5. How effectively did the USA contain the spread of communism? Flashcards

1
Q

What was Domino Theory?

A

Once one country fell to communism, its neighbors will soon follow and eventually reach America

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2
Q

What led to the Korean war?

A
  • Before the end of WW2, Japan controlled Korea
  • After that, the USSR liberated the Northern half and the USA liberated the south
  • North was communist, South was anticommunist
  • Reunification wouldn’t happen bc the leaders hated each other
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3
Q

Why did Truman get involved in the Korean War?

A
  • Sun June 25 - He’s sneak attacked Korea! We must defend it at all costs!
  • MUST DESTROY USSR THREAT
  • Thought it was an attack on all of Asia
  • Wants ‘peace loving nations’ to join together
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4
Q

What happened during the beginning Korean War?

A
  • June 28 1950 - 80,000 soldiers→SK, take Seoul and most of South Korea
  • Truman sends advisers, supplies, and warships to seas around Korea but doesn’t do anything military-wise bc it would look better if the UN did it
  • Truman pressured the UN security council to condemn the actions of the North Koreans
  • UN uses members’ armies to drive North Korean troops out of South Korea (mostly Americans - MacArthur was the commander)
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5
Q

Why was the UN able to support US troops in the Korean War?

A

Normally the USSR would have been able to use its veto, but it was too busy boycotting the UN for not letting China join, so although the US was able to claim that this was a UN backed decision, Soviet propaganda claimed that it was invalid.

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6
Q

What development with the Korean War happened in September 1950?

A
  • UN force advances - storms Inchon. North Koreans driven back beyond og border (38th parallel) within weeks
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7
Q

What development with the Korean War happened in October-November 1950?

A

Americans keep going into North Korean territory - China’s leader warms them to stop because they’re getting pretty close to China, but MacArthur and Truman wanted to fully kick communism out of North Korea. Then China sent 200,000 soldiers to fight the Americans and sent them back to SK - not only that, the Americans were worse at fighting in the conditions

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8
Q

What happened during the end of the Korean war?

A
  • April 1951 - MacArthur was sacked for openly threatening to invade China with nuclear weapons - Truman said no and went back to containment
  • Peace talks/stalemate in June 1951 - Armistice in 1953. Truman and Stalin were replaced with Eisenhower and Khrushchev, and the border went pretty much right back to where it started.
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9
Q

Consequences of the Korean War

A
  • 1.4 million dead - 30,000 americans, 70,000 South Koreans, 4,500 other UN soldiers, 500,000 South Korean civilians, 780,000 North Korean and Chinese soldiers and civilians
  • Showed USA had the means to contain communism with SK
  • Showed that USA had to accept NK’s communism
  • Highlighted tensions among US leaders - fight communism vs containment
  • NK becomes a communist dictatorship
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10
Q

1959 - How did the US respond to Fidel Castro and communist rebels taking over Cuba?

A

Did nothing - Cuba was 160km from the USA, but it wasn’t important to the US at the time, and the old leader might have been worse than Castro

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11
Q

What were the 2 main methods of doing containment?

A

Building alliances, developing more powerful weapons

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12
Q

How did the US use alliances for containment?

A

SEATO in Southeast Asia, CENTO in Central Asia and the Middle East - USA gave money, advice, and arms, while the leaders suppressed communist influence in their own countries - USSR saw it as aggressive and trying to encircle the communists - also helped lead to Warsaw Pact

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13
Q

How did the US use nukes for containment?

A

Destructive power of nukes meant the US could threaten to use them to get whatever they wanted - including containing communism. Helped lead to arms race, and threats of using the nukes was pretty clear in the Cuban Missile crisis.

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14
Q

1960 - How did the US react when Castro’s communist government took over US property and kicked out those who were loyal to the USA plus American companies?

A

Eisenhower stopped buying Cuban sugar and stopped exporting goods to Cuba (like oil)

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15
Q

June 1960 - how did the US react to Castro getting the USSR to buy Cuban sugar and promising to sell Cuba oil and sending 100 million dollars and arms to Cuba?

A

Kennedy and Eisenhower (Eisenhower according to the Textbook) authorized the CIA to help solve the problem and got the media to start dissing the communists (saying they “sold out to premier Khrushchev of the communists”)

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16
Q

April 1961 - How did the US interpret the CIA’s invasion plan for Cuba?

A

January 1961 - diplomatic relationships broken off
Kennedy sent in 1400 anti-Castro ex-Cuban exiles trained by the CIA to invade Cuba - wrong answer. It was the Bay of Pigs invasion and an absolute disaster - defeated by 20,000 Cubans in 2 days.

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17
Q

Why did the Bay of pigs invasion fail?

A
  • Lack of secrecy - US couldn’t deny involvement
  • Poor links between various US departments
  • Failure to organize resistance against Castro inside Cuba
  • Insufficient Spanish speaking staff
18
Q

1962 - How did the US react to Castro asking Khrushchev to help him defend Cuba against future attacks, and Khrushchev sending arms (nuclear and/or conventional) to Cuba?

A

The US started sending U2 spy planes (that could read a newspaper from 14 miles up) over cuba regularly - Kennedy warned Khrushchev not to send the missiles and he said he wouldn’t, but in October 1962 the planes took photos of missile sites in Cuba - START OF OCTOBER CRISIS

19
Q

1962 - How did Kennedy react to his advisers saying that the sites could be ready to launch missiles in just 7 days, and that 20 Soviet ships were on their way to Cuba with missiles?

A

Kennedy put Cuba in “quarantine” - he surrounded Cuba in a ring of ships to stop Soviet ships from sailing through and missiles from reaching Cuba

20
Q

1962 - How did Kennedy respond to Khrushchev sending a letter stating that Soviet ships would break through the blockade and issuing a statement that the USSR would use nukes if the US declared war?

A

Kennedy stood his ground - he sent a letter to Khrushchev saying that the US would declare war if the ships didn’t turn around - risky but it worked

21
Q

1962 - Khrushchev sent 2 letters - when did each one come?

A

1st one - October 26
2nd one - October 27

22
Q

1962 - Khrushchev sent 2 letters. The first one said that he would withdraw his missiles from Cuba if the US promised never to invade Cuba, and the second one said he would remove his stuff from Cuba if the US took their stuff out of Turkey. Then Cuba shot down a US spy plane and advisers started demanding that the US go to war. How did Kennedy react?

A

Publicly he accepted the first letter while privately accepting the second, removing missiles and ending the conflict.

23
Q

Why did the USSR put missiles on Cuba?

A
  • To bargain with the USA
  • To test the USA
  • To trap the USA
  • To close the missile gap (alleged advantage of USSR over USA in nukes)
  • To defend Cuba
  • To strengthen his own position in the USSR
24
Q

Outcomes of Cuban Missile Crisis for USA and Kennedy

A
  • Kennedy has a great reputation for making Khrushchev back down
  • Kennedy resists hardliners in his government, weakening their case (going to war)
  • Missiles out of Turkey - NATO unhappy but better than nuclear war
  • Cuba is communist and exists
25
Q

Outcomes of Cuban Missile Crisis for USSR and Khrushchev (Kr)

A
  • Kr highlights his role as peacemaker
  • Cuba safe from American attack - also exists as valuable ally
  • Missiles out of Turkey, but it was a secret and couldn’t be used for propaganda
  • USA criticised by some allies
  • Kr forced to back down - Soviet leaders felt humiliated
  • USSR still had worse arms than USA
  • 1964 - Kr forced down from power by enemies in USSR - Cuban Missile Crisis prolly condributed
26
Q

Outcomes of Cuban Missile Crisis for Cold War

A
  • Helped thaw relations between US and and USSR - no one wanted nuclear war, so they set up the “hot line” and a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to limit nuclear tests
  • Made it clear that the USSR couldn’t match US tech or weapons but that it didn’t matter - the US still avoided confrontation because they could both destroy each other many times over
27
Q

Outcomes of Cuban Missile Crisis for Castro’s Cuba

A
  • Castro mad at deal but had to accept it bc he needed USSR support
  • Cuba stayed highly armed and communist - important base for communist operations
  • Castro kept control of US companies and economic resources he nationalised during his revolution
28
Q

When did the USSR get its first nukes?

A

1949

29
Q

What was MAD?

A

Mutually Assured Destruction - both would die if either struck - aka the nuclear deterrent

30
Q

What was the average age of (US?) conscripts in the Vietnam war?

A

19 years old

31
Q

What was Indochina?

A

Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in the early to mid 20th century

32
Q

What is an oligarch?

A

a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence (particularly with reference to ppl who benefited from the privatization of state-run industries after the collapse of the Soviet Union).

33
Q

When was the Geneva Agreement made?

A

1954

34
Q

What was the situation in Vietnam before the Vietnam-France war?

A
  • Pre WW2 - France ruled indochina
  • Japan controlled Vietnam during WW2 and treated the Vietnamese really badly
  • A resistance movement called the viet minh overthrew the Japanese and Ho Chi Minh became ruler
35
Q

Who supported who in the Vietnam-France war? Who won?

A

USA provided support in the form of $500 million to France, and China supported Vietnam. Vietnam won and France lost, leading to the Geneva agreement.

36
Q

Who made the Geneva agreement?

A

The UN

37
Q

What were the terms of the Geneva agreement?

A
  • Ceasefire
  • French get out
  • Vietnam split into North and South vietnam at the 17th parallel, a demilitarized zone between the two, until elections are figured out (voting whether or not to reunite country).
  • Elections to figure it out would be held by July 1956 (within 2 years) throughout Indochina
  • No foreign bases
  • Laos and Cambodia independent
  • Free to move between North and South vietnam for 300 days → fluxes of refugees moving north and mostly south
38
Q

How and when did the US react to the elections clause of the Geneva agreement?

A

The US stopped it from happening because of domino theory - they didn’t want all of asia to fall to communism. This showed the US’s ignorance and also their hypocritical foreign policy - they were meddling with free and fair elections. They did this in 1954.

39
Q

Who was the leader of North Vietnam? What was he like?

A

Ho Chi Minh - Communist and nationalist, but he looked after the people and respected religions. The people were devoted to him.

40
Q

Who was the leader of South Vietnam (1955)? What was he like?

A

Ngo Dinh Diem - Christian oligarch with a western education. He never connected to or supported the people, and he didn’t care about their needs or interests. He was corrupt (or “questionably democratic”) and very anti buddhism, which was a big religion in Vietnam. No one liked him except the USA, as he wasn’t communist. “We knew of no one better”.