Communism Spreads in East Asia
China
Korea
Vietnam
China’s Communist Revolution
• After WWII, Mao
(communist) resumed
civil war against the
Chiang Kai-shek aka
Jiang Jieshi (nationalists)
due to his weak and
corrupt leadership
• Mao wins
▫ People’s Republic of
China
▫ Communist
▫ Supported by Soviet
Union
• Nationalists fled to
Taiwan
▫ Supported by USA
▫ Considered breakaway
province by mainland
China
Why Mao Won?
• Support of peasants
▫ Redistributed land to peasants
▫ Ended oppression by landlords
• Nationalists brought economic hardships,
government corruption, reliance on West
• Won railroads and captured city by city with
help from peasants
Mao’s Totalitarian State
• One party
• No religion:
▫ discouraged practice of Buddhism & Confucianism
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Government control of landlords and businesses
Labor camps
Killed opposition
With Soviet help, build infrastructure
Collectivization: forced agricultural land and
labor to increase productivity
• Allied with the SU in 1950s
Great Leap Forward
• People to make
superhuman effort to
increase farm and
industrial output
• Communes: several
villages for
agriculture and
industry
• Epic Fail: low quality,
useless goods, food
shortages
▫ Famine: 2 years= 55
million died
• Mao reduces size of
communes
China’s Cultural
Revolution
• Goal: Free China of bourgeois
(elite/upperclass) tendencies
▫ Red Guards (Mao’s “Gestapo”)
beat and killed bourgeois
▫ Skilled workers and managers
were forced to leave their jobs
and do manual labor, some in
labor camps
▫ Schools and factories closed
▫ Economy slowed and civil war
loomed
▫ Mao backed off the revolution
and restored order
A propaganda report emphasizes the effect of brainwashing and the
cult of personality of Mao Zedong in communist China.
China: The Wild Card
Despite sending economic aid, China &
Soviet Union weren’t allies due to
border and ideological disputes
▫
Soviets end up withdrawing aid &
advisors in 1960
• USA support Kai-shek & nationalist
movement to Taiwan
▫ Refused to acknowledge China for fear
of threat of communism spreading
throughout all of Asia
▫ BUT, strategic to improve relations
with China against the Soviet Union
▫ 1971, USA allowed People’s Republic
of China (communist China) to replace
Taiwan in the UN
▫ 1972: President Nixon visits Beijing to
open trade relations with China
▫ 1979: US set up formal diplomatic
relationship
Korean War
Korea:
WWII &
Cold War
• Prior to WWII, Korea was occupied by Japan
• After WWII, Soviet Union and USA split Korea into North &
South along the 38th Parallel north
▫ North Korea=communist, supported by Soviets; ruled by Kim Il Sung
▫ South Korea=democratic, supported by USA; ruled by Syngman Rhee
North Korea begins
war
• North wants control of whole
peninsula & attacks the South1950
• United Nations, headed by
USA & General MacArthur,
sent troops to help South
▫ NOTE: MacArthur is eventually
fired for wanted to invade
China (allies with Soviets)
• North takes most of peninsula,
but stopped at Pusan
• Inch’on: UN troops
landed behind enemy
lines, captured
railroads, cutting
North’s troops off
from North and
supply lines
▫ Led to North
surrender in South
• UN moved North to
Yalu River (border of
Korea & China)
▫ Mao, worried about
USA/UN, sent
Chinese troops to
border
▫ With help from
Chinese, North pushes
South back to 38th
Parallel
Stalemate
• An Armistice will be signed 1953- due to stalemate
• Troops will dig in and still today
occupy the DMZ-demilitarized
zone: area with no military forces
▫ Along 38th Parallel
• NO peace treaty has ever been
reached
• 2013: North Korea claims it is
breaking armistice with nuclear
buildup and testing
Two Koreas
•
North: communist
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Economic decline
Inefficient collective farms
Build up of nukes
Chinese give economic aid
Isolated
Poor-no electricity
Cult of personality around dictator
• South: democratic
▫ Capitalist
▫ Economic boom
▫ Economic & military aid from
USA
▫ prosperous
Vietnam
French Lose Indochina
• French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia)
▫ Wanted independence after WWII
• Communist Guerrillas: small groups
of communist soldiers making raids
on French colonists
• Ho Chi Minh: Communist who fought
Japanese during WWII then turned
on French
▫ national hero
▫ Uses USA Declaration of
Independence to gain USA support to
declare independence from French
• USA backs France due to
Ho’s ties to communism
▫ Economic aid, no military
aid
• Dien Bien Phu: French
lose final battle in 1954
and leave Vietnam
• Geneva Conference: USA,
Britain, France vs SU,
China, Laos, Cambodia
and Vietnam
▫ French Indochina becomes
3 independent countries:
 Laos and Cambodia
become communist
▫ Divide Vietnam at 17th
Parallel
Vietnam Divided
• North Vietnam
▫ Led by Ho Chi Minh
▫ Communist
▫ Support of Soviet Union &
China
 Send economic aid, but no
troops
• South Vietnam
▫ Led by Ngo Dinh Diem
▫ “Democratic”
 Corrupt and brutal
▫ Support of USA
USA’s Domino Theory:
-view that one communist
victory would lead to rest of
governments in region to fall
to communism
-USA wanted to prevent this
Ho Wants Unified Vietnam
• Ho uses his Vietcong to attack the South
• President JFK sends military advisors to
train South’s army (Vietminh)
▫ Kennedy’s thoughts on Vietnam “It is their
war. They are the ones who have to win it
or lose it”
 Did not like the growing USA involvement
▫ South’s Diem and USA’s JFK both
assassinated
 Wonder if outcome in Vietnam would have
been different?
• USA President LBJ increases USA
military presence in Vietnam
Gulf of Tonkin
• South raiding North on islands in Gulf of
Tonkin
• North attacks USS Maddox thinking it
assisted in raids
• President LBJ tells Congress about attack,
but not raids
▫ Believing attack on Maddox was unprovoked,
Congress passes Tonkin Resolution
 President can take all necessary measures to
prevent further aggression in Southeast Asia
• USA begins bombing targets in North
(Operation Rolling Thunder)
▫ > 2 million USA troops sent to Vietnam
Ground War
• North Guerrillas: knew
country better than USA
▫ Villages became military
targets
▫ Couldn’t trust anyone
 Aid USA during day,
Vietcong by night
• Ho Chi Minh Trail
▫ Supply line running from
north to south through
Cambodia & Laos
 Forced war to expand into
Cambodia & Laos (by
President Nixon)
TET Offensive
• 1968: North led massive attack in
South on TET-Vietnamese New
Year
• Failed with massive casualties
• BUT infiltrated South
• Turning Point-positive for North
because no part of South was
secure from attack
Issues for USA
• Highly televised war that divided
the nation
• Civilian casualties, American
casualties = extremely high
▫ Large numbers of POWs and MIAs
• USA morale was low
• Due to tv and no explanation of
civilian deaths (traitors), soldiers
not heroes to many people
• Tired of body bags for a war that
didn’t involve us
Paris Peace Accord: 1973
• USA involvement in Vietnam-longer
than 10 years
• Nixon signs cease-fire
• USA withdraws with no victory
• Separated North and South Vietnam at
17th Parallel and created a
demilitarized zone (DMZ)
• North promised not to invade South
• South left to determine own future
• 1975: North conquered South &
became communist
▫ USA applies embargo
Khmer Rouge
• During Vietnam War,
Khmer Rouge (communist
guerrillas) overthrew
Cambodian government
• Khmer Rouge led by dictator
Pol Pot
▫ 1/3 of population (1 million)
was slaughtered, starved, or
worked to death to rid
country of western influence
• After Vietnam unified, took
over Cambodia and ended
genocide
Did the “dominoes” fall?
• After the USA withdraws from Vietnam, some
dominoes did fall-former French Indochina
▫ Vietnam
▫ Laos
▫ Cambodia
• Stopped there; other parts of Southeast Asia
remained capitalist and democratic