IB History Review Paper 2

Topic 1-Causes, practices and effects of wars

 Different types and nature of 20th century warfare
o Civil War ( Vietnam war and Cuba War)
 Fought between people of same country
 Similar to total war
 Few end in compromise
 Most go until one side wins or gains objective
 Compared to total war
 More bitterness
 Line between civilian and soldier= less clear
 Enemy Is not just troops but entire opposing side
o Everyone chooses sides
 Results in the militarization of communities and rise to power of one
powerful leader
 Usually dictatorships
 Intervention of other countries
 To take advantage of divisions
 Support the side that would be favorable if victorious
 Can arise because:
 People in certain regions of a country feel oppressed
 Political divisions
 Different religious ideas in a country
 Social conflict
 Lots of social pressure
 More personal than in other types of wars
o Guerrilla Warfare
 Groups of civilians who took up arms to attack the enemy
 Smaller groups than the army operate independently to attack the
enemy wherever possible
 Attack essential communication and supply lines
 Useful when fighting a bigger and better supplied army
 Tactics=ambush and sabotage
o Limited war
 Not regional or international conflict
o Total war
 All resources of a nation used by state to achieve victory
 No distinction between home front and fighting front
 Home front: people produce war materials and food to
supply troops
o Provides soldiers for mass armies
 Fighting front: where war is waged
 State takes over/controls production, imports, and exports
 Distribution of resources
o Rations for food and raw materials
 Whole nation encouraged by propaganda
 Hard to oppose conflict
 Total commitment needed
  Vital survival of the nation
 No compromise for peace
o Until one enemy surrenders
o Any thing goes
 Atomic bomb
 New weapons
 Mustard/ poison gas
o Economic warfare to starve enemy
 Bombing raids to destroy economy
 Kill people producing resources
 Limits: prisoners, not mass killings

 Chinese Civil War (1927-37 and 1946-49)

o Origins and causes
 Long-term:
 Collapse of imperial power
o Manchu Qing dynasty = fragile
 Major external and internal threats
 Increase in foreign interest in the
country
o After the defeat of the British in
the Opium wars 1839-42
o Superpowers in the world started
to “carve up” China among them
and control her trade
 Emperor’s inability to resist this influx of foreign
involvement
 Rising nationalist resentment and internal
opposition to the imperial power
 Abdication of the emperor was necessary to
modernize the country
 A military nationalistic uprising
 Power vacuum arose
 The KMT and CCP fight over later in the
civil war
 Warlords and regionalism:
o Failure to fill the power vacuum divided up China
into different regions where warlords brutally
exercised their power over the peasants
o 1912 Yuan Shikai set up a military dictatorship
 Failed to resolve any of China’s big problems
 Such as foreign interest in the country
 Died in 1916 the country descended into
chaos
 Not appointed a successor
 For the next decade powerful warlords divided
up the country into independent regions
 As country was divided up, more people
 became nationalistic and wanted to
unify China
 The social conditions under the warlords
were very poor, and the exploitation of
peasants would lead to later significant
support for the CCP.
 As China was internally weak, it had to
accept the TOV and grant the former
German colony of Shandong to China’s
greatest enemy, Japan. This created
more nationalistic feelings.
o Two different political parties, the KMT and the CCP,
were formed. The two parties both offered a solution
to China’s problems and they were willing to fight for it
as well
 KMT
 Leader: Sun-Yat-Sen
 Three main principles:
 1) Nationalism (take away foreign
influence)
 2) People’s democracy (establish a
democratic state)
 3) People’s livelihood (establish
socialism, where the poor are
benefitted)
 Under Chiang Kai-Shek
 Shifts right
 Focuses more on nationalism
 Leads to the white terror in Shanghai in
1927
 CCP
 Communist ideology
 Mao adopts Soviet communism to
Chinese conditions
 Revolutionize Chinese society
 1) Eradicate rural poverty through
collective ownership
 2) Replace traditional Chinese values
with CCP values
 3) Abolish foreign influence especially
western
 CCP want a central economy whilst KMT
wants to maintain capitalism
 Initially parties worked together to defeat
regionalism
 Chiang’s shift to the right  the white
terror (killing of CCP officials) what
some historians have called the “first
 Chinese civil war” between 1927-37
 Ideological divisions also essential to
foundation of conflict in 1946
 Short Term:
 Failure of KMT to secure single party state
o Civil war inevitable
o Failed to defeat the CCP in 1927
 CCP severely weakened
 Nationalist government failed to establish
control of China
 CCP builds up its strength and emerged as
much stronger in the "united front" with KMT in
1937 against the Japanese invasion
 After the Japanese invasion, the fighting
between KMT + CCP continued
 CCP had emerged in a much stronger
position able to wage war against KMT
 End of WW2 and failure of US diplomacy:
o Failure of US to secure peace in China in 1946
 Proper civil war broke out between CCP and
KMT in the same year
 Dropping of atom bombs over Hiroshima and
Nagasaki meant that Japan had to withdraw
from China
 Fighting between CCP + KMT could
commence
o Heavily divided between
communists and nationalists,
 Cold war emerged in Europe
 US sought to stall a communist victory
in China
o Intervened to promote a coalition
government in China between
KMT + CCP
 General Marshall led the
negotiations between
 Both parties were not
prepared to honor the
terms of the agreement in
practice
 Were fighting again as
they moved troops into
Manchuria
o Nature
 Civil war:
 Lots of political ideologies involved
o Not so much due to regional differences
 Civilians suffered greatly, bot during and in after math of war
 Resulted in prolonged dictatorship
 Tactics:
 Guerilla war:
o Much of communist success on small scale, not in
large open-order conflict
 Especially with Japanese opposition
o Mao felt was an important part of achieving
revolutionary goals
 Derived from masses and is supported by them
 If it truly represents what people want
o Useful vs. Japanese and KMT
 Both = bigger and more equipped
o Help from Russia
 Course:
 Reasons for Communist victory:
 After the Long March, Mao finally gained
unchallenged command of the CCP
 Reasserting guerrilla strategy
 Communists set up their headquarters
at Yan'an, where the movement would
grow rapidly for the next ten years
o Due to aggression by the
Japanese
 Undermine the Nationalist
government
 Loss of Manchuria, and its
vast potential for industrial
development and war
industries, was a blow to
the Nationalist economy.
 KMT-CCP united front
against Japan
 Communists expanded
their influence wherever
opportunities presented
themselves through mass
organizations,
administrative reforms,
and the land- and tax-
reform measures favoring
the peasants
 Nationalists attempted to
neutralize the spread of
Communist influence
 The Red Army fostered an image of conducting
guerrilla warfare in defense of the people
 Mao began preparing for the establishment of
a new China
 Skillful organizational and propaganda work
The Communists increased party membership
 from 100,000 in 1937 to 1.2 million by 1945.
 Nationalist internal reforms
 In vain
 Corruption and political and economic
chaos
 Demoralized and undisciplined Nationalist
troops proved no match for the People's
Liberation Army (PLA)
 Nationalists exhausted by the long war with
Japan and the attendant internal
responsibilities
 Communists take over
 Little resistance

o After Chiang Kai-shek and a few

hundred thousand Nationalist
troops fled from the mainland
o Effects and results
 China remained a single party state in which individual rights and
freedoms were suppressed
 Challenges facing the Government:
 After war with japan, China's economy and its people were
exhausted
 Agriculture production had fallen because people taken
away to fight
o  Food shortages
o Industrial production had also fallen
 Economy bad
o KMT leaders took treasury with them when they fled
 Rift between China and the Western powers
o Cut off from trade and contact with the west, China's
only source of foreign assistance was from the Soviet
Union.
 Still had problems with some landlords
o Social and ethnic divisions
 Effects on West and USA:
 US “Cold War” anxiety
 Refuses to recognize CCP- seat in UN in Taiwan (KMT) and
not PRC (china’s) seat
 New “front” in Cold War- US interpretations of USSR being
the mastermind behind the CCW- cold war context.

 World War 1
o Origins and causes:
 Long Term:
 Nationalism
o Emergence of aggressive patriotism in Europe
  Austria-Hungary had a large number of ethnic
groups after collapse of ottoman empire
 Minorities wanted independence
tension
 France= resentment
 France had to give up Alsace and
Lorraine to Germany in the Franco-
Prussian war.
 Political
o Colonies
 Growing industries needed more raw
materials
 Scramble for Africa
 Colonies wanted independence
o Germany and Britain arms race
 Disagreed over railroad from berlin to Baghdad
 Increase in German navy
 Historiography:
o Britain feels threatened, which
leads to their alliances with
France and Russia
 Germany has strongest army
 Historiography:
o Germany was determined to start
a war
 At the height of its military
power and wanted to
exploit the situation
 Alliances
o Reduced the ability to deal with responses flexibly
o The Triple Alliance
 Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary
 Nations offered to support each other militarily
in the event of an attack against any of them by
two or more great powers
o Franco-Russian Alliance
 In response to Triple Alliance
 Mutual military assistance if either country was
attacked
o Entente Cordiale
 Britain and France
 Ending conflicts
o Triple Entente
 Britain, France and Russia
 Counterweight to the Triple Alliance.
 Economical:
o Commercial Rivalry
 Britain dominated the market
  Most manufactured goods
 Germany closing in on France
 Exporting more Iron
 Historiography:
o More British insecurity towards
Germany
 Short Term:
 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
o Serbian nationalist group black hand
 Blank check from Germany
o Kaiser Wilhelm
o Allowed Austria to declare war
o Nature
 Total war:
 Entire population expected to contribute to the war effort
 Technological developments:
 75mm Field Gun
 Magazine rifle
 Machine gun
 Tactics:
 Germany
o Bringing up forces by railway, dividing its forces and
attacking with infantry supported by cannons
 Defensive: used machine guns, barbed wire
and heavy big guns to defend lines
o Germany sent Mexico an invitation to start a war
against the US
 Zimmerman Telegram
o Unrestricted Submarine Warfare tactic
 Sank US ships
 Trench Warfare
 Strategies:
 Land:
o Germany:
 Defend on eastern front and attack rapidly on
the west
 Schlieffen Plan
 Distract USA so no threat
 Seas:
o Britain starts a blockade in the North Sea
 Make Germany rely solely on its internal goods
 Starve it
o Effects and results
 Social:
 Improved status of women
 Social barriers undermined because of the emphasis of
national unity
 Nationalism exploded
  Most killed were between 18-38
 Fall in the birth rate between 1914-1918
 Manpower shortage during the 1930s.
 Political:
 Increased Role of Governments
o Health and education
o Greater control over the private sector
 Spread of democratic ideals
 The US came out favorable in the war
o The power of France, Germany, Russia, and England
all declined
 League of Nations to prevent this from happening again
 Economic:
 Belief in need for economic self-sufficiency
 Economic problems due to land that was destroyed
o Partially due to Trench warfare
 Germany ruined
o Declined as world power and in general
o In ruins because lost of fighting in home
o Blamed for war
 The Treaty of Versailles
 Germany to blame
o Lost 10% of its land
o Lost All its overseas colonies
 With this lots of its natural resources and
industries (iron and Steel) that had made it
economically prosperous before
o Alsace-Lorraine returned to France.
o No annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, or Poland
and Danzig
o Rhineland was to be declared a demilitarized zone
o Armed forces can be no larger than 100,000
o No manufacturing of weapons.
o No importing or exporting weapons
o No poison gas.
o No tanks.
o Small navy, 12 destroyers, 6 battleships, and 6
cruisers
o No Submarines
o No military aircraft
o War Guilt Clause justifies reparations.
 According to Germans:
o Did not feel as though they started the war
o Did not lose
o Supposed to be a peace conference and not a
surrender
 Effects of treaty:
 o Germany falls behind in its Reparation payments
o French and Belgian soldiers invade the Ruhr region
and sack raw materials and goods in order to
compensate
 Allowed under the Treaty of Versailles
o German government orders the workers to strike
 The strike aids in causing the growing inflation
o French kill 100 workers and expel 100,000
protestants from the region in retaliation

 World War 2
o Origins and causes:
 Long-term:
 Versailles:
o German resentment:
 Had expected Wilson’s 14 points (not a blame
game)
 Treaty of Versailles= unfair
 Many displaced due to new boundaries
(land lost by Germany)
 Took everything Germany could use to
rebuild economy recession
resentment
o Historiography:
 Orthodox: failed to solve problems and made
some worse
 Revisionist: problem was not treaty but failure
to uphold its terms
 Communist Russia:
o With Germany defeated, no power strong enough to
prevent Russia from spreading communism to Europe
 Not much about remilitarization
 Weakness of League of Nations:
o Never granted any army
o Weapon=economic sanctions imposed on those who
did not comply
 Did not have much impact because biggest
economic power (US) not a member
 Germany’s situation could not get much worse
o It was completely ignored by aggressors (japan in
Manchuria)
 Short-term:
 Great depression:
o Hurt economy=mad people
 Germany really not able to recover
o Break down of diplomatic system
o Attempts to fix economy not prevent a war
o Also aided in rise of Nazis to power
  End of reparations
o Allowed Germany to recover economically
o Showed looseness of punishments
 Pushed for more
 Failure of disarmament
o Germany demanded to be considered equal at
conference in Geneva to other allies in league of
nations or they would quit
 Meaning that Germany could create an army
as large as any of the other powers
 Granted and Germany could remilitarize
 Quit league because did not want to be
obligated to fight in a war because of
league of nations
 Rise of fascist leaders and appeasement
o Fascism: exalts nation and often race above the
individual
o Britain was too weak to declare war on Germany in
the beginning after ww1
o Remilitarized Germany and sought to reunite German
speakers
 Troops in Rhineland
 Nazis in formally German states stir up trouble
 Sudetenland: voted to reunite with
Germany
o Hitler demands it and it is given
to him
o Promised not to take rest of
country
 Does so anyways
 Appeasement abandoned
 Nazi-soviet treaty
 Avoid war on two fronts
 Hitler attacks Poland
o Britain and France declare war
 Orthodox view: Hitler wanted to expand Germany
 Revisionist: improvisation and took advantage of
opportunities
o Nature
 Total war:
 Entire population expected to contribute to the war effort
 Mass bombing of civilians brought the front line to ordinary
people
 People killed in Germany due to bombings = 4x number of
British soldiers killed in WW1
 Technological developments:
 Long range air craft
 Homing torpedoes
  Air craft carriers as warships
o Used to be just support
 Tactics:
 Airborne assaults
o Parachutes from planes
o To seize or sabotage things behind enemy lines
 Strategies:
 Air:
o Bombers to destroy enemy’s industry, cities and
morale
 On battlefield
 Strategic air raids
 Land:
o Tanks
 Fast, low, and heavily armored
 Seas:
o Submarine
 German: Wolf-pack method
 Us vs. Japanese
 Resistance and revolutionary movements:
 German forces faced lots of guerrilla warfare tactics in
places they occupied
o Effects and results
 Peace (not so much) settlement
 Hitler kills himself
o 2 front war = too much
 Going to lose
 Japan: after atomic bombs
o Surrender
 Results:
 Huge physical and economic destruction
o Most killed in any war in history by far
o 20 million people displaced or without homes
o Aerial bombing= mass destruction over all of Europe
 Cities destroyed
 Communications and transportation destroyed
 Total war meant victors in same
condition as losers (destruction)
 Political:
o No redrawing of map of Europe
 No major treaty or peace settlement
o Yalta and Potsdam:
 Germany’s position
 Poland’s borders
 Fate of eastern European states
 Keeping future stability
o Germany vanished
  Partitioned between US, France, Britain and
Russia
o Eastern European bloc: dominated by Russia
o Fascism and Nazism disappeared
o United nations
 Aimed to maintain peace, promote dialogue
between nations and international cooperation
(like LON)
 Many more nations involved in the
development
 Vs. fascism
o Balance of power changed from Europe
 USSR and US emerge as super powers
 European nations all damaged by war
 Economic costs meant they could not
maintain overseas empires

 Americas: Falklands/Malvinas (1982)

o Origins and causes:
 Long term
 Dispute over sovereignty of the island
o Had little strategic or economic importance or value to
Britain or Argentina
o Once Argentina had gained independence from Spain
she laid claim to them
o In 1833 the British had sent a force to protect them.
o So the dispute between the two countries over the
rightful ‘ownership’ of these islands’ has a 150-year
history.
 Argentinian foreign Policy strategy
o A stronghold in the South Atlantic
o Chile=major rival
 Short term
 Political instability in Argentina led to the rise of the military
junta
o ‘Dirty war = ‘the disappeared’
o Increasing unpopularity
 Systematic execution of left-wing opponents
o War was fought to divert attention
 Severe economic crisis
o Argentina, stemmed particularly from foreign debt
o British
 Thatcher’s austerity measures (privatization)
to fight inflation were very divisive, all the more
so due to the high unemployment.
 She did not plan it but used it to bolster support
and to keep her image
  Argentina thought they had good relations with Us, so they
might get aid if needed
o Diplomacy failed
 USA failure to mediate
 Immediate
 Negotiations broke down in early 1982:
o Both had faulty or unclear intelligence about the other
side’s intentions.
 March 26th the Argentinian junta order a full invasion. This
occurred on April 2nd.

Topic 5: The Cold War

 Origins of the Cold War
o Ideological differences
 USSR
 Communism: politics
o No central government
o Dictator ship of proletariat would fade away and
society based on complete equality
 Communism economics
o Everyone takes what they need gives according to
their ability
o Production community owned
o Communal gain, not individual gain
 USA
 Democracy: politics
o Centralized government elected by people
 Capitalism: economics
o Supply and demand drive motivation and economic
growth
o Production privately owned
o Mutual suspicion and fear
 Communism viewed by capitalist states with mistrust and fear of it
spreading
 Stalin attempts to take advantage of post WW2 state to
increase Russian influence in Europe
o Tried to occupy as much of Germany and Eastern
Europe as possible
 USSR feared an uprising to end communism
 Capitalists states= hostile towards Russia
o USA: Truman Suspicious of Stalin
 Some believe dropping atomic bomb was also
directed towards Russia
 Look what we can do if you piss us off
 Did not tell Russia, their ally at the time, that
they were going to do so
 Told Churchill about bomb
 o Delay to launch D-day= deliberate to exhaust USSR
before ending the war
o From wartime allies to post-war enemies
 During Russian revolution, USA and other capitalist states sent
troops to help anti-communists
 Stalin sure there would be another attempt to destroy communism
 Hitler invades in 1941
 USSR angry with appeasement policy of west
o Yalta Conference:
 In Russia, between allied leaders (Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill)
 Agreements:
 Establishment of UN
o 5 permanent members each with a veto in Security
Council
 Germany
o Demilitarized
o Divided between USSR, USA, France, and Britain
 East and West
 Berlin split too
 West=bigger than East and had the better part
 More industrious
 Eastern Europe
o Stain agreed that governments of eastern Europe
should have free elections
 Did not happen, USSR just took over
 Japan:
o Stalin to enter war with Japan as soon as Europe’s
war ended
 Wanted land in return
 Dropping of bomb eliminated the need for
Russia’s help
 Problems:
 Poland
o Potsdam Conference:
 Truman replaced Roosevelt
 Tougher on communists
 Truman did not like Russia communist government in Poland
 Russia promised to include more noncommunist in
government from old regime but Truman not appeased
o Communism in Eastern Europe:
 Cause alarm in the west
 Stalin interferes with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Poland
 Speech:
 Communism and Capitalism cannot coexist
o War inevitable
 Iron Curtain Speech
 Addressed lack of free elections as promised in Yalta
 USSR compared Churchill to Hitler
  The grip tightens
 Churchill agrees to let Russia keep the satellite states
o How it got control was the problem
o Truman Doctrine
 Policy of containment
 USA would provide economic and military assistance to
prevent the spread of communism past 1947 borders
 Change from isolationism
 Inspired by Greece
o Communists try to overthrow monarch
 Monarch restored by British but strain from
fighting communistsaid from USA
o Marshall Plan:
 Economic expansion of Truman Doctrine
 Economic aid to rebuild after WW2
 Economic recovermarkets for America exports and
safeguards
 Economic prosperity meant less need for communism
 USA got to investigate money records
 USSR left out (had none)
 “Dollar imperialism”
 No satellite states or Czechoslovakia allowed to accept it
o Molotov Plan in response
 COMECON
 Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
o Centralized agency linked to
Eastern bloc countries to Moscow
o Stimulate control of economic
development
o Czechoslovakia:
 Moving towards west
 12 noncommunist forced to resign form Gov.
 Foreign minister killed
 Elections of all communist members
 Protests from west, but could not prove Russian involvement
o Berlin Blockade and Airlift:
 Disagreements over treatment of Germany
 West=revival
o Called for unification of 4 zones
o New currency
 East=satellite state
 Communists irritated that there was island of capitalism in berlin in
middle of soviet zone
 New currency put over edge
 Closed all road, rail, and canal links
 Force west to withdrawal
o West holds on fearing the results of appeasement
 West sends supplies by planes
 o Neither side wanted war so predicted that USSR
would not shoot down planes
 Division of Germany
 West: German Federal Republic
 East: German Democratic Republic
o NATO:
 North Atlantic Treaty Organization
 Collective security army
 Agreed to regard an attack on one of them as an attack on
all of them
 Berlin crisis UN needs an army
 Warsaw Pact in response
o Historiography:
 Traditionalists:
 USSR to blame
 Blame=most active during “war”
 US supported mutual cooperation
o UN
o Attempts to negotiate between USSR and Britain
 US acted in response to Russian hostility
 Revisionists:
 Even before start, USA had sought to limit USSR influence
 USSR acted in response to USA aggression and ambition
 Post-revisionists:
 All forces played a part
 Nature of the Cold War
o Cuba:
o Cuba’s relative economic wellbeing
 Depended much on the USA as principal market for it agricultural
output and investments
 Had been ruled by Fulgencio Batista
 Had degenerated into a repressive and corrupt dictatorship
 Communists had agreed to support the pro-Batista
government in 1938, and in returned they were allows to
operate as a legal political party, the Partido Socialista
Popular
 Castro: no alternatives but a resort to armed force
o Political scene was not open to opponents
o 26 July 1953, led a small group of revolutionaries in
Santiago, but taken prisoner
 Amnesty and fled to Mexico
 Che Guevara
 With him to Cuba in another coup
 Defeated
 Fled and groped with other ant-Batista
forces
o Batista was suggested by the USA to step down in
favor of a Junta
  He fled the country
 Revolutionary forces marched into Havana and
a new government was established
 Castro and Guevara immediately took
charge of the army
 Castro = Prime Minister
 Castro’s rule:
 Typical reforms of a newly installed nationalist regime:
 Takeover of US companies
 Reduction of utility and service fees
o Expect trouble with the USA
 Guatemala-style intervention
o Move against other political factions
 Many middle classes into exile
 Counterrevolutionaries
 USA = hostile
 The CIA started recruiting
o Did not declare himself a Marxist-Leninist until late
1961.
o Agrarian reform took place
o Trade and credit agreements with the USSR
 Bought weapons from east Europe
 Oil from soviet=cheaper
o Eisenhower cut the sugar quota
 In response nationalized US companies and all
US banks
 Trade embargo
o Kennedy
 Bay of Pigs (originally Eisenhower’s idea but
Kennedy ruined it)
 The Missile Crisis
 Soviets nuclear missiles in Cuba
o Khrushchev: although the USSR
would defend Cuba from another
attack, it would not establish
military bases there of its own
o Refused to place offensive
missiles in other countries
despite USA missiles in Turkey
and Western Europe
 Problems to be address:
o Berlin
 Wanted to end Western
occupation city
 An escape route for
thousands of refugees
Berlin Wall
o Presence of American missiles in
 Turkey and Italy
 Arms race and nuclear power
o Ussr far behind USA
o Restore credibility in the Russian
nuclear threat quickly
 Cuba
 US blockade
o Wasn’t working as construction of
the missile sites continued
o Two letters from Khrushchev
 Ordered the Missiles in
Turkey disarmed
 US pledge not to invade
Cuba
o Arab-Israeli Conflict:
o Mass immigration of Jews to Palestine
 Arabs mad
 British wanted two to live together
 Divide Palestine in two states was rejected by the Arabs
 Unable to cope with the problem after WW2
 Asked the UN to deal
o Divide Palestine
 Independence of Israel
 Immediately attacked by Egypt, Syria, Jordan,
Iraq and Lebanon
 British to blame because they did not
keep troops there to keep everything
peaceful
 US to blame using influence in UN
o Israel set up by UN in 1948 in Palestine
 Area belonging to Palestinian Arabs
 Outraged Arab opinion around the world
 Blamed Britain = more sympathetic to Jews than to Arabs
 Blamed USA
 Supported the idea of a Jewish state very strongly
 Arab states refused to recognize Israel
 Vowed to destroy it
o Achieve political and economic unity among the Arab
states
o End to foreign intervention in their countries
 Interference in the Middle East by other counties
 Britain and France had been involved in the Middle East for
many years
o Britain with Egypt
 Important position in the world
o Crossroads between the Western nations, the
communist bloc and the Third World of Africa and
Asia
 o Oil supplies
 Lack of unity among the Arab sates encouraged other
countries to intervene
 Most Arab countries = nationalist governments
 Bitterly resented Western influence
 Pro-Western govs were swept away and replaced by
regimes which wanted to be non-aligned
 Arab countries were divided among themselves and poorly
equipped
 Results: refugees and mass immigration of Arabs (due to mass
killings of them by Jewish troops)
 Suez War: 1956
 Nasser signed an arms deal with Czechoslovakia for
Russian weapons
o Russian military experts went to train the Egyptian
army
 Americans therefore cancelled a promised grant of 46 million
for the building of the Aswan Dam
o Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal
 Income from it to finance the dam
 Secret talks between British, French and Israelis
o Israel would invade Egypt across the Sinai peninsula
and Europeans would step in to protect the structure
from the damage
 Captured the entire peninsula in less than a
week
 Britain and France bombed Egyptian airfields
and marched troops in
 Americans refused to support Britain
 UN: Americans and Russians demanded an
immediate ceasefire
 Prepared to send a UN force
o Withdrew
 Six day war
 Still refused to recognize Israel
 Iraq ready to cooperate with Egypt to attack Israel
 Syria bombing Jewish settlements
 Egypt started mobilizing its troops to the Sinai border.
 USSR: flow of anti-Israeli propaganda
o Israel was being supported by the USA
 Israelis decided that they had to attack first
o Launched a series of devastating air attacks
 Cleared out the enemy’s air forces on the
ground and captured the Gaza strip, the entire
Sinai peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan
Heights
 Arabs accept ceasefire
 Results:
 o Now kept the gained territories as buffer zones
 Arab displacement again
 Yom Kippur War
 Need for a negotiated peace settlement with Israel
o Wanted US help to be mediator, but Us refused
 Decided to attack Israel again
o Force Americans to act as mediators
 Russian weapons and tactics
 On the Jewish feast of Yom Kippur
o Some early Arab success
o The Israelis turn the tables
 Kept all territory they had captured in 1967 and
even crossed the Suez Canal to Egypt
 USA and the USSR intervene to try to bring out
a peace settlement
 Acting with UN co-operation, they organized a
ceasefire which both sides accepted
 Results:
o Hope of permanent peace
o Arab states made use of the oil-weapon
o The Peace treaty
 The state of war which had existed between the two countries since
1948 was now over
 Israel promised to withdrew it troops from Sinai
 Egypt promised not to attack Israel again and guaranteed to supply
her with oil
 Israeli ships could use the Suez Canal
o Election of the less aggressive Labour government in Israel
 Better relations with the Palestinians
o Oslo accords
 Israel formally recognized the PLO
 The PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist and promised to give up
terrorism
 The Palestinians were given self rule in the West Bank and in part
of the Gaza Strip, areas occupied by Israel since 1967
o Détente:
o 1945 to 1952 there was an increase in tension
o Until 1956 = improved relations between the sides
 In 1953 a cease fire was declared in Korea
 1954 the peace agreement for Indochina was concluded
 Eisenhower talked about “liberation” this policy was more theory
than practice: neither during the revolt in East Berlin in 1953 nor in
Hungary 1956 did the USA plan to intervene
 Advocated a reduction in defense budget
 US away from armed conflicts
 Decrease the tension
 3rd party congress of 1956, were Stalin was denounced and the
possibility of peaceful coexistence between capitalist and
 communist nations was now emphasized
 Austrian question was solved
 Relations were established between the Soviet Union and Japan.
 Geneva= new relations
 Trade between East and West increased
 Tourists began to cross the Iron Curtain
 Negotiations on arms control
o Tension increase up to Missile Crisis of 1962
 Middle east problems
 Germany and berlin still not resolved
 Berlin wall
o Extended period of détente until the mid-1970s:
 Contact between the power blocs increased and several conflicts
temporary solutions
 After missile crisis:
 Washington and Moscow had seen into the abyss that a war
and not interested
 Arms limitation and confidence-building measures between
East and West

o Test ban treaty of 1963

 Banned nuclear testes in the atmosphere, in
outer space and under water
o Non-proliferation treaty was signed in 1968
 Promised to refrain from transferring nuclear
weapons to countries not having them
 Other countries promised not to accept or
develop them
o SALT I and SALT II
o USSR and West Germany: Moscow treaty
 No use violence to alter existing boundaries in
Europe
o Four Power agreements solved a number of conflicts
related to Berlin.
 Trade between East and West Germany was
particularly important, as well as the human
gains
o Summits common between East and West
 Aimed at the mutual contact and prevention of
future conflicts between the superpowers
o Vietnam:
o Failure: North Vietnamese communist were not contained
 The loss of hundreds of thousands of American lives, billions of
dollars and damaging division of U.S. public opinion
 The Americans pulled out in 1973.
o Fear of other countries falling to communism “like dominos”
o 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam.
 Hostilities broke out between French and Vietminh in 1946
  President Roosevelt had pressured France to relinquish its
hold over Vietnam
 Views of USA hardened when Truman became President
o 1950 military aid was sent to help France defeat the Vietminh
 Aid continued by Eisenhower (domino theory)
 Funding 80% of war but not direct involvement
o Geneva Accords
 The French would withdraw from Indochina
 There would be a temporary division of Vietnam at the 17 th parallel
 Ho Chi Minh would control the north.
 Free elections to unite Vietnam in 1956
 Laos and Cambodia would be recognized as independent states.
o USA attempted to strengthen the area south of the 17 th parallel
 To resist an invasion from the north
 SEATO (South-East Asia Treaty Organization)
 Agreed to meet together if there was an armed attack on one
of them and to take action
o US backed Ngo Dinh Diem lead Government in south
 Catholic
 Educated USA
 1955 Diem establishment of the Republic of Vietnam
 US aid to Diem
 US training of the South Vietnamese army
 Ruthless leader
 Land reforms not established
 1956, Diem refused to hold elections
o Groups of communists Vietcong formed themselves in military units
with a political arm known as the National Liberation Front
 Supported by North Vietnam
o Kennedy ‘flexible response’
o Diem continued to generate mass discontent
o Kennedy cut off its aid to the regime
o Johnson inherited a situation where there was no longer a stable
government in the South
 Where the strength of the Communists in the South was increasing
o “Gulf of Tonkin incident” 1964
 American destroyer Maddox was fired on by North Vietnamese
patrol boats off the North Vietnamese coast
 Two days later, Maddox and Turner Joy were also allegedly fired
on
 No physical evidence of the assault was found
 “Open aggression”
 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 US and
prevent further aggression”
 Legal basis for the war in Vietnam.
o Bombing in North Vietnam
o Sending 100,000 ground forces to South Vietnam in 1965
o The Great Society and the ‘credibility gap’
 Improving civil rights, eradicating poverty, increasing access to
health and education, and creating a cleaner environment
 Development of the ‘credibility gap’
 This was the difference in reality with what the Johnson
administration told Congress and what was actually
happening.
o The Tet Offensive
 War of attrition
 Anti-war movement was gaining support
 Communists launched a surprise attack on holiday
 Communists were gradually pushed back from all cities after the
use of massive firepower
 Military failure for the Vietcong
 Hoped to trigger rebellion, but did not work
o ‘Televised war’
 Not winning
 Bloody
 Regime violated basic human rights
o Anti war protests reached a new peak
o Bombing of the North was halted and peace talks initiated
o Nixon was elected president in Nov 1968
 Wanted American withdrawal form the war
 ‘Peace with honor: the USA could not merely withdraw from
Vietnam
 Nixon wanted a settlement that would guarantee the South a
reasonable chance of survival.
 Henry Kissinger
 To use force to reach a peace agreement
 A bombing campaign along the Ho Chi Minh trail
 ‘Vietnamization’
 The gradual withdrawal of US troops and handing the war
over to the South Vietnamese government
 Nixon doctrine stating that nations were responsible for their
own defense.
o Paris Peace Talks
 Neither side willing to compromise
 North demanding that it have representation in the government of
the South
 All sides continuing to try to win an advantage at the negotiating
table by achieving an upper hand on the battlefield
 Us: airpower to put pressure on the Communists
 Nixon and Kissinger détente with the Soviet Union and
China
o Aim of improving relations with these countries
o Get them to put pressure on North Vietnam to agree
 to a peace settlement
Signed in January 1973
Troops would withdraw
North and South would respect the dividing line of the 17 th parallel
North took the initiative
 By end of 1975, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos all fallen to
the forces of communism
o Historiography:
 Most: failure
 Broader aims of America’s effort in Vietnam
 To keep capitalist democracies in South East Asia from
falling to Communism
o Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore –all of whom faced
Communist threats- survived
o Renewed Tensions:
o USA disappointed with the Soviet intervention in conflicts around the
world
o A new Globalism
 Ideological differences still remained
 There could be no peaceful ideological coexistence
o Moscow strengthened its capacity to pursue a global policy
o Overall level of defense was increased
 The navy expanded and air capacity
 More active in the export of armaments and in the early 1980’s had
surpassed USA
o Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
 Close relations with the changing Afghan governments
 Pro-communist government assumed power
 Proposed only moderate reforms
 Growing Soviet influence
 Political repression and opposition to the reforms  large-scale
Muslim guerrilla against new communist government
 Soviet Union directly intervened with 90,000 troops
 More pro-Soviet leader installed
o Arms limitation treaties had stopped and the USA now expanding its
armament in NATO
o Less economic and technological help from the US
 Us grant China advantages
 USA opening to China
 To scare USSR
o US response to the Soviet invasion:
 Carter proposed major increases in the defense budget
 Grain trade was limited
 Exports of high technology halted
 Olympic games boycotted
o Reagan was firmly anti-communist and had always opposed détente
 USA had to act as the leader of the “free world”
o Reagan’s mandate
 Defense budget increased dramatically
  Verbal attacks on the Soviet Union
o The Reagan administration expected the Soviet Union to yield if the
USA conducted firmly enough
o Relations between the USA and the USSR were worse than at any
time since the Cuban crisis in 1962.
 End of the Cold War
 Gorbachev
o Determined to revitalize
 Years of stagnation
o Modernizing and making more efficient the communist party with the
policies of glasnost and perestroika (economic and social reform).
o Did not want to end communism
 Replace the existing system with a socialist system which was
humane and democratic
o Glasnost
 Human rights and cultural affairs
 Dissidents released
 Freedom of speech
 Aims:
 Use the media to publicize inefficiency and corruption
 Educate public opinion
 Mobilize support for the new policies
o Economic affairs
 Small scale private enterprise allowed
 To provide competition for the slow and inefficient services
provided by the state
 The hope of stimulating a rapid improvement
 Quality control throughout industry taken over by independent state
bodies
o Political changes
 Move towards democracy within the communist party
 Members of soviet elected by people rather than appointed
 Top party positions and factory managers would be elected
 Supreme Soviet replaced by smaller one
 Elected through a Congress of People’s Deputies
 Proper parliament
 Reserved seats for communist party cancelled
o Communist party was on the verge of losing its
privileged position
o Problems:
 Opposition from radicals and conservatives
 Some party members felt that reforms not drastic enough
o Change to a market system as soon as possible
 Conservative communists
o Changes too drastic
o Party was losing control
 The economic reforms did not produce results quickly enough
 Wages were dependent on output
  Factories did not increase overall output
o Instead concentrated on expensive goods
o  Higher wages government print more money
soaring inflation
o Basic goods in short supply
 Nationalist pressures
 Soviet republics had ben under tight control in Stalin’s time
 Reforms  hope for more independence
o Eastern Europe
 Poland
 “Solidarity” popular support
o Combination of economic stagnation that the
government failed to resolve
o Also support of Pope and Church
o ReformsSolidarity legalized and won first free
elections
o Gorbachev’s refusal to support the old Communist
regime
 Polish Communist party collapsed
 East Germany
 Living standards well below West
 No sense of Eastern German nationalism
 People look forward for reunification
 Regime was unpopular
o Its leader was particularly hated
 Pressure to remove leader
 Criticized the repressive system and openly
demanded reforms
 Government wanted to use force to stop
protests, but Gorbachev would not intervene if
needed
 The politburo in power
 Elections were held in 1990, when parties in
favor of unification won
 East and West Germany unified 3 October
1990
 Hungary
 Reform from Communist Party
o Reformers sacked the hard-line leader
 Dominated the government
 October 1989 a new Hungarian Republic was
declared
 Elections took place the following year.
 Czechoslovakia
 “Velvet Revolution”
o Little violence
o People power clear driving force
o Mass demonstrations calling for reform
 o 1989 elected president
 Romania
 Violent
 One of the most repressive regimes in the East
o Killing of demonstrators by the army
o Uprising against the leader
o Army refused to act against the demonstrators