Restructuring the Post-War World and Colonies Become New Nations

Restructuring the Post-War World and Colonies Become New Nations
AP World History Unit #15 Chapters 33 and 34

Iron Curtain Term first used by Winston Churchill to describe Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. The “Iron Curtain” prevented the entrance of western ideas to the east & did not allow east Europeans to travel to the west during the Cold War. Truman left Potsdam believing that the Soviet Union was “planning world conquest” and that the alliance with the Soviet Union was falling apart. With the Soviet Red Army at his command, Stalin seemed to present a real threat. Thus, the state was set for a worldwide rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The 46-year struggle became known as the Cold War because the two superpowers never faced each other directly in a “hot” military conquest. President Truman was no the only world leader who believed that Stalin had aspirations toward world domination. Winston Churchill also spoke out forcefully against the Soviet Union. On March 5, 1946, he gave an important speech at Fulton College in Missouri, Truman’s home state. Referring to a map of Europe, Churchill noted that “an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. East of that iron curtain, the Soviet Union was gaining more control by installing communist governments and police states and by crushing political and religious dissent. In addition, Churchill feared the Soviets were attempting to spread communism to Western Europe and East Asia. The only solution, Churchill said, was for the United States and other democratic countries to stand firm. Truman shared Churchill’s beliefs. Born in a small town in Missouri, Truman had been too poor to attend college. He was the only president in the twentieth century with no college education. Instead, he worked the family farm, fought in France during World War I, and eventually began a political career. His life was a testament to honesty, integrity, hard work, and a willingness to make difficult decisions. “The buck stops here,” was his motto as President. It meant that the person sitting in the Oval Office had the obligation to face problems head-on and make hard decisions.

Containment Closure Question #1: In your opinion, why did the United States assume global responsibility for containing communism? (At least 1 sentence)

Truman Doctrine Truman Doctrine - U.S. Foreign Policy during the Cold War; The United States gave monetary aid to nations struggling against communist movements in an effort to keep communism from spreading. Known to the Soviets as the Great Patriotic War, the German-Soviet war witnessed the greatest land battles in history, as well as incredible ruthlessness. The initial military defeats suffered by the Soviet Union led to drastic emergency measures that affected the lives of the civilian population. The city of Leningrad, for example, experienced 900 days of siege. Its inhabitants became so desperate for food that they even ate dogs, cats, and mice. Probably 1.5 million people died in the city. As the Germany army made its rapid advance into Soviet territory, Soviet workers dismantled and shipped the factories in the western part of the Soviet Union to the interior – to the Urals, western Siberia, and the Volga regions. Machines were placed on the bare ground. As laborers began their work, walls went up around them. The home front in the United States was quite different from that of the other major powers. The United States was not fighting on its own territory. Eventually, the United states became the arsenal of the Allied Closure Question #2: How did World War II affect the world balance of power? Which nations emerged from the conflict as world powers? (At least 2 sentences)

Marshall Plan (1948) Named for its creator, Secretary of State John C. Marshall, through the Plan the United States gave about $13 billion in grants and loans to nations in Western Europe to help them rebuild following World War II & maintain democratic governments. The containment policy’s first great success was in Western Europe. After World War II, people there confronted severe shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies, as well as brutally cold winters. In this environment of desperate need, Secretary of State George C. Marshall unveiled a recovery plan for Europe. In a speech at Harvard University he warned that without economic health, “there can be no political stability and no assured peace.” The Marshall Plan provided food to reduce famine, fuel to heat houses and factories, and money to jump-start economic growth. Aid was also offered to the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, but Stalin refused to let them accept it. The Marshall Plan provided a vivid example of how U.S. aid could serve the ends of both economic and foreign policy. The aid helped countries that desperately needed assistance. The prosperity it stimulated then helped the American economy by increasing trade. Finally, the good relationships that the aid created worked against the expansion of communism. The front lines of the Cold War were located in Germany. The zones that were controlled by France, Britain, and the United States were combined to form West Germany. West Germany was bordered on the east by the Soviet controlled East Germany. The Allies also controlled the western part of Berlin, a city tucked deep inside communist East Germany.

Cold War Ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union which dominated world affairs from the end of World War II until the 1980s. The Marshall Plan was not meant to exclude the Soviet Union or its economically and politically dependent Eastern European satellite states. Those states refused to participate; however, According to the Soviet view, the Marshall Plan guaranteed “American loans in return for the relinquishing by the European states of their economic and labor also their political independence.” The Soviets saw the Marshall Plan as an attempt to buy the support of countries. In 1949 the Soviet Union responded to the Marshall Plan by founding the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) for the economic cooperation of the Eastern European states. COMECON largely failed, however, because the Soviet Union was unable to provide much financial aid. By 1947, the split in Europe between the United States and the Soviet Union had become a fact of life. In July 1947, George Kennan, a well-known U.S. diplomat with much knowledge of Soviet affairs, argued for a policy of containment to keep communism within its existing boundaries and prevent further Soviet aggressive moves. Containment became U.S. policy. The fate of Germany also became a source of heated contention between the Soviets and the West. At the end of the war, the Allied Powers had divided Germany into four zones, each occupied by one of the Allies – the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. Berlin, located deep inside the Soviet zone, was also divided into four zones. The foreign ministers of the four occupying powers met repeatedly in an attempt to arrive at a final peace treaty with Germany but had little success. By February 1948, Great Britain, France, and the United States were making plans to unify the three Western sections of Germany (and Berlin) and create a West German government.

Berlin Airlift (June 1948 – May 1949) U.S. and British planes supplied Democratic West Berlin with food, fuel, medical supplies, clothing, and other necessities through airplane deliveries, thwarting Stalin’s attempt to blockade the city, which was located in the middle of Communist East Germany. The front lines of the Cold War were located in Germany. The zones that were controlled by France, Britain, and the United States were combined to form West Germany. West Germany was bordered on the east by the Soviet controlled East Germany. The Allies also controlled the western part of Berlin, a city tucked deep inside communist East Germany. West Berlin was, as one Soviet leader later described it, “a bone in the throat” of the Soviet Union. Its relative prosperity and freedom stood in contrast to the bleak life of East Berliners. Stalin was determined to capture West Berlin or win other concessions from the Western allies. In June 1948, he stopped all highway, railway, and waterway traffic from western Germany into West Berlin. Without any means of receiving aid, West Berlin would fall to the communists. Stalin was able to close roads, stop barges, and block railways, but he could not blockade the sky. For almost a year, the United States and Britain supplied West Berlin, through a massive airlift. Everything the residents of West Berlin needed was flown into the city. Even through rain and snow, goods arrived regularly. The Berlin airlift demonstrated to West Berlin, the Soviet Union, and the world how far the United States would go to protest noncommunist parts of Europe and contain communism.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) / Warsaw Pact
NATO – (1949) Military alliance of 12 Democratic Western European and North American nations which agreed to defend Western Europe from Soviet expansion. Warsaw Pact – (1955) Military alliance of the Soviet Union and its satellite states which pledged to defend one another if attacked. In May 1949, Stalin was forced to acknowledge that his attempt to blockade Berlin had failed. The Berlin airlift was a proud moment for Americans and Berliners and a major success for the policy of containment. One Berlin resident later recalled her feelings when the blockade was finally lifted: “Sheer joy – nothing else. Nothing else. Joy, and the feeling that “We have done it! And it works!... That was so very important. The West has won! I say this quite deliberately in such a crass way because you wanted to know how I felt emotionally. The West 0 well, we have succeeded. And the West has won and the others have not!” –Ella Barowsky, CNN Interview, 1996 The Berlin airlift demonstrated that Stalin could be contained if Western nations were prepared to take forceful action. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed in 1949, provided the military alliance to counter Soviet expansion. Member nations agreed that “an armed attack against one or more of them… shall be considered an attack against all of them.” This principle of mutual military assistance is called collective security. In 1955, West Germany became a member of NATO. In response, the Soviet Union and its satellite states formed a rival military alliance, called the Warsaw Pact. All the communist states of Eastern Europe, except Yugoslavia, were members. Like members of NATO, nations of the Warsaw Pact pledged to defend one another if attacked. Although members agreed on paper not to interfere in one another’s internal affairs, the Soviet Union continued to exert firm control over its Warsaw Pact allies.

Brinkmanship John Foster Dulles served as Secretary of State under President Eisenhower during the 1950s. Dulles helped organize the United Nations after WWII and, as the nation’s chief diplomat, supported stockpiling nuclear weapons to prevent endless U.S. involvement in minor conflicts, such as the Korean War. Brinkmanship was Dulles’ approach to diplomacy with the U.S.S.R., going to the brink of war in order to protect allies, discourage communist aggression, and prevent war. President Dwight Eisenhower knew firsthand the horrors of war and the need to defend democracy. He had led the World War II Allied invasions of North Africa, Italy, and Normandy. Having worked with top military and political leaders during the war, he was capable of speaking the language of both. Eisenhower accepted much of Truman’s foreign policy. He believed strongly in a policy to actively contain communism. In the approach of Dulles and Eisenhower toward foreign policy, they differed significantly from Truman and his Secretary of State, Dean Acheson. Both teams of men considered the spread of communism the greatest threat to the free world. But Eisenhower believed that Truman’s approach to foreign policy had dragged the United States into an endless series of conflicts begun by the Soviet Union. These limited, regional conflicts threatened to drain the country’s resources. Closure Question #3: Do you think that the massive retaliation policy favored by John Foster Dulles successfully deterred the Soviet Union? Explain your answer in at least 1 sentence.

Closure Assignment #1 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 33, Section 1: In your opinion, why did the United States assume global responsibility for containing communism? (At least 1 sentence) How did World War II affect the world balance of power? Which nations emerged from the conflict as world powers? (At least 2 sentences) Do you think that the massive retaliation policy favored by John Foster Dulles successfully deterred the Soviet Union? Explain your answer in at least 1 sentence.

Jiang Jieshi / Taiwan/ Mao Zedong
Jiang Jieshi – (AKA Chiang Kai-Shek) Nationalist leader of China who, though supported by the U.S., was defeated in the Chinese Civil War and forced to flee to Taiwan in 1949. Mao Zedong – Chinese communist who, after nearly 20 years of war, succeeded in establishing the People’s Republic of China in 1949, a communist nation allied with the Soviet Union. Before Japan invaded China in 1937, Nationalist leader Jiang Jieshi, known in the United States as Chiang Kai-Shek, had been fighting a civil war against communists led by Mao Zedong. Although Jiang and Mao temporarily joined forces in an uneasy alliance to fight Japan, the civil war resumed with a new fury after the war ended. The Soviet Union supported Mao, while the United States sent several billion dollars in aid to Jiang. American leaders feared that Jiang’s defeat would create a communist superpower spanning most of Asia. Europe had been the first focus of the Cold War. But in the early 1950s, U.S. involvement in the Korean War made East Asia the prime battleground in the long, hard Cold War struggle. The division between North and South Korea remains a source of international tension today. Since the time of the Russian Revolution, the Soviets had hoped to spread communism to every corner of the world, training foreigners in Marxist theory and revolutionary strategy. The Soviets were confident that communism would reach worldwide influnce. Mao’s victory was an immense shock to Americans. Not only was China under the control of sworn enemies of the United States, but communist regimes controlled about one fourth of the world’s landmass and one third of its population. “Who lost China?” Americans asked. Many critics blamed the Truman administration, saying that the United States had failed to give enough support to Jiang. Closure Question #1: Why did the United States support the Nationalists in the civil war in China?

Commune In 1958 Mao presented a program, known as the Great Leap Forward, to speed up economic growth in China. This program combined over 700,000 existing, village-sized farms into 26,000 communes (vast community farms). It proved to be an economic disaster, as bad weather combined with peasants’ hatred for the system drove food production down, causing 15 million people to die of starvation. To speed up economic growth, Mao began a more radical program, known as the Great Leap Forward, in Under this program, over 700,000 existing collective farms, normally the size of a village, were combined into 26,000 vast communes. Each commune contained more than 30,000 people who lived and worked together. Since they had communal child care, more than 500,000 Chinese mothers worked beside their husbands in the fields by 1958. Mao hoped his Great Leap Forward program would enable China to reach the final stage of communism – the classless society – before the end of the 20th century. The government’s official slogan promised the following to the Chinese people: “Hard work for a few years, happiness for a thousand.” Despite such slogans, the Great Leap Forward was an economic disaster. Bad weather, which resulted in droughts and floods, and the peasants’ hatred of the new system drove food production down. As a result, nearly 15 million people died of starvation. In 1960 the government began to break up the communes and return to collective farms and some private plots. Closure Question #2: Explain how the Cold War affected relations between China and the United States. (At least 1 sentence)

Red Guards Revolutionary groups composed of young people who were assigned to eliminate the “four olds” – old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. The Red Guards destroyed any object they found connected to ancient Chinese culture and arrested anyone who opposed Mao’s plans for Chinese communism. Despite opposition within the Communist Party and the commune failure. Mao still dreamed of a classless society. In Mao’s eyes, only permanent revolution could enable the Chinese to achieve the final stage of communism. In 1966 Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The Chinese name literally meant “great revolution to create a proletarian (working class) culture.” A collection of Mao’s thoughts, called the Little Red Book, became a sort of bible for the Chinese Communists. It was hailed as the most important source of knowledge in all areas. The book was in every hotel, in every school, and in factories, communes, and universities. Few people conversed without first referring to the Little Red Book. To further the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards were formed. These were revolutionary groups composed largely of young people. Red Guards set out across the nation to eliminate the “Four Olds” – old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. The Red Guard destroyed temples, books written by foreigners, and foreign music. They tore down street signs and replaced them with ones carrying revolutionary names. The city of Shanghai even ordered that red (the revolutionary color) traffic lights would indicate that traffic could move, not stop. Vicious attacks were made on individuals who had supposedly deviated from Mao’s plan. Intellectuals and artists accused of being pro-Western were especially open to attack. One such person, Nien Cheng, worked for the British-owned Shell Oil Company in Shanghai. She was imprisoned for seven years. She told of her experience in Life and Death in Shanghai.

Cultural Revolution “Great revolution to create a proletarian (working class) culture.”; In 1966 Mao launched the revolution to encourage love for the new system of communism and to eliminate the “old” traditions of China. The Red Guards executed or imprisoned thousands of intellectuals, artists, and other who were viewed as being anti-Communist, causing chaos in Chinese society. As a result, agricultural and industrial production decreased leading to fears of starvation and another civil war. By 1968, Mao himself admitted that the revolution needed to stop and ordered the army to put down the Red Guards. Key groups, including Communist Party members and many military officers, did not share Mao’s desire for permanent revolution. People, disgusted by the actions of the Red Guards, began to turn against the movement. In September 1976, Mao Zedong died at the age of 82. A group of practical minded reformers led by Deng Zioping seized power and brought the Cultural Revolution to an end. Deng Xiaoping called for Four Modernizations – new policies in industry, agriculture, technology, and national defense. For over 20 years, China had been isolated from the technological advances taking place elsewhere in the world. To make up for lost time, the government invited foreign investors to China. The government also sent thousands of students abroad to study science, technology, and modern business techniques. A new agricultural policy was begun. Collective farms could now lease land to peasant families who paid rent to the collective. Anything produced on the land above the amount of that payment could be sold on the private market. Peasants were allowed to make goods they could sell to others. Closure Question #3: Why did the Cultural Revolution fail? (At least 1 sentence)

Closure Assignment #2 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 33, Section 2: Why did the United States support the Nationalists in the civil war in China? Explain how the Cold War affected relations between China and the United States. (At least 1 sentence) Why did the Cultural Revolution fail? (At least 1 sentence)

38th Parallel Latitude at which was set the dividing line between North and South Korea after World War II by the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. The line still forms the border between the two independent nations today. The focus of attention turned to the peninsula of Korea, separated from northeast China by the Yalu River. Once controlled by Japan, Korea had been divided into two independent countries by the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II. In North Korea, the Soviets installed a communist government and equipped its armed forces. The United States provided smaller amounts of aid to noncommunist South Korea. American occupation troops remained in South Korea until June Their departure coincided with the communist victory in China. Soon after, North Korea began a major military buildup. On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces attacked across the 38th parallel. The 90,000 North Korean troops were armed with powerful tanks and other Soviet weapons. Within days, the northerners overtook the South Korean capital city of Seoul and set out after the retreating South Korean army. President Truman remembered how the policy of appeasement had failed to check the German aggression that sparked World War II. Determined that history would not repeat itself, he announced that the United States would aid South Korea. Within days, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to follow Truman’s lead, recommending that “the Members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area.” Undoubtedly, the Soviet Union would have used its veto power to block the UN resolution if it had been present for the vote. However, it had been boycotting Security Council sessions because the UN had refused to seat Mao’s People’s Republic of China.

Douglas MacArthur General who led American troops in the Korean War. From September to November 1950 MacArthur’s forces succeeded in pushing North Korean troops to the Yulu River, its border with China, but then were pushed back to the 38th parallel by the Chinese army in January 1951. By September 1950, the UN forces were ready to counterattack. General MacArthur, the World War II hero, had a bold plan to drive the invaders from South Korea. He suspected that the rapid advance of North Korean troops had left North Korea with limited supply lines. He decided to strike at this weakness by launching a surprise attack on the port city of Inchon, well behind enemy lines. Because Inchon was such a poor landing site, with swift currents and treacherous tides, MacArthur knew that the enemy would not expect an attack there. MacArthur’s bold gamble paid off handsomely. On the morning of September 15, 1950, U.S. Marines landed at Inchon and launched an attack into the rear guard of the North Koreans. Communist forces began fleeing for the North Korean border. By October 1950, the North Koreans had been driven north of the 38th parallel. With the retreat of North Korean forces, U.S. officials had to decide what to do next. Should they declare their UN mandate accomplished and end the war? Or should they send their forces north of the 38th parallel and punish the communists for the invasion? Truman was concerned about the action China would take if the United States carried the war into North Korea. Chinese leaders publicly warned the Americans not to advance near its borders. But MacArthur did not take this warning seriously. He assured Truman that China would not intervene in the war. Based on this advice, the United States pushed a resolution through the UN, calling for a “unified, independent, and democratic” Korea. Closure Question #1: How did General MacArthur’s decision to advance toward the Yalu River change the course of the Korean War? (At least 1 sentence)

Ho Chi Minh Leader of the Communist Party in Vietnam; Minh led his followers to overthrow French colonial rule in North Vietnam in1954, then continued the fight against democratic South Vietnam, and its allies from the United States, until 1975. Dien Bien Phu was a French military base in northwest Vietnam in which Ho Chi Minh’s army, known as the Vietminh, trapped a large French garrison in After suffering 15,000 casualties, the French surrendered. At a peace conference in Geneva in 1955 the Vietnamese agreed that their country would be divided in two: North Vietnam was to be ruled by Ho Chi Minh’s communists; South Vietnam, by an anti-communist government supported by the United States. During WWII, Japan had undermined French control over Vietnam. But when the conflict ended, France reasserted its colonial aims there. France’s problem, however, was that colonialism was a dying institution. World War II had strengthened nationalist movements while weakening the economic and military positions of traditional European powers. In Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh clamored for independence as France struggled to maintain its dwindling global power. Meanwhile, the United States faced a difficult decision. On the one hand, it supported decolonialization. On the other hand, America wanted France as an ally in its Cold War effort to contain the Soviet Union. President Harry S. Truman believed that if he supported Vietnamese independence, he would weaken anticommunist forces in France. So, to ensure a strong, anticommunist Western Europe, Truman sacrificed his own anticolonial sentiments.

Domino Theory Belief that if Communism were allowed to spread into one country, it would then spread to many other countries; The United States fought against Communists in Vietnam from 1964 to 1973 in attempt to keep Communism out of Southeast Asia but failed to do so. By 1963, the United States had been drawn into a new struggle that had an important impact on the Cold War – the Vietnam War. In 1964, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, increasing numbers of U.S. troops were sent to Vietnam. Their purpose was to keep the Communist regime of North Vietnam from invading and gaining control of South Vietnam. U.S. policy makers saw the conflict in terms of a domino theory. If the Communists succeeded in South Vietnam, the argument went, other countries in Asia would also fall (like dominoes) to communism. Despite the success of the North Vietnamese Communists, the domino theory proved unfounded. A split between Communist China and the Soviet Union put an end to the Western idea that there was a single form of communism directed by Moscow. Under President Nixon, American relations with China were resumed. New nations in Southeast Asia managed to avoid Communist governments. Above all, Vietnam helped show the limitations of American power. By the end of the Vietnam War, a new era in American-Soviet relations had begun to emerge.

Ngo Dinh Diem Dictator of the anti-Communist South Vietnamese government supported by the United States. Many Vietnamese supported the communists due to their anger with Diem’s actions. In 1963, a group of South Vietnamese generals had Diem assassinated, but the new leaders of South Vietnam were no more popular than Diem had been. After his election in 1960, President John F. Kennedy took a more aggressive stand against the communists in Vietnam. Beginning in 1961, he sent Special Forces troops to South Vietnam to advise the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) on more effective ways to fight the communist forces. By 1963, more than 15,000 American “advisers” were fighting in Vietnam. Although U.S. advisers fought bravely and achieved some success, Diem continued to alienate South Vietnamese citizens. By late 1963, his regime was in shambles. Buddhists protested his restrictive policies, occasionally by setting themselves on fire. The Kennedy administration eventually concluded that South Vietnam needed new leadership. Working behind the scenes, Americans plotted with anti-Diem generals to overthrow Diem’s government. On November 1, 1963, Diem was removed from power and later assassinated. Three weeks after Diem’s fall, an assassin’s bullet struck down President Kennedy. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the new President. Johnson was a Cold War traditionalist who held a monolithic view of communism. For this “Cold Warrior,” communism in the Soviet Union, China, and Vietnam were all the same. He did not recognize subtle differences. He also knew that the American people expected victory in Vietnam. In 1964, President Johnson faced his first crisis in Vietnam. On August 2, North Vietnamese torpedo boats fired on the American destroyer USS Maddox as it patrolled the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. The Maddox was not hit, and it returned fire on the North Vietnamese boat. Johnson promptly responded to the attack and to other North Vietnamese provocations. He announced that “aggression by terror against peaceful villages of South Vietnam has now been joined by open aggression on the high seas against an American ally, Johnson ordered an airstrike against North Vietnam.

Vietcong Vietcong – Communist guerrilla fighters within South Vietnam that wanted to unite Vietnam under a communist government. The Vietcong used surprise hit-and-run tactics to assassinate government officials and destroy roads and bridges, weakening support of the anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, France appealed to the United States for military support. President Eisenhower was willing to supply money but not soldiers. Ike would not commit American troops to defend colonialism in Asia. Nevertheless, the President firmly supported the new anticommunist government of South Vietnam. America channeled aid to South Vietnam in different ways. In 1954, the United States and seven other countries formed SEATO. Similar to NATO, SEATO’s goal was to contain the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. The United States provided economic and military aid to the South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was an ardent nationalist and anticommunist. Although he lacked popular appeal, his anticommunism guaranteed American support. When it came time for the 1956 unification elections, American intelligence analysts predicted that Diem refused to participate in the elections, a move made under the auspices of the United States government. By 1957, a communist rebel group in the South, known as the National Liberation Front (NLF), had committed themselves to undermining the Diem government and uniting Vietnam under a communist flag. NLF guerrilla fighters, called Vietcong, launched an insurgency in which they assassinated government officials and destroyed roads and bridges. Supplied by communists in North Vietnam, the Vietcong employed surprise hit-and-run tactics to weaken Diem’s hold on South Vietnam. Diem’s own policies also weakened his position in South Vietnam. A devout Roman Catholic in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, Diem did little to build a broad political base. Instead, he signed anti-Buddhist legislation and refused to enact significant land reforms.

Closure Question #2: Explain how television coverage affected the Vietnam War. (At least 1 sentence)
Despite the massive superiority in equipment and firepower of the American forces, the United States failed to defeat the North Vietnamese. The growing number of American troops in Vietnam soon produced an antiwar movement in the United States, especially among college students of draft age. The mounting destruction of the conflict, seen on television, also turned American public opinion against the war. President Johnson, condemned for his handling of the costly and indecisive war, decided not to run for reelection. Former vice president Richard M. Nixon won the election with his pledge to stop the war and bring the American people together. Ending the war was difficult, and Nixon’s administration was besieged by antiwar forces. Finally, in 1973, President Nixon reached an agreement with North Vietnam that allowed the United States to withdraw its forces. Within two years after the American withdrawal, Vietnam had been forcibly reunited by Communist armies from the North.

Vietnamization Policy for withdrawal from Vietnam presented by President Nixon; U.S. forces would withdraw as the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) assumed more combat duties. Though the hope of the policy was that the ARVN would be able to secure South Vietnam with aid from the U.S. behind the front lines, the reality was that the ARVN troops were outnumbered and outgunned without U.S. combat troops. Nixon’s defenders argued that he was a hard-working patriot with a new vision for America. His critics charged that he was a deceitful politician bent on acquiring power and punishing his enemies. There were elements of truth to both views. But defenders and critics alike agreed that Richard Nixon was a determined man with abundant political talent. From his first day in office, the new President realized that ending the Vietnam War was the key to everything else he hoped to achieve. Though formal peace talks between the warring parties had begun in May 1968, they were bogged down from the outset by disagreements and a lack of compromise . When Richard Nixon took office in January 1969, his peace delegation firmly believed they could break the impasse. The Americans and South Vietnamese wanted all communist troops out of South Vietnam. They also wanted prisoners of war (POWs) returned. Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese demanded an immediate American withdrawal from Vietnam and the formation of a coalition government in South Vietnam that would include representatives from the Vietcong. Still hoping to win the war in the field, North Vietnam refused to budge from its initial position. And South Vietnam refused to sign any agreement that compromised its security. President Nixon refused to accept the North Vietnamese peace terms. He was committed to a policy of “peace with honor” and believed that there were still military options. He continued a gradual pullout of American troops, and expressed faith in the ability of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to assume the burden of war. To reduce the flow of communist supplies to the Vietcong, Nixon ordered the secret bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. This was a controversial move because it widened the scope of the war and helped to undermine the neutral government in Cambodia.

Khmer Rouge The Southeast Asian country of Cambodia, like Vietnam, was part of French Indochina and ruled by the French. In 1975, Cambodia claimed its independence and established a communist government known as the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge carried out a massacre of two million Cambodians who were accused of not supporting communism. The reunification of Vietnam under Communist rule had an immediate impact on the region. By the end of 1975, both Laos and Cambodia had communist governments. In Cambodia, Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, massacred more than a million Cambodians. However, the Communist triumph in Indochina did not lead to the “falling dominoes” that many U.S. policy makers had feared. At first, many new leaders in Southeast Asia hoped to set up democratic states. By the end of the 1950s, however, hopes for rapid economic growth had failed. This failure and internal disputes led to military or one-party regimes. In recent years, some Southeast Asian societies have once against moved toward democracy. However, serious obstacles remain for these peoples. The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in They overthrew the Khmer Rouge and installed a less repressive government. But fighting continued. The Vietnamese withdrew in In 1993, under the supervision of UN peacekeepers, Cambodia adopted a democratic constitution and held free elections. Closure Question #3: Why do you think that the United Nations and the United States did not take military action to prevent the communist takeover of Cambodia and the genocide that followed?

Closure Assignment #3 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 33, Section 3: How did General MacArthur’s decision to advance toward the Yalu River change the course of the Korean War? (At least 1 sentence) Explain how television coverage affected the Vietnam War. (At least 1 sentence) Why do you think that the United Nations and the United States did not take military action to prevent the communist takeover of Cambodia and the genocide that followed?

Third World Developing nations, many of which were newly independent, who were not aligned with either the United States or the Soviet Union during the Cold War. These countries became locations for competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Following WWII, the world’s nations were grouped politically into three “worlds”. The first was the industrialized capitalist nations, including the United States and its allies. The second was the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union. The Third World nations were located in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They were economically poor and politically unstable. This was largely due to a long history of colonialism. They also suffered from ethnic conflicts and lack of technology and education. Each needed a political and economic system around which to build its society. Soviet-style communism and U.S.-style free-market democracy were the main choices. The United States has long played a major role in Latin America. Business investment by U.S. companies was one of the reasons the United States often intervened in Latin American affairs. U.S. investors would often pressure the U.S. government to prevent social and political change in Latin America – even if that meant backing dictators. For years, the United States had sent troops into Latin American countries to protect U.S. interests. Then in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began a Good Neighbor policy, an effort to end such intervention. In 1948, the states of the Western Hemisphere formed the Organization of American States (OAS). The OAS emphasized the need for Latin American independence. It passed a resolution calling for an end to military action by one state in the affairs of another. The formation of the OAS however, did not end U.S. involvement in Latin American affairs.

Nonaligned Nations Countries which hoped to avoid involvement in the Cold War by refusing to ally themselves with the Soviet Union or the United States. In 1955 a group of the leaders of third-world nations in Africa and Asia met at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia to form what they called a “third force” of independent countries. Some nations, such as India and Indonesia, were able to maintain their neutrality. Bt others took sides with the superpowers or played competing sides against each other. After World War II, most states in Southeast Asia gained independence from their colonial rulers. The Philippines became independent of the United States in Great Britain also ended its colonial rule in Southeast Asia. In 1948, Burma became independent. Malaya’s turn came in France refused, however, to let go of Indochina. This led to a long war in Vietnam. In Southeast Asia, the Netherlands was unwilling to give up its colonies and tried to suppress the Indonesian republic proclaimed by Sukarno. When the Indonesian Communist Party attempted to seize power, the United States pressured the Netherlands to grant independence to Sukarno and his non-Communist Nationalist Party. In 1949 the Netherlands recognized the new Republic of Indonesia. As British rule ended in India, India’s Muslims and Hindus were bitterly divided. India’s leaders decided to create two countries, one Hindu (India) and one Muslim (Pakistan). Pakistan would have two regions: West Pakistan and East Pakistan. When India and Pakistan became independent on August 15, 1947, Hindus moved toward India; Muslims, toward Pakistan. More than one million people were killed in the mass migrations. One of the dead was well known. On January 30, 1948, a Hindu militant assassinated Mohandas Gandhi as he was going to morning prayer.

Fidel Castro The Cuban Revolution ( ) was a popular uprising which led by Fidel Castro to overthrow the U.S. supported, dictatorial government of Cuba and to establish a communist government. As a young law student in Havana, Castro came to resent the dictatorial government of Fulgencio Batista which was supported by the United States. Angered by the social inequality which left the majority of Cubans in uneducated and impoverished, Castro became a revolutionary. After leading a failed attack on a Cuban military base in 1953, Castro fled to Mexico where he organized a stronger revolutionary force. In 1958 Castro returned to Cuba and gained popular support, finally seizing Havana in 1959. In the 1950s, an opposition movement arose in Cuba. It aimed to overthrow the government of the dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had controlled Cuba since The leader of the movement was a man named Fidel Castro. While a law student at the University of Havana, he had become a revolutionary. On July 26, 1953, Castro and his brother Raul led a band of 165 young people in an attack on the Moncada army camp at Santiago de Cuba. The attack was a disaster. While Fidel and Raul escaped, they were later captured and sentenced to prison for 15 years. Batista released Fidel and Raul after 11 months. After their release, the Castro brothers fled to the Sierra Maestra mountains in Mexico. There they teamed up with a small band of revolutionaries. Castro poured out a stream of propaganda with a small radio station and printing press. As the rebels gained more support, the Batista regime collapsed. Castro’s revolutionaries seized Havana on January 3, Many Cubans who disagreed with Castro fled to the United States. Relations between Cuba and the United States quickly deteriorated when Castro’s Communist regime began to receive aid from the Soviet Union. Arms from Eastern Europe also began to arrive in Cuba. In October 1960, the United States declared a trade embargo. Just three months later all diplomatic relations with Cuba were broken. Soon after that, in April 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy supported an attempt to overthrow Castro’s government. When the invasion at the Bay of Pigs failed the Soviets made an even greater commitment to Cuba. In December, 1961, Castro declared himself a Marxist, drawing even closer to the Soviet Union. The Soviets began placing nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962, leading to a showdown with the United States.

Closure Question #1: How did the Cold War confrontations affect the decision of the United States to move against Fidel Castro in Cuba? What was the outcome of that decision? (At least 2 sentences) During the administration of John F. Kennedy, the Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union reached frightening levels. In 1959 a left-wing revolutionary named Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and set up a Soviet-supported totalitarian regime in Cuba. Having a socialist regime with Communist contacts so close to the mainland was considered a threat to the security of the United States. President Kennedy feared that if he moved openly against Castro, then the Soviets might retaliate by moving against Berlin. As a result, the stage might be set for the two superpowers to engage in a nuclear war. For months, Kennedy had considered alternatives. He finally approved a plan that the CIA had proposed. Exiled Cuban fighters would invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, on the Playa Giron and Playa Larga beaches. The purpose of the invasion was to cause a revolt against Castro. The invasion was a disaster. It began on Sunday, April 16, By Wednesday, the exiled fighters began surrendering. One hundred fourteen died; the rest were captured by Castro’s troops. After the Bay of Pigs, the Soviet Union sent advisers to Cuba. Then, in 1962, Khrushchev began to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The missiles were meant to counteract U.S. nuclear weapons in Turkey, a country within easy range of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev said: “Your rockets are in Turkey. You are worried by Cuba… because it is 90 miles from the American coast. But Turkey is next to us.” The United States was not willing to allow nuclear weapons within such close striking distance of its mainland. In October 1962, Kennedy found out that Soviet ships carrying missiles were heading to Cuba. He decided to blockade Cuba to prevent the fleet from reaching its destination. This approach gave each side time to find a peaceful solution. Khrushchev agreed to turn back the fleet and remove Soviet missiles from Cuba if Kennedy pledged not to invade Cuba. Kennedy quickly agreed.

Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) U.S. intelligence discovered that the Soviets were building nuclear missiles sites in Cuba, threatening major East Coast cities. Kennedy demanded the removal of the missiles, and approved a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent the Soviets from completing the bases. Behind the scenes, Kennedy promised to remove U.S. missiles in Turkey and Italy. After 6 tense days, the Soviets agreed to the compromise. After breaking diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, the Eisenhower administration authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to plan an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro. The CIA recruited Cuban exiles and trained them in Guatemala. But when Eisenhower left office, the invasion plan was still that – an unexecuted, untried plan. Pressured by members of the CIA and his own aides, Kennedy decided to implement the plan. On April 17, 1961, a CIA-led force of Cuban exiles attacked Cuba. The invasion was badly mismanaged. The poorly equipped forces landed at the site with no protective cover. Not only did the Bay of Pigs invasion fail, it probably strengthened Castro’s position in Cuba. Closure Question #2: Which of the 3 political leaders involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis should receive the most blame for what very nearly was a nuclear holocaust? Explain your answer. 30

Anastasio Somoza In Nicaragua, the Somoza family seized control of the government in 1937 and maintained control for the next 45 years. It began with Anastasio Somoza Garcia’s introduction as president, followed by his two sons. Over most of this period, the Somoza regime had the support of the United States. The Somozas enriched themselves at the expense of the Nicaraguan people and used murder and torture to silence opposition. After World War II, the wealthy elite and the military controlled the government in El Salvador. The rise of an urban middle class led to hope for a more democratic government. The army, however, refused to accept the results of free elections that were held in World attention focused on El Salvador in the late 1970s and the 1980s, when the country was rocked by a bitter civil war. Marxist-led, leftist guerrillas and right-wing groups battled one another. The Catholic Church became a main target, and a number of priests were killed or tortured, among them Archbishop Oscar Romero. Death squads killed anyone they thought a threat to their interests. When U.S. president Ronald Reagan claimed evidence of “communist interference in El Salvador,” the United States began to provide weapons and training to the Salvadoran army to defeat the guerrillas. The hope was to bring stability to the country, but the killings continued. In 1984, a moderate, Jose Duarte, was elected president. The unrest in El Salvador cut short Duarte’s efforts at political, social, and economic reforms. Nor could Duarte stop the savage killing. By the early 1990s, at least 75,000 people were dead. A 1992 peace settlement ended the war. Duarte did not live to see his hope for peace fulfilled. After transferring power to his successor, Duarte said that his government had “laid the foundation for democracy in this country.” Duarte died in 1990.

Daniel Ortega Leader of Marxist guerrilla forces in Nicaragua known as the Sandinista National Liberation Front. In 1979, the Sandinistas won a number of military victories against Somoza’s government forces and gained control of the country. Soon, a group opposed to the Sandinistas’ polices, called the contras, began to try to overthrow the new government. Worried by the Sandinistas’ alignment with the Soviet Union, the United States supported the contras. The war waged by the contras undermined support for the Sandinistas. In 1990, the Sandinistas, led by Daniel Ortega, agreed to free elections and lost to a coalition headed by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who became Nicaragua’s first female president. After 16 years out of power, the Sandinistas won new elections in 2006 and Daniel Ortega became president in January 2007. A wealthy oligarchy ruled Panama with U.S. support. After 1968, military leaders of Panama’s National Guard were in control. One of these, Manuel Noriega, became so involved in the drug trade that President George H. W. Bush sent U.S. troops to Panama in Noriega was later sent to prison in the United States for drug trafficking. A major issue for Panamanians was finally settled in 1999 when Panama took control of the Panama Canal. The terms for this change of control had been set in a 1977 treaty with the United States.

Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini
Fundamentalist Islamic Clerk who, in 1979, led a revolt to overthrow the Shah (Emperor) of Iran who had been supported by the United States. The Khomeini government held the U.S. Embassy and the 52 Americans inside hostage for over a year. President Carter’s inability to free the hostages combined with continuing economic problems turned American public opinion against him. President Jimmy Carter hoped that the Camp David Accords would usher in a new era of cooperation in the Middle East. Yet, events in Iran showed that troubles in the region were far from over. Since the 1950s, the United States had supported the rule of the Shah, or emperor, of Iran. In the 1970s, however, opposition to the Shah began to grow within Iran. Dying of cancer, the Shah fled from Iran in January Fundamentalist Islamic clerics took power. Carter allowed the Shah to enter the United States to seek medical treatment. Enraged Iranian radical students invaded the U.S. Embassy and took 66 Americans as hostages. The Khomeini government then took control of both the embassy and the hostages to defy the United States. The hostage crisis consumed the attention of Carter during the last year of his presidency. To many Americans, Carter’s failure to win all of the hostages’ release was evidence of American weakness. As Peter Bourne put it in his biography of Jimmy Carter, “Because people felt that Carter had not been tough enough in foreign policy… some bunch of students could seize American diplomatic officials and hold them prisoner and thumb their nose at the United States.” Closure Question #3: What similarities do you see among U.S. actions in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Iran? (Give at least 2 similarities in 2 complete sentences)

Closure Assignment #4 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 33, Section 4: How did the Cold War confrontations affect the decision of the United States to move against Fidel Castro in Cuba? What was the outcome of that decision? (At least 2 sentences) Which of the 3 political leaders involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis should receive the most blame for what very nearly was a nuclear holocaust? Explain your answer. What similarities do you see among U.S. actions in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Iran? (Give at least 2 similarities in 2 complete sentences)

Nikita Khrushchev New leader of the Soviet Union following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953; Khrushchev was a communist and a determined opponent of the U.S.A., but he was not as suspicious or cruel as Stalin. In Khrushchev met with President Eisenhower in Geneva, giving both the Soviet Union and the United States hope that the two powers could peacefully co-exist. Khrushchev realized the need to stop the flow of refugees from East Germany through West Berlin. In August 1961, the East German government began to build a wall separating West Berlin from East Berlin. Eventually it became a massive barrier guarded by barbed wire, flood-lights, machine-gun towers, minefields, and vicious dog patrols. The Berlin Wall became a striking symbol of the division between the two superpowers. The Cuban missile crisis seemed to bring the world frighteningly close to nuclear war. Indeed, in 1992 a high- ranking Soviet officer revealed that short-range rockets armed with nuclear devices would have been used against U.S. troops if the United States had invaded Cuba, an option that Kennedy fortunately had rejected. The realization that the world might have been destroyed in a few days had a profound influence on both sides. A hotline communications system between Moscow and Washington D.C., was installed in The two superpowers could now communicate quickly in times of crisis.

Sputnik The first man-made satellite; The Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in October of 1957, sparking a space-race between the United States and U.S.S.R., with each side trying to stay ahead of the other in space exploration. Yuri Gagarin was the first human to orbit the earth; On April 12th, 1961 Gagarin was launched into orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-3. After the flight Gagarin became an international celebrity, touring throughout Europe to promote the Soviet achievement. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first successful artificial space satellite, on October 4, as it circled the earth every 96 minutes, Premier Nikita Khrushchev boated that his country would soon be “turning out long-range missiles like sausages.” The United States accelerated its space program. After early failures, a U.S. satellite was launched in 1958. Beginning in the late 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union competed for influence not only among the nations of the world, but in the skies as well. Once the superpowers had ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) to deliver nuclear warheads and aircraft for spying missions, they both began to develop technology that could be used to explore – and ultimately control – space. However, after nearly two decades of costly competition, the two superpowers began to cooperate in space exploration. Closure Question #1: Why was achieving victory in the Space Race viewed as being essential by both the Soviet Union and the United States?

Leonid Brezhnev Leader of the Soviet Union during the late 1960s and 1970s; Brezhnev was determined to keep Eastern Europe in Soviet control and continue the arms race with the United States by focusing the Soviet economy on heavy industry. However, under his leadership the Soviet ruling class (government and military leaders) became increasingly corrupt and complacent. Between 1964 and 1982, drastic change in the Soviet Union had seemed highly unlikely. What happened to create such a dramatic turnaround in the late 1980s? Alexei Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev replaced Nikita Khrushchev when he was removed from office in Brezhnev emerged as the dominant leader in the 1970s. Determined to keep Eastern Europe in Communist hands, he was not interested in reform. He also insisted on the Soviet Union’s right to intervene if communism was threatened in another Communist state. At the same time, Brezhnev benefited from détente. Roughly equal to the United States in nuclear arms, the Soviet Union felt more secure. As a result its leaders relaxed their authoritarian rule. Brezhnev allowed more access to Western styles of music, dress, and art. In his economic policies, Brezhnev continued to emphasize heavy industry. Two problems, however, weakened the Soviet economy. First, the central government was a huge, complex, but inefficient bureaucracy that led to indifference. Second, many collective farmers preferred working their own small private plots to laboring in the collective work brigades. By the 1970s, the Communist ruling class in the Soviet Union had become complacent and corrupt. Party and state leaders, as well as army leaders and secret police (KGB), enjoyed a high standard of living. Regardless of the government’s inefficiency and corruption, Brezhnev did not want to tamper with the party leadership and state bureaucracy. Closure Question #2: According to the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet Union should have used military force in Vietnam to aid the Vietcong. Why do you think they did not do so?

John F. Kennedy U.S. President from 1961 to 1963; A Democrat, JFK was the youngest President ever elected. A Harvard graduate from a prominent New England family (His father was US Ambassador to England during WWII), Kennedy won over the American people with his energy, charming personality, and model family, despite being a Catholic. Flexible Response was JFK’s military policy, which emphasized the importance of preparing the United States to fight any type of conflict. During the Kennedy administration, government funding for all military corps increased. As the first President born in the 20th century, Kennedy proclaimed that a “new generation of Americans” was ready to meet any challenge. In his Inaugural Address, Kennedy warned his country’s enemies: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Kennedy issued a challenge to Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” During his first two and a half years in office, Kennedy made the transition from politician to national leader. In foreign affairs he confronted Soviet challenges, made hard decisions, and won the respect of Soviet leaders and American citizens. He also spoke eloquently about the need to move toward a peaceful future. In domestic affairs he finally came to the conclusion that the federal government had to lead the struggle for civil rights. Added to his new maturity was his ability to inspire Americans to dream noble dreams and work toward lofty ends.

Lyndon B. Johnson JFK’s Vice President, Johnson served as U.S. President from 1963 to A Texan Democrat, Johnson worked as a teacher during the depression in a segregated school for Mexican Americans. In 1937 he began his political career and became known for his abilities of persuasion. Following Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson used his political talents to continue Kennedy’s policies in support of civil rights and aid for the poverty-stricken. These two goals were key to Johnson’s vision for America, which he called the Great Society. Born in Stonewall, Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson was raised in the Hill Country town of Johnson City. He attended Southwest Texas State College and then taught for several years in Cotulla, Texas. There, at a tiny segregated school for Mexican Americans, he confronted firsthand the challenges faced by poverty-stricken minority students, and the lessons he learned remained with him for the rest of his life. After teaching for several years, Johnson entered politics – first as a Texas congressman’s secretary and then as the head of the Texas National Youth Administration. In 1937, Johnson was elected to Congress, and during the next several decades he became the most powerful person on Capitol Hill. Elected to the Senate in 1948, Johnson proved himself a master of party politics and rose to the position of Senate majority leader in In the Senate, he was adept at avoiding conflict, building political coalitions, and working out compromises. His sill was instrumental in pushing the 1957 Civil Rights Act through Congress. In 1960, he hoped to be chosen the Democratic Party to run for President, but when Kennedy got the nomination Johnson agreed to join him on the ticket as the vice presidential nominee. A New Englander and a Catholic, Kennedy needed Johnson to help carry the heavily-Protestant South. Johnson was also popular both with Mexican American voters and in the Southwest. He was an important part of Kennedy’s victory in 1960.

Closure Question #3: Did the student revolts of this period contribute positively or negatively to society? Explain in at least 1 sentence. Before WWII, it was mostly members of Europe’s wealthier class who went to universities. After the war, European states encouraged more people to gain higher education by eliminating fees. As a result, enrollments from middle and lower classes grew dramatically. In France, 4.5% of young people went to universities in By 1965, the figure had increased to 14.5%. There were problems, however. Many European university classrooms were overcrowded, and many professors paid little attention to their students. Growing discontent led to an outburst of student revolts in the late 1960s. This student radicalism had several causes. Many protests were an extension of the revolts in American universities, often sparked by student opposition to the Vietnam War. Some students, particularly in Europe, believed that universities failed to respond to their needs or to realities of the modern world. Others believed they were becoming small cogs in the large and impersonal bureaucratic wheels of the modern world. Students protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s caused many people to rethink basic assumptions. Student upheavals, however, were not a turning point in the history of postwar Europe, as some people thought at the time. As student rebels became middle-class professionals, revolutionary politics became mostly a memory.

Closure Assignment #5 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 33, Section 5: Why was achieving victory in the Space Race viewed as being essential by both the Soviet Union and the United States? According to the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet Union should have used military force in Vietnam to aid the Vietcong. Why do you think they did not do so? Did the student revolts of this period contribute positively or negatively to society? Explain in at least 1 sentence.

Apollo 11 / Neil Armstrong
The first manned-mission to the moon; In 1969, American Astronaut Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. As he did so he made the following statement: “This is one small step for man; One giant leap for mankind.” Global transportation and communication systems are transforming the world community. People are connected and “online” throughout the world as they have never been before. Space exploration and orbiting satellites have increased our understanding of our world and of solar systems beyond our world. Since the 1970s, jumbo jet airlines have moved millions of people around the world each year. A flight between London and New York took half a day in Now, that trip takes only five or six hours. The Internet – the world’s largest computer network – provides quick access to vast quantities of information. The World Wide Web, developed in the 1990s, has made the Internet even more accessible to people everywhere. Satellites, cable television, facsimile (fax) machines, cellular telephones, and computers enable people to communicate with one another practically everywhere in the world. Communication and transportation systems have made the world a truly global village. The computer may be the most revolutionary of all technological inventions of the 20th century. The first computer was really a product of World War II. British mathematician Alan Turing designed the first electronic computer to crack enemy codes. Turing’s machine did calculations faster than any human. IBM of the United States made the first computer with stored memory in The IBM 1401, marketed in 1959, was the first computer used in large numbers in business and industry. These early computers used thousands of vacuum tubes to function. These machines took up considerable space. The development of the transistor and the silicon chip produced a revolutionary new approach to computers.

Détente A relaxation of tension and improved relations between two superpowers; During the late 1960s and 1970s the United States and Soviet Union, with roughly equal strength militarily, felt more secure and engaged in a more peaceful relationship. By the 1970s, détente allowed U.S. grain and consumer goods to be sold to the Soviet Union. However, détente collapsed in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. A new period of East-West confrontation began. The Soviet Union wanted to restore a pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan. The United States viewed this as an act of expansion. To show his disapproval, President Jimmy Carter canceled U.S. participation in the 1980 Olympic Games to be held in Moscow. He also placed an embargo on the shipment of U.S. grain to the Soviets. Relations became even chillier when Ronald Reagan became president. He called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and began a military buildup and a new arms race. Regan also gave military aid to the Afghan rebels. By 1980, the Soviet Union was ailing. It had a declining economy, a rise in infant mortality rates, a dramatic surge in alcoholism, and poor working conditions. Within the Communist Party, a small group of reformers emerged. One was Mikhail Gorbachev. When the party chose him as leader in March 1985, a new era began. From the start Gorbachev preached the need for radical reforms based on perestroika, or restructuring. At first, this meant restructuring economic policy. Gorbachev wanted to start a market economy more responsive to consumers. It was to have limited free enterprise so that some businesses would be privately owned and operated.

Richard M. Nixon President of the United States from 1968 to 1974; Nixon’s conservative politics won him the support of southern white Americans, and during his presidency the United States improved is relationship with China. However, Nixon used illegal methods to gain political information about his opponents and maintain power. Richard Nixon’s political career had more ups and downs than a roller coaster ride. Brought up in hard times, he worked his way through college and law school. After service in the navy during World War II, Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and then to the Senate in As Dwight Eisenhower’s running mate in 1952, he became Vice President with Eisenhower’s victory, Nixon was not yet 40 years old. Then came the defeats. In 1960, Nixon narrowly lost to John F. Kennedy in the race for the White House. Two years later, Nixon’s career hit bottom when he lost an election to become governor of California. In 1968, however, Nixon made a dramatic comeback, narrowly defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey to win the presidency. During the campaign for President, Nixon cast himself as the spokesperson for those he called Middle Americans, or the silent majority. Winning the support of Middle Americans proved a tricky task. Nixon believed that Americans had tired of the “big” government of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. However, he also believed that the American people still wanted the government to address various social ills, ranging from crime to pollution. Nixon’s solution was to call for the establishment of a “new federalism.” As he explained in his 1971 State of the Union address, the nation needed “to reverse the flow of power and resources from the State and communities to Washington and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities. Closure Question #1: Do you think it was a wise political move for Nixon to visit Communist China and the Soviet Union? Why or Why not? (At least 1 sentence)

Henry Kissinger A German-born Jewish man, Kissinger and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 at the age of 15 to escape Hitler’s persecution of Jews. Kissinger earned a Ph.D. at Harvard in 4 years and became Richard Nixon’s leading adviser on national security and international affairs, becoming Secretary of State in 1973. Zhou Enlai was the Chinese Premier who worked behind the scenes with Henry Kissinger to iron out sensitive issues in establishing a peaceful relationship between China and the United States. Zhou and Kissinger’s work culminated in a visit by President Richard Nixon to China in 1972 and the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries in As a presidential candidate, Richard Nixon had promised to end U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Recognizing the potency of Soviet power and the increasing unwillingness of many Americans to pay the costs of containing communism everywhere, Nixon developed a new approach to the Cold War. His bold program redefined American relations wit the two titans of global communism, China and the Soviet Union. During his years in office, Nixon fundamentally reshaped the way the United States approached the world. Before Nixon took office, most American leaders shared a common Cold War ideology. They stressed that there existed a basic conflict between democratic capitalist countries and totalitarian, communist ones. They divided the world into “us” and “them”, and they established policies based on an assumption common held that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Therefore, a country opposed to communism was, by this definition, a friend of the United States. Nixon and Henry Kissinger altered this Cold War policy approach. At first glance, Richard Nixon’s partnership with Henry Kissinger seemed improbable. Nixon was a conservative California Republican, suspicious of the more liberal East Coast Republicans and exhausted with the political and strategic theories of Ivy League intellectuals. Kissinger was a Harvard-educated Jewish émigré from Germany and a prominent figure in East Coast intellectual circles. In several prior presidential campaigns, Kissinger had actually worked against Nixon. However, both men were outsiders equipped with an outsider’s readiness to question accepted orthodoxy. Closure Question #1: Do you think it was a wise political move for Nixon to visit Communist China and the Soviet Union? Why or Why not? (At least 1 sentence)

Watergate Scandal which culminated in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974; Nixon ordered members of his reelection committee to break-in to the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. in 1972 to install wireless listening devices. The burglars were caught, leading to a 2 year investigation. 25th Amendment – Part of the U.S. Constitution which states that if the Vice-President resigns, the President must nominate a replacement. V.P. Spiro Agnew resigned in the face of a corruption scandal in 1973, leading Nixon to nominate Gerald Ford as his new V.P. Executive Privilege – Principle that the President has the right to keep certain information confidential; Nixon attempted to use this reasoning in refusing to turn over taped recordings of his phone calls from the oval office. In United States v. Nixon (1974) the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon was required to turn over the tapes, which revealed Nixon’s involvement in Watergate. Rather than face impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 8th, 1974. Closure Question #2: Did Richard Nixon position the United States to win the Cold War? Why or Why not? (At least 1 sentence)

SALT Otherwise known as SALT I, the treaty, agreed to by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in 1972, froze the deployment of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and placed limits on antiballistic missiles (ABMs). Though the agreement did not end the arms race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., it was a giant step toward that goal. Nixon’s trip to the People’s Republic of China prompted an immediate reaction from the Soviet Union, which had strained relations with both countries. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev feared that improved U.S. – Chinese relations would isolate Russia. Therefore, he invited Nixon to visit Moscow. Nixon made the trip in May Afterward, the President reported to Congress that he and Brezhnev had reached agreements in a wide variety of areas. Nixon also announced plans to conduct a joint U.S.-Soviet space mission. However, by far the high point of the summit was the signing of the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. The treaty froze the deployment of intercontinental ballistic missiles and placed limits on antiballistic missiles, but it did not alter the stockpiling of the more dangerous multiple independent reentry vehicles. SALT I did not end the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, but it was a giant step toward that goal. Realpolitik (German for “real politics”) was Nixon and Kissinger’s shared belief that political goals should be defined by concrete nationalist interests instead of abstract ideologies. Both argued that America needed to move past the Cold War stereotype of communism vs. democracy as evil vs. good, but instead recognize that communist nations could prove loyal allies while democratic nations could become enemies.

Closure Question #3: Why did Americans elect Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980? (At least 1 sentence) Ronald Reagan A movie actor and General Electric spokesperson, Reagan entered politics as a conservative Republican in the 1960s. After serving two terms as governor of California, Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the election of 1980 and served as President from 1981 to Reagan’s 3 key goals were to reduce the size of government, strengthen the military, and support traditional values. The growing conservative movement swept Ronald Reagan to victory in the 1980s election. Much more charismatic and polished than Barry Goldwater, Reagan made clear his opposition to big government, his support for a strong military, and his faith in traditional values. Just as importantly, he radiated optimism, convincing Americans that he would usher in a new era of prosperity and patriotism. Born in Tampico, Illinois, in 1911, Reagan suffered the hardships of the Great Depression as a young adult before landing a job in Hollywood as a movie actor. Never a big star, Reagan appeared in many “B” or low-budget films. His most famous starring role was in Knute Rockne, a film based on the life of Notre Dame’s legendary football coach. When his acting career began to wane, Reagan became a spokesperson for General Electric and toured the nation giving speeches. Although once a staunch New Dealer, Reagan had become a Goldwater conservative. In these speeches he began to criticize big government and high taxes and warned of the dangers of communism. In 1964, near the end of Goldwater’s presidential campaign, Reagan delivered a nationally televised address in which he spelled out these views. While the speech failed to bolster Goldwater’s campaign, it won the admiration of many conservatives. Two years later, Reagan won the governorship of California. He served for two terms as governor and nearly won the Republican presidential nomination in In 1980, he won the nomination by a landslide. His opponent was Jimmy Carter, the Democratic incumbent. As the election approached, Carter looked like a lame duck. Persistent inflation, the Iran hostage crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan made it easy for Reagan to cast the Carter presidency in a negative light. “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Reagan asked audiences on the campaign trail, knowing that most Americans would say “No.” The race remained close until about one week before the election, when Reagan and Carter held their only presidential debate. In this debate, Reagan’s gifts as a communicator shone. He appeared friendly and even-tempered and calmed fears that he did not have enough experience to serve as President. On Election Day, Reagan won 50.6% of the popular vote.

Closure Assignment #6 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 33, Section 5: Do you think it was a wise political move for Nixon to visit Communist China and the Soviet Union? Why or Why not? (At least 1 sentence) Did Richard Nixon position the United States to win the Cold War? Why or Why not? (At least 1 sentence) Why did Americans elect Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980? (At least 1 sentence)

Congress Party The largest political party in India during its transition period from being a British colony to an independent nation. Most members of the Congress Party were Hindus, but the party at times had many Muslim members. After World War II, dramatic political changes began to take place across the world. This was especially the case with regard to the policy of colonialism. Countries that held colonies began to question the practice. After the world struggle against dictatorship, many leaders argued that no country should control another nation. Others questioned the high cost and commitment of holding colonies. Meanwhile, the people of colonized regions continued to press even harder for their freedom. All of this led to independence for one of the largest and most populous colonies in the world: British-held India. The British had ruled India for almost two centuries. Indian resistance to Britain, which had existed from the beginning, intensified in 1939, when Britain committed India’s armed forces to World War II without first consulting the colony’s elected representatives. The move left Indian nationalists stunned and humiliated. Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi launched a nonviolent campaign of noncooperation with the British. Officials imprisoned numerous nationalists for this action. In 1942, the British tried to gain the support of the nationalists by promising governmental changes after the war. But the offer did not include Indian independence. Closure Question #1: Why might India’s political and economic success be so crucial to the future of democracy in Asia? (At least 1 sentence)

Muslim League / Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muslim League – Indian political party founded to protect Muslim interests. The Muslim League was the chief competition of the Congress Party, which Muslims believed served only the interests of Hindus. Muhammad Ali Jinnah – Leader of the Muslim League; Jinnah insisted that all Muslims resign from the Congress Party, vowing that Muslims would never accept Indian independence if it meant that Hindus would become rulers of the nation. As they intensified their struggle against the British, Indians also struggled with each other. India had long been home to two main religious groups. In the 1940’s, India had approximately 350 million Hindus and about 100 million Muslims. When World War II ended, Britain found itself faced with enormous war debts. As a result, British leaders began to rethink the expense of maintaining and governing distant colonies. With India continuing to push for independence, the stage was set for the British to hand over power. However, a key problem emerged: Who should receive power – Hindus or Muslims? Muslims resisted attempts to include them in an Indian government dominated by Hindus. Rioting between the two groups broke out in several Indian cities. In August 1946, four days of clashes in Calcutta left more than 5,000 people dead and more than 15,000 hurt. Closure Question #2: How did religious and cultural differences create problems for newly emerging nations? (At least 1 sentence)

Partition The division of India into separate Hindu and Muslim nations. British officials became convinced that the only way to ensure a safe and secure India was partition. In 1947, the northwest and eastern regions of India, where most Muslims lived, became the new nation of Pakistan. The British House of Commons passed an act on July 16, 1947, that granted two nations, India and Pakistan, independence in one month’s time. In that short period, more than 500 independence native princes had to decide which nation they would join. The administration of the courts, the military, the railway, and the police – the whole of the civil service – had to be divided down to the last paper clip. Most difficult of all, millions of Indian citizens – Hindus, Muslims, and yet another significant religious groups, the Sikhs – had to decide where to go. During the summer of 1947, 10 million people were on the move in the Indian subcontinent. As people scrambled to relocate, violence among the different religious groups erupted. Muslims killed Sikhs who were moving into India. Hindus and Sikhs killed Muslims who were headed into Pakistan. In all, an estimated 1 million died. “What is there to celebrate?” Gandhi mourned. “I see nothing but rivers of blood.” Gandhi personally went to the Indian capital of Delhi to plead for fair treatment of Muslim refugees. While there, he himself became a victim of the nation’s violence. A Hindu extremist who thought Gandhi too protective of Muslims shot and killed him on January 30, 1948. Closure Question #2: How did religious and cultural differences create problems for newly emerging nations? (At least 1 sentence)

Jawaharlal Nehru / Indira Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru – Leader of Independent India from 1950 to 1965; India refused to align itself with either the United States or the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Indira Gandhi – Nehru’s daughter (not Mohandis Gandhi’s), Indira Gandhi served as prime minister of India, serving from 1966 to 1984. As British rule ended in India, India’s Muslims and Hindus were bitterly divided. India’s leaders decided to create two countries, one Hindu (India) and one Muslim (Pakistan). Pakistan would have two regions: West Pakistan and East Pakistan. When India and Pakistan became independent on August 15, 1947, Hindus moved toward India; Muslims, toward Pakistan. More than one million people were killed in the mass migrations. One of the dead was well known. On January 30, 1948, a Hindu militant assassinated Mohandas Gandhi as he was going to morning prayer. Having worked closely with Gandhi for Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru led the Congress Party, formerly the Indian National Congress. The popular prime minister had strong ideas about India’s future. He admired British political institutions and the socialist ideals of the British Labour Party. His goal was parliamentary government and a moderate socialist economy. Under Nehru, the state took ownership of major industries, utilities, and transportation. Private enterprise was permitted at the local level, and farming was left in private hands. Industrial production almost tripled between 1950 and Nehru also guided India’s foreign policy through the principle of nonalignment. After Nehru’s death, the Congress Party selected his daughter, Indira Gandhi, as prime minister. In the 1950s and 1960s, India’s population grew by 2% a year, contributing to widespread poverty. Millions lived in vast city slums. Indian society grouped people into castes, or social classes. The caste into which people were born largely determined their occupation and role in society. The system assured that the lowest castes would remain in poverty. Although caste-based discrimination is illegal in India today, it continues, especially in the countryside.

Benazir Bhutto The daughter of a former Pakistani dictator, Bhutto was twice elected prime minister of Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s. Following independence, Muslim Pakistan has repeatedly suffered through civil wars and military coups. After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the Pakistani government became a key American ally in the fight against terrorism; however, opposition to the American-Pakistani alliance is strong. Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. From the beginning, the two regions of Pakistan experienced strained relations. While East Pakistan had the larger population, it was often ignored by West Pakistan, home to the central government. In 1970, a giant cyclone and tidal wave struck East Pakistan and killed an estimated 266,000 residents. While international aid poured into Pakistan, the government in West Pakistan did not quickly transfer that aid to East Pakistan. Demonstrations broke out in East Pakistan, and protesters called for an end to all ties with West Pakistan. On March 26, 1971, East Pakistan declared itself an independent nation called Bangladesh. A civil war followed between Bangladesh and Pakistan. Eventually, Indian forces stepped in and sided with Bangladesh. Pakistan forces surrendered. More than 1 million people died in the war. Pakistan lost about one-seventh of its area and about one-half of its population to Bangladesh. Closure Question #3: In what ways did Pakistan also undergo a partition? (At least 1 sentence)

Closure Assignment #7 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 34, Section 1: Why might India’s political and economic success be so crucial to the future of democracy in Asia? (At least 1 sentence) How did religious and cultural differences create problems for newly emerging nations? (At least 1 sentence) In what ways did Pakistan also undergo a partition? (At least 1 sentence)

Ferdinand Marcos President of the Philippines from 1966 to Marcos was forced to flee the country on charges of corruption and involvement in the killing of Benigno Aquino, a popular opposition leader. Despite being a democracy, the government of the Philippines remains unstable due to threats of Islamic terrorism and natural disasters. The Philippines became the first of the world’s colonies to achieve independence following World War II. The United States granted the Philippines independence in 1946, on the anniversary of its own Declaration of Independence, the Fourth of July. The Filipinos’ immediate goals were to rebuild the economy and to restore the capital of Manila. The city had been badly damaged in World War II. The United States had promised the Philippines $620 million in war damages. However, the U.S. government insisted that Filipinos approve the Bell Act in order to get the money. This act would establish free trade between the United States and the Philippines for eight years, to be followed by gradually increasing tariffs. Filipinos were worried that American businesses would exploit the resources and environment of the Philippines. In spite of this concern, Filipinos approved the Bell Act and received their money. In the Philippines, two presidents have been forced out of office in recent years. In 1986, a public uprising forced Ferdinand Marcos to flee the country on charges of corruption and involvement in the killing of a popular opposition leader, Benigno Aquino. Corazon Aquino, wife of the murdered leader, became president in Charges of corruption led to the ousting of another Filipino leader in The new leader, Gloria Arroyo, promised greater integrity in government. She faced an economy weakened by a global economic crisis. Terrorism remains a challenge for the Philippines. Muslim rebels on the island of Mindanao, for example, have used terror to promote their demands for independence. Closure Question #1: Why do you think that the United States demanded a 99-year lease on military and naval bases in the Philippines? (At least 1 sentence)

Corazon Aquino Benigno Aquino’s widow who, in the election of 1986, ran for President of the Philippines in her husband’s place. Aquino won the election decisively, but Marcos refused to acknowledge her victory. When he declared himself the official winner, a public outcry resulted. He was forced into exile in Hawaii, where he later died. During Aquino’s presidency, the Philippine government ratified a new constitution and negotiated successfully with the United States to end the lease on U.S. military bases in the Philippines. The United States wanted to maintain its military presence in the Philippines. With the onset of the Cold War, the United States needed to protect its interests in Asia. Both China and the Soviet Union were rivals of the United States at the time. Both were Pacific powers with bases close to allies of the United States and to resources vital to U.S. interests. Therefore, the United States demanded a 99-year lease on its military and naval bases in the Philippines. The bases, Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base near Manila, proved to be critical to the United States later in the staging of the Korean and Vietnam wars. These military bases also became the single greatest source of conflict between the United States and the Philippines. Many Filipinos regarded the bases as proof of American imperialism. Later agreements shortened the terms of the lease, and the United States gave up both bases in After World War II, the Philippine government was still almost completely dependent on the United States economically and politically. The Philippine government looked for ways to lessen this dependency. It welcomed Japanese investments. It also broadened its contacts with Southeast Asian neighbors and with nonaligned nations.

Aung San Suu Kyi Leader of the democratic movement in Myanmar (formerly Burma). The daughter of a general who led the fight for Myanmar’s independence in 1947, Suu Kyi was educated abroad and, after returning to Myanmar in 1988, became involved in politics. Her party won the national elections in 1990, but the military rulers refused to hand over power, putting Suu Kyi under house arrest until 2012. Today, Burma is the independent nation called Myanmar. The people of Myanmar continue to fight for democracy. Leading the struggle is Aung San Suu Kyi, the daugher of Aung San, who led the Burma Independence Army in Educated abroad, Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar in 1988 and became involved in the movement for democracy. Her party won a landslide victory in 1990, but the military rulers refused to hand over power. Instead, they placed Suu Kyi under house arrest, where she remains. Although the Myanmar government said she was free to leave the country, Suu Kyi knew that if she left, even to be with her husband who was dying of cancer in England in 1999, she would never be allowed to reenter. She stayed to promote democracy. Closure Question #2: What was similar and different about the elections that brought defeat to the ruling governments in the Philippines and in Burma? (At least 2 sentences) 58

Sukarno / Suharto Sukarno – The key leader of the Indonesian independence movement; A Dutch colony prior to WWII, and occupied by Japan during the war, Indonesia proclaimed its independence in August 1945 and Sukarno proclaimed himself president. The Dutch attempted to regain control, but after losing support from the United Nations and the United States, the Dutch agreed to grant Indonesia its independence in 1949. Suharto – Indonesian military leader who, in response to an attempted coup against the government in 1965, seized power for himself and turned Indonesia into a police state. During Suharto’s reign, nearly 1 million Indonesians were killed while bribery and corruption became commonplace. The economy improved under Suharto for a while but from 1997 through 1998 the nation suffered one of the worst financial crises in its history. Growing unrest over both government repression and a crippling economic crisis prompted Suharto to step down in While turmoil continued to grip the country, it moved slowly toward democracy. The daughter of Sukarno, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was elected to the presidency in Sukarnoputri faces enormous challenges, including a fragile economy, ethnic strife, security problems, and government corruption. Closure Question #3: How did World War II play a role in the eventual decolonization of Southeast Asia? (At least 1 sentence)

Closure Assignment #8 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 34, Section 2: Why do you think that the United States demanded a 99-year lease on military and naval bases in the Philippines? (At least 1 sentence) What was similar and different about the elections that brought defeat to the ruling governments in the Philippines and in Burma? (At least 2 sentences) How did World War II play a role in the eventual decolonization of Southeast Asia? (At least 1 sentence)

Negritude Movement A movement to celebrate African culture, heritage, and values; Prior to World War II, a growing sense of black consciousness and pride in traditional Africa manifested itself in colonial Africa and wherever individuals of African descent could be found worldwide. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Africa resembled little more than a European outpost. As you recall, the nations of Europe had marched in during the late 1800s and colonized much of the continent. Like the diverse groups living in Asia, however, the many different peoples of Africa were unwilling to return to colonial domination after World War II. And so, in the decades following the great global conflict, they, too, won their independence from foreign rule and went to work building new nations. The African push for independence actually began in the decades before World War II with the Negritude Movement. When World War II erupted, African soldiers fought alongside Europeans to “defend freedom”. This experience made them unwilling to accept colonial domination when they returned home. The war had changed the thinking of Europeans too. Many began to question the cost, as well as the morality, of maintaining colonies abroad. These and other factors helped African colonies gain their freedom throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Kwame Nkrumah / Jomo Kenyatta
Kwame Nkrumah – Leader of Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to gain its independence. Ghana officially declared its freedom in 1957. Jomo Kenyatta - Formerly a British colony, Kenya gained its independence in 1963 and elected Jomo Kenyatta as its first president. Kenyatta was a strong believer in democracy and Western-style capitalism, supporting the growth of private businesses in his country. After World War II, Europeans realized that colonial rule in Africa would have to end. The Charter of the United Nations supported this belief. It stated that all colonial peoples should have the right to self-determination. In the late 1950s and 1960s, most African nations achieved independence. In 1957 the Gold Coast, renamed Ghana and under Kwame Nkrumah, was the first British colony to gain independence. Nigeria, the Belgian Congo (renamed Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Kenya, and others soon followed. Seventeen new African nations emerged in Another 11 nations followed between 1961 and The Portuguese finally surrendered Mozambique and Angola in the 1970s. In North Africa, the French granted full independence to Morocco and Tunisia in Because Algeria was home to a million French settlers, France chose to keep control there. However, Algerian nationalists began a guerrilla war to liberate their homeland. The French leader, Charles de Gaulle, granted Algeria its independence in 1962.

Ahmed Ben Bella Leader of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) and the first president of independent Algeria. ; Beginning 1954 the FLN announced its intention to fight for independence from French rule. The French sent about half a million troops into Algeria to fight the FLN, and atrocities were committed on both sides. In the end the FLN prevailed, and Algeria gained its independence in 1962. France’s principal overseas colony, Algeria had a population of one million French colonists and nine million Arabs and Berber Muslims. After World War II, the French colonists refused to share political power with the native Algerians. The leader of the FLN, Ahmed Ben Bella, became first president of the newly independent Algeria. He attempted to make Algeria a socialist state, but was overthrown in 1965 by his army commander. From 1965 until 1988, Algerians tried unsuccessfully to modernize and industrialize the nation. Unemployment and dissatisfaction with the government contributed to the rise of religious fundamentalism who wanted to make Algeria an Islamic state. The chief Islamic party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), won local and parliamentary elections in 1990 and However, the ruling government and army refused to accept the election results. As a result, a civil war broke out between Islamic militants and the government. The war continues, on and off, to this day. Closure Question #1: Why do you think revolution swept so many African nations following their independence from European rule? (At least 1 sentence)

Mobutu Sese Seko Ruler of Zaire (Also known as Congo) from 1965 to 1997; Mobutu came to power following years of civil war following the granting of independence to the Congo by Belgium, its previous colonial ruler. Mobutu maintained control through a combination of force, one-party rule, and gifts to supporters, withstanding several armed rebellions. Of all the European possessions in Africa, one of the most exploited was the Belgian Congo. Belgium had ruthlessly plundered the colony’s rich resources of rubber and copper. In addition, Belgian officials ruled with a harsh hand and provided the population with no social services. They also had made no attempt to prepare the people for independence. Not surprisingly, Belgium’s granting of independence in 1960 to the Congo resulted in upheaval. After years of civil war, an army officer, Colonel Joseph Mobutu, later known as Mobutu Sese Seko, seized power in For 32 years, Mobutu successfully withstood several armed rebellions. He was finally overthrown in 1997 by rebel leader Laurent Kabila after months of civil war. Shortly thereafter, the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. On becoming president, Kabila promised a transition to democracy and free elections by April Such elections never came. By 2000 the nation endured another round of civil war, as three separate rebel groups sought to overthrown Kabila’s autocratic rule. In January 2001, a bodyguard assassinated Kabila. His son, Joseph Kabila, took power and began a quest for peace. IN 2002, the government signed peace deals with rebel groups and neighboring countries. In 2006, Kabila was elected president under a new constitution. Closure Question #2: How did the way in which European colonialists carved up Africa in the 1800s lead to civil strife in many new African nations? (At least 1 sentence)

Closure Question #3: Why do you think that the United States and the Soviet Union participated in Angola’s civil war? (At least 1 sentence) To the southwest of Congo lies Angola, a country that not only had to fight to gain its freedom but to hold itself together after independence. The Portuguese had long ruled Angola and had no desire to stop. When an independence movement broke out in the colony, Portugal sent in 50,000 troops. The cost of the conflict amounted to almost half of Portugal’s national budget. The heavy cost of fighting, as well as growing opposition at home to the war, prompted the Portuguese to withdraw from Angola in 1975. Almost immediately, the Communist-leaning MPLA declared itself the new nation’s rightful government. This led to a prolonged civil war, as various rebel groups fought the government and each other for power. Each group received help from outside sources. The MPLA was assisted by some 50,000 Cuban troops and by the Soviet Union. The major opposition to the MPLA was UNITA, to which South Africa and the United States lent support. For decades the two sides agreed to and then abandoned various cease-fire agreements. In 2002 the warring sides agreed to a peace accord, and the long civil war came to an end.

Closure Assignment #9 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 34, Section 3: Why do you think revolution swept so many African nations following their independence from European rule? (At least 1 sentence) How did the way in which European colonialists carved up Africa in the 1800s lead to civil strife in many new African nations? (At least 1 sentence) Why do you think that the United States and the Soviet Union participated in Angola’s civil war? (At least 1 sentence)

Anwar Sadat / Golda Meir
Anwar el-Sadat – Egyptian President following the death of Nasser in 1970; Angered by the Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank, el-Sadat and Syrian leaders organized a surprise attack on Israel in Though initially successful, the Egyptian army was pushed back and would have been destroyed were it not for a UN-negotiated cease-fire. Golda Meir – Israeli Prime Minister during the Yom Kippur War. Born in Kiev, Russia, Meir’s family moved to Wisconsin when she was a young girl. She moved to Palestine prior to World War II and served as Israel’s first diplomat to the Soviet Union before being asked to serve as Prime Minister in 1969. On October 6, 1973 (the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur), Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack against Israel. Golda Meir, Israel’s prime minister, had little time to mobilize troops. For the first two days of the Yom Kippur War, Israel was on the defensive. Then the tide turned. Israeli forces pushed into Egypt, trapping Egypt’s Third Army. A UN-negotiated cease-fire on October 22 saved the Egyptian army from destruction. An agreement in 1974 officially ended the conflict, but the dispute over the occupied territories remained. Meanwhile, however, the war was having indirect results in Western nations. In 1960, several Arab oil-producing states had formed OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to control the price of oil. During the Yom Kippur War, some OPEC nations announced large increases in the price of oil to foreign countries. The price hikes, coupled with cuts in oil production, led to oil shortages and serious economic problems in the West. Closure Question #1: Why is the Middle East important to the global economy? (At least 1 sentence)

PLO / Yasir Arafat Yasir Arafat – Political leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a group which believed that only the Palestinian Arabs should have a state in the Palestine region. Arafat lead a terrorist movement called al-Fatah which, during the 1980s and 1990s, launched attacks on Israeli territory. In 1964 the Egyptians took the lead in forming the PLO to represent Palestinian interests. The PLO believed that only the Palestinian Arabs should have a state in the Palestine region. At the same time, a guerrilla movement called al-Fatah, headed by the PLO political leader Yasir Arafat, began to launch terrorist attacks on Israeli territory. During the 1980s, Palestinian Arabs, frustrated by their failure to achieve self-rule, grew more militant. Finally, in the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993, Israel and the PLO agreed that the PLO would control a semi-independent area. In return, the PLO recognized the Israeli state. In 1994 Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty. This treaty made Jordan the second Arab nation, after Egypt, to recognize Israel. Even with these changes, little progress was made toward Palestinian statehood. Some Israelis did not want to give up the occupied territories, and some Palestinians did not accept the state of Israel. In the wake of the Palestinian rejection of a proposal offered by Israel at a meeting arranged by President Clinton at Camp David in 2000, a second intifada erupted and has continued. Suicide bombings in the heart of Israel led to Israeli reoccupation of significant areas of the West Bank that had been largely controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Nonetheless, a sign of progress emerged in 2003 – the Israeli cabinet formally accepted the principle of a Palestinian state.

Camp David Accords Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt which was facilitated by American President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and signed in The Accords ended 30 years of hostilities between Egypt and Israel and became the first signed agreement between Israel and an Arab country. For his role in the negotiations, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. In November 1977, just four years after the Yom Kippur war, Anwar Sadat stunned the world by extending a hand to Israel. No Arab country up to this point had recognized Israel’s right to exist. In a dramatic gesture, Sadat went before the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and invited his one-time enemies to join him in a quest for peace. Sadat emphasized that in exchange for peace Israel would have to recognize the rights of Palestinians. Furthermore, it would have to withdraw from territory seized in 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. U.S. President Jimmy Carter recognized that Sadat had created a historic opportunity for peace. In 1978, Carter invited Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to Camp David, the presidential retreat in rural Maryland. Isolated from the press and from domestic political pressures, Sadat and Begin worked to reach an agreement. After 13 days of negotiations, Carter triumphantly announced that Egypt recognized Israel as a legitimate state. In exchange, Israel agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. While world leaders praised Sadat, his peace initiative enraged many Arab countries. In 1981, a group of Muslim extremists assassinated him. However, Egypt’s new leader, Hosni Mubarak, has worked to maintain peace with Israel.

Intifada / Oslo Peace Accords
Intifada – Uprising; During the 1980s Palestinian Arabs led an uprising in the territories on the West Bank which had been controlled by Israel since The intifada took the form of boycotts, demonstrations, attacks on Israeli soldiers, and rock throwing by unarmed teenagers. Oslo Peace Accords (1993) – In secret talks conducted in Norway, Israel and the PLO agreed that the PLO would control a semi-independent area in Palestine in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, beginning with the town of Jericho. One Arab group that continued to clash with the Israelis was the Palestinians, a large number of whom lived in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – lands controlled by Israel. During the 1970s and 1980s, the military wing of the PLO conducted a campaign against Israel. Israel responded forcefully, bombing suspected rebel bases in Palestinian towns. In 1982, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in an attempt to destroy stronghold in Palestinian villages. The Israeli’s became involved in Lebanon’s civil war and were forced to withdraw. In 1987, Palestinians began to express their frustrations in a widespread campaign of civil disobedience called the intifada. Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, agreed to grant the Palestinians self-rule under the Oslo Peace Accords. The difficulty of making the agreement work was demonstrated by the assassination of Rabin in He was killed by a right-wing Jewish extremist who opposed concessions to the Palestinians. Rabin was succeeded as prime minister by Benjamin Netanyahu, who had opposed the Oslo Accords. Still, Netanyahu made efforts to keep to the agreement. In January 1997, Netanyahu met with Arafat to work out plans for a partial Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Closure Question #2: Why do you think all the Israeli-Palestinian accords ultimately have failed? (At least 1 sentence)

Transcaucasian Republics
The nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia which lie in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian seas. These nations gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Each has struggled economically and are some of the poorest countries in the world. For thousands of years, the different peoples of Central Asia suffered invasions and domination by powerful groups such as the Mongols, Byzantines, Ottomans, and finally the Communist rulers of the Soviet Union. While such occupation brought many changes to this region, its various ethnic groups worked to keep alive much of their culture. They also longed to create nations of their own, a dream they realized in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the decade since then, however, these groups have come to know the challenges of building strong and stable independent nations. In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, and the republics that it had conquered emerged as 15 independent nations. Among them were those that had made up the Soviet empire’s southern borders. Geographers often group these new nations into two geographic areas: The Transcaucasian Republics and the Central Asian Republics. Since gaining independence these nations have struggled economically. Much of the problem stems from their heavy reliance on the Soviet Union for economic help.

Central Asian Republics
Five nations located east of the Caspian Sea and extending to the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains. They are Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyztan. Under Soviet rule in the region farmers were required to grow cotton. Dependence on this single crop has hurt the development of a balanced economy in these nations. However, today these nations are working hard to tap their large reserves of oil and natural gas while diversifying their economies. Fighting among various ethnic and religious groups has created another obstacle to stability for many of the newly independent countries of Central Asia. The region is home to a number of different peoples, including some with long histories of hostility toward each other. With their iron-fisted rule, the Soviets kept a lid on these hostilities and largely prevented any serious ethnic clashes. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, however, long-simmering ethnic rivalries erupted into fighting. Some even became small regional wars. Such was the case in Azerbaijan. Within the mostly Muslim country lies Nagorno-Karabakh, a small region of mainly Armenian Christians. In the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, the people of this area declared their independence. Azerbaijan had no intention of letting go of this land, and fighting quickly broke out. Neighboring Armenia rushed to aid the Armenian people in the district. The war raged from 1991 through 1994, when the two sides agree to a cease fire. As of 2007, the status of Nagorno-Karabakh remained unresolved.

Mujahideen / Taliban Mujahideen – Afghan opposition forces to the Soviet-supported communist government of Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1979 the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan to put down the Mujahideen rebellion. Afghan rebels used the land and guerilla tactics to their advantage and, with financial assistance from the United States, succeeded in pushing Soviet forces out in 1989. Taliban – Conservative Islamic group which gained control of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Soviet-Afghan War. While the Taliban brought order to Afghanistan, it also applied extreme interpretations of Islamic law to nearly every aspect of Afghan society. Taliban leaders kept women from going to school or holding jobs and banned everything from television to modern music. The Taliban also provided refuge to terrorist groups, allowing Al Qaeda to establish training camps within its borders. Closure Question #3: Some historians call the Soviet-Afghan war the Soviet Union’s “Vietnam”. What do they mean by this reference? Do you agree with it? (At least 1 sentence)

Closure Assignment #10 Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 34, Section 4 and 5: 1. Why is the Middle East important to the global economy? (At least 1 sentence) 2. Why do you think all the Israeli-Palestinian accords ultimately have failed? (At least 1 sentence) 3. Some historians call the Soviet-Afghan war the Soviet Union’s “Vietnam”. What do they mean by this reference? Do you agree with it? (At least 1 sentence)

Restructuring the Post-War World and Colonies Become New Nations

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Restructuring the Post-War World and Colonies Become New Nations

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