Review Chapter 8: Post-World War II

The Cold War

When World War II came to a close, the dividing lines of Europe were once again redrawn. The Soviet Union took control of several Eastern European countries, including Poland, Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and it installed communist regimes in each. Germany was divided, with the Soviets taking the eastern half of the country, and Britain, France, and the United States sharing control of the west. The city of Berlin was also divided between the Soviets and the West. The physical division of Europe between the communist-controlled East and the democratic West led to an ideological divide commonly referred to as the Iron Curtain.

The division of Europe also led to the beginning of a showdown between the Soviet Union and the United States. Fearing the potential consequences of the further spread of communism, the United States implemented a policy of containment, wherein it offered assistance to those nations that were most at risk of falling under communist control in order to “contain” the communist threat. The standoff between the two superpowers soon evolved into the Cold War.

The Cold War was not fought on a battlefield with weapons. Rather, it was waged through propaganda, diplomacy, and espionage. The possibility of the Cold War becoming a real conflict was a constant threat, however, and a number of military alliances were forged as a contingency plan. The United States, Canada, and Western European nations joined together to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while the Soviet Union and its satellite nations allied themselves under the Warsaw Pact.

The most serious trend of the Cold War was nuclear proliferation. After the Soviets developed an atomic bomb in 1949, the United States countered by making a hydrogen bomb. This led to the mass production of nuclear weapons on both side of the Iron Curtain. With both superpowers in possession of a vast stockpile of nuclear weapons, the world hung precariously on the brink of a potentially globally devastating nuclear war.

Perhaps the most significant instance of the spread of communism came in 1949, when China came under the control of communist leader Mao Zedong. Following World War II, China was divided between nationalists and communists. Under Mao's leadership, the nationalists were defeated and forced out of mainland China to the island of Taiwan. Although communist China and the Soviet Union initially cooperated with each other, differences over political opinions soon drove the two apart.

The Korean War

Communism also spread into Korea and led to a major political split, with North Korea in the hands of communists and South Korea in the hands of a democratic government. The first major military conflict of the Cold War began in Korea on June 25, 1950, when North Korean forces crossed the border into South Korea. In response, the United Nations sent an international military force commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower to resolve the situation. Initially, the UN forces were successful in pushing the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel. Before they were able to totally defeat the North Koreans, however, China sent in a massive troop deployment to assist the North Koreans.

Seemingly deadlocked, the opposing sides were forced to agree to a cease-fire in July 1953. The terms of the agreement established a new border between the nations near the 38th parallel, with a demilitarized zone on either side of that border.

After the war, North Korea remained communist while South Korea remained democratic. Although there have been attempts to reunite the Koreas over the years since the Korean War, none has yet been successful.

The Vietnam War

One of the West's biggest concerns in the fight against communism was Southeast Asia. Many believed that if any Southeast Asian nation fell into communist hands, the rest would follow. In the 1950s no other Southeast Asian country seemed more at risk than Vietnam.

Communists first established a presence in Vietnam in the 1930s when they lent their support to Ho Chi Minh, a nationalist revolutionary who was one of the major figures in Vietnam's fight for independence from France. After a brief, self-imposed exile to avoid execution by the French, Minh returned to Vietnam in 1941 and founded the Vietminh resistance group. During World War II, Japan controlled Vietnam. When the Japanese were forced out in 1945, Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation.

In 1946 the French attempted to retake their former colony. After a war effort that lasted nearly ten years, the French were defeated. To limit the spread of communism in Vietnam, delegates at the 1954 Geneva Conference divided the country in half, leaving the north in the hands of Minh and the south under the control of an anticommunist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem, who was backed by France and the United States.

This arrangement did not play out as the West had envisioned. The land redistribution polices of Ho Chi Minh made him popular in North Vietnam, whereas the oppressive reign of Diem made him unpopular in South Vietnam. Diem's dictatorial leadership led to the formation of the Vietcong, a band of communist guerillas who operated in South Vietnam. To regain control, the United States cooperated with several South Vietnamese generals to assassinate Diem. The new government was not much more effective than Diem's had been, however, and the threat of communist invasion loomed large.

Eventually, the United States was forced to supply South Vietnam with military equipment and advisers so that they could defend themselves against communist forces if necessary. In August 1964, the United States began sending troops into Vietnam to fight the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong.

As the Vietnam War dragged on, it became increasingly unpopular among American citizens, who were shocked by the violent, graphic realities of the conflict. For the first time, the public could experience warfare firsthand through the television. Faced with increasing domestic resistance and the reality that the war in Vietnam could not be won, President Richard Nixon began to gradually withdraw the troops. The last of the American military forces left Vietnam in 1973. By 1975 the North Vietnamese had toppled the remnants of South Vietnam's government and seized control of the entire country.

The Formation of israel

One of the most significant events of the post-World War II era was the founding of Israel, the Jewish state in Palestine. The movement to establish a Jewish state in Palestinian territory, known as Zionism, originated early in the twentieth century, when the first Zionists immigrated into the region. At that time, the Ottomans controlled Palestine. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the League of Nations tasked Great Britain with governing the region until it was stable enough to become an independent state. To that end, in 1917 the British issued the Balfour Declaration, which called for the formation of an independent Jewish state and attempted to protect the rights of the Arabs who were currently settled there.

Over time tensions between the Jewish settlers and the Arabs escalated. The Arabs became particularly concerned when Jews began to enter Palestine en masse during the 1930s and 1940s to escape Nazi persecution. Once World War II came to a close, the United Nations divided Palestine and created separate Jewish and Palestinian states within its borders. The United Nations designated Jerusalem, a sacred city for both Jews and Muslims, independent. Israel officially came into existence on May 14, 1948.

Almost immediately, Israel came under fire from its neighbors. On the very next day after Israel was formed, an Arab coalition with forces from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon attacked Israel. With support from the United Nations, Israel was able to win the war, and it ultimately claimed half the land that originally had been parceled out to the Palestinians. After Jordan and Egypt claimed parts of that land as well, the Palestinians were left with virtually no land of their own. In many cases, people were forced to live in refugee camps. Hostilities between the Israelis and Palestinians have continued since that time.

IMPORTANT EVENTS IN ISRAELI HISTORY

The Fall of the Soviet union

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev realized that traditional Soviet policies of censorship and restricted civil rights were unpopular among the people. He attempted to implement reforms that not only would make the government more transparent but also would grant the people greater freedom. His policy of glasnost (“openness”) encouraged open discussion about the ways that Soviet society could be improved. His policy of perestroika (“restructuring”) was aimed to rework the economic structure to improve productivity. For many of the people under Soviet control, however, Gorbachev's reforms were insufficient. Opposition to the government continued.

The first major sign of the decline of Soviet power came in 1989, when the Soviets closed the borders of East Germany to prevent citizens from escaping to the West. East Germans began to rebel. Civil unrest continued until November 9, 1989, when officials in East Germany were forced to open the Berlin Wall, which had divided Germany's capital city since 1961. Shortly thereafter, the East German government collapsed.

The fall of communism in East Germany inspired similar revolts in other Soviet-controlled countries. Anticommunist movements and civil unrest in Eastern Europe weakened Soviet control over its satellite nations and diminished the power of the Communist Party in Russia itself. A major blow against communism came in 1991, when the Soviets elected Boris Yeltsin as president.

Looking to reassert their dominance, Communist Party officials hatched a plan to overthrow Gorbachev and launch a military attack on Parliament. When the army refused to carry out the attack, Gorbachev exited the Communist Party and Parliament officially suspended its activities. Communism in Russia had come to an end.

Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day in 1991. Yeltsin, meanwhile, disbanded the Soviet Union, replacing it with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which united Russia with a number of the former Soviet states. With the collapse of both communism and the Soviet Union, the Cold War came to an abrupt conclusion.

Review Questions

1. What is the primary reason the Soviet Union installed communist regimes in Eastern Europe after World War II?

A. To prevent the spread of democracy

B. To insulate itself from the West

C. To take control of trade in the region

D. To increase its supply of natural resources

E. To help spread communism through Europe

2. Why did the Korean War ultimately end in a stalemate?

A. Because UN forces were unable to penetrate North Korean territory

B. Because the South Korean government was not supported by the Korean people

C. Because Soviet forces threatened to enter the battle on North Korea's behalf

D. Because the Chinese entered the war and forced UN troops to retreat

E. Because the North Koreans did not have the resources to take South Korea entirely

3. In response to Ho Chi Minh's victory over the French in 1954, the Geneva Conference

A. formally condemned Ho and called for his removal

B. recognized Vietnam as an entirely independent nation

C. split Vietnam into a communist north and democratic south

D. enacted international economic embargoes against Vietnam

E. petitioned the United Nations to send troops to restore French control

4. The war that followed the formation of the Jewish state of Israel resulted in all of the following, EXCEPT

A. Israeli control of the West Bank

B. the establishment of Palestinian refugee camps

C. Israeli seizure of land intended for the Palestinians

D. Egyptian control over the Gaza Strip

E. Israeli victory over Arab forces

5. Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika was an attempt to stabilize the Soviet Union by

A. encouraging discussion about government

B. reducing political corruption

C. restructuring the economy

D. allowing more foreign trade

E. promoting the further spread of communism

Answer Explanations

1. B. The Soviet Union was primarily interested in establishing satellite nations in Eastern Europe to protect itself from any further attacks by the West. The satellite nations in Eastern Europe created a buffer zone between mainland Russia and Western Europe.

2. D. The Korean War ended in a stalemate because of intervention by China. Initially, UN forces were successful in pushing the North Koreans out of South Korea and into their own territory. The tide turned when China got involved. With a massive influx of Chinese troops, the North Koreans forced the UN army to retreat. The war ended when both sides later agreed to a cease-fire.

3. C. The Geneva Conference divided Vietnam into a communist north and a democratic south. Hoping to limit the spread of communism in the newly independent nation, the Geneva Conference divided Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel, thereby allowing Ho to maintain his communist regime in North Vietnam while installing a democratic government in the south.

4. A. Although the victorious Israelis claimed a considerable amount of land after they defeated the Arabs, they did not control the West Bank. At the conclusion of the war, the West Bank went to Jordan. Israel would not reclaim the West Bank until after the Six Day War in 1967.

5. C. Gorbachev's perestroika policy aimed to stabilize the Soviet Union through economic restructuring. By allowing the Soviet people to own small businesses and exercise more control over farms and factories, Gorbachev hoped to stabilize the state and keep communism alive.