Similarities Between Communism And Communism

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Topical Question #4 (Communism) When communism eventually made its way to East Asia, it grew to have a noteworthy grasp within China and Vietnam. However, how both of these countries have taken communism under their wing is not the same, though there are some similarities. Both countries initially wanted communism for much of the same reasons, yet took different paths in how they became communist. This was due in large part to how the international world, in particular, the United States and the Soviet Union, responded to these two country’s development in the bipolar world during the Cold War. Once communism was firmly established, how each country transcended its country into its current form was almost identical. In order to understand …show more content…

After France’s humiliation in WWII, it tried to reclaim its colony of Vietnam. This would be to no avail. During the war, Japan had assimilated Vietnam into its empire as France had laid helpless to defend its territory. The United States would become heavily involved in Vietnam’s affairs as the U.S. foreign policy of containment was fully enacted. In the a statement of the U.S. Policy toward Indochina in 1948 it specifically states that “our long-term objectives are to eliminate so far as possible Communist influence in Indochina and to see installed a self-governing nationalist state which will be friendly towards the United States”. Given the state of the fragile country and due to the split between the interests of Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and the U. S., it was eventually decided that the country, like Korea, would be split into a communist North and a democratic South in 1954. However, this agreement, unlike Korea, was not meant to be a permanent solution. Two years later, the country would hold free elections. On the ballot, the Vietnamese people would decide which governmental system they wanted, democracy or communism. Unfortunately, the elections did not occur as the south realized that it was clearly obvious that the state wanted to be communist. In the aftermath of the failed election, the Vietnam War began. This war would last for about two decades until the North finally …show more content…

One of his most well-known policies, The Great Leap Forward would cost the lives of approximately twenty million Chinese. The most important reason behind this endemic was that the state moved to collectivize all the land within the country . Private property no longer existed. An example of this is how the government forced the elderly man to kill his ducks, despite the fact that he needed them to survive, as they were considered private property in Liang Heng’s story. In Mao’s China, the name of the game became who was in good standing with the communist party and who was not. In this highly politicized world, not only did the average citizen have to struggle economically to survive, but also politically. This game was heightened exponentially during Mao’s Cultural Revolution as struggle meetings, public execution, and house raids became the new norm in an impossible attempt to rid the country of impurity and rightist thought . In, contrast, the totalitarian society Mao had created was not the norm in Vietnam. Vietnam was more concerned with making its entire state communist and all of its energy was focused toward that aim. An endeavor that took the North almost three decades to

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