how effectively did the us contain the spread of communism Flashcards
1
Q
korean war
A
1948- republic of south korea
1948- communist democratic peoples republic north korea
- both believed they should run the country
- truman wanted support of the UN as it would look better to the rest of the world
- truman wanted UN to call on north korea to remove their troops
- US in a powerful position to influence its decisons
- USSR boycotting UN so their claim was invalid
2
Q
korean war october 1950
A
- UN forces land and pusan and inchon
- push North korea back to 17th parallel
3
Q
korean war october 1950
A
- mcarthur quickly achieves the un target
- wants to go into north korea
- UN agree
- pushes to border with china
- mao says if he goes any further china will join in the war
4
Q
korean war novmeber 1950
A
- UN forces retreat
- 200,000 chinese troops join north korea. soldiers committed to communism and hated americans
- modern soviet tanks and planes
- pushed back to south korea
- worst conditions they’d ever seen
- chinese used to this; rugged mountains; swamps; ravines
5
Q
korean war march 1951
A
- macarthur and truman fell out
- mcarthur wanted to carry on the war
- he was ready to invade china
- truman believed saving south korea was good enough
- risks of attacking china too great
- mcarthur openly threatened an attack on china
- in april truman removed mcarthur from his position as commander
- accepting he could not drive the communists out of korea
6
Q
june 1951
A
- fighting reached stalemate at 38th parallel
- peace talks begin
- two more years of fighting
- large civilian casulties
7
Q
july 1953
A
- 1952 truman replaced by eisenhower who wanted to end the war
- stalin’s death in 1953 made china and north korea less confident
- armistice signed
- border the same
8
Q
how did the usa react to the cuban revolution
A
- economic sanctions
- us stopped trading with cuba and refused cuban raw materials
bay of pigs invasion: - planned under eisenhower took place under kennedy
- airstrikes would take out air bases
- 1400 troops would land on a beach at night in the bay of pigs
- paratroopers would be dropped to distract transportation
- smaller force would land to the east to create confusion
- would all march on havanna with cuban exiles gaining support
9
Q
why did the bay of pigs invasion fail
A
- castro knew of it
- air strikes missed targets- american support for the invasion was revealed
- many killed or captured- used the captured as propaganda
- very few cubans joined the invasion
- 20,000: 1400
- no control of the skies
10
Q
cuban missile crisis day 1
A
- nuclear ss4 missiles found on cuba
11
Q
cuban missile crisis day 2
A
- ex comm formed
- discussed options for cuba
12
Q
cuban missile crisis day 3
A
- soviets didn’t know that america knew of the missiles
- kennedy didn’t want to bomb cuba but military did
13
Q
cuban missile crisis day 4
A
kennedy meeting with foreign secretary
said they were only defensive
kennedy liked the idea of a blockade
14
Q
cuban missile crisis day 5
A
- kennedy wanted to keep secrecy
- meeting with joint chiefs who wanted air strike
15
Q
cuban missile crisis day 6
A
discussed air strike or blockade; liked blockade
16
Q
cuban missile crisis day 7
A
- blockade only option
- air strike not 100% effective; too many casulties;
- not an act of war
- press know but are secret
17
Q
cuban missile crisis day 8
A
- america ready for cuban attack; DEFCON 3; kennedy sent speach to krushchev ( saying they were offensive weapons)- krushchev said they were only defensive weapons
18
Q
cuban missile crisis day 9
A
- quarantine put in place 500 miles outside cuba
19
Q
cuban missile crisis day 10
A
- soviet ships advance towards quarantine
- american ships prepared to fire
- pulled back
20
Q
cuban missile crisis day 11
A
- kennedy doesn’t back down
- exchange might take place
- soviet tanker let through; some missiles are fully operational
21
Q
cuban missile crisis day 12
A
- krushchev wants to declare that the ships are not carrying arms and that america won’t invade cuba
22
Q
cuban missile crisis day 13
A
- U2 shot down
- krushchev said in the first letter that he’ll remove his missiles if the us remove the quarantine
- second letter- rremove missiles from cuba if us remove theirs from turkey
- kennedy replied to 1 st letter
23
Q
cuban missile crisis day 14
A
krushchev agrees
24
Q
outcomes for USSR
A
+ive:
- showed krushchev as a peacemaker
- kept cuba communist
- usa had to withdraw missiles from turkey
- ive:
- forced to back down
- military humiliated
- no impact on missiles gap; huge financial cost
- krushchev remove from power 1964
25
outcomes for US
+ive:
- improved kennedy's reputation
- stuck to what he wanted
- managed to trade missiles in turkey eventhough nato's allies were unhappy about this
- Ive
- cuba communist
- trade and economic restrictions in cuba
- exposed the to criticism from allies; Britain said itwas unreasonable for the USA to complain about missiles in cuba when they had missiles in Turkey
26
vietnam war background
1939- under french rule
1941- japanese rule- local population starved
1945- vietminh (communist) replace french and japanese
1945- french in control of south vietnam
america assisted countries opposed to communism
27
geneva agreement
- vietnam spli
- north communist
- south capitalist
- vietminh would withdraw from the south and the french from the north
- date for elections fixed for july 1956
28
strategic hamlet programme
- diem tried to gain support by taking peasants away from areas where the NLF was strong
- aimed to stop villagers helping communists
- moved to an area protected by vietnamese soldiers
- peasants had to pay government officials for building materials and barbed to protect their houses
- these items were provided for free by the US
- NLF did not starve amd weren't cut off from the peasants
- some were already in the village
- peasants became supporters because of the way they were treated
29
increasing american involvement in vietnam
1954- US prevent elections as they feared the communists would win
1955- americans set up republic of south vietnam
- supported diem with around $1.6 billion in 1950s
1960- NLF in south vietnam formed (vietcong)
1962- kennedy sends military personnel to help the south vietnamese army
1963- kennedy assassinated
- lyndon johnson
- more committed to full scale conflict
1964- north vietnamese patrol boats fire on US ships in the gulf of Tonkin
1965: operation rolling thunder
- 3,500 US marines, combat troops come ashore at da nong
30
vietcong tactics
- won support of villagers
- ambush south vietnamese or american patrol and capture or kill them
- set booby traps or plant bombs on known patrol routes
- built network of tunnels- weapon stores, sleeping quarters, kitchens, hospitals
- developed supply routes from north vietnam called the ho chi minh trail
- travelled light
- soviet AK 47- reliable
31
american tactics
- travelled with huge backpack
- gun unreliable
operation rolling thunder:
- did not bomb major cities in north vietnam; ddi not want intervention of USSR
- hoped that North Vietnam would back down once they had felt the might of the US. did not happen
-blanket bombing
- more bombs dropped than on germany in WW2
search and destroy:
- helicopters carried a small number of US troops for suprise attacks on vietcong controlled villages
- fast helicopters gave vietcong little warning
- every home in the village was searched, if any sign of vietcong the village was completely destroyed
chemical warfare napalm: bomb that exploded and showered voctims with napalm that stuck to the skin and burned at 800 C
- agent orange- destroyed undergrwth leaving only bare trees
- caused cancer
- 400,000 people died
- 500,000 children born with a birth defect
32
tet offensive
january 31st 1968- viet cong attack saigon
3am - vietcong soldiers storm radio station to tell people to rise up against the south vietnamese government
vietcong attacked american embassy
many casulties
33
consequences of the tet offensive
- short term communist failure
- viet cong embassy showed that the us were far from victory
- us military victory; 30,000 vietcong killed, they never recovered from the loss
- north vietnamese official admitted it was a failure
- north vietnam started peace talks
- american public anti- war- shocked by footage of civilian casulties aand the fighting in saigon. meant to be an american stronghold
- american public want war to be ended as soon as possible
- congress refused request for 200,000 more troops
- lyndon johnson stepped down; nixon in
- cronkite influenced americans
- shocked at the brutality- didn't want to support this behaviour
34
my lai massacre march 1968
- charlie company started a search and destroy mission
- told the my lai area contained many vietcong
- told they should kill everyone in the village
- 300-400 people died
- most people killed were old men, woman and children
- first seen as success but an american soldier told life magazine something dark and bloody had happened
- many officers were charged
- american public found out
35
kent state university
- 4 white middle class americans were shot dead
- went against the right to protest
- vietnam war could not be won
- students were the age group dong the fighting and they protesting against it
36
ending the war in vietnam
- nixon elected
- worked to end us involvement
- USSR and china improved relations with US
- started handing responsibility for the war to south vietamese
- 400,000 US troops left vietnam by 1971
- peace negotiations started
- nixon increased bombing campaigns to show he wasn't weak
- 1973 troops left vietnam; signed peace treaty
- fell to communists within two years
- communists invade saigon
- communists had won
