¶ … Yalta Convention marked the beginning of the Cold War. Franklin Roosevelt Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met at the former palace of Czar Nicholas between February 4th and 11th, 1945. Before the end of World War II, the three world leaders had carved up the world. Germany and Poland were divided. The U.S. agreed to withdraw troops within two years, and Stalin agreed to hold free elections. Russia got land in Outer Mongolia and agreed to enter the Asian War. Korea was split at the 38th Parallel.
Three months later, victory is declared in Europe and three months after that, Japan surrendered. Stalin declared war on Japan two days after the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before VJ Day. The Allies split Indochina into two zones, north and south of the 16th Parallel with the Chinese occupying the north and the British controlling the south.
When Harry Truman became president, he and Stalin exchanged hostile words. Truman spoke of Communism being the greatest danger in the free world while Stalin declared that Communism and Capitalism were incompatible. In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China.
Southeast Asia was as a major interest to the United States and they supported the French Colonialist government against the Communist North under Ho Chi Minh, and the British in Malaysia. Americans feared Communist expansion. Politicians used that fear to their advantage. Senator Joseph McCarthy announced that 57 Communists (or 205 or 81) worked in the State Department. That fear grew in 950 when Stalin and Mao, the Soviet Union and Peoples' Republic of China, signed a 30-year alliance.
By mid-1954, the French knew they had lost their hold on Indochina, and supported the Geneva Accord agreement to settle the Indochina War. Vietnam was to become an independent nation. Elections were to be held under international supervision. Until then, Vietnam would be split. Although the North was pressured by China and the Soviet Union to concede, the U.S. was firmly committed to a policy of sabotaging the Geneva Accords and trying to make South Vietnam an independent country. Foreign policy in Southeast Asia went from military training to direct intervention. American Involvement in Southeast Asia would be a tragic decision that would ultimately cost innumerable lives.
According to the papers, Pearson indicated concern about the nature of the bombing and questioned Johnson about the potential use of nuclear weapons. While Pearson appeared willing to acknowledge that conventional bombing raids would be used against the North, he was clear that the deployment of nuclear weapons would be considered entirely unacceptable by both the Canadian government and people. History has been critical for Pearson's handling of the situation.
Where, he would portray himself as a staunch anti-communist that supported the ideas of liberty. Yet, when he had taken control of the country he immediately began to rule with an iron fist. This authoritarian rule and the way that Diem was able to single-handedly throw elections, would set the tone as to what kind of President he would be. Then, when you combine this with the fact that
A second lesson was found in Kennedy's management of the crisis. The basic lesson learned was that, in the midst of such a crisis, leaders need time away from the glare of the media to resolve their own thinking and communications, and they need the self-confidence to limit their objectives to only what is needed to resolve the crisis, not "win" it. It is believed that the Soviet's lesson was that
Ngo Dinh Diem Born in the year 1901 to an aristocratic family, Ngo Dinh Diem rose to become the Prime Minister of South Vietnam in the year 1954. This paper looks in detail at the events during the life of Ngo Dinh Diem, his era of governance and the events that took place in the aftermath of his assassination. Catholic missionaries converted his predecessors into Christianity several years back in the
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Tonkin Gulf Crisis The Debate over the Tonkin Gulf Crisis The Tonkin Gulf Crisis 1964 ranks with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as events that David Kaiser of the U.S. Naval War College refers to as "controversies in American political history that dwarf all others (Ford, 1997)." There is evidence that President Lyndon Johnson deliberately lied about the incidents leading to the Vietnam War