Chapter 8: Foreign affairs Flashcards
What was the vietnam war (begun 1955) ?
Vietnam was divided into a communist north and a non-communist south - US supported non-communist south against the Northern Viet Cong rebels - war ended in 1975 when US withdrew and viet cong took over the whole country - war was highly controversial
How did Wilson respond to the Vietnam war?
resisted any direct military action - gave moral support without military support
- wanted to maintain the Atlantic alliance but the war was very unpopular in Britain so he risked losing political support if he was too supportive of it
- Britain also could not afford military action (BUT wilson needed support of US to prevent devaluation)
- caused anger - US wanted greater backing, labour supporters wanted the US to be condemned
What was Wilsons attitude towards joining the EEC?
What were the opinions of those in the labour party?
prefered the atlantic alliance and links with the commonwealth - 1967 - decides to put forward another application but De Gaule vetos this again
- Labour left (Barbara Castle and Michael Foot) - believe the EEC is capitalist and will prevent socialist policies being put in place
- Roy Jenkins and George Brown - europhiles
What was the withdrawal east of suez?
- Minister of Defence Denis Healey wants to cut Britains military expenditure (to under £2 billion) - overseas military bases are expensive
- Britain is to withdraw its military bases in all states to the east of Suez - Aden, Malaysia, Singapore
What happened in Rhodesia 1963-1964?
- 1963 - federation of Rhodesia is dissolved into three states
- 1964 - Zambia and Nyasaland gain independence but Southern Rhodesia does not due to white minority regime in power
- Ian Smith became prime minister - refused to grant equal voting rights to the natives - Wilson tried oil sanctions (big oil companies openly ignored the sanctions) and negotiations but none of these worked - independence of Rhodesia remained a problem
