Session 6

Question 1

Viet Minh

Answer 1

• Vietnamese, communist-led organization whose forces fought against the Japanese and the French in Indochina
• 1941 - 1951

Question 2

New Democracy

Answer 2

• reformulation of Marxism-Leninism by Mao in the late 1930s & early 1940s in which he ‘sinicized’ communism
• Argued for an alliance of classes to bring about socialism

Question 3

Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)

Answer 3

• Name of communist Vietnam
• Initially proclaimed in 1945 by Ho Chi Minh
• 1954-1975 only North Vietnam

Question 4

reverse course

Answer 4

• change of emphasis from democratization to economic reconstruction that the US introduced in its occupation of Japan
• 1947-49

Question 5

Republic of Korea (ROK)

Answer 5

• official name of South Korea

- came into existence in 1948 (under Syngman Rhee)

Question 6

neo-colonialism

Answer 6

• a colonial power grants juridical independence to a colony

- But maintains de facto political & economic control

Question 7

Non-Aligned Movement

Answer 7

• organization founded in 1961
• neutral states which called for a lowering of Cold War tensions
• wanted greater attention to be paid to underdevelopment & to the eradication of imperialism

Question 8

Bandung Afro-Asian Conference

Answer 8

• Asian & African states held in Bandung in Indonesia in 1955
• Move towards the Third World lobby

Question 9

Congo crisis

Answer 9

• civil war in Congo from 1960 to 1963
• Caused largely by the attempt of copper-rich province of Katanga to secede from Congo
• Defeated by UN force
• Scare that the dilatory UN response would lead the Congolese government to turn to the Soviet Union for support

Question 10

Group of 77 (G-77)

Answer 10

• lobbied the UN for the need to equalize the terms of trade between the developed and developing worlds
• ease access to international aid from institutions (i.e. World Bank, IMF)

Question 11

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Answer 11

• organization founded in 1960 to represent the interests of the leading oil-producing states in the Third World

Question 12

New International Economic Order (NIEO)

Answer 12

• the proposal put forward by the Non-Aligned Movement & adopted by the UN in 1974
• major changes to be made to the international trading & financial order

Question 13

Group of 7 (G-7)

Answer 13

• organization of the seven most advanced capitalist economies
• US, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, & Britain
• founded in 1976

Question 14

structural adjustment program

Answer 14

• propagated by the World Bank
• propagated in the end of 1970s
• linked the provision of development aid to Third World states to the latter committing themselves to
• balanced budgets, austerity programs, & the sale of nationalized industries & property

Question 15

Afrikaners

Answer 15

• white population in South Africa who are of Dutch descent, also known as Boers

Question 16

autarky

Answer 16

• aims at achieving national economic self-sufficiency

- commonly associated with the economic programs espoused by Germany, Italy & Japan in the 1930s & 40s

Question 17

indirect rule

Answer 17

• system whereby a colonial power delegates limited powers to indigenous institutions

Question 18

Colonies and Mandates

Answer 18

a. No universal self-determination: limits and partiality of Wilsonianism
b. Different kind of mandates (A, B, and C) according to “stages of development” and civilization
c. Alienation and radicalization of new national elites: search for alternatives
d. Transnational anti-colonial movements: pan-African and Pan-Islamic movements: effort to transcend colonial artificial boundaries
i. Article 22 – Covenant League of Nations
1. Still too underdeveloped, needed to be perfected, uplifted, contradict the basic principle of self-determination
ii. Effort to go beyond traditional colonial boundaries, propose transnational projects of emancipation
iii. Decolonization – last freed from imperial control – Africa
1. Huge transformation of the international community
a. Radical transformation of the UN General Assembly

Question 19

What was the impact of WWII on the process of decolonization?

Answer 19

a. Truly Global Conflict
i. Involvement of colonies and dominions (transformation of the relationship metropolies-colonies)
1. Example – Britain and India – India provided resources & men during WWI, balance of payments – very expensive for Britain in WWII to use India to the extent it wanted to
b. New imperial projects in the name of anti-colonialism
i. Pan-Asianism & Japan
c. Implosion Euro-centric/Euro-imperial world
d. Further emphasis/legitimization of self-determination

Question 20

Atlantic Charter (1941)

Answer 20

• strong Wilsonian language
  1. All peoples choose the form of government under which they will live
  2. Self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them

Question 21

Why did the Cold War initially hinder the process of decolonization?

Answer 21

a. Geopolitical priorities of superpowers
b. Eurocentric-conservative approach of USSR
i. Heavy focus on building a sphere of influence in central-eastern Europe
c. Focus of Europe
d. Look at difference of language between FDR and Truman
i. Out of perceived necessity – not to alienate partners

Question 22

Why was the independence of India so important?

Answer 22

i. Historical Jewel of the British Empire
ii. Economic importance but also burden
iii. Religious divisions, cleansing and communal violence
iv. Partition: India and Pakistan (problem of East Bengal)
v. Symbolic importance for soon to be “postcolonial world”: India as precedent/model/leader/risk
b. Peaceful transition did not take place, legacy of the independence of India
c. 1971 – dramatic war – creation of Bangladesh
i. Pro-Pakistan tilt of the US administration
ii. Independence of Eastern Pakistan

Question 23

Jawarhal Nehru

Answer 23

d. India as a “third way which takes the best from all the existing systems – the Russian, the American and others – and seeks to create something suited to one’s own history and philosophy”
- find a way between the two Cold War poles

Question 24

Why was the creation of the state of Israel so important?

Answer 24

a. Palestine
i. British mandate at the end of WWI with promise of establishing home for the Jewish people (Balfour declaration)
ii. Collision of two people over a land with particular religious significance (right vs. right?)
iii. British inconsistencies and clash with Jewish groups in Palestine
iv. Impact of Holocaust, but also US domestic/electoral concerns
v. Partition and War
vi. Support to the new state of both US and USSR
vii. Central problem destined to be transformed by the Cold War. Entire Israel as a “frontier”

Question 25

Arthur James Balfour

Answer 25

• foreign minister of Britain, 1917

Question 26

Why was there a globalization of the Cold War in 1949-1950 and what was its impact on the process of decolonization?

Answer 26

a. 1949-50
i. 10.1949: End of Chinese Civil War: People’s Republic of China
ii. 6.1950: Beginning of the Korean War
b. US had nuclear superiority until the 1960s

Question 27

Communist China

Answer 27

i. Symbolic Value: China as “Power in Being”
ii. Ideological defeat for the US: Tide of History
iii. Alteration balance of power in Asia & first globalization of the Cold War
1. Moving to Asia
iv. Model for less developed/post-colonial world

Question 28

Korea

Answer 28

i. Divided in two states (38th parallel)
ii. Temporary division that is frozen by the inception of the Cold War
iii. 6.1950: North Korean action and US reaction (symbolic precedent)
1. UN approved intervene – mainly US troops intervened
a. Pushed their front beyond authorization into northern portion of Korea
b. Chinese troops intervened and pushed back US/UN troops
2. US considered it an important precedent to stop communism whenever possible
iv. 11.1950: Chinese intervention (revolutionary mission + strategic concerns)
1. Soviet Union avoided due to possible clash with the US
2. First opportunity to prove its revolutionary force, support
v. 1950-1953: war and stalemate
1. 1953 – cease fire
2. Border went back to where it had been

Question 29

Why was the Korean War so important?

Answer 29

a. Permanent Division of Korea & very high number of casualties
i. Cold War not a “Long Peace”
ii. Further globalization of the Cold War & US commitment in Asia (South Korea and Taiwan)
iii. China’s prestige and influence (revolutionary credential): anticipation rift with USSR

Question 30

What was the impact of the globalization of the Cold War on the process of decolonization?

Answer 30

a. Interaction/interdependence decolonization & superpowers’ confrontation: credibility and zero-sum game
i. Eisenhower – 1954, referring to Indochina – domino effect
1. Vietnam is important for credibility
b. Stabilization of the Cold War in Europe
c. Soviet activism after Stalin’s death: less Euro-centric + Chinese Challenge
d. US divisions and liberal response
i. Max Millikan, Walt Rostow – lacks a theory of historical processes, criticism of Eisenhower administration
e. Search for third world alternatives

Question 31

The Kitchen Debate

Answer 31

• 1959

- Nixon vs. Khru

Question 32

Middle East

Answer 32

i. Importance of Suez Canal
1. Vital access
2. Passed into the hands of the Egyptians
3. Suez War
a. Britain, France attacked
ii. Pan-Arabism under Egypt’s leadership
iii. Oil

Question 33

Indochina

Answer 33

i. Betrayal of Ho Chi Minh
ii. Chinese model
iii. Post-1950: Impact of Cold War (DRV recognized by China and USSR; US supports France)
iv. Defeat of France and partition of Vietnam
1. Temporary division

Question 34

Africa

Answer 34

i. 1940: only two independent countries (Liberia and South Africa)
ii. Colonial powers well entrenched and racial assumptions
iii. Less dramatic impact of World War II
iv. 1940s: progress of industrialization and urbanization
v. Cases of Ghana (1957) and Algeria (1962): models – charismatic leaders and revolution/resistance
1. Kwame Nkrumah – vision of pan-Africanism
vi. Pan-African efforts

Question 35

Why was the conference of Bandung (1955) so important?

Answer 35

a. Countries that wanted to stay outside the binary partitions of the Cold War

Question 36

Bandung and the Movement of the Non-Aligned Country

Answer 36

a. Search for an alternative international order and political space to the Cold War bipolarism
b. Neutralism and non-alignment (1961)
c. Connection to decolonization and third-worldism
d. Very different leaders and countries: lack of cooperation and attempts to exploit Cold War (often called Third World)
i. Idea embodied by Nehru
1. Lose identity within these two big blocs

Question 37

What were the main limits and problems of the process of decolonization and its interplay in the Cold War?

Answer 37

i. Inability to form common front, despite temporary symbolic successes (UN)
ii. Necessity have access to investments/markets
iii. Cold War logics and modernization schemes

Question 38

Why was Vietnam so paradigmatic of these dilemmas and problems?

Answer 38

a. Cold War logic and external intervention
b. Interdependence and credibility
c. Unintended consequences of modernization from above
d. Resilience and radicalism
i. “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” – US Major speaking to journalist Peter Arnett, village of Ben Tre, 1968