was far from happening

  • London Conference 1948

    • France, Britain, US draw up a constitution for a new West Germany

      • Also establish a new currency

The Berlin Blockade, 1948

• Stalin’s response to establishing a West German state and new currency

• Berlin is 100 miles within the Soviet zone, sealed off from the rest of Germany

  • Thus West Germans in the zone received their food and energy supplies from the Western zone, delivered on road, rail and air corridors

• Stalin begins a total blockade of these routes

  • Roads, railways and waterways linking West Berlin with West Germany were closed, cut supply of electricity from west German to West Berlin,  and the USSR left the Berlin Kommandantur, having left the ACC in March of 48

• West defeats the blockade by air not by direct military confrontation

  • British and American planes flew more than 200,000 flights in 320 days, delivering vital supplies of food and coal to 2.2 million West Berliner

  • By 1949, its clear this is working, Soviets end the blockade

Results of the Berlin Blockade

• First time since 1945 that war had been a possibility

  • Blockade has significant impact on the development of the Cold War

    • Any agreement would be extremely difficult to come by

• Three major outcomes

  • Germany is divided

    • West, 1948, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)

    • East, 1949, German Democratic Republic (GDR)

      • For the West, a divided Germany protected by the US was preferable to a neutral united Germany

  • Continuation of four-power control in Berlin

    • Berlin remained a divided city

  • The formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

    • April 1949,

    • USA, Canada, Brussels Pact Powers (1948 --  Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg,), Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Portugal

    • Defensive alliance

      • In Paris Pact, West Germany is added to NATO in 1955

• Soviets respond w/ Warsaw Pact

  • Brings all of Eastern Europe under one military command

Conclusions that can be drawn: Europe 1949

• Europe was now clearly divided along political, economic, and military lines

• Germany was not to be reunited as had been an original aim of the Allies at the end of World War II. There were now two clear states, although neither side was prepared to recognize the existence of the other (until the 1970s)
  The USA had abandoned its peacetime policy of avoiding commitments and was now involved economically (Marshall Plan) and militarily (NATO)

• No peace treaty had actually been signed with Germany, which meant that the boarders of central Europe were not formalized. This was particularly worrying for Poland, as it now included territory taken from Germany in 1945 (not resolved until 1975)

• Western countries had developed a greater sense of unity due to the Soviet threat

International Relations Beyond Europe?

• From this time on, many conflicts, wherever they were in the world, would be seen as part of the struggle between Communism and Capitalism

• The USA’s policy of containment, which had been developed to fight Communism in Europe, was to lead the USA into resisting Communism anywhere in the world that it perceived Communism was a threat. This would involve the USA fighting in both the Korean and Vietnam War

• The United Nations was never to play the role envisioned in the original discussions between Roosevelt and Churchill at the time of its foundation. With the USA and the USSR now opposing each other and able to use their respective vetoes, the UN could not act effectively to resolve international conflicts.

11/8/2024

Breakdown of the Grand Alliance - Steps to the political, economic and Military Division of Europe

Causation and Change

• In 1945, American and Soviet Soldiers met at the River Elbe

  • Signified the final defeat of Germany, due to the successful collaboration between the USA and the Allies in the Grand Alliance

• By 1949 however, Europe has been divided into two separate “spheres of influence”

• In September of 1949, following the Berlin Blockade, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) or West Germany was established

• By October of 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany is established

  • This physical divide of Germany was a symbol of the divide in Europe to come

Breakdown of the Grand Alliance

• When Germany attacked Russia in June of 1941, both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent aid to the Soviets

  • Marks beginning of Grand Alliance

• Churchill and the British, despite sending aid, still have highly unfavorable views of the Soviet State

  • “If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons”

  • Still mutual suspicion

  • “an enemy of my enemy is my friend” applies to the relationship

• Stalin wants more than the aid he is receiving – demands that the allies open up a second front to the war to deflect some of the pressure the Soviets are under

  • Allies agreed to this in principle, after all France was under occupation and the British were under bombardment, but said they were waiting for the right opportunity

  • This increases Stalin’s suspicion of the Allies – believes they are allowing Germany to weaken the USSR permanently 

The Wartime Conferences

• During the war, the decisions of the Grand Alliance determined the territorial and political structure of post war Europe.

• Three major conferences: Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam

• Key issues discussed at these Conferences

  • The state of the war

  • The status of Germany, Poland, Eastern Europe, and Japan

  • The United nations

The Tehran Conference

• First Major Conference, held in Tehran Iran – November 1943

• Leaders present: Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill

• The State of the War

  • Allies were beginning turn the fight around, pushing the Germans back from North Africa and had invaded Italy

  • Soviets were pushing the Germans into retreat on the Eastern front

  • British and Americans had not launched a second front yet in Stalin’s eyes

    • Continues to press that the allies invade northwestern Europe

  • Early discussions on Japan start, US has begun its Island hopping strategy

The Tehran Conference: Germany

• Question is raised – what to do with Germany post defeat

  • Divide between Stalin and Allies

  • Allies are looking to learn from Treaty of Versailles failures

    • Too punishing of Germany – leading to Hitler’s rise

  • Stalin is less forgiving

• One major agreement: “unconditional surrender” of Germany was the objective

• Roosevelt does believe that Operation Overlord – the allied invasion of northern France that would eventually begin June 6th 1944– was a priority

Tehran Conference: Poland

• Stalin’s main concern: “security” – which influences his demands over the future of Germany, but also thus shapes his concerns over the shape of Poland’s post war boarders.

  • Stalin wants to secure his western boarder by taking land from Poland

    • Wants a pro-soviet government installed in Poland

    • Claims that historically, Poland had been a launching pad to the invasion of Russia

• Thus it was agreed to that USSR was to keep territory seized in 1939 and Poland would be given territory on its western boarder with Germany

  • No independent Poland would agree to this – ensuring hostilities in the future between Poland and Germany

    • Made it likely that a puppet regime would have to be installed, and it would have to look to the USSR for security

• Tensions between Pole and Soviets increased in 1943, when a mass grave of 10,000 Polish officers was discovered in the Katyn Forest. Though the Soviets blamed the Germans, many Poles rightly suspected that this had been committed by the Soviets

Tehran Conference: Eastern Europe

• Soviets demanded the right to keep the territories that they had seized between 1939 and 1940, giving them control of the Baltic States and parts of Finland and Romania

• Americans and British reluctantly agreed to allow it

  • Goes against the Atlantic Charter agreement between the United States and Britain

  • The Charter they drafted included eight “common principles” that the United States and Great Britain would be committed to supporting in the postwar world. Both countries agreed not to seek territorial expansion; to seek the liberalization of international trade; to establish freedom of the seas, and international labor, economic, and welfare standards.

Tehran Conference: Japan and UN

• Japan

  • United States and Britain pressed the USSR to enter the war with Japan

  • Stalin says no until Germany has been stopped

• The United Nations

  • British and Soviets give general approval of the idea of such an organization

  • Settle international disputes though collect security

• Tehran overall:

  • Agreement on a new international organization

  • Agreement on the need weak post-war Germany

  • Roosevelt: “I got along fine with Marshal Stalin… I believe that we are going to get along very well with him and the Russian People…”

    • However, there is a growing gap between Soviet post war goals and Churchill

    • Roosevelt even assures Polish that Stalin is not imperialist

The Yalta Conference

• By the time of February 1945 Yalta Conference on the Black Sea in Russia Stalin’s diplomatic position is greatly strengthened

  • Red Armies control most of Eastern Europe

• Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill represent the big powers

Yalta: the State of the War

• Germany is on the verge of defeat

• Normandy landings in 1944 – second war front has been opened

  • British and Americans had forced the Germans from France, poised to cross the Rhine and invade Germany from the West

• Soviets are ready to invade Germany from the East

• Japan

  • Still fighting on, but are under heavy aerial bombardment from the Americans

    • USA is in control or Air and Sea in the Pacific

    • Japan is preparing for final defense of the homeland

Yalta Conference: Germany

• Allies decide that Germany would be disarmed, demilitarized, de-Nazified, and divided

  • Four Zones of Occupation: USA, USSR, Britain, France would each control a portion

    • Divisions would be temporary and Germany was to be run as one country

    • Allied Control Council (ACC) would be set up to govern Germany

• Stalin demands reparations

  • It was agreed Germany would pay 20 Billion, with half going to USSR

Yalta Conference: Poland

• Biggest issue: boarders of Poland

• Boarder between USSR and Poland would be drawn at the Curzon Line

  • Puts boundary to what it had been before the Russo-Polish War of 1921.

• Poland would be compensated by gaining back territory taken by Germany

  • Land east of the Oder-Neisse Line

• Thus Stalin gets what he wants in terms of boundaries

• Establishment of Polish Government

  • British support the London Poles, pre-war government that had fled in 1939

  • Soviets want Communist Lublin Committee in Poland to form the new government

    • Katyn Forrest massacre and failure of Soviets to back Polish in Warsaw Uprising – specifically those who followed the London Poles

Yalta Conference: Eastern Europe and Japan

• There is agreement over the future nature of governments in Eastern Europe

  • Stalin agrees that Eastern Europe would be able to have free elections

  • Perceived at the time as a major victory for Britain and US

•  Japan

  • Stalin promised to enter the war against Japan as soon as the war in Europe drew to a close

    • Demanded territory as a reward: South Sakhalin and Kuril Islands.

    • Terms accepted by Roosevelt and Stalin

Yalta Conference: United Nations

• Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would join the UN organization

• Allies agree to five permanent members of the Security Council, each with veto power: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

• Stalin wants all 16 Soviet Republics to have seats in the UN General Assembly

• British and USA agreed in the end to only Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

• Three main positive outcomes of Yalta:

  • Agreement on UN

  • Soviet agreement to join the war with Japan

  • The Big Three signing a “Declaration on Liberated Europe” pledging for free elections in all European Countries, including those in Eastern Europe

Crucial Developments between Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

• President Roosevelt died in April 1945, and was replaced by Truman, who was to adopt a more hardline approach towards the Soviets

• Germany finally surrendered unconditionally on May 7th, 1945

• Winston Churchill’s conservative party lost the July 1945 general election, and Churchill was succeeded as prime minister by Labour Party leader, Clement Attlee

• As the war in Europe ended, the Soviet Red Army occupied territory as far west as deep inside Germany

• On July 17, 1945, the day after Potsdam begins, the US successfully tested its first atomic bomb

Potsdam Conference

• State of the War

  • May of 1945 Germany surrendered unconditionally

  • America is poised to invade Japan, planning on using its new Atomic Weapon

• Germany

  • Yalta plans being put into effect

  • Economy was run as a “whole” but this was limited to domestic industry and agriculture (74% of 1936 capacity)

  • Soviets received 25% of their reparation bill from Western zones, Eastern Germany would trade them food

• Poland

  • Truman is not happy with Yalta agreement, tried to challenge the Oder-Neisse Line

  • Truman wants government re-organized

    • Unhappy with Lublin-Dominated government, does not think that Stalin including London Poles in elections is satisfactory enough

• Eastern Europe

  • US unhappy with British and Soviet Percentages Agreement

    • Percentages gave spheres of influence power in fate of Eastern European Europe and Southern Europe: EX: Romania – Russia 90% influence, 10% other, Greece UK 90%, Russia 10%, Yugoslavia 50-50, Hungary 50-50, Bulgaria Russia 75, others 25

    • Did not like control Russia got over Bulgaria and Romania

    • However, the Red Army control Eastern Europe, so it was hard to get Stalin to budge here

• Japan

  • Others told of the bomb, which was first used on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.

  • Three days later, second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki

  • Unconditional surrender is announced on September 2nd. 

  • Truman hid details of the super weapon from Stalin

  • Americans did not encourage Soviet participation in war against Japanese

• United Nations

  • Created, became a reality when chartered in San Francisco in 1945

    • Stalin would use veto power on anything not deemed to be in Soviet Interest

11/6/2024

PAPER TWO UNITS START The Cold War - Signifcance and Causation

The Emergence of Superpowers

• Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II, two competing Superpowers emerge:

  • United States

  • Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (USSR)

• In 1945, many expected this to evolve into a traditional rivalry, one that could lead to an armed conflict.

• Instead, rapid escalation of nuclear armament by both countries makes the results of direct conflict unthinkable. 

• This leads to 45 years of ideological conflict, a conventional and nuclear arms race, and wars fought by proxy on the battlefields of Asia, Africa and Latin America

• Leads to economic rivalry, and the development of huge spy networks as each side tried to discover the other’s military and strategic secrets

The Cold War

• Fun Fact: American Journalist Walter Lippman, writing for the New York Herald Tribune in 1947 who popularized the term “Cold War”

• Harry Truman preferred the phrase “the war of nerves”

Opposing Ideologies

• Part of what made the Cold War so intense was that both of these Superpowers had fundamental differences in ideology

  • Made for natural, if not inevitable enemies.

• The Bolshevek Revolution in Russia in 1917, saw Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party establish the world’s first Communist State, based on the ideas of 19th century economic philosopher Karl Marx

• These ideas seemed to threaten basis of American and Western Society

• America (and the “West”)

  • Economic Differences

    • Individuals should be able to compete with each other with a minimum of state interference and make as much money as they wish

      • Capitalism

    • Individuals are thus encouraged to work hard with the promise of individual reward

  • Political Differences

    • Individuals choose the government through voting. There is a range of political parties to choose from

    • Individuals have certain rights, such as freedom of the press

      • Liberal Democracy

• USSR

• Economic Differences

  • Capitalism creates divisions between rich and poor. Thus all businesses and farms should be owned by the state on behalf of the people

    • Communism

  • Goods will be distributed to individuals by the state. Everyone will thus get what is needed and everyone will be working for the collective good

• Political Differences

  • There is no need for a range of political parties, as the Communist Party truly represents the views of all of the workers and rules on behalf of the people.

  • Individual freedoms valued by the west are not necessary

    • This is a one party state

Increasing Hostility Leading into World War II

• There is mutual suspicion between the West and the USSR that manifests itself in various ways between the Bolshevik Revolution and the start of World War II

• Russian Civil War 1918-1922

  • Estimated 7,000,000–12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians.

  • Red army is triumphant (Bolshevism – Russian form of Communism)

  • West had given support to the Conservative forces – the white army – which was a hodge-podge of anti-communist beliefs (favoring monarchism, capitalism and alternative forms of socialism, each with democratic and antidemocratic variants)

  • rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites

  • Eight nations – mainly Allies from WWI, and pro- German forces, helped against the Red Army, but without success

  • USSR does not receive diplomatic recognition or join the League of Nations until 1934

  • Hilter is appeased leading into World War II in part because of fear of Soviet Communism, which at the time was more feared than German Facism

  • The Non-Aggression Pact (Soviet-Nazi Pact) between USSR and Nazi Germany, signed in 1939, allowed Hitler to concentrate on attacking the West, increases tension between USSR and the rest of the West

Idealism v. Self Interest: What ideals underpinned the view of each country/ How was this achieved by each country?

• USA

  • Idealism of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt

  • Struggle for a better world based on collective security, political self-determination, and economic integration

  • Peace freedom, justice and plenty

    • Achieved by democracy/Capitalism and international co-operation

• USSR

  • Marxist idealism and Stalinism

  • Struggle for a better world based on international socialism

  • Peace, freedom, justice, and plenty

    • Achieved by spreading Soviet- style communism

Idealism v. Self-Interest: Which Elements of self-interest lay behind each country’s ideals

• USA

  • The need to establish markets and open doors to FREE TRADE

  • The desire to avoid another economic crisis of the magnitude of 1929

  • President Truman and most of the post war US administration’s belief that what was good for America was good for the world

• USSR

  • The need to secure boarders

  • The need to recover from the effects of World War II

  • The need to regain strength as the nursery of Communism

  • Stalin’s belief that what was good for the USSR was good for the workers of the world

Significance of Stalinism

• Stalin takes over leadership of the Soviet Union after the death of Lenin

  • Becomes the sole leader by the late 1920s

• Stalin’s Policies

  • Collectivization of all farms

    • Leads to the death of millions of agricultural workers

  • Five-year plans

    • Industry: dramatically increase production, put USSR in a position to defeat the Nazi’s by 1945

  • Great Terror

    • Purges of all political opponents as well as millions of ordinary people

    • Gulag’s – slave labor camps

    • Executions 

• By 1945, Stalinism means:

  • Dominance of Stalin over the party, and the party over state institutions

  • A powerful state machinery

  • The ruthless maintenance of power by the elimination of opposing leaders, groups or entire sections of the population

  • The development of a regime associate with paranoia and violence

Stalin’s role in World War II

• Stalin had hoped that engagement with Hitler could be delayed by the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939

• Nazi Germany, which had not yet defeated the British in 1941, decided they can no longer wait to engage the Soviet Union

• Operation Barbarossa

  • Red Army is ill prepared for war, many military leaders had not survived Stalin’s purges

  • Ukraine is quickly overrun 

  • German Army besieged Leningrad and reached the outskirts of Moscow

    • Winter in Russia devastates the underprepared Germans

• Soviet’s win at Stalingrad, start pushing Nazi’s back to Germany

• Overall, Stalin plays a key role in defeating the Nazis

  • Made him more secure and powerful in the Soviet Union, and also puts the Soviet Union in a strong position to emerge as one of the leading powers of the post war world

General Costs of World War II

• 20 Million people were displaced in World War II

• Europe: 23% of farmland could not be used for food production, severe crisis in 1946-47

• USSR: 1,700 towns, 31,000 factories, 100,000 state farms destroyed

• USSR: 25-27 Million Deaths

• China: 10 million deaths

• Japan: 2 Million deaths

• Australia and New Zealand Deaths: roughly 50,000

• Poland: 6 million deaths

• Germany: 7 million deaths

• France: 600,000 deaths

• Great Britain: 357,000 deaths

• Italy: 500,000 deaths

• USA: GDP Doubles by 1944

  • 400,000 deaths

Why Does the USA and USSR Emerge as Superpowers after 1945: Military Reasons

• To defeat Germany, USA had become the number one air force power in the world

• To defeat Germany, USSR had become the number one land force power in the world

• France’s and Britain’s inability to defeat Germany had changed the balance of power – they are now “second tier”

• The USSR now lacked any strong military neighbors. This made it the regional power

Why Does the USA and USSR Emerge as Superpowers after 1945: Economic Reason

• The USA’s economy was strengthened by the war. It was now able to out-produce the other powers put together

• The USA was committed to more “open trade” Its politicians and businesspeople wanted to ensure liberal trade, and market competition flourished. The United States was willing to play an active role in avoiding the re-emergence of the disastrous pre-war pattern of trade blocs and tariffs

• The USA had the economic strength to prevent a return to instability in Europe

• The small Eastern European countries that had been created after World War One were not economically viable on their own, so they needed the support of a stronger neighbor, and the USSR could replace Germany in this role

Why Does the USA and USSR Emerge as Superpowers after 1945: Political Reasons

• For the West, the outcome of World War Two showed that the ideals of democracy and international collaboration had triumphed over fascism. Thus the political system of the USA was the right path for the future

• For the Soviet Union, it was Communism that had triumphed over fascism. Indeed Communism had gained widespread respect in Europe because of its part in resisting the Germans

• The USSR had huge losses, and the role of the Red Army in defeating the Nazis, gave Stalin a claim to great influence in forming the post-war world. 

• The USSR had the political and military strength to prevent a return to instability in Eastern Europe. Communism could fill the political vacuum

• The alliance that existed between the United States and the USSR to defeat Germany completely collapses by 1949. 

Key Political Definitions

• Liberalism

  • Liberals put their main emphasis on the freedom of the individual

  • Economically they believe in minimal interference by the state.

  • Foreign policy: promote the ideas of free trade and cooperation

  • Strong beliefs in:

    • Civil liberties (freedom of conscience, freedom of speech)

    • Universal suffrage

    • Parliamentary constitutional government

    • An independent judiciary

    • Diplomacy rather than force in relations between states

• Fascism

  • This ideology is rooted in ideas that are the very opposite of liberalism

  • Limiting individual freedoms in the interest of the state

  • Extreme nationalism

  • Use of violence to achieve ends

  • Keeping power in the hands of an elite group or leader

  • An aggressive foreign policy  

• Socialism

  • Ideology developed in the early 19th century in the context of the Industrial Revolution

  • Socialists believe:

    • A more egalitarian social system

    • Governments providing for the more needy members of society

    • International cooperation and solidarity

• Conservatism

  • The general implication is a belief in maintaining the existing or traditional order

    • Respect for traditional institutions

    • Limiting government intervention in people’s lives

    • Gradual and/or limited changes in the established order

• Right Wing v. Left Wing

  • Right: describes groups who favor free-market capitalism and place an emphasis on law and order, limited state interference and traditional societal values

  • Left: describes those groups who favor more equality in society, and thus more government intervention in the economy to secure this situation

10/22/2024

Civil Rights Movement; Civil Rights Legislation, People and Groups

The Civil Rights Act 1964

• Most famous of all Civil Rights Legislation

• Relies on the 14th, 15th Amendments as well as the Commerce Clause in Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution

• Areas covered in the Act 

  • Voting rights

  • Public accommodations

  • Desegregation of public facilities

  • Limits on discrimination within federally funded programs

  • Employment discrimination

  • Authorized higher court review of district court referrals to state courts

• Passed after more than a decade of action

  • Bus boycotts, business boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins, Freedom Rides, demonstrations, marches, legal battles

• Pressure had been put on President Kennedy

  • Nationally televised police violence in Birmingham Alabama – featured the use of cattle prods, fire hoses, clubs, and biting dogs.

  • 1963 – 1,000 demonstrations in 209 different cities

Kennedy and Civil Rights

• During first two years of Presidency, Kennedy proposed no civil rights legislation

• White House is tied up with foreign relations, defense and economic issues

• On June 11, 1963, Kennedy goes on television  to propose a comprehensive bill covering discrimination in public accommodations and employment, as well as strengthening voting rights enforcement mechanisms.

Violent Response Increases Pressure

• Medgar Evers is murdered outside his home the next evening. (June 12)

• March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom happens in August – further putting pressure on the federal government to act.

• September 15th, 1963 – Fire Bombing of a church in Birmingham kills four girls

  • The bill is still no sure thing to pass through congress

Lyndon Johnson Gets it Done

• Until 1957, Johnson, who was from Texas, had opposed the idea of national Civil Rights Bill

  • During consideration of the 1957 Civil Rights Bill, Johnson had worked in the Senate to weaken the bill, although he voted in favor of it

• Civil Rights Bill is filibustered by a bloc of 19 southern senators. Delays the bill roughly three months. 

  • Bill finally passes 73-27 in Senate and 289-126 in the House of Representatives

• 90% of Southern Legislators vote against the bill

• Resistance after the law is changed

  • George Wallace, who will eventually run for president, is Alabama’s Governor – tries to block desegregation of University of Alabama, when running for President, gives speech: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever

    • Wins Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• In January of 1965, the SCLC led by Dr. King, built upon previous voting rights work by SNCC and opened a voting rights campaign in Selma Alabama

  • Jimmie Lee Jackson shot by state troopers as he walked in a voting rights march from Selma to Montegomery

• “Bloody Sunday”

  • 500 protestors assemble on Edmund Pettus Bridge, faced with tear gas, billy clubs, and riders on horseback with whips

  • 50 people injured

Johnson Responds

• “I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy”

• “I urge every member of both parties – Americans of all religions and of all colors – from section of this country – to join me in that cause.”

• “At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was a Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.”

• “There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem.”

• “This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all – all black and white, all North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies --  poverty ignorance, disease – they are our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too– poverty, disease, and ignorance – we shall overcome

Voting Rights Act 1965

• Outlawed:

  • Literacy tests

  • Challenged US Department of Justice to Challenge poll taxes – which is successful

  • Gave the Attorney General the power to assign federal examiners to observe and direct voter registration where less than half of the eligible residents were registered to vote. (recently struck down in the past 8 years)

    • Law states that jurisdictions with such a history “could not implement any change affecting voting until the Attorney general or the Unites States District Court for the District of Columbia determined that the change did not have discriminatory purpose and would not have a discriminatory effect”

• From CORE

  • The law’s effects were wide and powerful. By 1968, nearly 60% of eligible African Americans were registered to vote in Mississippi, and other southern states showed similar improvement. Between 1965 and 1990, the number of black state legislators and members of Congress rose from two to 160

    • Currently there are 43 African American Congressmen and 1 Senator

Key Individuals and Groups

• Martin Luther King Jr

  • First becomes known during Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955

  • Helped create the SCLC

    • Took ideals from Christianity, and non-violent tactics from Mahatma Gandi

  • Important places he worked, spoke and marched includes:

    • Albany, Georgia

    • Birmingham, Alabama

    • Washington, DC

    • Selma, Alabam

• The Nobel Prize Reports:

  • Between 1957 and 1968, King spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action… wrote five books, was arrested upwards of 20 times and assaulted at least four times

Malcolm X

• Unlike much of the Civil Rights movement that is focused on the blatant segregation and racism in the South, Malcolm X focused on African Americans living in the Urban North

• Put in prison after being convicted of armed robbery, converts to the Nation of Islam

  • Nation of Islam teaches that blacks were God’s chosen people and that whites were the devil. It is a cult perpetuated by Elijah Muhammad, it is not true Islam

  • Preached racial solidarity and superiority, African Americans would triumph with the help of Allah

  • Preached education through reading, and that economic self-reliance and discipline were key

• Released from Prison in 1952

• Started in Chicago then moved to Harlem in 1954

• Speeches made the Nation of Islam a household name

  • Preached faith, economic self-reliance, while also preaching against all whites

• Nation of Islam membership rises to over 50,000

• Malcom X belittle civil rights leaders, did not agree with King or his methods

  • “These Negroes aren’t asking for any nation – they’re trying to crawl back on the plantation” 1963

• Black nationalism was the correct path, white society was corrupt and corrupted everything it touched – African Americans should control their own education, politics and economy

  • From famous speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” 4/3/1964:

  • Black nationalism “only means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community… that we will have to carry on a program, a political program of re-education… make us more politically conscious, politically mature.”

• Malcolm X helped bring about the Black Pride Movement

• Malcolm X is asked to stand down by Elijah Muhammad, after Malcolm is critical of the Nation of Islam leader, who had been carrying out affairs with several of his secretaries. Muhammad is weary of Malcolm’s power in the Nation and around the country

• Malcolm goes on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is here he see Muslims of all races praying in harmony. Malcolm realizes that the Nation of Islam is not a true teaching. He converts to Sunni Islam and took the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz

• Malcolm X moderated his views greatly, no longer viewing whites as devils, but still condemns racism. 

• Malcolm X is assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam who are disgruntled by him leaving the Nation. He is assassinated on February 21, 1965 while speaking to a crowd in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem

Lyndon B. Johnson

• From Texas, is a sympathetic white southerner in the White House following Kennedy’s assassination

• Civil Rights were just a portion of his vision for a “Great Society”

• State of the Union, 1964:

  • “Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear: All of these increased opportunities – in employment, in education, in housing, and in every field, must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ of Federal law will run, we must abolish, not some, but all racial discrimination. For this is not merely an economic issue, or a social, political, or international issue. It is a moral issue, and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the House.”

• Fair Housing Act of 1968 in response to Urban riots in 1967 – banned the discriminatory practices in the sale and rental of homes and apartments – signed into law a week after Dr. King is assassinated

NAACP

• Founded in 1909 by W.E.B DuBois and others following a race riot in Springfield Illinois in 1908

• Purpose “to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promise an end to slavery, the equal protection of the law, and universal adult male suffrage”

• NAACP successful implements court strategy – Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF)

• Key Players: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall – eventually becomes Supreme Court Justice

• Membership grows to more than 500,000 post WWII

• Field offices gathered evidence of discrimination and hate crimes, fight against lynching. 

SCLC

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference

  • Made up of mostly Christian Minister and Church Leaders

• Trained thousands of activists in the philosophy of Christian non-violent resistance

• Biggest strength as a coordinating organization – training others to lead the struggle

• Influence waned with the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, coincides with the rise in the black power movement

• Key Events:

  • Albany, Georgia 1962

  • Birmingham, Alabama 1963

  • St. Augustine, Florida, 1963-64

  • March on Washington

  • Selma, Alabama 1965

  • Chicago Freedom Movement 1966

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 

• Grassroots organization, established in 1960 in the midst of the college lunch counter sit-ins.

  • First meetings take place in Raleigh North Carolina

  • Eventually housed meetings under the SCLC in Atlanta Georgia

    • SCLC wanted SNCC to become the youth arm of the SCLC

• Key leaders: James Farmer, John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Lawson and Marion Barry

• Freedom Rides are coordinated by SNCC

• Practiced non-violent protest

• Primary Focus – voter registration

• White Supremacist violence eventually changes the group

  • During 1966 March Against Fear, organized by James Meredith, Stokely Carmichael gave his first “Black Power Speech.” SNCC began to divide.

• 1968 – N in SNCC is changed from Non-violent to National. Within two years, SNCC is disbanded and is superseded by the Black Panther Party

9/24/24

The Civil Rights Movement; Protests and Action

Protests and Action

• Schools are not the only focus area of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s

• The Desegregation of Public Facilities was also the target of action small and large

  • Transportation is a focal point

• Voting rights were also a focus of organized campaigns

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Began in December 1955 and ended a year later

• The boycott was the first community action that brought nationwide attention to the civil rights struggle

• A 27 year old Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. emergences as a charismatic leader

  • Catalyzed the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

    • Would be a major organizer of significant protests and demonstrations 

• Montgomery Bus Boycott was not the first challenge to segregated transportation

  • 1946, Thurgood Marshall and William Hastie successfully challenge segregation on Interstate Travel in Irene Morgan v. the Commonwealth of Virginia

• In Montgomery prior to the bus Boycott, English Teacher at Alabama State College Jo Ann Robinson led the Women’s Political Council in discussions over bus segregation with Montgomery Officials 

  • No Progress

• Several people were arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up their seat on buses

  • Claudette Colvin (15)

  • Aureila S. Browder

  • Mary Louise Smith

• Ed Dixon, former president of the Alabama NAACP, Jo Ann Robinson, Rosa Parks, Secretary of NAACP, Rufus Lewis, voter registration activist, and Dr. King meet with city officials but no progress is made

Rosa Parks

• Had been involved with the NAACP since 1932, officially a member since 1943

• Was involved in an incident with the same bus driver, James F. Blake, in 1943 and 1955

• 1943, elected Montgomery NAACP secretary

  • difficult job, she documented violent acts, and investigate murders, voter intimidation and rape

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks and three other African Americans are asked to give up their seats to accommodate whites. All but Parks comply

  • Parks is arrested and taken to jail

• On December 2, the women’s political council (under leadership of Jo Ann Robinson), decided to organize a one day bus boycott. 

  • 50,000 leaflets were printed to publicize the event

  • Ed Nixon set up a meeting including Reverend Ralph David Abernathy and Dr. King

    • Three demands: a pledge from city and bus company officials that African Americans would be treated with courtesy, a revision of the city code that would seat white Americans from front to back and African Americans from back to front, with no reserved areas, and the hiring of African American drivers for routes that carried all or mostly African American passengers

• King – “We are not asking for an end to segregation. That’s a matter for the legislature and the courts… All we are seeking is justice and fair treatment in riding the buses”

• Bus Boycott is Monday December 5th

  • Almost no African Americans boarded the buses

• Rosa Parks appears in Court and is found guilty – pays $14 dollar fine

• Montgomery Improvement Association is founded, 27 year old king is chosen as president

• King speaks at Holt Street Baptist Church in front of over 1000, begins rise to prominence

• Vote to extend boycott passes easily

• African Americans, and a few whites, choose to walk or carpool – even if this added significant commuting time

  • MIA even raised enough money to buy two cars to ferry people around in.

  • Over 40,000 African Americans in Montgomery participate

• January 30th, 1956, King’s home is bombed while his wife Coretta and young daughter were home

• February 1, Ed Nixon’s home is fire bombed

• White Citizen’s Council tries to break the boycott, city officials brought up conspiracy charges against 90 boycott leaders

  • King and others convicted, but this brings more national support to the Boycott

• Aurelia S Browder, et al, v. W A Gayle

  • November 13th Supreme Court decides: bus segregation violates 14th amendment

• December 20th, Buses are officially desegregated

  • Many public facilities remain segregated

• December 24, 1956

  • Five white men attack a 15 year old girl

• Four Churches and two homes, including that of Reverend Abernathy were bombed on January 10th, 1957

The Freedom Rides, 1961

• Way of exerting pressure on governments at all levels, state, local, and especially federal, to enforce the right of African Americans to use interstate transportation unencumbered by segregation

• Rulings in Irene Morgan v. the Commonwealth of VA 1946 and Boyton v. Virginia couple with the US Constitution’s Commerce Clause and the Interstate Commerce Act, make segregation of buses and transportation facilities illegal

• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) leader James Farmer hopes Kennedy will focus on enforcement of Civil Rights

  • Two mixed groups would travel from DC to New Orleans, passing through VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, and MS

  • “We put on pressure and create a crisis (for federal leaders) and then they react”

Freedom Rides

• SCLC and NAACP agrees to provide housing and food for those making the trip

  • Freedom rides are not universally supported however

    • Medgar Evers, veteran and civil rights activist, thought that the Freedom rides would reverse the progress being made in Mississippi

• Many whites in the growing middle class lived away from racial disparity, Freedom Rides would continue to bring the issue to their attention

  • Bob Dylan “how many times can man turn his head pretending he just doesn’t see” 

Freedom RIder

• May 4th, 1961, thirteen riders, six white and seven African American, begin their trip

• Relatively peaceful first part of the trip

  • Reach Alabama things change

  • Anniston – 30-50 men armed with sticks and metal bars surround the bus, rocks thrown through bus windows and two tires were destroyed

  • Bus leaves, 40 cars follow. Bus gets a flat, mob surrounds bus

    • Held off by undercover Alabama Highway patrolman who had a gun

    • Bus gets firebombed, everybody evacuates the bus, Eli Cowling threatened to kill anybody who attacked

Freedom Rides

• Other bus, gets attacked at Terminal in Birmingham Alabama.

• KKK mob of 30 men armed with baseball bats, chains and pipes first attacked reporters and news photographers, then Freedom Riders and bystanders

• Bus drivers refuse to take the groups any further

• Kennedy – publically called for calm, privately asked the Freedom Rides to stop. Kennedy had alerted local police forces about Freedom rides and know threats of violence, but did not act himself.

• CORE no longer directed Freedom rides, but the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led by John Lewis and Diane Nash organized a second trip

  • Participants wrote last will and testaments before embarking

  • Kennedy tries to stop them, but they refuse

• Freedom riders were beaten when getting off busses in Montgomery

  • Rally held in response at Abernathy’s church. 

  • Mob surrounds church, tear gas thrown.

    • AG Bobby Kennedy called in 500 unarmed federal marshals, can barely hold back mob

  • Kennedy urges governor Patterson to call in Alabama National Guard

• Freedom riders are guaranteed protection through Alabama

• King is invited to join the freedom riders, but declines, citing his terms of probation

• Once in Mississippi, Kennedy makes a deal with the governor, allowing the arrest of Freedom Riders  for disturbing the peace. Freedom riders spend time in prison

  • In response more than 300 untrained and unsolicited Freedom Riders descend upon Mississippi

• Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issues ban on segregation on interstate travel after pressure from Kennedy

• Freedom rides are successful, but support from Kennedy is slow and limited

• SCLC is seen as too cautious by other groups like SNCC

• Target: Political Power, specifically voting rights and political representation

• Mississippi: KKK membership includes government officials, businessmen, police and Parchman Prison employees

  • Home of the White Citizens Council

• SNCC member Robert Moses comes to the state to encourage voter registration in 1961, gets beaten, accused get acquitted by all white jury.

• State legislator EH Hurst, murders voting rights activist Herbert Lee in front of several witnesses and is never brought to trial

Freedom Summer

• Target: Political Power, specifically voting rights and political representation

• Mississippi: KKK membership includes government officials, businessmen, police and Parchman Prison employees

  • Home of the White Citizens Council

• SNCC member Robert Moses comes to the state to encourage voter registration in 1961, gets beaten, accused get acquitted by all white jury.

• State legislator EH Hurst, murders voting rights activist Herbert Lee in front of several witnesses and is never brought to trial

• Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) is created to coordinate between the NAACP, SCLC, CORE, SNCC, and the National Urban League (NUL) to carry out the newly funded Voter Education Program (VEP)

  • Fund gave them access to AG Kennedy, but the federal government offered no protection

• Goal is to register African Americans to vote across the South

  • 500,000 were registered by 1964

  • Gains had not been made in Mississippi

• Mississippi oppression: Poll Tax, Grandfather clauses, literacy test, and violence and intimidation

  • 1% of 400,000 potential African American voters registered

• Goal: combine voter education, registration and political activism

  • Freedom Schools – teach literacy and civics to both adults and children

  • Fully integrated project, middle and upper class white students help with education efforts

• Bob Moses

  • “a concern which existed within the Mississippi staff which was predominantly people who grew up and lived in Mississippi, were from Mississippi, had spent their lives in, under the Mississippi condition which was strict segregation and really living in this closed society. So they had very little working contact with white people, and they weren’t anxious to introduce them into the project which they viewed as, and rightly so, their project, their effort, something which they had created out of nothing really and at great risk.”

• “Beloved community” – term popularized by Dr. King, that comes from love and commitment to non-violence. The Beloved Community would not tolerate any form of discrimination, poverty, hunger or homelessness. Disputes, whether local or international would be resolved through the process of conflict resolution with the dual goals of peace and justice

• Private goal of COFO – get whites threatened or victims of violence. Then maybe the government would intervene.

• First major setback: three civil rights workers reported missing in Neshoba County Mississippi – James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman

• All three eventually found murdered

• Freedom Summer moved forward under uncertainty. 41 Freedom Schools were established, many in churches and under through of arson, more than 3000 youths attended

• 17,000 register to vote, 1,600 accepted.

• Mississippi Freedom Democratic party had been formed in April 1964 to challenge all white Democratic Party

• Mississippi Establishment does not take this lightly

  • Terms such as “carpetbaggers,” “intruders” “Communists” “racial zealots” thrown around in the press

  • From the Klan Ledger “We have taken no action as yet against the enemies of our State, our Nation, and our Civilization, but we are not going to sit back and permit our rights and the rightes of our posterity to be negotiated away by a group composed of “Jewish” priests, bluegum black savages and mongrelized money-worshippers”

• Arrests of Civil rights workers were common, often on dubious charges such as reckless driving or running a stop sign. Drivers were even arrested for car theft when driving their own vehicles.

  • SNCC recorded “35 shooting incidents, with three persons injured, 30 homes and buildings bombed, 35 churches burned, 80 persons beaten; at least six persons murdered”

• Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman found buried under an earthen dam by a search team headed by the FBI. No charges brought up, even with known KKK ties and Horace Barnette and James Jordan later admitting to the killings. Eventually, federal prosecutors charge 18 suspects with civil rights violations – 7 including KKK Grand Wizard Sam Bowers were convicted and sentenced to 3-10 years prison.

• Freedom Summer Ends with few successes, many students head back to college

• Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act – Freedom Summer seen as partially responsible.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

• Included in 1964 Democratic Convention

  • Fannie Lou Hamer gives speech at convention, speaking out about what was happening in Mississippi. 

  • President Johnson, fearful of losing the nomination, holds press conference while she is speaking, diverting media attention

• Technically, MFDP did not have seats to vote at convention, but compromise was reached to give them two votes. MFDP rejects this.

9/20/2024

Civil Rights Movement; The NAACP and The Courts

• Legally allowing jim crow laws

The Long Road to Ending Segregation

• Reminder: Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 US 537 (1896) was a landmark constitutional law case of the US Supreme Court. It upheld state racial segregation laws for public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal". – 14th Amendment which called for “Due Process of Law” and “Equal Protection” had not been incorporated to apply to the states

• Brown v. Board of Education: finally make school segregation illegal in 1954

  • Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Earl Warren – liberal Justice appointed in 1953 shifts focus of US Supreme Court

  • However, the road to Brown vs. the Board is part of a long-term, deliberate strategy of the NAACP

Margold Report 1930

• Nathan Ross Margold wrote a report for the NAACP that suggested attaching segregation through the Courts

  • Designed to first rally behind anti-lynching laws! 

  • “if we boldly challenge the constitutional validity of segregation if and when accompanied irremediably by discrimination, we can strike directly at the most prolific sources of discrimination”

• The Margold Report proposed to attack the doctrine of separate but equal by challenging the inherent inequality of segregation in publicly funded primary and secondary schools.

Margold Strategy: Altered

• To go to segregation everywhere in some parts of the Country to desegregating schools would be a big, but important jump. Desegregating schools is a key to overcoming racist attitudes.

• Charles Hamilton Houston

  • A prominent African-American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP Litigation Director

  • Shifted the Margold Strategy to a more gradual on one. Would start with the most specific schooling and then would try to get general education desegregated

•  This would be a difficult task, as the NAACP was up against legal precedent and judicial restraint.

  • Legal decisions, called Opinions, guide the lower courts – Plessy v. Ferguson was accepted precedent

The State of Education

• Was the “equal” in “separate but equal” true?

  • Studies had shown in 1930 that per pupil spending was two to five times higher in White schools then in African American schools

  • Pay for African American teachers was significantly lower for African American teachers then it was for white educators

  • Facilities within schools were completely unequal

  • School year for African Americans was shorter

  • Part of the legal strategy – to truly make the schools equal would be too expensive, desegregate schools. (not the center of the winning argument in brown vs board)

The Beginning of the Road to Brown v. Board

• Murray v. Maryland 1935

  • Donald Murray was rejected from the University of Maryland School of Law. His application was not even considered, and he was told to apply to the Princess Anne Academy, which was a junior college that did not offer graduate or law classes.

  • Charles Houston, with assistance from Thurgood Marshall, successfully argued that Princess Anne Academy did not offer an education remotely close to that of the University of Maryland. The Maryland State Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to force UMD to let him in. This case only applies in Maryland

• Gaines v. Missouri 1938

  • Missouri Law school would not admit African Americans, but would pay any tuition difference if an African American attended a law school in another state

  • Missouri Supreme Court rules against Lloyd Gaines

  • US Supreme Court overturns the decision – ruling that separate facilities had to be equal within a state – but does not comment on segregated facilities themselves

    • This was Houston’s last case argued for NAACP, but his successor Thurgood Marshall picked up where he left off.

    • Marshall would have to get the Courts to recognize that separate facilities could never be equal, even if equally funded

The Road to Brown v. Board

• Sweatt v. Painter 1950

  • In 1946, Herman Sweatt had applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. UT had built a second law school for African Americans.

  • US Supreme Court rules that even if the facilities were equal, a law school was more than a legal education – the interactions with students, professors and access to a law library and reputation mattered, and thus a separate law school could never be equal – this only applies to graduate schools (narrow ruling)

• McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents 1950

  • Not separate law school, but segregated facilities within schools. This was ruled against by the US Supreme Court

Brown vs. the Board of Education

• Officially this is a consolidated case, the NAACP had been arguing public school cases around the Country:

  • Briggs vs. Elliott – elementary and High school students in Clarendon South Carolina

  • Davis v. County School Board – high school students from Prince Edward County Virginia

  • Gebhart v. Belton – elementary and high school students from New Castle County Delaware. 

  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka – elementary school students from Topeka Kansas

  • Bolling v. Sharpe – Washington DC

• (Why brown? Because of the location. Figured pick somewhere middle of the country rather than south, representation of the us)

• Court Case would be heard by the Supreme Court twice

  • Chief Justice Fred Vinson dies of a heart attack , Earl Warren is appointed to the Court

    • Warren had never been a judge, but had been Governor of California and a was former prosecutor

Earl Warren and Brown v. Board

• Warren, was a republican, but had favored “a sweeping civil rights program, beginning with a fair employment practices act”

  • “I insist upon one law for all men”

• Over his career on the Supreme Court, Warren was the leader of the most progressive Supreme Court in US History.

  • Eisenhower, called his appointment of Warren “the biggest damned-fool mistake I ever made”

• Warren pushed for a unanimous decision on the case, he wanted a strong ruling on such a momentous and divisive issue

• While the Court Case called for the end of segregation, it also called for schools to be desegregated with “all deliberate speed”

• This leaves open the door for resistence

Resistance to Desegregation

• Majority of School districts in the South oppose the Court ruling

• 10 former Confederate States pass laws requiring or at least allowing segregated schools

  • Most of these states also prohibited tax dollars from being spent on desegregated schools

• Southern Manifesto

  • 19 US Senators and 77 congressmen, signed document pledging to not allow desegregated public schools

• Federal Courts would have over 200 desegregation hearings, with Courts often ordering the school systems to desegregate.

Virginia: Massive Resistance

• Governor Thomas Stanley appoints a commission of 32 White state lawmakers to plan a response to Brown ruling

• Interposition: idea that states could place themselves between the federal government and the citizens of the state when state officials felt the federal government had exceeded its powers

• Segregationists Democratic Senator Harry F Byrd gives a speech calling for “Massive Resistance” to federally mandated desegregation

• Virginia legislature passes a plan to close all schools that integrated. State funding would be cut off to those schools

• Virginia would go on to offer private school grants – but these were not adequate to fully fund new “academy” schools that only acceptable whites.

• Virginia tried to allow for school choice – allowing parents to place their children into the schools of their choosing.

  • Practice abolished in Green v. New Kent County

• Prince Edward County would hold out the longest in VA, closing through 1964

• Massive resistance is the workings of white politicians and white citizens in response to desegregation and integration and civil rights change

Little Rock Arkansas, 1957

• Arkansas Government comes up with Blossom Plan

  • Comply with Brown as loosely as possible

  • Plan to integrate high schools by 1957 and start elementary school integration in 1963

  • NAACP sues, but federal courts rule Blossom Plan (general transition) complies

  • 9 African American students are chosen to be the first to integrate Central High in Little Rock

•  Governor Orval E. Faubus 

  • Requests help from the federal government to protect citizens from violence, but is shot down

  • As a result Faubus sends in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent those 9 students from entering the school to prevent the breakout of violence

Little Rock 9

• On 9/23/57, Faubus has Arkansas Guard stand down, and allows the Little Rock 9 to enter the school as an angry crowd gathers

• President Eisenhower has to send in the 101st Airborne Division

  • “Whenever normal agencies prove inadequate to the task… to uphold the Federal Courts, the President’s responsibility is inescapable”

  • “Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts”

• Troops are eventually replaced by the National Guard who remain at the school for the remainder of the year

• The next year, all high schools in Little Rock were closed for the year in reaction

• “We the parents of the parents of the nine negro children enrolled at Little Rock Central High School want you to know that your action in safe guarding their rights have strengthened our faith in Democracy”

• “If the federal government fails to take a strong positive stand at this time it will set the progress of integration back fifty years” – Dr. Martin Luther King

• Ernest Green graduates in 1958, Dr. King attends

9/18/2024

Civil Rights Movement; 1954-1965! Part 1: Background

Background

• Following the American Civil War, Three major Amendments passed

• 13th

  • Abolished Slavery

  • Except in the case of a crime

• 14th

  • Established Citizenship

  • “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of law

• 15th

  • Provided for the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or condition of previous servitude (Slavery)

  • 19th ammendment gave women suffrage.. A little later!

• General Purpose of these laws: besides abolishing slavery, guarantee the rights further regardless of race. Eventual goal of some – political and legal equality of African Americans

• Civil Rights Bill of 1866: added Equal Rights in contracts and Employment, attempting to Provide for equality of economic opportunity

• Gains made after the Civil war end with the election of 1877 (corrupt bargain), ending reconstruction of the South

Opposition to Racial Equality

• The Ku Klux Klan

  • Founded by 6 former confederates, including Nathan Bedford Forrest

  • Secret Vigilante Group, members dressed as the ghosts of dead Confederates to intimidate Freedmen

  • n effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in the broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party's infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life. Dies out in 1870s with the End of Reconstruction

  • The Klan will come back in the 1920s, and again in the 1950s and 60s as protest to Civil Rights laws

Jim Crow

• Supreme Court of late 1800s erodes the power of the 14th amendment to applying to the states

• Plessy VS. Ferguson

  • Main thing that codifies shit!!

  • Legally Allows “Separate but Equal”

  • Jim Crow laws become popular in the south

  • Jim Crow laws also disenfranchise African Americans through the Poll Tax, Grandfather Clause and Literacy Tests

• Great Migration 1910-1930

  • Many African Americans flee the rural south for Northern Industrial Cities and the West. Roughly 6 Million blacks leave to escape Jim Crow

Lynching

• From 1888-1923, there were more than 2,500 African Americans lynched by White Mobs. 

  • Individuals were often burned, hanged or Shot for alleged crimes

    • Sexual Assault or Crimes against “White Women” were a common theme

Klan in the 1920s

• Membership Increases Dramatically

  • Issues of Mass Immigration to the Unites States

  • Group was Anti-Catholic, Anti-Semetic, and Anti-African American

• Popular Film of the Time – Birth of A Nation – Glorified Early KKK

  • Film was screened in the white House by President Wilson

Race Riots in America

• Wilmington North Carolina 1898

  • Democrats are defeated in 1896, come back with a vengeance in 1898

    • “If it requires lynching to protect a women’s dearest possession from ravening, drunken human beasts, then I say lynch a thousand Negroes a week.” – Rebecca Felton

  • Following victory, white Americans physically removed African American Government officials, set the African American newspaper office on fire and shot at African Americans. At least 25 were killed, but that actual number could be closer to 100. Many were banished from town

• Atlanta Georgia, 1906

  • September 22 – four alleged assaults by African American Men on white women reported in Newspapers

  • Thousands of white men assemble, destroying businesses. 

  • African Americans Arm themselves in response, brawling still occurs.

  • 250 African Americans Arrested, One Policeman Dies, two White men die, 25-40 African Americans are killed.

Race Riots

• Tulsa Oklahoma, 1921

  • Occurred over 18 hours, white mob violence responsible for deaths of 50-300 African Americans, destruction of over 1000 homes and Businesses

  • Allegedly Started like this: African American Man, Dick Rowland, stepped on the foot of a white women, Sarah Page, in an elevator. The incident was reported in the newspapers as an attempted Rape

• Elaine Arkansas, 1919

  • Armed African American Guards for a Union Meeting at Hoop Spur Church were confronted by the Sheriff and white Security Officers

    • Shots exchanged, Sheriff Wounded and White security Office was killed

  • Next day, mob of 500-100 descend on the Town. 

  • Overall, 300 African Americans were arrested, 122 charged with crimes, 12 tried and convicted of Murder, many innocents please guilty of Second degree Murder in Fear. 

  • Moore v. Dempsey – Mob dominated trials deprived people of Due Process

9/12/2024

ANC (African National Congress)

• Dominant force in the African nationalist opposition to Apartheid

• Political Party, founded as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), in Bloemfontein in 1912

  • Prominent members of black community came together in order to form a party that would effectively represent the interest of Africans following the Union of South Africa in 1910

  • Early delegates were from small minority – elite middle class blacks

• Early strategy – reverse the tide of segregation

• Sent members to London in 1914 to protest the Native Lands Act of 1913, but were told nothing could be done

• Name changed to ANC in 1922

• Viewed by poor urban Africans initially as elitist and out of touch, membership declines in 1930s

• WWII brought in an economic boom – reinvigorates the ANC 

• ANC Youth League – formed in 1944

  • Led by Anton Lembede – ANC youth league leads to rise in many important leaders – Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo

  • Youth league rejected the cautious, constitutional approach of old ANC

  • Movement away from lobbying and negotiation with power structure from a position of weakness

• Mandela: “the ANC was not going to rely on a change of heart. It was going to exert pressure to compel the authorities to grant its demands”

ANC -- 1948

• Election of the Nationalist Party in 1948 – ANC gets more aggressive

• Start day strikes and other campaigns against apartheid

• Irregular action – not effective

• Defiance Campaign – sustained protests, but ultimately fails

• Chief Albert Luthuli placed in charge in 1952

  • Impeccable moral credentials

  • Committed Christian, traditional triba; leader, hard to paint as communist by SA government, had legitimate backing by Africans

  • Continued the direction set by the Youth League

ANC and Luthuli

• Luthuli initiates Resist Apartheid Campaign

  • Opposition to forced evictions from Sophiatown and elsewhere

  • Was going to give speech “legalized robbery” at meeting but is arrested and banned by SA government

  • Developed “Program of Economic Advancement”

    • Trying to address issues of extreme poverty and homelessness

Chief Albert Luthuli

• President General of the ANC from 1952 until his death in 1967.

  • Grew up a Seventh Day Adventist – influences his commitment to the use of non-violence and moral example as a means of opposing Apartheid.

  • Trained to be a teacher – stresses the value of education as a means of advancement

• Joined Natal Native Teacher’s Union and involved in organizing school boycotts

• 1935 – elected by tribal elders to Chieftaincy of Groutville, a designated native reserve under Native Lands Act of 1913

• Luthuli’s prominence made him a leader of the defiance campaign

• Firm Christian Principles and noble bearing made him an ideal figurehead for a series of protests designed to highlight the moral injustice of the Apartheid system.

• Government reacted by asking him to resign Chieftaincy or resign from the ANC

  • He refused

• Wrote “The Road to Freedom is via the Cross”

  • Non-violence is the only viable strategy

  • Peaceful resistance would convince whites of the injustice of apartheid

• Elected President General of ANC 1952

  • Banned for two years under Suppression of Communist Act

  • Ban prevents him from holding large meetings, speaking in public, confined him to Groutville

  • Leaders in ANC still visited him in Groutville before important decisions were made

• Arrested in 1956 as part of Treason Trial, released due to lack of evidence

  • Less involved after in late 1950s

• Gives way to younger leaders in ANC

• Last major protest, burns his Passbook following Sharpville

• Has a minor stroke in 1960s, dies in 1967 – run over at Train crossing

• Overall, Luthuli, won Nobel Peace Prize in 1961

  • Was influential early for non-violent activism, but by 1960s, was not a major player in protests

SUCCESSFUL ANC?

• Carried fight against apartheid: Defiance Campaign, partnership with COP, bus boycotts, and finally armed struggle

• ANC nearly achieves success with Rivonia Trial, yet that is also what kills ANC

• Failures:

  • Ultimate goal  end apartheid – not achieved

  • Party unity failed – PAC breaks off in 1959

  • Close relationship with SACP contributed to PAC breakaway, and alienated Whites that may have otherwise supported the movement

  • Decision to adopt armed struggle confirmed the suspicion of Whites that ANC was a terrorist organization  plays into the hands of SA government.

  • ANC has no answers for government crackdown following Sharpeville

  • Senior leaders jailed in 1964 – movement goes quiet for an extended period

South African Communist Party (SACP)

• Founded in 1921

• Inspired by Bolshevek Revolution in Russia in 1917

• Major growth period: following WWI – fierce struggle between White workers and mining houses. 

• Fall in price of gold, Smuts government proposes to cut costs by lowering wages of white workers and suspending the color bar that disallowed blacks to be employed in semi-skilled and supervisory positions

  • SACP picks the side of Whites, meaning they were part of a racist movement

    • WH Andrews, aka “Comrade Bill” leading SACP

  • Rand Revolt – 22,000 white workers marched against the state, Smut government sends in army, killing 200 workers

• Under orders from the Comintern (global organization of communist parties), SACP shifts its focus

  • 1925, majority of members are now Black, by 1928, calls for Black majority rule

• SACP begins it relationship with the ANC in the late 1920s, under the radical Josiah Gumede

• Works closely with trade unions, helped established the AMWU, whose first president JB Marks, was a leading black Communist

• 1948 election – National Party campaigning against two “Perils” – “red” and “black”

  • Malan closes Soviet consular offices, and stigmatizes ANC with communists  stricter action and apartheid strengthens

  • SACP declared illegal

• Ultimately, SACP remained ideologically true to revolutionary heritage of seeking to overthrow capitalism

  • Argue capitalism had given rise to the system of exploitation and racial oppression

•  Confirmed after Mandela’s death – he served on central committee of the SACP before his arrest in 1962

• SACP plays a role in the Congress of the People, through the “front” of the white dominated Congress of Democrats

  • Communist language found in the freedom charter

    • “the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks, and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole”

    • “the land [shall be] re-divided amongst those who work it”

SACP and Rivonia

• Secured the funding through Moscow for the MK

• Arthur Goldreich is paid for Liliesleaf Farm, and Denis Goldberg, Joe Slovo, Lionel Bernstein are all members of MK high command

• SACP was weary of moving to armed conflict but helps. Correctly predicted that if they acted too soon, they would be crushed by the SA government

• Following Rivonia, SAPC has to rely on friendly communist governments for funding, training and logistical support.

  • Tambo, Kotane, and Slovo all went to Soviet Union to receive guerrilla training in 1964

• Legacy of SACP – Contested

  • Most agree ANC is more influential, but SACP heavily influence group

Umkhonto we Sizwe

• Means “Spear of the Nation” in Zulu

• Created on December 16, 1961

• Organization lacked experience of armed struggle and members were untrained at its beginning

• Created after PAC creates Poqo

• Sharpeville Massacre proves that SA government will use ultimate force against protests

• First operations : series of sabotage 

  • White communists brought in – technical knowledge of explosives

  • Targets: power stations, electricity pylons, post offices, telephone exchanges, tax offices and police stations

    • Every effort is made to avoid loss of human life

MK

• General Laws Amendment Act – slows sabotage as jail penalty increase dramatically in 1962

• Overall – MK was a failure

  • Movement was short lived (1961-64)

  • Operation largely limited to sabotage

• No decisive blows against Apartheid State

• Successes

  • Showed Africans were not afraid of taking up arms

  • Legacy of MK kept spirit of resistance going, influence later resistance in late 1970s 

Nelson Mandela

• Born in 1918, Mandela’s father was the chief counsellor to the King of Thembu, a branch of the Xhosa.

• Studied at the Africans only University of Fort Hare, a college known for political activism

  • Expelled for taking part in a student protest

• Met Walter Sisulu after fleeing home and the prospect of an arranged marriage in 1941

  • Began studying to be a lawyer

  • Helped defend those who had been charged with breaking segregation laws

• Joined the ANC in 1944, the same year as Chief Luthuli

  • Formed the ANC Youth league with Sisulu and Africanist Anton Lembede

  • Mandela becomes known for his organization capacity and dynamism, as well as his opposition to the old guard of the ANC at the time

    • The old guard had mostly passively petitioned the authorities instead of actively trying to change the system.

• Following the NP’s rise to power in 48, persuaded party leaders to adopt the Youth Leagues Program of Action – more protesting 

  • Document is the foundation of the Defiance Campaign

• Mandela was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 49

  • Appointed President of the Youth League in 1950

• Nominated as national volunteer-in-chief in 1952, Mandela is perhaps the single most important member of the party in organizing civil disobedience across the country

Mandela and The Defiance Campaign

• Eventually arrested and given a six month banning order from ANC activity

  • Gave him time to open South Africa’s first Black law firm in Johannesburg with Oliver Tambo

    • Quickly gained a reputation for fearless representation of victims of apartheid laws

•  Working with other groups during the Defiance Campaign convinced him of the value of creating  a common front against apartheid

  • Heavily influenced by Lembede, he had been a known Africanist prior to 1952

  • Despite a close relationship with SACP Secretary-General Moses Kotane, he had been a vocal opponent of communism

    • Had be a critic of the communist organized May Day stay-at-home strike of 1950 because he thought ANC should be making its own protest, not joining the SACP

  • BUT, overtime, working with leading communists, Kotane, Yusuf Dadoo and JB Marks, Mandela became a firm believer in a non-racial approach as his politics swung left

Mandela

• Mandela drew closer to the SACP following the secret relaunch of the party in 1953

  • Influential in creating an alliance with other anti-apartheid groups through the Congress Alliance

  • Defied banning orders to take part in planning the COP and helped write the Freedom Charter

    • Watched from the Sidelines at Kliptown, as he faced arrest

• In 1953, drafted the “M Plan”

  • Contingency measures that the movement should adopt in case the ANC was banned and forced underground

    • Included the possibility of armed struggle

• Mandela was a main defendant in the Treason Trials lasting from 1956-61

  • Eventually acquitted, but held in custody off and on during this time

  • Becomes even more important to the ANC as Luthuli is banned to rural Stanger during the Trial

• With the collapse of the Treason Trials in 1961, Mandela knows the South African Government would double down and come after him

• One last public act of defiance – addressed a huge crowd of delegates at the All-in African Conference organized by the ANC

  • Mandela urged the government to admit the error of its ways and establish a democratic convention representing all South Africans, or face a strike which would paralyze the country

    • This convention would come to fruition finally in 1990 after negotiations between freshly released Mandela and PM FW de Klerk – Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA)

  • Mandela goes into hiding after this speech

    • Stayed at Liliesleaf Farm, travelled around the country organizing resistenc

      • “Black Pimpernel” – disguised as a house boy, gardener, or driver

    • Organized regional commands for MK

• He snuck out of South African in 1962 and travelled extensively around Africa, where he met national leaders and received guerilla training in Algeria

  • Also arranged for exiled MK recruits to train in Ethiopia

• Arrested after his return to SA in 1962, charged with leaving the country without permission and inciting strike action

• Rivonia Trial

  • Would be on Robben Island following sentencing for 27 years

9/10/2024

The Imprisonment of ANC Leadership

• Apartheid and communism are in a lot of ways natural enemies

Rivonia Trial

• Protesting and resisting has not made a difference, government has gotten stronger!!!

• Named after suburb in northern Johannesburg, where the resistance movement had a “safe house”

• The Rivonia Trial, revolves around the arrest of senior leaders of the ANC and SACP (south african communist party)

• Movement had been driven underground since 1960  Why?

  • BANNED. Anc (case oh!)

• ANC establishes the  uMkhonto weSizwe (MK)

  • Militant arm of ANC, was to coordinate armed resistance

• Nelson Mandela is arrested in August of 1962, could no longer play key role in organizing of sabotage acts

  • Arrested on charges of leaving the country without permission and inciting strike action

  • MK operate without him, led by Walter Sisulu and leading white communists

• Liliesleaf Farm, safe house, is raided by special forces in July 1963 following a tip from an unfriendly neighbor

• Police found members of MK high command, including Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Lionel Bernstein,  Ahmed Kathrada, Arthur Goldreich, and Denis Goldberg

  • They were studying a document titled “Operation Mayibuye”

    • Detailed plan for a revolutionary guerrilla war to be waged by MK from bases in rural parts of the country

• Eleven defendants, including Nelson Mandela, face charges of treason

• Trial begins in October 1963

• Tried under the Sabotage Act of 1962

  • Sabotage is a capitol offense (death penalty case)

  • Chief Prosecutor, Percy Yutar, called for the death penalty to be applied

    • Argued that the accused had endangered human life and that they were planning to use violence to overthrow the state

    • Chief Witness against MK – Bruno Mtolo

      • Had Photographic memory

      • Became disillusioned with the MK – believed they were working for the communists, not the ANC

      • After arrested for working with MK, decided to tell everything he knew about the leadership.

        • Did not like that he wasn’t receiving promised pay, thought the leaders were enriching themselves

• Mandela and co-accused agreed that they would freely admit to the charge of Sabotage

  • However, they denied that any lives had been put at risk by their campaign

• Strategy: Politicize the trial by arguing that their struggle was morally legitimate, conducted on behalf of the people of South Africa for freedom and democracy

• Government  domination and oppressive – had given little choice but armed struggle to pursuit equality.

• Mandela could have argued that since he was already in prison in 1962 when the Sabotage Act was introduced, he could not possibly be guilty

• Instead, stood with colleagues, and confirmed to the court that he had continued to act while in jail as the leader and took responsibility for the actions of the MK

• Those accused agreed to accept the death penalty if convicted

  • (some people can and escaped.. 4 of the defendants bribed prison guards and fled/ got out)

• Trial draws to an end by June 1964

• Hundreds of journalists word-wide descended on Court in Pretoria – the world waited to see what would happen

• June 9th, the UN Security council passes a resolution calling for the SA Government to end the trial and offer amnesty to all involved

  • USA, France, Britain, and Brazil abstained from the vote

• Justice Quartus de Wet – verdict: guilty of all the charges (except Bernstein)

• Alan Paton, member of Liberal Party (opposed to apartheid) gave a speech asking for clemency

  • Judge sentence men to life in prison – all go to maximum security prison Robben Island (except Goldberg – white only)

• Rivonia Trial marked the end of an era in the struggle against apartheid

• Government had successfully broken the ANC and MK

• All major leaders, except the banned and increasingly frail Chief Luthuli, are either imprisoned or in exile

• Townships remain quiet, little to threaten the Apartheid State until in the 1970s

  • Unprecedented numbers of White South Africans would vote for the NP

• Oliver Tambo becomes leader of the ANC while in exile in Zambia

• ANC does not accomplish much but remains intact

• Rise of Steve Biko’s South African Student’s Organization and the Black Consciousness Movement in the 1960s and 70s

• To end Apartheid, it will take open revolt of townships in 1980s coupled with international isolation and trade sanctions that wreak havoc on South African economy. 

9/4/2024

Paper 3 things:

• Every time you talk about one source, you must write about the other source

• Mention both sources in both point of comparison and contrast

• Need to say 6 things bc of 6 mark question

• Reread both sources; underline key ideas and shit

• 3 similarities, 3 difference, short paragraphs (4-6 sentences max)

• Short paragraph!! Unless ur fucked then bullet point

• TONE (optimsitic/ pessimistic) ACTORS (individuals and organizations mentioned) SCOPE (chronology or countries considered) THEMES (cultural, economic, political, social, technological, territorial etc) EVENTS 

• Understand what the question is asking you to compare and contrast

• Don’t quote! Cite the documents yes. Paraphrase though..!

• Documents are not facts; a lot of documents are opinions

• Being concise and exact is good

• Focus on the content.

Protests and Action Part II

Recap

• Defiance Campaign: Overall a failure (policy doesn’t change, in fact gets worse), but has moderate successes in bringing groups together

• Congress of the People: Issues Freedom Charter – manifesto on how South Africa Needs to change.

Bus Boycotts

• Form of action that we see in American Civil Rights movement as

• well

• Bus Boycotts are a major form of black protest against the South

• African authorities, even prior to 1948

  • First major bus boycott was in 1940

  • Another took place in 1943, where a young Nelson Mandela marched the nine miles from Alexandria Township into the center of Johannesburg in solidarity of tens of thousands of other protesters

• The causes of the bus boycotts tended to be economic rather than

• political, they were not a planned form of protest but occurred as a

• popular reaction to fare increases

• At its peak, 20,000 were boycotting buses

• Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce stepped in to rescind rate

• increases.

• Success of bus boycotting lead to other peaceful protests

Alexandra bus Boycott

• Began in January of 1957, over a rate increase of 4 to 5 pence 

• Importance: widespread coverage by the White media

• Sheer magnitude of the Boycott showed there was more tension than just a few cents fare increase – the political temperature had been rising in South Africa

  • Elimination of “Black Spots” in 1955

  • Tensions high in black urban areas

  • Verwoerd wanted to eliminate Alexandra

• Lull in political action since the Congress of the People

• Bus fare per year was already more than one months salary for most Africans

Alexandra

• On January 7th, thousands join the boycott – freedom songs, “Azikhwelwa” Zulu cry meaning “we will not ride”

• Spread from Alexandra to Sophiatown to Moroka and Jabavu to what is today Soweto, eventually to other major cities of Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London

• 70,000 plus people

• Alexandra People’s Transport Action Committee (APTAC) created to coordinate

• In the end, Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce axes fare increase, but agrees to subsidize the Bus fare

Impact of Bus Boycotts

• Viewed as a major threat to apartheid

  • This was not a planned campaign by the ANC

  • Government tried to place the blame on the ANC for inciting boycotts

• Bus Boycotts only ended when demands of protesters had been met

  • In the past, ANC campaigns fizzled when pressure was applied to leadership

• White community was more sympathetic to bus boycotts

  • Whites even participated by giving free rides

  • Stretched beyond whites involved with the South African Communist Party

Increasing Violence: Sharpeville

• March 21, 1960

• Police open fire on a crowd of demonstrators at a township on the outskirts of Vereeniging, which is South of Johannesburg

• 69 unarmed demonstrators, including 8 women and 10 children died, 186 were injured

• Caused shock in South Africa and around the world

• Major result: ANC began to abandon its strategy of peaceful resistence, and began to move towards armed struggle

Pan Africanist Congress

• “Africa for Africans”

  • Wanted the land and wealth of South Africa to return to Black ownership

  • Kick the whites out

• Anton Lembede  Robert Sobukwe and Potlako Leballo

  • Disagreed with ANC reaching out to other groups

  • Mandela and others wrapped up in Treason Trials, creating small power vacuum in ANC

• Officially form PAC in 1959

• PAC tries to hijack major protest by ANC – pass bookbonfire

• South African Government on edge

• Sharpeville protest organized by PAC

  • Origin of conflict – possibly armed protestor and police, crowd tries to get a view, police spooked, shots fired and chaos ensues

  • Police accuse protestors of throwing throwing rocks

  • Many of the dead – shot in the back while fleeing

Verwoerd’s Response

• Many non-whites horrified at what had happened

• Verwoerd was seen as the embodiment of callousness and indifference to the human suffering government caused

• Verwoerd: most Africans are peace-loving citizens who fully supported his policies

  • Protesters are coerced by ANC and PAC

• Verwoerd: declares a state of emergency on March 30th, 1960

  • Unlawful Organizations Act: banned ANC and PAC

    • ANC is now running out of options to protest

Did Sharpeville Cause ANC to turn Violent?

• Reasons for:

  • Turning point for ANC, moderate leadership, such as Chief Luthuli begin to see apartheid as unrepentant and unlikely to change

  • Civil Disobedience – not making a big dent

  • Old methods failing because South African Government was willing to retaliate with violence

  • ANC was officially banned

  • PAC rival had been created

    • They create their own armed wing, Poqo

• Reasons against

  • Internal debate for violent struggle had been taking place for years prior

  • As early as 1953, Mandela had been creating contingency plans for ANC banning

    • Wanted creation of small clandestine cells that would launch a full-scale guerilla insurgency

Global Impact

• The world begins to turn decisively against South Africa following Sharpeville

• While Sharpeville created another increase in power for South African government, the international campaign against Apartheid began.

• British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan gives “Wind of Change” speech in Cape town in 1960 – argued the legitimate nationalist aspirations of Africans would eventually have to be met

• Not a lot of pressure is put on south africa until like 1980 

8/29/2024

Protests and action part 1: strategies of the anti-apartheid movement

The Defiance Campaign

• The Defiance Campaign was the first in a number of coordinated nationwide campaigns and protests organized by the African National Congress against the Apartheid System

  • The ANC was formed on 8 January 1912 by Saul Msane (Esq.),Josiah Gumede, John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Sol Plaatje along with chiefs, people's representatives, and church organizations, and other prominent individuals to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms (Unify black south african interests), the ANC from its inception represented both traditional and modern elements, from tribal chiefs to church and community bodies and educated black professionals, though women were only admitted as affiliate members from 1931 and as full members in 1943.

  • Today it is the ruling party of South Africa, and has had power since 1994

• The Defiance Campaign was designed to apply concerted pressure on the Government and force it into repealing Apartheid legislation and negotiating with the ANC

• Methods:

  • Coordinated Campaign of Defiance against new Apartheid Laws

    • Law would be deliberately broken while crowds of onlookers would provide them with support and encouragement

    • Philosophy of Non-Violent civil disobedience – stark contrast to the heavy handed tactics (willingness to arrest and beat) of Apartheid Policemen

  • Force thousands of arrests

    • South Africa’s Prisons would be filled until they were overflowing

      • Stretch enforcement (Courts, Police, Prisons) to the breaking point

• Other Racial groups were involved in the struggle against apartheid by coordinating the Defiance Campaign with the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and other communities

• Mostly black led

Why the Defiance Campaign (in the early 50s)

• Prior to the campaign, there were many organized protests.

• Defiance was more longstanding

• However, Apartheid was simply much more enforced and extreme than previous segregation laws

• Pretoria Government shows no inclination to engage the ANC

• Earlier one day strikes, had failed to sustain popular resistance to the regime

• ANC also risked losing credit within the African Community if they were unable to provide an effect response to Apartheid

Defiance Campaign

• Officially started in 1952

• The Campaign officially started in response to an event planned by the National Party to celebrate Jan van Reibeck’s landing at the Cape on April 6th 1652 – the 300th anniversary 

• ANC organizes many mass rallies in a number of major cities in protest

National Action Committee

• Created as a joint venture between the ANC, the SAIC (indian), and FRAC – Franchise Action Council.

  • FRAC: a Colored organization, created in protest of laws removing coloreds from voting rolls

• First major protest: June 26th, 1952

  • Second anniversary of the Day of Protest in 1950, in which 19 protesters had been fatally shot by the police.

• Goal was to repeal six laws: Pass Laws Act, The Group Areas Act, Suppression of Communism Act, the Bantu Authorities Act, Separate Representation of Voters Act, and the Stock Limitation Act.

• Defiance Campaign began with an ANC meeting that broke up at 11PM, even though Curfew was 11PM. A small group of volunteers, including Nelson Mandela, deliberately defied Apartheid laws in front of police and onlookers. They were arrested and then released a few days later

Popular Methods of Defiance

• Burning or damaging pass books

• Using segregated amenities (parks and hotels)

• Illegally entering white suburbs

• Remaining in whites only areas after curfew

• “Hey Malan, Open the jail doors, we want to enter”

• ANC grows from 20,000 in 1952, to 100,000 in 1953

• In 1952, 8,300 volunteers had been arrested

Short End of Defiance Campaign

• Protesting led to a bigger issue: rioting

• Violence defeats the purpose of Civil Disobedience

• Pretoria Government passes Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1953

  • Courts can hand down longer sentences and introduced whipping as a punishment for “offences committed as a way of protest”

• ANC is banned from meeting under Suppression of Communism Act

Failure of Defiance Campaign

• ANC fails to achieve political objectives

• None of the six unjust laws repealed

• Government emerged with even stronger repressive powers

• Rural areas are hardly involved at all

  • Support strongest in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and East London

• Anticipated wave of strikes crippled South African economy

• Most of the participants were middle class blacks, few poor and colored participated.

• Whites viewed the movement with great hostility

• English language press was unsympathetic to movement

• (they went to the polls) 1953 White only election strengthened the NP

Successes of Defiance Campaign

• First time in its history, ANC managed to coordinate an extended National Campaign

• Thousands of ordinary South Africans had demonstrated their readiness to become involved in the struggle

• Broad coalition of interest groups was involved

• Hardly anyone in the party, including members of an emerging Africanist faction that objected in principle to working alongside groups that were not African, had openly opposed the campaign

• National and Global (more attention) profile of ANC grew

Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter

• The Congress of the People (COP) convened in 1955

  • Alliance of anti-apartheid movements, ANC was largest contributor

• Goals:

• Forge a single popular front by uniting all of South Africa’s racial groups

  • Expand the membership and broaden the social base of the ANC

    • To turn struggle into mass movement

  • Draft a Freedom Charter for the COP, a document that would encapsulate the political goals of the congress movements as we as the democratic aspirations of all of the people of South Africa

  • Consolidate the ANC strategy of working together with other parties and racial groups opposed to Apartheid

• Professor ZK Matthews proposed the COP

COP

• COP convened as a series of gatherings, conferences, campaigns, and rallies

• Many meetings were large and well attended, but most were on a smaller scale

• Organized in factories, homelands, farms etc…

• Purpose of smaller meetings: raise awareness, get people to join the struggle

• Collected signatures for Million Signature Campaign – asking for grievances of ordinary people

• COP’s largest meeting: 2,844 delegates at a football (soccer) field in Kliptown

• Leaders such as Mandela, Chief Luthuli, and ZK Matthews were banned from attending by Pretoria Government

The Freedom Charter

• Freedom Charter Proclaimed at this meeting (the COP’s largest meeting)

• Freedom Charter was drafted based on the suggestion of millions of South Africans

• Called for an end to the apartheid system, the election of a democratic, non-racial government, and the equitable distribution of the country’s wealth and resources.

• Freedom Charter is Unanimously adopted by the COP.

• Kliptown rally ends in ended in chaos

  • Police raid the meeting, armed

  • Authorities arrest many of the speakers and seize many documents – used later in court battles to try to end resistance movement

  • Treason Trials would take years, eventually all those accused with treason were acquitted in 1961

8/27/2024