How effectively did the United States contain the spread of communism? Flashcards
Case Study 1:
The Korean War.
For how long had Korea been ruled by Japan?
Until 1945.
How come Japan stopped ruling Korea in 1945?
At the end of the second world war the northern half was liberated by Soviet troops and the Souther half, by Americans.
What happened to North Korea?
It remained communist-controlled, with a communist leader who had been trained in the USSR, and with a Soviet-style one-party system.
What happened to South Korea?
It was anti-communist. It was not very democratic, but the fact that it was anti-communist was enough to win it the support of the USA.
Why did reunification did not seem likely?
There was bitter hostility between the North’s communist leader, Kim Il Sung, and Syngam Rhee, president of South Korea.
What happened in 1950 to this hostility?
It spilled over into open warfare. North Korean troops overwhelmed by the South’s forces. By 1950, all except a small corner of South-east Korea was under communist control.
What was president Truman determined to do?
To contain communism.
What was Korea an example of to Truman?
Korea was a glaring example of how communism would spread if the USA did nothing.
What did Truman do in relation to Korea?
He sent advisers, suppliers and warships to the seas around Korea.
What was Truman aware of when intervening in Korean affairs?
He was aware that if he was going to take military action it would look better to the rest of the world if he had the support of other countries, especially if he had the support of the United Nations. In fact, the ideal situation would be a UN intervention in the Korean war rather than an American one.
What did Truman do in relation to the UN?
He put enormous pressure on the UN security council to condemn the actions of the North Koreans and to call on them to withdraw their troops.
Why was Truman able to sway the UN?
The USA was the biggest single contributor to the UN budget and was therefore in a powerful position to influence its decisions. However, this did not mean that the USA always got its own and it would probably have failed this time except for some unusual circumstances.
What usually happened in the UN in 1950 due to the cold war atmosphere?
Each superpower always denounces and opposed the other. Normally, in a dispute such as this, the Soviet Union would have used its right of veto to block the call for action by the UN.
Why didn’t the USSR use its right of veto?
The USSR was boycotting the UN at this time over whether or not communist China should be allowed to join the UN.
What was special about this meeting?
When the resolution was passed, the USSR was not even at the meeting so could not use its veto. So Truman was able to claim that this was a UN-sponsored operation, even if Soviet newspapers and other media claimed that the decision was not valid.
What did the resolution say?
Under the resolution, the UN committed itself to using its members’ armies to drive North Korean troops out of South Korea.
How was support of this resolution shown?
Eighteen states provided troops or support of some kind. These were mostly allies of the USA and included Britain. However, by far the largest part of the UN force was American. The commander, General MacArthur, was also American.
How did the UN force advance in September 1950?
The United Nations forces stormed ashore at Inchon in September 1950. At the same time, the other UN forces and South Korean troops advanced from Pusan. The North Koreans were driven back beyond their original border within weeks.
What was the name of the original North Korean border?
The 38th parallel.
What were MacArthur (USA’s) intentions with Korea in 1950?
MacArthur had quickly achieved the original UN aim of removing North Korean troops from South Korea. But the Americans did not stop. Despite warnings from Chinas leader, Mao Tse-Tsung, that if they pressed on China would join the war, the UN approved a plan to advance into North Korea.
What happened in October 1950?
By October, US forces had reached the Yalu river and the border with China. The nature of the war had now changed. It was clear that MacArthur and Truman were after a bigger prize, one which went beyond containment. As the UN forces advanced and secured their positions, Truman and MacArthur saw an opportunity to remove communism from Korea entirely. Even Mao’s warnings were not going to put them off.
What happened in November 1950?
MacArthur underestimated the power of the Chinese. Late in October 1950, 200,000 Chinese troops (calling themselves ‘People’s Volunteers) joined the North Koreans. They launched a blistering attack. They had soldiers who were strongly committed to communism and had been taught by their leader to hate the Americans. They had modern tanks and planes supplied by the Soviet Union. The United Nations forces were pushed back into South Korea.
Why was this the outcome?
Conditions were some of the worst the American forces had known, with treacherous cold and blinding snowstorms in the winter of 1950-51. The Chinese forces were more familiar with fighting in the jagged mountains, forested ravines and treacherous swamps - as the landscape was similar to many areas of China.
What happened between Truman and MacArthur?
At this point, Truman and MacArthur fell out. MacArthur wanted to carry on the war. He was ready to invade China and even use nuclear weapons if necessary.
Truman, on the other hand, felt that saving South Korea was good enough.
Communism had been contained. The risks of starting a war that might bring in the USSR were too great, and so an attack on China was ruled out.
What happened in March 1951?
However, in March 1951 MacArthur blatantly ignored the UN instruction and openly threatened an attack on China. In April Truman removed MacArthur from his position as commander and brought him back home. He rejected MacArthur’s aggressive policy towards communism. Containment was underlined as the American policy. One of the American army leaders, General Omar Bradley, said that MacArthur’s approach would have ‘involved America in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy. Truman agreed with Bradley and was effectively returning to the policy of containment and accepting that he could not drive the communists out of North Korea.
What happened in June 1951?
Peace talks began.
Why did peace talks begin?
The fighting finally reached stalemate around the 38th parallel in the middle of 1951. Peace talks between North and South Korea began in June 1951, although bitter fighting continued for two more years.
What happened in July 1953?
Armistice.
What happened in relation to world leaders in July 1953?
In 1952 Truman was replaced by President Eisenhower, who wanted to end the war. Stalin’s death in March 1953 made the Chinese and North Koreans less confident. An ARMISTICE was finally signed in July 1953. The border between North and South Korea was much the same as it had been before war started in 1950.
What is armistice?
End to fighting.
What were the consequences of the Korean war?
There were 1.4 million casualties.
How many North Korean and Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed?
780,000
How many South Korean civilians were killed?
500,000
How many South Korean soldiers were killed?
70,000
How many American soldiers were killed?
30,000
How many other UN soldiers were killed?
4,500
What shows that the Korean war was a success for containment?
In one sense the Korean war was a success for the USA.
- The cost and the casualties were high but it showed that the USA had the will and the means to contain communism. - South Korea remained out of communist hands.
What shows that the Korean war was a failure of containment?
It showed the limits of the policy.
- The USA had to accept that North Korea remained communist.
- It also highlighted tensions among American leaders. Hardline anti-communist politicians and military leaders wanted to go beyond containment - to push back communism.
- They thought that Truman had shown weakness in not going for outright victory. More moderate politicians and commanders argued that this would not be worth the risk.
What did the Korean war show America?
That they couldn’t just send their soldiers to fight a war whenever they saw a problem. It was too expensive and it didn’t work very well. Instead, American policy focused on two other methods of containment.
What were the methods of containment?
- Alliances with anti-communist countries.
- Building more powerful nuclear weapons.
What were the alliances created by the USA?
The USA created a network of anticommunist alliances around the world: SEATO in South East Asia and CENTO in Central Asia and the Middle East. The USA gave money, advice and arms to these allies. In return, the leaders of these countries suppressed communist influence in their own countries.
What did the USSR think about these alliances?
The USSR saw these alliances as aggressive. They accused the USA of trying to encircle the communist world. In 1955 the Soviet Union set up the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, better known as the WARSAW PAcT. This included the USSR and all the communist east European countries except Yugoslavia.
What had the USA done in 1945?
They had developed their first atomic bomb.
What did the USA do upon having developed this new weapon?
They did not share the secret of their bomb with the USSR, even while they were still allies. When the USA dropped the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, 70,000 people were killed instantly. The awesome power of the explosions and the incredible destruction caused by the bombs made Japan surrender within a week. It was clear to the USA that atomic bombs were the weapons of the future. Just threatening to use such weapons could help contain communism.
What effect did this have on the USSR?
The same was clear to the USSR! The result was an ARMS RACE to build ever more powerful weapons and to place them where they could best threaten your enemy.
This was to prove a key factor in our next case study: the Cuban Missile Crisis.
What is the dictionary definition of the Cold War?
The conflict that ran from 1946 - 1989 between the USA and the USSR and their various allies. They never fought each other but used propaganda, spying and similar methods against each other. Also sponsored other countries in regional wars.
Case study 2:
The Cuban Missile crisis.
What were the origins of the Cuban Missile crisis?
- The arms race and nuclear deterrence.
- The Cuban revolution.
- Enter Fidel Castro.
- The USA responds.
- ‘The Bay of Pigs’ invasion.
- The impact of the invasion.
For how long did the arms race last?
Through the 1960s the USA and the USSR were locked in a nuclear arms race.
What did both sides do during the arms race?
Each side developed ever bigger, more deadly and more flexible weapons. They both spent vast amounts of money on new weapons.
How did the USSR spy on the other side (USA) to steal technological secrets?
The USSR tended to use spies.
How did the USA spy on the other side (USSR) to steal technological secrets?
The USA favoured hi-tech spying such as the U2 plane - a plane which flew so high it couldn’t not be shot down but took incredibly detailed photos of the ground.
What did each side do in terms of nuclear bombs?
Each side perfected nuclear bombs that could be launched from submarines or planes. Both sides developed ICBM’s, which could travel from continent to continent in half an hour.
What did the USA do with their nuclear weapons?
The USA placed short-range nuclear weapons in Turkey (one of their CENTO allies).
What happened by the end of 1960?
Both sides has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other side.
Who had more more nuclear weapons?
The USA had more than the USSR.
Was having more nuclear weapons very advantageous for the USA?
The advantage did not really matter because both sides had enough to destroy each other many times over.
Why did both sides continue making weapons then?
On each side the theory was that such weapons made them more secure.
What was this ideology built upon?
The fact that it was a nuclear deterrent.
What did the nuclear deterrent mean?
The nuclear deterrent meant the enemy would not dare attack first, because it knew that, if it did, the other would strike back before it’s bombs had even landed and it too would be destroyed.
What did this policy of being scared of the nuclear deterrent mean?
This policy also became known as MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).
How did the policy of MAD make sense?
Surely no side would dare strike first when it knew the attack would destroy itself too.
Where is Cuba?
Cuba is a large island just 160km from Florida in Southern USA.
Was Cuba an ally of America?
It had long been an American ally.
How were Cuba and America correlated?
Americans owned most of the businesses on the island and they had a huge naval base there.
Whats a diagram of America’s naval base in Cuba?
Who was the Cuban ruler?
General Batista.
What did America do in terms of General Batista?
The Americans provided him with economic and military support.
What kind of ruler was Batista?
He was a dictator.
Was General Batista popular?
His rule was corrupt and unpopular.
Since General Batista was unpopular, why did America support him?
The Americans supported Batista primarily because he was just as opposed to communism as they were.
Was Batista just unpopular in Cuba?
No, there was plenty of opposition to Batista in Cuba itself.
What did Cubans do to get rid of General Batista?
After a three year campaign, Fidel Castro overthrew Batista.
What year did Castro overthrow Batista?
In 1959.
What were the characteristics that Fidel Castro possessed?
Castro was charming, clever, and also ruthless.
Why was Fidel Castro referred to as rutheless?
He quickly killed, arrested or exiled many political opponents.
In the end, why did Castro win?
He was very charismatic and had a better vision for Cuba, which won over the majority of Cubans.
Did the USA expect Castro to come to power?
No, they were taken by surprise at first and decided to recognise Castro as the new leader of Cuba.
What were the relations like between Castro and the USA?
Within a short period of time, relations between the two countries grew worse.
What were the two reasons as to why the relations between the two countries become worse?
- There were thousands of Cuban exiles in the USA who had fled from Castro’s rule. They formed powerful pressure groups demanding action against Castro.
- Castro took over some American-owned businesses in Cuba, particularly agricultural businesses. He took their land and distributed it to his supporters among Cuba’s peasant farmer population.
How did the USA respond to Castro’s uprise?
As early as June 1960, US president Eisenhower authorized the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to investigate ways of overthrowing Castro.
What did the CIA do in terms of Cuban exiles?
The CIA provided support and funds to Cuban exiles.
What else did the CIA do?
It also investigated ways to disrupt the Cuban economy, such as damaging sugar plantations.
What did the American businesses in Cuba do?
American companies working in Cuba refused to co-operate with any Cuban businesses that used oil or other materials which had been imported from the USSR.
How did America publicly show their disagreement with Fidel Castro’s uprise?
The American media also broadcast a relentless stream of criticism of Castro and his regime.
How did Castro respond to the USA’s hostility?
With a mixed approach.
What is the one side in which Castro responded to the USA’s hostility?
He assured Americans living in Cuba that they were safe and he allowed the USA to keep its naval base. He said he simply wanted to run Cuba without interference.
What is the other side in which Castro responded to the USA’s hostility?
However, by the summer of 1960 he had allied Cuba with the Soviet Union.
How did this alliance of 1960 show?
Soviet leader Khrushchev signed a trade agreement giving Cuba $100 million in economic aid. Castro also began receiving arms from the Soviet Union.
Were Americans aware of this?
American spies knew this.
What happened in January 1961?
The USA’s new president, John F Kennedy, broke off diplomatic relations with cuba.
What are diplomatic relations?
How countries discuss issues with each other. Breaking off diplomatic relations can sometimes be a first step towards war.
What impression did Castro have of the USA after they broke off diplomatic relations?
Castro thought that the USA was preparing to invade his country.
Was Castro right?
He was right.
Why did Kennedy no longer want to have diplomatic relations with Cuba?
Kennedy was no longer prepared to tolerate a Soviet satellite in the USA’s ‘sphere of influence’.
Did Kennedy then go and invade directly?
No.
What did Kennedy do instead of a direct invasion?
Instead President Kennedy put into action a plan that had been devised under Eisenhower.
What did Kennedy (The USA) do in this plan?
He supplied arms, equipment and transport for 1400 anti-Castro exiles to invade cuba intending to overthrow castro.
What happened in April 1961?
The exiles landed at the Bay Of Pigs.
Who were the Cuban exiles funded and trained by in the Bay Of Pigs invasion?
Cuban exiles were funded and trained by the CIA and supported by US air power.
Who had come up with the Bay Of Pigs invasion?
The plan was originally devised by president Eisenhower’s government but Kennedy approved it when he became president. Training began in April 1960. The invasion took place on April 17 1961.
Was the arrival of the exiles a surprise to the Cubans?
Cuban security services knew that the invasion was coming.
What was a large misconception held by the US intelligence, proving the Bay Of Pigs invasion to be a massive failure?
The invasion was a complete failure. US intelligence, which states that Cuban people would rebel against Castro, proved to be wrong.
What were the three main reasons for the failure of the Bay Of Pigs invasion, as identified by extensive investigations?
- Lack of secrecy so that USA could not deny its involvement.
- Poor links between various US departments.
- Failure to organise resistance inside Cuba.
- Insufficient Spanish-speaking staff.
Was the invasion a success?
The invasion failed disastrously.
What resistance did the exiles meet upon their arrival?
They were met by 20,000 Cuban troops, armed with tanks and modern weapons. Castro captured or killed them all within days.
What impact did the invasion have on Cuba and the Soviet Union?
The half-hearted invasion suggested to Cuba and the Soviet Union that, despite its opposition to communism in Cuba, the USA was unwilling to get directly involved in Cuba.
What did Khrushchev think of the USA after the Bay Of Pigs invasion?
The Soviet leader Khrushchev was scornful of Kennedy’s pathetic attempt t oust communism for Cuba.
What is believed about the Bay Of Pigs invasion in terms of strength?
Historians argue that the Bay Of Pigs invasion further strengthened Castro’s position in Cuba. It suggested to the USSR that Kennedy was weak. It also made Castro and Khrushchev very suspicious of US policy.
What are the characteristics of the October crisis?
- Khrushchev arms Castro.
- The US discovers nuclear sites.
What happens after the Bay Of Pigs invasion?
Soviet arms flooded into Cuba.
What happened in May 1962?
The Soviet union announced publicly for the first time that it was supplying Cuba with arms.
What had happened by July 1962?
By July 1962, Cuba had the best-equipped army in Latin America.
From July and onwards how did Cuba continue to grow in terms of their military?
By September it had thousands of Soviet missiles, plus patrol boats, tanks, radar vans, missile erectors, jet bombers, jet fighters, and 5000 Soviet technicians to help maintain the weapons.
How did Americans feel about this?
The Americans watched all this with great alarm.
What were the USA ok with?
They seemed ready to tolerate conventional arms being supplied to Cuba.
What were the USA worried about?
But the big question was whether the Soviet Union would dare to put nuclear missiles on Cuba.
Did Kennedy believe that the Soviet Union would put nuclear weapons in Cuba?
In September Kennedy’s own Intelligence Department said that it did not believe the USSR would send nuclear weapons to Cuba.
Why did Kennedy believe that the Soviet Union wouldn’t put nuclear weapons in Cuba?
The USSR had not taken this step with any of its satellite states before and the US Intelligence Department believed that the USSR would consider it too risky to do it in Cuba.
What are the satellite states?
State that is controlled by a larger state, e.g Eastern European states controlled by the USSR after the Second World War.
What did Kennedy do on the 11 September?
Kennedy warned the USSR that he would prevent ‘by whatever means might be necessary’ Cuba becoming an offensive military base - by which, everyone knew, he meant a base for nuclear missiles.
What did the USSR do in response to Kennedy’s statement from 11 September?
The same day the USSR assured the USA that it had no need to put nuclear missiles on Cuba and no intention of doing so.
What happened on Sunday 14 October 1962?
An American spy plane flew over Cuba.
What did this spy plane do?
It took amazingly detailed photographs of missile sites in Cuba.
Why was this shocking?
Despite the USSRS reassurances that they did not intend to provide nuclear missiles to Cuba, they were found by American spy planes.
What were the two obvious things to military experts?
- These were nuclear missile sites.
- They were being built by the USSR.
What happens over the next two days?
More photo reconnaissance followed over the next two days.
What did these photos prove?
This confirmed that some sites wee nearly finished but others were still being built.
Did all the sites have missiles?
Some were already supplied with missiles, others were awaiting them.
Were there any ready missile sites?
No, but the experts said that the most developed of the sites could be ready to launch missiles in just seven days.
What else did American spy planes observe?
American spy planes also reported that twenty Soviet ships were currently on the way to Cuba carrying missiles.
What is an image of the map which shows the location of Cuba and the range of the Cuban missiles?
What happened on Tuesday 16 1962?
President Kennedy was informed of the missile build-up. Ex Comm formed.
What happened on Saturday 20 1962?
Kennedy decided on a blockade of Cuba.
What happened on Monday 22 October 1962?
Kennedy announced the blockade and called on the Soviet Union to withdraw its missiles.
What happened on Tuesday 23 October 1962?
Kennedy received a letter from Khrushchev saying that Soviet ships would not observe the blockade. Khrushchev did not admit the presence of nuclear missiles on Cuba.
What happened on Wednesday 24 October 1962?
The blockade began. The first missile-carrying ships, accompanied by a Soviet submarine, approached the 500-mile (800-km) blockade zone. Then suddenly, at 10.32 a.m., the twenty Soviet ships which were closest to the zone stopped or turned around.
What happened on Thursday 25 October 1962?
Despite the Soviet ships turning around, intensive aerial photography revealed that work on the missile bases in Cuba was proceeding rapidly.
What happened on Friday 26 October 1962?
Kennedy received a long personal letter from Khrushchev. The letter claimed that the missiles on Cuba were purely defensive, but went on: ‘If assurances were given that the USA would not participate in an attack on Cuba and the blockade was lifted, then the question of the removal or the destruction of the missile sites would be an entirely different question’. This was the first time Khrushchev had admitted the presence of the missiles.
What happened on Saturday 27 October 1962 in the morning?
- Khrushchev sent a second letter - revising his proposals - saying that the condition for removing the missiles from Cuba was that the USA withdraw its missiles from Turkey.
- An American U-2 plane was shot down over Cuba. The pilot was killed.
The President was advised to launch an immediate reprisal attack on Cuba.
What is an image that shows Vietnam in the mid 1960’s and the Ho Chi Min trail?
What is an image of a graph showing escalating US involvement in Vietnam from 1960-1974?
