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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: The Chinese Revolution

As the Indian subcontinent gained independence, monumental changes were occurring in the most populated nation of the world, China.

• Events in China were considered by many as part of the Cold War struggle.

In 1927, the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, launched a campaign to eradicate the Chinese communists.

• Thousands were executed and the remnants of the Communist Party, led by Mao Tse-tung, fled to Hunan province in the interior.

• Mao rebuilt the party and the communist army and designed his policies to appeal to the peasantry.

• He promised to seize land from the landowners and give it to the peasants.

In 1930, Chiang's Kuomintang forces renewed their attack of Mao's People's Liberation Army.

• The PLA was reduced to a force of 100,000 and in 1934 retreated to northern China. The Long March was a 6,000 mile journey in which the PLA was constantly under attack by Kuomintang forces. Only 20,000 people survived the Long March when it ended at Yenan in October 1935.

The war against Japan temporarily delayed the final confrontation between the two forces.

• In July 1937, Japan launched a massive invasion of China. They had already occupied Manchuria.

• An uneasy alliance between the Kuomintang and communists was formed.

• During the war against the Japanese the PLA was active and was able to liberate large areas of northern China from Japanese control.

• In liberated regions, the peasantry was given land. The reputation of the PLA rose during the war.

• By the end of the war, Mao's forces controlled large sections of northern China.

Renewed Civil War

Following Japan's defeat, the Americans tried to mediate between the two Chinese leaders. Their efforts failed and the civil war resumed in l947.

The communists, due to their resistance to the Japanese and the land reform measures they implemented in the areas under their control, had won the support of many peasants.

• The Kuomintang held most of the major cities of China.

By early 1949, Mao had control of northern China and advanced on the capital.

• Chiang's armies collapsed and Chiang and the remnants of the Kuomintang army fled to the island of Taiwan.

• On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China.

This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Map: China in 1949

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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: The Korean War

Korea was divided into two zones of occupation immediately after the Second World War:

• The northern zone was occupied by the Soviets and they established a communist dictatorship.
• The southern zone was occupied by American forces and they established an anticommunist regime.

Shortly after Mao's victory in China, hostilities between communists and noncommunists erupted on the Korean Peninsula.

• In June 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea.
• On June 30, five days after the invasion, President Truman directed American troops, stationed in Japan, to intervene in Korea.
• The American military had maintained a significant military presence in the southern zone after World War II.
• The Truman Doctrine was to apply to Asia as well as Europe.

The Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council over the issue for who should represent China on the Security Council.

• Therefore it did not use its veto power to prevent UN sponsored forces from entering the Korean Conflict.
• The American-sponsored UN resolution encouraged UN members to send forces to help save South Korea.
• Acceptance of this resolution resulted in sixteen non--communist nations, including Canada, sending troops to Korea.

Although technically a UN operation, the military aspect of the Korean War was essentially an American operation.

• The Commander-in-Chief of the UN forces was an American, General Douglas MacArthur.
• The US provided half of the entire ground forces, 86% of the naval power and 93% of the air power.

As the UN forces drove the North Koreans back towards the Chinese border, namely the Yalu River, the Chinese Government prepared to intervene on behalf of the North Koreans.

Massive Chinese intervention forced the UN forces back down the Korean Peninsula.

By early 1951, the UN forces were able to recoup much of the lost territory.

Truman and MacArthur had disagreements over extending the Korean conflict to other regions of Asia and ultimately, MacArthur was relieved of his command by Truman.

The Korean War dragged on until June of 1953.

• After lengthy peace negotiations, the re-established border did not differ from the border that existed before the war.
• An uneasy peace followed.

The dismissal of General MacArthur, the communist takeover of China and Soviet control over Eastern Europe, fuelled great debate in the United States over the intentions of the Soviet Union.

• The Soviets were seen by many Americans as directing the activities of communist movements throughout the world to achieve the goal of world-wide communist domination.

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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Map: The Korean War, 1950 -1953

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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Politics of Fear

A fear of the spread of communism became pervasive throughout the United States. Senator Joseph McCarthy recognized and channelled this public fear.

• McCarthy spearheaded a movement to ferret out communist agents and sympathizers within the United States.

• In his opinion, communist successes throughout the world, were aided by Soviet espionage in the US

As Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Government Operations, Joseph McCarthy conducted hearings into alleged "subversion" in the armed forces.

• Government officials, teachers, journalists and even individuals in the entertainment field, were accused of being pro-Soviet.

• A "witch hunt" ensued.

Although many of the allegations were proved to be untrue, McCarthy's campaign succeeded in forcing the US government into taking an uncompromising stance against the Soviets.

The influence of McCarthy permeated into Canada. There was a similar paranoia about communists and their sympathizers.

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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: Khrushchev and "Peaceful Co-existence"

Joseph Stalin died in March 1953. After a struggle for political leadership, Nikita Khrushchev became the First Secretary of the Communist Party.

• From 1955 to 1964, all major Soviet policies were directed by Khrushchev.

Stalin's death meant that it was possible to end his autocratic style of government.

• The methods of the old dictator were graduated moderated.
• This process of liberalization was became known as "de-Stalinization".

The change in attitude on the part of the Soviet leadership was dramatically reflected in Khrushchev's speech given to the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party in February 1956.

• In that "secret" speech, Khrushchev launched a lengthy denunciation of the actions of Stalin.
• This came as a shock to a nation and a political party which had for so long feared to make any public criticisms of the leader.
• During Stalin's tenure, critics simply disappeared.

During this pivotal speech Khrushchev also indicated that it was essential that the West and the Communist nations live together in peace.

• He called for "peaceful co-existence".

Khrushchev hoped that a reduction in tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States, would facilitate a reallocation of Soviet resources to the civilian sector.

News of the speech to the closed Party Congress soon spread throughout both the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe where it was to influence political events.

While maintaining a monopoly on political power, the Soviet government attempted to meet the needs of the Soviet consumer. The standard of living improved for the ordinary citizen.

• The production of consumer goods such as television sets and refrigerators greatly increased.
• The wages of nonagricultural workers rose 38% between 1952 and 1958.

Advances in the agricultural sector proved to be more difficult.

• The Soviets were forced to import large amounts of wheat.
• Canada became one of the largest suppliers of wheat to the Soviet Union.

Khrushev's emphasis on domestic reforms was opposed by ideological hardliners who wished to see the Soviet Union challenge the West.

• To achieve that policy required enormous expenditures on the military and abandoning any attempt to reduce tensions with the West.

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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: Hungary: Resistance to Communism and Soviet Domination

The nations of Eastern Europe were not unaware of developments in the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's reforms encouraged many in Eastern Europe.

• Some felt that Khrushchev's speech would mean a greater measure of independence from Moscow and a relaxation in the Stalinist-like governments of their respective nations.

Poland

There were limits to the degree of the relaxation of Soviet control over Eastern Europe.

• In 1956, communist attempts at collectivization and of limiting the power of the Catholic Church, caused serious riots in Poland.
• The Soviets allowed a former political prisoner of the Stalin era, Wladislaw Gomulka, to gain power and institute a number of popular measures.
• However, Gomulka made no attempt to take Poland out of the Soviet sphere of influence.

Hungary

However, events that year in Hungary were to have a tragic conclusion.

• In October 1956, the people of Budapest demonstrated and forced an unpopular leadership to flee the capital.
• Imre Nagy, a Communist reformer, became Prime Minister.
• Pressured by the populace, Nagy promised free elections and the removal of Soviet forces from Hungary.

The Nagy government's announcement that Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact provoked the Soviets.

• On November 4, 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest and fierce fighting occurred.
• The revolt was crushed but at a heavy cost.
• 30,000 Hungarians were killed and nearly 200,000 fled their nation.
• Nagy was arrested by the Soviets and executed.

It was a clear message to the rest of Eastern Europe that the Soviet Union would not allow those nations to leave the Soviet sphere of influence.

• Despite the pleas of the Hungarians, the West did not meaningfully respond to the uprising other than to verbally condemn the Soviets.
• The non-intervention of the West was de facto recognition that Eastern Europe was in the Soviet sphere of influence.

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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: North America and Defense Integration

The primary concern of a nation is securing its territorial integrity. The United States was not an exception and as Soviet offensive capabilities progressed, the US perceived itself to be increasingly vulnerable.

The defense of North America was of paramount importance to the US In 1947, Canada and the US entered into a defense agreement that permitted each nation access to the military bases of the other.

To meet the threat of a Soviet air attack over the North Pole, a series of three radar lines was constructed in the Canadian North.

• Although this was a joint venture, the Americans largely financed the radar lines and US personnel manned the most northern of the lines.

In 1958, the North American Air Defense Agreement (NORAD) was created.

• It unified the air defense of the continent.

• The commander of NORAD was an American.