Cold War, Vietnam War & Korean War - Study Notes

DATES TO REMEMBER:  1945-1991 – Cold War o 1948 – Israel established o 1949 – NATO established o 1950-1953 – Korean War o Vietnam War  1965 – 1st U.S. combat troops sent to Vietnam  1973 – Cease-fire agreement o 19...

DATES TO REMEMBER:  1945-1991 – Cold War o 1948 – Israel established o 1949 – NATO established o 1950-1953 – Korean War o Vietnam War  1965 – 1st U.S. combat troops sent to Vietnam  1973 – Cease-fire agreement o 1975 – last U.S. combat troops withdrawn from Vietnam  Douglas MacArthur: “The Communist threat is a global one. Its successful advance in one sector threatens the destruction of every other sector. You cannot appease or otherwise surrender to communism in Asia without simultaneously undermining our efforts to halt its advances in Europe.”  Cold War – primarily a political war – occasionally resulted in armed conflict – differing ideologies of U.S. & Soviets  Iron Curtain – Churchill’s name for tyranny on Eastern Europe - nations under Soviet domination after WWII – Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, & Yugoslavia  Truman Doctrine – U.S. would employ resources to prevent overthrow of any democracy through outside interference  George Catlett Marshall – U.S. general – Truman’s secretary of state o Marshall Plan – extended $13.3 billion credit to Europe - to help with recovery after WWII  Point Four Program – Truman’s foreign aid plan - appropriated $34.5 million in assistance to underdeveloped countries  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – for mutual defense – between U.S., Canada, & 10 Western European countries o Dwight D. Eisenhower – supreme commander of NATO in early ‘50s  Warsaw Pact, 1955 – Soviet mutual defense treaty - with her puppet nations in Eastern Europe – formed in response to NATO  Berlin Airlift – response to Soviet blockade of Berlin - established by Americans and their allies in June 1948 – planes airlifted supplies – to save the West Berliners from starvation – ended Sept. 1949  Federal Republic of Germany – West Germany – had democratic constitution and representative government o Konrad Adenauer – 1st chancellor of West Germany  Ludwig Erhard – Adenauer’s minister of finance  Nikolay A. Bulganin – Soviet premier from 1955-1958 o Geneva Summit – Bulganin met with leaders of Western countries – tried to demonstrate the Soviet shift from active aggression to so- called peaceful coexistence  Nikita Khrushchev – Soviet leader – gained support by the end of ‘50s  Francis Gary Powers – pilot of U.S. spy plane – shot down over Russian territory  Berlin Wall – created by East Germany’s Communist government – to hinder Western influence in Berlin – to keep residents from escaping to the West – during JFK administration  Atoms for Peace – Eisenhower’s plan - to use atomic energy as a type of power source  Arms race – race for nations to possess both the atomic bomb & hydrogen bomb o International Atomic Energy Agency – UN response to arms race - designed to control all uses of atomic energy – set up by the U.S. - to meet threats to world peace by nations with atomic weapons  Henry A. Kissinger – Nixon’s secretary of state - promoted détente (foreign policy - to lessen hostility in hopes of better negotiations)  Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) I – Nixon & Kissinger’s arms limitation talks – treaty between Soviets & U.S. – signed by Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet premier)  SALT II – agreement for further reduction of nuclear warheads & missiles – signed by Carter & Brezhnev in 1979 o Afghanistan – invaded by Soviets o Senate refused to ratify the treaty  Guam – became U.S. territory in 1950  Jones Act, 1916 – extended suffrage to Philippines - allow Filipinos to elect a senate & assembly  Tydings-McDuffie Act – provided that the Philippines would become independent in 1946 o Republic of the Philippines – became independent nation in 1946  Douglas MacArthur – supreme commander of Allied occupation in Japan  Japanese Peace Treaty Conference – signed between Japan & 47 enemy nations  38th parallel – partition between the two Koreas  Korean War o 1950 – North Korea invades South Korea o Seoul – South Korean capital – North Koreans reached here o Pusan Perimeter – furthest point south of North Korean advance into South Korea o Landing at Inchon – Gen. MacArthur landed near Seoul o Red China – their intervention prevented UN forces from driving Communism from Korea – MacArthur asked for permission to bomb Chinese bases & supply lines to N. Korea  Omar Bradley: “[Fighting with China] would involve us in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy.” – he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – recommended MacArthur’s removal o Truman – removed MacArthur from command o ended with armistice  Communist takeover of China:  o Chiang Kai-shek – Nationalist Chinese leader o Mao Zedong – Communist leader – began fighting against Chiang several years before the Japanese invaded China o Nationalists & Communists – formed an alliance when Japan invaded – Nationalists did most of the fighting – U.S. aided Nationalists before and during WW2 – after the war, civil war resumed o Mao – well-able to fight o American-sponsored armistice – Soviets pulled out of Manchuria – for Communists to use as a base o Gen. Marshall – U.S. envoy - tried to create a coalition government in China  Chiang – refused – didn’t believe Communists could be trusted  recommended withdrawal of U.S. support from Nationalist China (Jan ‘47) o United States – refused to support Chiang o Chiang – easily beaten by Soviet-backed Communists – retreated with Nationalists to Formosa (modern Taiwan)  Kinmen & Matsu – islands off the coast of China – occupied by the Nationalists in 1954  Formosa Strait – U.S. naval & air forces occupied this area – so the two islands could receive supplies  Mao – died in 1976  Age of détente – symbolized by Nixon’s goodwill tour of Red China (helped open trade relations)  French Indochina – under French control until 1940 o Laos – independent state in 1949 o Cambodia – independent in 1953 o Geneva Accords – temporarily divided Vietnam into Communist North & capitalist South – to provide for democratic elections of one government in 1956  Ngo Dinh Diem – South Vietnamese president – killed in a coup attempt [CIA-approved – Kennedy intended him to be exiled not killed] o North Vietnamese: “Diem was one of the strongest individuals resisting the people and Communism. Everything that could be done in an attempt to crush the revolution was carried out by Diem… The coup d’etat on 1 November 1963 will not be the last.”  Ho Chi Minh – Communist Vietnamese leader during the Vietnam War  Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) – U.S.-led defensive alliance – to resist Communist aggression & expansion – proved ineffective – weakened by lack of Asia’s three largest non-Communist nations: India, Indonesia, & Japan  Viet Cong – Communist guerillas – helped North Vietnam  Green Berets – special U.S. Army unit – aided South Vietnamese in their struggle against Communist aggression  Laos & Cambodia – suffered Marxist terrorism and subversion  Vietnam War – America’s 1st no-win war o Gulf of Tonkin Resolution – legal justification for U.S. involvement in Vietnam o Marines – LBJ sent 1st U.S. combat troops sent to Vietnam o William Westmoreland – commanded U.S. forces in South Vietnam o Tet Offensive, 1968 – surprise attack by North Vietnamese across South Vietnam – military victory for U.S. – media perceived it as a failure – turning point of the war o My Lai Massacre – one U.S. unit massacred hundreds of innocent civilians o Cease-fire agreement – signed by U.S. & North Vietnam o Saigon – South Vietnamese capital – fell to Communists in Apr. 1975 o Cambodia & Laos – Southeast Asian countries – fell to Communism after Saigon’s fall  Puerto Rico – became organized U.S. territory o Jones Act, 1917 – granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship o Operation Bootstrap – Puerto Rican economic campaign to increase industrial output  Fulgencio Batista – became dictator of Cuba in 1952  Fidel Castro – Cuban revolutionary - overthrew Batista in 1959 – organized 26th of July Movement in Mexico  JFK’s policy towards Cuba – to attempt to isolate Castro regime – to aid Cuban attempts to overthrow it  Bay of Pigs – U.S.-trained force of exiled Cuban freedom fighters invaded Cuba - failed  Cuban Missile Crisis – days-long crisis between Soviets & Americans – over supplying Cuba with offensive missiles  Pres. Carter – negotiated surrender of U.S. control of Panama Canal Zone in 1977  Republic of the Congo – previously the Belgian Congo – particularly susceptible to Communism – Belgium had never prepared them for independence or democracy (British Empire had with most of her colonies) o Patrice Lumumba – pro-Soviet premier of the Congo o Dr. Paul E. Carlson – U.S. medical missionary – taken hostage – killed in the Congo  Paul Carlson: “In this century more people have died for Christ than died in the early centuries, which we think of as the days of martyrs.”  Carter’s foreign policy – built on concept of human rights – U.S. wouldn’t support authoritarian regimes - even if they opposed Communism  Apartheid – racial segregation in South Africa  Eisenhower Doctrine – gave Eisenhower congressional approval to combat Communism in the Middle East  Gamal Abdel Nasser – Egyptian president – supported terrorist groups – very vocal in condemning new state of Israel – frequently raided Israeli settlements o Aswan High Dam (‘50s-‘60s) – project on upper Nile River under Nasser  State of Israel - established as a haven for Jews o Six-Day War, 1967 – Israel prevented an invasion by Egypt, Jordan, & Syria – Israel humiliated the Arabs – gained Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, & West Bank o Yom Kippur War, 1973 – between Egypt & Israel – Israelis drove back the Egyptians again  Camp David Accords, 1978 – Carter helped negotiate between Israel & Egypt o Anwar Sadat – Egyptian president during the accords o Menachem Begin – Israeli PM – met with Carter and Sadat o 1st time in 2,000 years that Jews and Arabs had negotiated a peace treaty  United Arab Republic – union between Egypt & Syria in 1958  Iraq – Arab nationalists seized power  Lebanon – UAR sponsored a revolt  OPEC – monopoly designed to control supply and price of oil – greatly increased oil prices in ‘70s o Arab oil embargo – Arab nations united together – cut off all oil exports to the U.S.  Trans-Alaska Pipeline – built by U.S. to extract oil from AK in response to OPEC  Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – Iranian shah – deposed by revolutionaries in 1979  Ruholla Khomeini – Islamic revolutionary – ayatollah of Iran (Muslim religious leader) o Iran hostage crisis – his Iranian rebels captured U.S. embassy - took 66 Americans hostage in 1979 – 52 of them were held for 14 months – decided to release the hostages only after Carter was out of office