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Cold war china us and soviet relations
The role and responsibilities of China and the former Soviet Union in the Korean War
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A – Plan of the Investigation
The Chinese intervention in the Korean War was game changing during the Cold War and pivotal to the North Korean victory. Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, over 300,000 “Chinese People’s volunteers” were sent to the battlefield in Korea by the Peoples’ Liberation Army to fight for its communist ally. Its impact was immediately shown as the US troops were driven back beyond the 38th parallel. To determine how did Sino-American tension prior to 1951 trigger the Chinese intervention during the Korean War, the research of this assessment examines the rise of Mao and his ideology in Communist China, the prewar Sino-American tension, China and America’s stances towards the Korean War, and the threat from General MacArthur and USA that directly caused China to intervene.
Word count: [125]
B – Summary of Evidence
Rise of Mao Zedong and his ideology
• After the Communists came to power, a division among the leadership occurred for China’s standpoint in the Cold War. Liu Shaoqi favoured the USSR and Zhou En-lai favoured the USA; Mao Zedong decided to lean towards the USSR.
• In June-August 1949, Liu, who represented Mao, had a secret meeting with Stalin in Moscow. They agreed on China’s primary duty would be the promotion of the “Eastern Revolution”, while the Soviet Union would remain the center of international proletarian revolution’.
• With severe opposition from the Western power, Mao’s China viewed the ‘norms of international relations’ were of Western origins and inimical to revolutionary China.
• Mao introduced the ‘intermediate zone’ theory during late 1940s. He claimed that China would act collaboratively with the ‘oppressed people in the ‘intermediate zone’ to prevent any persecution from the Western imperialist power. Mao emphasized China’s view of national independence and proclaimed its insistence
Mao Zedong will forever live on history as a revolutionary, not only in China but across the globe. There are very few communist nations today because of the many difficulties of having a homogenous population, which shares the same ideals. Mao was able to modernize and re-socialize his citizens in a short amount of time. He defined himself as the face of change in China. Mao’s vision of equality for all Chinese citizens has still not been achieved but it is well on its way. The only question lies in, does the end justify the means.
After seven year war with Japan, China experiences an eruption of the long simmering civil war. The China civil war was the war between the China Nationalist and China Communist. “Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of Nationalist China and Mao Tse-tsung was the leader from revolutionary communist” (Sledge xix). American soldier involved in this war to support China Nationalist and defeat the China Communist. American wanted secure North China from the communist party. Moreover, American also wanted to secure the region from Japanese. In fact, civilian were welcoming American came to their country and they had a perception that American soldiers were the hero. It was because American successful defeat Japan, then th...
The Korean War changed the face of American Cold War diplomacy forever. In the midst of all the political conflict and speculation worldwide, the nation had to choose between two proposed solutions, each one hoping to ensure that communism didn?t sweep across the globe and destroy American ideals of capitalism and democracy. General Douglas MacArthur takes the pro-active stance and says that, assuming it has the capability, the U.S. should attack communism everywhere. President Harry Truman, on the other hand, believed that containing the Soviet communists from Western Europe was the best and most important course of action, and that eliminating communism in Asia was not a priority.
The Korean War , although successful in preventing the spread of communism, was one of the first tests of communism in Asia. North Korea was strictly communist while South Korea was democratic. As usual, the United States supported democratic South Korea and the Truman Doctrine was applied to the Korean situation. The North Korean forces crossed the dividing line (38th parallel) and invaded South Korea. Thus, they provoked a war over communism. With the possibility of democratic South Korea falling to the communistic North, the U.S. stepped in and supplied aid mostly through troops. The U.S. then urged the United Nations to support South Korea and fight against the communist North. Once the North Korean forces were defeated at Inchon, they eventually got pushed back to the 38th parallel. However, against President Truman’s word, American General MacArthur decided to keep pushing back the North Korean forces by crossing the dividing line. This caused more trouble because the People’s Republic of China (Communist China) now sent troops to aid the communists against the pro...
Tucker, Spencer C., Jinwung Kim, Michael R, Nichols, Paul G. Pierpaoli, Priscilla Roberst, and Norman R. Zehr, eds. Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Vol. I. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Print. 89-90.
No one could have realized that what seemed as an insignificant gesture to partake in training South Vietnamese armies and America’s involvement in Southeast Asia would one day have the impact it did on America. Although at the time when Eisenhower was trying to stop of the spread of communism it seemed the right thing to do, the repercussions of that decision and the war it eventually led to was devastating to America politically, socially, and culturally.
U.S. participation was centered on America’s foreign policy at the time. Although the War did not break out until June of 1950, several conflicts brewed over the attempt to take over the entire nation under one rule for several years after World War II. The majority of these conflicts took place at the 38th parallel where Korea was split. Decisions influenced by President Harry S. Truman and his doctrine, which was essentially the policy to contain the spread of communism, gave the United Nations an opportunity to prevent global domination through communism (“Teaching with Documents”). The fear of international communism from the powers of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China was the main reason that caused the United States to intervene.
Mao was under the impression that Communism was so perfect that intellectual criticism would not be hurt, but benefit the attitudes in the country. This was a major chan...
During World War I, the Japanese tried to claim and influence Chinese territory which pushed the Chinese to want to build a stronger nation. A civil war arose between the Nationalist Party led by Jiang Jieshi and the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong as to who would be able to govern China. “Mao’s land reforms and his promise of equality, as well as his military victories, led the Communists to power in 1949” (Cayton 653). This victory was also possible because the Communists were helped by North Koreans who supplied materials and men. The Chinese promised that if the North Koreans were to ever go to war with South Korea that they would help. The Chinese Civil War ended up creating a communist China led by Mao Zedong which would end up expanding Communism into Korea.
In the 1950s, after the Word War II, modern conservative movement emerged in the U.S. This conservative movement blended the elements of libertarianism and traditional conservatism. However, many historians have associated the emergence of the modern conservative movement with the New Deal. One of the most important elements of the conservative movement in 1950s is that it was an anti-communist group. This was experienced in the 1950s when North Korea, which embraces communism, attacked South Korea. Truman, who was the president at that time, tried liberate South Korea by force without obtaining the approval of the congress. Instead, he obtained approval from the United Nations. This made republicans to strongly criticize the war as well as the policies that were being employed by Truman. In additio...
Zheng, Wang. “‘State Feminism’? Gender and Socialist State Formation in Maoist China.” Feminist Studies 31, No. 3 (Fall 2005): 519-551. JSTOR. Accessed October 14, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20459044.
...of communist ideas. Americans saw communism as the ultimate “evil” and capitalism as the ultimate “good.” And so began the second Red Scare. The Red Scare gave way to the communist witch hunts of the McCarthyism era. China had become communist after a revolution in 1949 by leader Mao Zedong who established the Peoples’ Republic of China. The “fall” of China to communism caused the U.S to become even more suspicious of people of Chinese descent as being spies out to sabotage the U.S.
This essay will concentrate on the comparison and analysis of two communist figures: Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party in China, and Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. The main focus of this paper will be to explore each figure’s world view in depth and then compare and contrast by showing their differences and similarities. Joseph Stalin was a realist dictator of the early 20th century in Russia. Before he rose to power and became the leader of the Soviet Union, he joined the Bolsheviks and was part of many illegal activities that got him convicted and he was sent to Siberia (Wood, 5, 10). In the late 1920s, Stalin was determined to take over the Soviet Union (Wiener & Arnold, 1999).
Since the initial warming of U.S.-China relations in the early 1970’s, policymakers have had difficulty balancing conflicting U.S. policy concerns in the People’s Republic of China. In the strange world of diplomacy between the two, nothing is predictable. From Nixon to Clinton, presidents have had to reconcile security and human rights concerns with the corporate desire for expanded economic relations between the two countries. Nixon established ties with Mao Zedong’s brutal regime in 1972. And today Clinton’s administration is trying to influence China’s course from within a close economic and diplomatic relationship.
Rosenberg, William G., and Young, Marilyn B. Transforming Russia and China: Revolutionary Struggle in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.