1. COLD WAR IN ASIA

2. CHINA’S COMMUNIST REVOLUTION
Mao Zedong led Communist forces against Nationalists
Emerged victorious
How?
Won over the peasants (majority of population)
Nationalist policies hurt economy
Conquered city after city

3. CHANGING CHINESE SOCIETY
Collectivization-forced pooling of peasant land and labor in an attempt to increase productivity
Great Leap Forward ( )
Establish communes (commonly owned & operated farms/communities)
Goal-increase farm/industry output
FAILURE

4. THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Goal (1966)-purge China of bourgeois tendencies
Red Guard-young Chinese revolutionaries who led purge
Any bourgeois beaten or killed
Skilled workers/managers sent to manual labor camps
Schools & factories closed
Another MASSIVE FAILURE

5. CHINA-COLD WAR WILD CARD
China goes Communist in 1949
Huge gain for Soviets, huge loss for U.S.
Not for long!
Split from Soviet Union (1960)
Distrust & conflict over territory dating back hundreds of years

6. KOREAN CONFLICT Conquered by Japan during WWII
U.S. & Soviet Union decided to split the country at the 38th Parallel
North Korea-ruled by Kim Il Sung (Communist), backed by Soviet Union
South Korea-ruled by a dictator
North invades, China assists & U.S. gets involved---STALEMATE
1953-Armistice signed, troops remained dug in at the demilitarized zone (DMZ)

8. COMMUNISM IN EAST ASIA
Ho Chi Minh- leader of Communist forces in Indochina
Led guerrilla fighters in overthrow of the French (1954)
Vietnam divided by U.S. & Soviet Union into North & South
North-Communist
South-Democratic

10. COMMUNISM IN EAST ASIA Ho Chi Minh aided the Viet Cong
Communist rebels attempting to overthrow South Vietnamese government
U.S. declares war against Vietnam ( )….why?
Domino Theory-one Southeast Asian country falls to Communism, others will follow

11. VIETNAM WAR
( )
Guerrilla War- War fought in jungles, Viet Cong had the upper hand
Traditional army can’t cope with guerrilla tactics (parallel to American Rev/Modern Wars)
Local villagers sympathized w/Viet Cong, helped them
Made civilians military targets----atrocities committed
Tet Offensive-North Vietnamese forces launched massive raids during Vietnamese New Year
Militarily not a success, but turned public opinion against the war in the U.S.

12. VIETNAM WAR-PUBLIC OPINION
No more body bags
Television footage of burned villages
Young People leading mass demonstrations in the streets
“I want to get out, but I don’t want to give up”
Military didn’t lose, the public did
American forces withdraw, and within months South Vietnam is crushed by North Vietnamese forces
Some dominoes fell, but not as bad as we thought

13. COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
Command Economy stagnated while the West blossomed
Massive military budgets, space race, building nuclear weapons bankrupted the Soviets
They could no longer keep up with the United States
soviet-union/videos/the-fall-of-the-soviet-union

14. SOVIET UNION’S VIETNAM--AFGHANISTAN
1979-Soviets became involved in lengthy war in Afghanistan
Soviet-supported Afghan gov’t tried to change, but regional landlords revolted
Mujahedin-Muslim religious warriors fought the Soviet forces
American government smuggled modern weaponry to mujahedin
Russian left, defeated & U.S. abandoned the mujahedin

16. MIKHAIL GORBACHEV Came to power in 1985
Economy in the tank, Army stuck in Afghanistan
Reform!
Glasnost-”openness”; ended censorship, encouraged people to discuss gov’t problems openly
Perestroika- restructuring of the government & economy

17. REFORMS FAIL Too much, too fast
Shortages, higher prices, higher unemployment
Eastern European countries split from the U.S.S.R., claiming their independence & then the remaining republics declared independence
Berlin Wall falls, November 9, 1989
Soviet hard-liners attempted to overthrow Gorbachev, but they failed and Gorbachev resigned
By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist