Today we continued with Rachel's powerpoint that she started yesterday:
China Becomes Communist/Mao Zedong:
- Mao Zedong was the leader and founding father of the Republic of China
- Was a commander of the Long March
- Led the Communist Party of China to victory against Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Party in the Chinese Civil War
- Chiang Kai-Shek was the leader of the Nationalist Party
- Led Nationalist China in the Second-Sino Japanese War (Japanese invades China in WWII)
- This severely weakened the Nationalist Party
- The Chinese Civil War:
- Was fought by Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Party and the Communist Party of China
- The communists won and forced Chiang to flee to Taiwan
- The civil war carried on intermittently until the two sides were forced to form a temporary Second United Front in 1936 to resist the invasion of Manchuria by Japan
- In 1946, General C. Marshall went to China to try and arrange a political settlement between the Nationalists and the Communists
- In the end, Mao Zedong and the communits won while Chiang and the nationalists fled to Taiwan
- Long March:
- A massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China
- There was not one Long March, but several, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west
- During the Long March, Mao finally gained complete control
Causes of the Cold War:
- America had a democracy
- Soviet Union was communist
- America feared a communist attack
- Both countries feared the other's government
- Truman vs. Stalin:
- Were allies during the war
- Stalin argued about wanting more power
- Broke ties by the end of the war
- Stalin didn't like how long we put of the D-day invasion
- Also refused to join United Nations
- Both threatened nuclear war
- 3 Power Disagreement:
- Stalin wanted an agreement from Germany
- The United States wanted to help Germany (After WWII)
- US and Germany wanted to stop communist control
NATO, De-Stalinization, and Peaceful Co-Existence:
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- AKA North Atlantic Alliance
- Governmental military alliance
- Based on the North Atlantic Treaty
- History:
- Started in 1949
- North Atlantic Treaty signed on April 4, 1949
- Signed by the US, Canada, Portugal, Italy, France, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemberg, and the United Kingdom
- First NATO Secretary General was Lord Ismay
- His goal of NATO was to "Keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down."
- Basically to keep out communism and to make sure that WWII never happened again
- Purpose is to protect the freedom of all member nations
- Today there are 28 member countries
- Warsaw Pact countries (the Soviet Union's version of NATO/our enemies) are now included in NATO
- This concerns Russia today because they have lost those allies
- De-Stalinization:
- Started by Nikita Kruschev (Lenin's successor)
- Process of eleminating the Stalinistic government and Gulag labor camp
- Large numbers were released from the Gulag labor camp
- Ended forced labor in the country
- Undid all the things that he did
- Peaceuful Co-existence:
- Theory developed by the Soviet Union
- Used at different points in the Cold War
- Communist states adopted a foreign policy
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