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History CIE IGCSE > How effectively did the USA contain the spread of communism 1945-89? > Flashcards

How effectively did the USA contain the spread of communism 1945-89? Flashcards

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1
Q

What happened to North Korea after it was liberated from Japanese control in 1945?

A

Remained communist-controlled with communist style leader and soviet style one party system

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2
Q

What happened to South Korea after it had been liberated from Japanese control in 1945?

A

Was anticommunist-not very democratic but the former was enough to win support of USA

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3
Q

Who was the North Korean leader?

A

Kim Il sung

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4
Q

Who was the south korean leader?

A

Syngman Rhee

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5
Q

What was the UN resolution 84?

A
  • Truman put massive pressure on UN security council to condemn actions of NKs
  • USSR was already boycotting UN over other issue so couldn’t use their veto to block it
  • When resultion was passed Truman was able to claim it was UN-sponsored operation
  • UN commited itself to using member armies to drive NK troops out of SK

USA was biggest contributor to UN and was in a good position to influenc

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6
Q

What did Truman do when he heard that the North Koreans had almost all of Korea under control by September 1950?

A

Immediately sent advisors, supplies and warships to seas around Korea

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7
Q

What happened in June 1950?

A

On 25th June 1950 NK troops entered the south and tried to re-unite Korea by force.

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8
Q

Where was Korea divided?

A

At the 38th parallel

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9
Q

What happened from March 1951 - 53

A
  • Peace talks occured in 1951 but didn’t reach any agreements
  • President Eisenhower elected in 1953
  • Armistice signed by Chinese and NK’s in July 1953 ending war
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10
Q

How sucessful was the USA in containing communism in Korea?

A

Communism never spread past NK, and showed that the US had means and will to contain communism, however NK remained communist and allied with 2 communist superpowers.

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11
Q

How many in total were killed during the Korean War?

A

1.4 million

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12
Q

Which alliances did the USA create with anticommunist countries?

A
  • SEATO in south east asia
  • CENTO in central asia and middle east
  • USA gave money, advice and arms to these allies and in return the leaders would supress communist influence in their countries
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13
Q

What did the USSR do in response to these anticommunist alliances?

A
  • Saw them as agressive
  • Created Warsaw Pact in 1955
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14
Q

What was happening at this time concerning nuclear weapons?

A
  • USA developed first atomic bomb in 1945 and did not tell USSR
  • The power of these were demonstrated by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Resulted in arms race
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15
Q

Who was Batista?

A

Cuban dictator who was ‘propped up’ by the USA as he was very anticommunist - he was also very corrupt and unpopular

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16
Q

How did Fidel Castro become leader of Cuba?

A

In 1959 after 3 year long campaign, Castro overthrew Batista

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17
Q

Why were there nuclear tensions before the Cuban Missile Crisis?

A
  • USA and USSR spied on each other to steal tech secrets
  • Both perfected bombs that could be launched from submarines or planes
  • USA placed short range nuclear weapons in Turkey
  • By 1960 both sides had enough weapons to destroy the other

USA had more than USSR but this didnt really matter because of MAD

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18
Q

Why did Cuba worry the USA?

A
  • Communist links - in 1960 Castro aligns w USSR
  • In support, USSR gives $100 mil in economic aid
  • Arms start flooding into Cuba from USSR
  • Cuba nationalises US buisnesses
  • Cubans willingly went communist
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19
Q

What happened in Jan 1961?

A
  • JFK broke off diplomatic relations w Cuba
  • USA was planning to invade as they couldn’t tolerate a soviet satellite in their ‘sphere of influence’
  • Americans didn’t want to directly invade, so JFK supplied arms, transport and equipment to 1400 anti-Castro exiles to invade Cuba to overthrow Castro
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20
Q

What happened in April 1961?

A
  • Exiles landed at Bay of Pigs
  • Invasion failed disastrously
  • They were met by 20,000 Cuban troops armed w tanks and modern weapons
  • Castro captured and killed them all within days
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21
Q

What was the impact of the invasion of the Bay of Pigs?

A

Suggested to Cuba and USSR that USA was unwilling to get directly involved with Cuba (despite its opposition to communism there)

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22
Q

What was the October Crisis?

A
  • On Sunday 14 Oct 1962, American spy plane flew over Cuba taking photos of missile sites there
  • These were nuclear missile sites being built by USSR
  • Experts said the most developed of the sites could be ready to launch missiles in just 7 days
  • Planes also reported that Soviet ships were en route to cuba carrying nuclear warheads
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23
Q

What did President Kennedy do when he was informed of the missile sites in Cuba?

A

Decided to blocade Cuba - a ban on USSR on bringing in any more weapons

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24
Q

What are 6 possible reasons for Krushchev arming Castro?

A
  • To bargain with USA
  • To test USA
  • To trap USA
  • To close missile gap
  • To defend Cuba
  • To strengthen Krushchevs position in USSR
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25
Q

What happened after the Blocade on Cuba?

A

Kennedy and Krushchev sent letters back and forth, with assurance from Krushchev that if Americans removed their missiles from Turkey, they would remove theirs from Cuba, but no deal was reached.

26
Q

What were the last resorts of the USA to avoid nuclear war?

A

On Sat 27 October:
* American U2 plane was shot down over Cuba, pilot was killed - JFK advised to launch immediate reprisal attack
* Robert Kennedy went to see Soviet ambassador with the deal that if the soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, the Americans would soon secretly remove theirs from Turkey
* The soviets accepted the deal and both sides were true to their word

27
Q

Why was the accepting of Robert Kennedy’s deal by the soviets significant?

A

Krushchev agreed not to use military power in Cuba, demonstrating his desire for military peace with the USA

28
Q

How did Cuba affect Kennedy and USA?

A
  • Positive overall
  • JFK angered NATO (esp France)
  • US secret back out –> made US look stronger
  • Kennedy disproved critics in his own government
  • Cuba is still communist though
29
Q

How did Cuba affect Krushchev and USSR?

A
  • Overall negative
  • However there are positive aspects e.g. USA looked agressive
  • Secret deal in Turkey made Krushchev look weak –> partly why he fell from power in 1964
  • Chinese furious and Castro also upset
30
Q

How did Cuba affect Castro’s Cuba?

A
  • Little change but overall positive
  • Lost missiles and there was trade blocade and Castro upset by deal
  • Stayed strongly communist and maintained close links to USSR
  • Castro continued to be popular
31
Q

How did Cuba generally affect the cold war?

A
  • Overall positive: tensions loosened
  • Reality of nuclear weapons shown –> steps to avoid this put in place e.g. hotline and limits to nuclear testing
  • Krushchev and USSR embarassed - could’ve caused problems
  • China distance themselves from USSR
32
Q

Who had Vietnam been ruled by before WW2 and then during the war?

A

France, Japan

33
Q

Who were the Viet-Minh?

A

Anti-Japanese resistance movement that emerged under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh

When WW2 ended, Viet Minh entered Hanoi and declared Vietnam independant

34
Q

What happened from 1949?

A
  • From 1949 Ho was supported by China after becoming communist
  • By this point USA was concerned about communist threat in Vietnam and poured $500 mil a year into French war effort
35
Q

What did the USA do in reaction to the elections that were taking place to re-unite Vietnam?

A

In 1954 they prevented the elections from taking place - concerned about the reality of domino theory in the region

36
Q

Who was Diem?

A
  • Ngo Dinh Diem was final prime minister of Vietnam who was anti-communist
  • His regime was very unpopular with the Vietnamese people
37
Q

How much money did the USA give to Diems regime throughout the 1950’s?

A

$1.6 billion

38
Q

When was Diem assasinated?

A

November 1963 in a coup led by members of his own military

39
Q

Who were the Viet Cong?

A

Included South Vietnamese opponents of government and large numbers of communist north vietnamese taking orders from Ho

40
Q

How did US involvement in Vietnam escalate?

A

By 1962 JFK was sending military personel (‘advisers’) to help the south vietnamese, but still didn’t want to get fully involved in the war, but when he was assasinated in 1963, Lyndon Johnson was more prepared to commit the USA to stopping the spread of communism even if this meant a full scale conflict

41
Q

What was the Golf of Tonkin incident?

A
  • In Aug 1964 NK patrol boats open fired on US ships in gulf of tonkin
  • In response LBJ ordered bombing of Northern naval bases and passed the Tonkin Gulf resolution which gave LBJ power to use ‘all necesary measures’ to prevent further attacks
42
Q

What was operation rolling thunder?

A

In Feb 1965 US started Operation Rolling Thunder - gigantic bombing campaign against NV cities, factories, army bases and Ho Chi Minh trail (continued for 3 yrs)

43
Q

What is Guerilla warfare (GW)?

A strength of the Viet Cong.

A

Avoiding big battles and using hit and run raids:
- Guerillas didn’t wear uniform - made it hard to tell them apart from villagers
- No known base camp or headquarters
- Worked in small groups and after an attack would disappear into jungle

44
Q

How did the Viet Cong keep the support of the civilians?

A strength of the VC

A
  • VC fighters were respectful and courageous to Viet peasants and helped them in the field during busy periods
  • However they were also prepared to kill peasants who opposed them
  • Conducted ‘campaign of terror’ against SV police, tax collectors, teachers and other employees of the gov
45
Q

How did the Ho Chi Minh trail help the VC?

strength of the VC

A
  • VC depended on supplies coming from NV that came along the Ho Chi Minh trail
  • US and SV planes bombed it constantly but 40,000 viets worked to keep it open at all costs
46
Q

4 problems with it…

How was the US search and destroy tactics a weakness?

Weakness of the USA.

A

Was launched by US commander to combat GW,
however there were many problems:
- Raids often based on inadequate info
- Inexperienced US troops often walked into traps
- Innocent villages were mistaken for VC strongholds and for every VC weapons caputured, there was a body count of 6
- These tactics made the US and sv forces v upopular with the peasants (pushed them towards supportinf Vc)

47
Q

How were chemical weapons a weakness for the USA?

A
  • Agent Orange was highly toxic weedkiller sprayed from planes to destroy jungle where the VC hid
  • Napalm was also a widely used chemical weapon which destroyed jungles where guerillas might hide, but also burned skin to the bone
  • Many civilians and soldiers were also killed or harmed by these
48
Q

How was conscription and morale a weakness for the USA?

A

From 1967:
* Many soldiers were young men who had never been in an army before (average age of troops was 19!)
* Conscripts knew little about Vietnam and some cared little about democracy or communism -just wanted to get home alive, while VC were fighting for their country and a cause they believed in
* Morale was often v low among troops so to tackle this problem, generals introduced a policy giving troops just 1 yr of service which backfired as the soldiers gained experience just as they were sent home

49
Q

What was the Tet offensive?

A

In early 1968 during New Year Holiday, VC fighters attacked over 100 cities and other military targets and one VC unit tried to capture the US embassy in Saigon and USA soldiers had to fight to regain control room by room - around 4500 VC fighters tied down a much larger US and SV force in Saigon for 2 days.

50
Q

How was the Tet Offensive a turning point for the war?

A

It raised hard questions in the USA about the war:
- There were nearly 500,000 troops in Vietnam and USA was spending $20 billion on the war per year so why were communist forces able to take them by surprise?
- US and SV forces quickly retook towns captured in the offensive but in the process they used enormous amount of artillery and air power –> many civilians were killed as well as an ancient city

51
Q

What was the peace movement in the US and why was it significant?

A
  • War was draining money that could be used for better purposes at home (but were not closer to winning war)
  • Racial inequality of drafting exposed
  • Many Americans felt unconfortable about what was happening there
52
Q

What did Nixon do when he was elected in Nov 1968?

A

From 69-73 he and Henry Kissinger (National security advisor) worked to end USA involvement in Vietnam, but didn’t want to hand it to communists so instead:
* He introduced ‘Vietnamization’ of the war effort
* From early 1969 Kissinger had regular meetings with chief vietnamese peace negotiator
* Nixon at the same time increased bombing against NV to show Vietnam he was not weak

53
Q

What was ‘Vietnamization’ of the war effort?

A

Started handing responsibility to SV troops and withdrawing US troops - this soon failed as the SV army was weak and lacked initiative.

54
Q

What was the significance of the anti-war protests?

A
  • In first half of 1968 there were over 100 demonstrations against Vietnam
  • In Nov 1969 almost 700,000 antiwar protestors demonstrated in Washington DC - largest political protest in US history
55
Q

What was the My Lai massacre?

A
  • In March 1968, unit of American soldiers called Charlie Company started search and destroy mission - had been told that there was Viet Cong headquarters and about 200 VC guerillas and and that most of village would have left for the market as it was saturday
  • On morning of 16th March, they arrived in My Lai and in the next 4 hours 300-400 civilians were killed (mostly women, children and old men) but no Viet Cong were found.
56
Q

What was the investigation and aftermath of My Lai?

A
  • Soon after, Life magazine published photos of the massacre, which triggered an investigation that ended in a trial for mass murder of Lieutenant William Calley (as well as 10 other officers) and in Sept 1969 he was charged with murdering 109 people
  • Was deeply shocking to the US people and displayed the bloodiness and unecesary civilian killings that were going on

Willaim Calley only neded up serving less than 3 yrs in prison!

57
Q

What did LBJ decide after the Tet offensive?

A

He concluded that the war could not be won militarily and started negotiating peace with the communists.

58
Q

What happened in Paris?

A

In Jan 1973 all parties signed a peace agreement and by 29th March the last US forces had left Vietnam

59
Q

Which neighbouring countries did communism ‘spread’ to after Vietnam?

A

By 1975, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were all communist

60
Q

What are 3 reasons as to why Vietnam could be seen as a failure for communism?

A
  • Military failure
  • Strateigical failure
  • Propaganda disaster
61
Q

What happened in June 1950?

A

On 25th June 1950 NK troops entered the south and tried to re-unite Korea by force.

62
Q

When and why did China enter the Korean War?

A

-They repeatedly warned that unless the US pulled out, they would enter the war
-US ignored the warning, so Chinese forces entered the war in October 1950

History CIE IGCSE (8 decks)

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