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The Cold War: The Asian Theatre and the

Chinese Revolution

The Second World War had interrupted a bitter civil war between the Chinese Nationalists, the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Chinese Communists led by Mao Tse Tsung.

The contest to control the world's most populated nation preceded the war.

• Despite the involvement of a communist movement in a civil war in the 1920s, the Soviet Union provided military experts to help the Kuomintang unite the nation.
• The Chinese Communists, on occasion, aided the Kuomintang in uniting the nation.
• In 1927, the Kuomintang launched a campaign to eradicate the Chinese Communists. Thousands were executed.
• The remnants of the Communist Party, led by Mao, fled to Hunan province in the interior.
• He attracted considerable support from the peasants with a promise to seize land from the landowners and give it to the peasants.
• In 1930, Chiang's Kuomintang forces renewed their attack on Mao's People's Liberation Army.

War Against Japan

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

• An uneasy alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communists was formed.
• During the war Mao's Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) as 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.

Chinese Civil War

At the end of the war, the Americans tried to mediate between the two Chinese leaders.

The American efforts failed and the civil war resumed in l947.

• The Kuomintang controlled the urban centres while the Communists held much of the rural areas.
• The Kuomintang received considerable American military assistance.
• By early 1949, Mao had control of Northern China and advanced on the capital.
• Chiang's armies collapsed 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.
• Now the most populated nation in the world was under communist control.

Korean War

Events in the Korean Peninsula were to activate Truman's policy of containment

Korea had been divided into two zones of occupation after the war.

• The North was occupied by the Soviets who put a communist regime in place.
• The South was occupied by the Americans who put an anticommunist regime in place.

In June of 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea. In response, Truman ordered U.S. troops, stationed in Japan, to intervene.

United Nations Involvement

The U.S. sponsored a resolution to the Security Council calling on UN members to send military forces to protect South Korea.

• The Soviets could have used their veto power to stop the resolution but were not attending Security Council sessions.
• Canada was prepared to contribute to an United Nations' force .

American Leadership

The UN operation was essentially an American operation:

• The Commander-in-Chief was U.S. General Douglas MacArthur.
• The U.S. contributed over 50% of the ground forces, 86% of naval forces and 93% of the air power.

Know that the Nationalist forces received

Chinese Intervention

As UN forces drove the North Koreans back towards the Chinese border, the Chinese warned the UN that its forces would intervene if its territorial integrity was threatened.

• Chinese forces intervened and drove UN forces down the Korean Peninsula.
• By early 1953, UN forces had recouped all of South Korea.
• A military stalemate developed.

Direction of the War

Truman and General MacArthur disagreed over extending the conflict beyond Korea.

• MacArthur wanted to invade Communist China.
• Truman wanted to contain the war to Korea and not globalize the conflict.
• Truman relieved MacArthur of his command.

Fear of the Communist Threat: Senator Joseph McCarthy

Communist expansion in Eastern Europe and Asia convinced many in the West that the communists were determined to take over the world.

• Some western politicians capitalized on this public fear. U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy spearheaded a movement to seek out communist "sympathizers" and spies in American society and government.
• McCarthy's campaign succeeded in forcing the U.S. government into taking a less compromising stance with the Soviet Union.
• The influence of McCarthy permeated into Canada.