THE COLD WAR IN ASIA

CHINA and KOREA

Essential Question:What impact did the spread of communism into Asia have on the Cold War?

The Cold War was a conflict of rival ideologies between the USA and

USSR that lasted from 1945 to 1991

Early in the Cold War from 1945 to 1949, the focus of the conflict was on Europe

The United States used the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and NATO to successfully

contain communism in Europe

Beginning in 1949, however, containment seemed to fail as communism spread to

China, Korea, and Vietnam in Asia

For almost 2000 years, China was

the world’s most dominant empire because of trade along

the Silk Road and the power of the ruling dynasties

In the 1600 and 1700s, European nations became powerful,

began exploring, and claiming colonies

The Industrial Revolution in the 1700s and 1800s made Europe the center of power in the world

Europeans used imperialism to control Africa and Asia

Britain won the Opium Wars and claimed trade rights in China

By 1900, China was weak and divided into spheres of influence

In 1912, Sun Yat-sen ended the Chinese dynastic system and created a

democracy called the Republic of China

A group of reformers called nationalists called for changes

But, the republic did not modernize China and led to an

era of chaos

In the 1920s, nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek

took over and ran China as a

dictatorship

Meanwhile, communism

was growing in China under

the leadership of Mao

Zedong

Mao’s Communist Party gained popularity

among poor peasants by offering to

redistribute land from wealthy

warlords

From 1930 to 1949, Nationalists and Communists fought in a bloody civil

war for control of China

From 1930 to 1949, Nationalists and Communists fought in a bloody civil

war for control of China

From 1930 to 1949, Nationalists and Communists fought in a bloody civil

war for control of China

When World War II began and Japan attacked China, Chiang and Mao agreed

to a truce from 1937 to 1945

After World War II was over and Japan was no longer a threat, the Nationalists and Communists continued their conflict

Communists gained support and began to win control of China

In 1949, the Communists won the Civil War and Mao created the Peoples’ Republic of China

The three “revolutionary” Communists Karl Marx Vladimir Lenin Mao Zedong

Chiang’s government

fled China and set up in Taiwan

The USA was shocked when

China fell to communism

and only recognized the Nationalists as the legitimate government of

China

Mao was determined to reshape China’s economy based on Marxist socialism

He seized land from the rich and divided the land among the

poor peasants

Mao followed Stalin’s example by creating collective farms

and a Five Year Plan to improve Chinese industry

Mao’s “Great Leap

Forward”In 1958, Mao began a massive program to increase agriculture

and industry called the

“Great Leap Forward”

Millions of Chinese citizens

were sent to work on large

collective farms to grow food

Image of a “People’s Commune”

“Backyard furnaces” to make iron

Other citizens were required to work on massive

industrial projects like

making iron and steel or building

dams and railroads

“Struggle hard for three years. Change the face of China. Catch up with Britain

and America.”-Mao, 1958

Mao’s Great Leap Forward started well…

…but, it required forced labor and led to terrible suffering by millions of Chinese citizens

Even when informed of

massive shortages of grain, Mao

pressed on with industrializing China, using

brutal violence and terror to

force the people to do what Mao

wanted

The Great Leap Forward was a failure and led severe food shortages,

famine, and poor-quality industry

Mao’s indifference

to his people’s

suffering and the famine caused the

deaths of as many as 45

million Chinese people

Mao looked for another way to maintain control over China

Mao ended the Great Leap Forward after three years

Mao’s “Cultural

Revolution”

After the failure of the Great Leap

Forward, Mao began the Cultural

Revolution (1966 -1976)

The goal of the Cultural Revolution was to emphasize Mao’s strict socialist ideas and

attack traditional Chinese ideas

Mao distributed to all Chinese citizens the “Little Red Book,” a book of his quotes that reinforced what was acceptable for Chinese communists

Mao targeted young people

for recruitment into his Red

Guards, a group that

protected the communist

culture of the revolution

Mao targeted young people

for recruitment into his Red

Guards, a group that

protected the communist

culture of the revolution

Mao targeted young people

for recruitment into his Red Guards, a group that

protected the communist

culture of the revolution

Red Guards closed schools

and universities and burned books; they

also humiliated,

beat, arrested, and killed

people who opposed

Mao’s ideas

Red Guards closed schools

and universities and burned books; they

also humiliated,

beat, arrested, and killed

people who opposed

Mao’s ideas

Parades united citizens

The Cultural Revolution unified the

Chinese people, but also led to the deaths

or imprisonment of many thousands of

citizens

Executing teachers, politicians, critics

In 1976, Mao Zedong died and was followedby more moderate Communist leaders

Mao’s legacies are the tens of millions of deaths he caused and that China remains a Communist nation today

THE COLD WAR IN

KOREA

The fall of China to communism had a major impact on the Cold War between the USA and USSR

America’s response to

the fall of China was

to more aggressively

confront communism in

the world

The USA was afraid of a “domino effect” in which

communist nations make their neighbors fall to communism

As a result, the USA vowed to contain the spread of communism anywhere in the world

The USA acted when communism threatened Korea

After the war, Korea was divided along the “38th Parallel” with a

communist government in North

Korea and a democracy in South Korea

During World War II, Korea was liberated

from Japanese control by the U.S. Army in the

South and the Soviet Army in the North

In 1950, North Korea (using Soviet supplied weapons) crossed the

38th Parallel and attacked South Korea

When South Korea appealed to the United Nations, the USA sent

troops to fight the communist North Koreans

But, when the Americans pushed too close to China, the Chinese Army

entered the war and helped North Korea

After three years of fighting, a ceasefire was agreed to in 1953, the Korean War stopped, and the “38th Parallel” was restored as the boundary

between North and South Koreas

The USA successfully stopped

communism from spreading into

South Korea and showed that it was willing to fight to

contain communism

Today, Korea remains divided

between acommunist North and a democratic

South

The fighting in Korea convinced many nations

to not choose a side during the Cold War

These “neutral” countries during the Cold War were known as the

“non-aligned nations”

While Korea was a success, the Cold War would escalate in the 1950s and 1960s as communism

threatened Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America

Revamped and redone by

Christopher Jaskowiak

Thanks to Brooks Baggett for several of the slides