Aim: Why did the superpowers see the world through a Cold War “ lens? ” Were all communist parties and nations proxies of the Soviet Union? Were all capitalist nations proxies of the United States? Case Studies: China, Korea, Vietnam

Stalin and Mao Chinese postage stamp

“ Mao Zedong Thought ”

Japan had occupied both Korea and Vietnam

At Dien Bien Phu (1954), the French were forced to surrender to the Vietnamese At the Geneva Conference (1954), the French and Vietnamese agreed that a national election would take place in 1956

Toward the “ 2nd ” Vietnam War In the meantime, the Vietnamese forces were to withdraw to the north, the French to the south Anti-communist Vietnamese followed the French south. The American government refused to abide by the Geneva agreement. It created and supported a government in the south, which refused to hold elections

Toward the “ 2nd ” Vietnam War Were there many anti-communist Vietnamese? Yes… But the CIA ’ s report to President Eisenhower said that Ho would win fair and free national elections. Beginning in the early 1960s, the US had to provide military forces to the government of the South… By 1968, there were 500,000 US troops in Vietnam.