Internationalism (Key Concepts in American History)

Key Concepts in American History

Internationalism

Set Contents

Key Concepts in American History Abolitionism Colonialism Expansionism Federalism Industrialism Isolationism Internationalism Nationalism Progressivism Terrorism

Key Concepts in American History

Internationalism

Dianne Durante Jennifer L. Weber, Ph.D. General Editor

University of Kansas

Key Concepts in American History: Internationalism Copyright © 2010 by DWJ BOOKS LLC DEVELOPED, DESIGNED, AND PRODUCED BY DWJ BOOKS LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Durante, Dianne L. â•… Internationalism/Dianne Durante; Jennifer L. Weber, general editor. â•…â•…â•… p. cm.—(Key concepts in American history) â•… Includes bibliographical references and index. â•… ISBN 978-1-60413-225-0 (hardcover) â•… ISBN 978-1-4381-3062-0 (e-book) 1.╇ Internationalism–History–Encyclopedias, Juvenile.╇ I.╇ Weber, Jennifer L., 1962–╇ II.╇ Title. â•… JZ1308.D87 2009 â•… 327.1¢703–dc22 2009025286 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institution, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Book printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Date printed: May 2010 Printed in the United States of America 10╇ 9╇ 8╇ 7╇ 6╇ 5╇ 4╇ 3╇ 2╇ 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper and contains 30 percent postconsumer recycled content. Acknowledgments p. 1: AP Photo/Alfred/Sipa; p. 13: Reuters/David Baauchli/Landov; p. 17: AP Photo/Jerome Delay/pool; p. 21: AP Photo/Bob Daugherty; p. 34: AP Photo; p. 47: AP Photo/Dennis Cook; p. 63: The Granger Collection, New York; p. 70: AP Photo/David Longstreath, File; p. 75: dpa/ Landov; p. 86: Landov.

Contents List of Illustrations ...........................vi Reader’s Guide to Internationalism ..........................vii Milestones in Internationalism (1939–Present).............................viii Preface ...............................................x What Is Internationalism? ............... 1

Gorbachev, Mikhail (1931– ) .......... 46 Iraqi War of 2003 ........................... 48 Israel ................................................ 50 Japan ............................................... 52 Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–1973) ................................. 54 Korean War (1950–1953) ............... 56 History Makers: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) ............. 58 Kosovo ............................................ 59 Latin America ................................. 60 Lend-Lease Act (1941) .................... 62 Marshall Plan .................................. 64 History Makers: George Marshall (1880–1959) .................. 65 NATO ............................................... 66 Nixon, Richard M. (1913–1994)...... 67 Persian Gulf War (1991) ................. 69 Potsdam Conference ...................... 71 Reagan, Ronald (1911–2004) ......... 72 History Speaks: “Tear Down This Wall” .................................... 73 Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1882–1945) ................................. 74 Soviet Union ................................... 77 History Makers: Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) ................................. 79 Truman Doctrine ............................ 80 History Makers: Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) ................... 82 United Nations (UN) ....................... 83 Vietnam War (1950–1975) ............. 84 History Makers: Dean Rusk (1909–1994) ................................. 88 Warsaw Pact ................................... 90 World War II (1941–1945) .............. 91 History Speaks: Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy Speech ................. 93 Yalta Conference ............................ 96 Yugoslavia, Breakup of .................. 97

Internationalism from A to Z Atlantic Charter .............................. 11 Berlin Wall ...................................... 12 Bosnia and Herzegovina ................ 14 History Speaks: The Dayton Accords ........................................ 16 Bush, George H.W. (1924– ) ........... 17 Bush, George W. (1946– )............... 19 Camp David Accords ...................... 21 History Makers: Jimmy Carter (1924– ) ............................. 22 Castro, Fidel (1926– ) ...................... 23 Churchill, Winston (1874–1965) ................................. 25 History Speaks: Churchill Addresses the House of Commons ..................................... 26 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ............................................. 26 Clinton, William Jefferson (1946– ) ........................................ 27 Communism and the Cold War ..... 28 Cuban Missile Crisis ........................ 33 Democracy and Human Rights ...... 35 Then & Now: Emerging Democracies: Changes in Lithuania...................................... 37 Ford, Gerald R. (1913–2006) .......... 39 Germany ......................................... 40 Globalism ........................................ 44 Then & Now: Shopping in Poland .......................................... 46

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Viewpoints About Internationalism “Iron Curtain” Speech, Winston Churchill, 1946........................... 101 Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations 1948 ................. 102 America in the Cold War Era, John Foster Dulles, 1955 ........... 104 “Ich bin ein Berliner,” John F. Kennedy, 1963 .............. 105 “Shanghai Communiqué,” President Richard M. Nixon

and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, 1972........................ 106 Invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush, 2003............... 107

Glossary of Key Terms ................. 109 Selected Bibliography ................ 113 Index ............................................. 116

List of Illustrations Photos Barack Obama and World Leaders........................................... 1 Tearing Down of the Berlin Wall .............................................. 13 William Jefferson Clinton at Dayton ......................................... 17 Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin, and Anwar El Sadat at Camp David ............................................ 21 U.S. Military Examines Soviet Cargo ........................................... 34 Mikhail G orbachev ......................... 47

U.S. Destroyers on the Way to Britain .......................................... 63 Oil Derricks Burning After the Persian Gulf War ......................... 70 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill Meeting During World War II ................... 75 U.S. Soldiers in Vietnam ................. 86

Maps NATO 1949 and 2009 ....................... 9 Breakup of Yugoslavia ................... 98

Reader’s Guide to Internationalism Countries, Economics and Trade, Government, International Organizations, Policies and Programs, Religion, Wars and Battles, and People and Society. Some articles appear in more than one category, helping readers to see the links between topics.

The list that follows is provided as an aid to readers in locating articles on the big topics or themes in American history and international relations. The Reader’s Guide arranges all of the A to Z entries in Internationalism according to these 8 key concepts of the social studies curriculum: Countries Bosnia and Herzegovina Cuban Missile Crisis Germany Iraqi War of 2003 Israel Japan Kosovo Latin America New Democracies in Eastern Europe (see Democracy and Human Rights) Potsdam Conference Soviet Union Warsaw Pact Yugoslavia, Breakup of

Economics and Trade Berlin Wall Communism and the Cold War Globalism Lend-Lease Act (1941) Marshall Plan Soviet Union Truman Doctrine

Government Atlantic Charter Berlin Wall Communism and the Cold War Democracy and Human Rights Germany Israel Japan Soviet Union United Nations (UN) Warsaw Pact Yugoslavia, Breakup of

International Organizations NATO United Nations (UN) Warsaw Pact

Policies and Programs Atlantic Charter Camp David Accords Dayton Accords (see Bosnia and Herzegovina) Democracy and Human Rights Lend-Lease Act (1941) Marshall Plan Potsdam Conference Truman Doctrine United Nations (UN) Warsaw Pact Yalta Conference

Religion Bosnia and Herzegovina Communism and the Cold War Democracy and Human Rights Israel Japan Soviet Union United Nations (UN)

Wars and Battles Bosnia and Herzegovina Communism and the Cold War Cuban Missile Crisis Germany Iraqi War of 2003 Israel Japan Korean War (1950–1953) Kosovo

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NATO Persian Gulf War (1991) Soviet Union Vietnam War (1950–1975) World War II (1941–1945) Yugoslavia, Breakup of

People and Society Bush, George H.W. (1924– ) Bush, George W. (1946– ) Camp David Accords Carter, Jimmy (see Camp David Accords) Castro, Fidel (1926– ) Churchill, Winston (1874–1965) Clinton, William Jefferson (1946– ) Eisenhower, Dwight D. (see Korean War) Ford, Gerald R. (1913–2006) Gorbachev, Mikhail (1931– ) Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–1973) Marshall, George (see Marshall Plan) Nixon, Richard M. (1913–1994) Reagan, Ronald (1911–2004) Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1882–1945) Rusk, Dean (see Vietnam War) Truman, Harry S. (see Truman Doctrine) Yeltsin, Boris (see Soviet Union)

For more than the first 100 years of its existence as a nation, the United States avoided becoming involved in world affairs. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, world events drew the United States into World War I. By the end of World War II in 1945, the nation had become a world superpower and established a new style of foreign policy, which led the United States to take an active role on the world stage.

1898 Spanish-American War

1948 Berlin airlift begins.

1914 World War I breaks out in Europe.

1949 People’s Republic of China established on mainland; Nationalist Chinese flee to Taiwan; NATO established.

1917 United States enters World War I. 1918 World War I ends. 1920 United States Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles; U.S. does not join League of Nations.

1950 North Korea invades South Korea. 1953 Armistice signed between North Korea and South Korea.

1933 Adolf Hitler takes power in Germany; Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president of the United States.

1959 Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba.

1936 Hitler annexes the Rhineland. 1938 Munich Agreement is passed.

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis brings U.S. to brink of war.

1939 Germany invades Poland; World War II begins.

1963 Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president.

1941 U.S. Congress passes Lend-Lease Act; Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

1965 U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalates.

1944 D-Day invasion begins; Paris liberated from the Nazis. 1945 Harry S. Truman becomes president; World War II ends; U.S. joins United Nations (UN). 1947 Truman announces “Truman Doctrine” in order to contain communism.

1961 John F. Kennedy becomes president; Berlin Wall built.

1969 Richard M. Nixon becomes president. 1971 People’s Republic of China accepted into UN; Nationalist China expelled. 1972 Nixon makes state visit to People’s Republic of China. 1973 Peace treaty ends Vietnam War.

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Internationalism (1939–Present) 1975 Saigon, South Vietnam, falls to North Vietnam.

1995 Dayton Accords end worst of fighting in Bosnia.

1979 Camp David Accords establish peace between Israel and Egypt; Saddam Hussein becomes dictator of Iraq.

1998 Kosovo declares independence from Serbia; war breaks out.

1981 Ronald Reagan becomes president.

2001 George W. Bush becomes president; Al-Qaeda terrorists attack World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.; U.S. topples Taliban in Afghanistan.

1999 NATO air strikes against Serbia in response to actions in Kosovo.

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev assumes power in Soviet Union. 1986 Gorbachev introduces perestroika, liberalizing the Soviet economy; Reykjavik summit.

2003 President Bush announces invasion of Iraq.

1988 Gorbachev introduces glasnost, or openness, to the Soviet Union.

2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia join NATO.

1989 George H.W. Bush becomes president; Berlin Wall falls.

2005 Iraq holds first free elections in 50 years; Iraqi insurgency threatens fragile Iraqi government.

1990 Iraq invades Kuwait; East and West Germany united.

2006 Montenegro declares its independence from Serbia.

1991 Persian Gulf War; Yugoslav republics begin to declare independence; Soviet Union dissolves; Cold War ends.

2007 Violence in Iraq escalates. 2008 Fidel Castro of Cuba turns power over to his brother, Raul.

1993 Bill Clinton becomes president; Israel and the PLO sign the Oslo Accords and PLO recognizes Israel’s right to exist.

2009 Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States and continues the nation’s internationalist foreign policy around the globe; Albania and Croatia join NATO.

1994 Peace agreement signed between Jordan and Israel.

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Preface

T

he United States was founded on ideas. Those who wrote the U.S. Constitution were influenced by ideas that began in Europe: reason over religion, human rights over the rights of kings, and self-governance over tyranny. Ideas, and the arguments over them, have continued to shape the nation. Of all the ideas that influenced the nation’s founding and its growth, 10 are perhaps the most important and are singled out here in an original series—KEY CONCEPTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. The volumes bring these concepts to life, Abolitionism, Colonialism, Expansionism, Federalism, Industrialism, Internationalism, Isolationism, Nationalism, Progressivism, and Terrorism. These books examine the big ideas, major events, and influential individuals that have helped define American history. Each book features three sections. The first is an overview of the concept, its historical context, the debates over the concept, and how it changed the history and growth of the United States. The second is an encyclopedic, A-to-Z treatment of the people, events, issues, and organizations that help to define the “-ism” under review. Here, readers will find detailed facts and vivid histories, along with referrals to other books for more details about the topic. Interspersed throughout the entries are many high-interest features: “History Speaks” provides excerpts of documents, speeches, and letters from some of the most influential figures in American history. “History Makers” provides brief biographies of key people who dramatically influenced the country. “Then and Now” helps readers connect issues of the nation’s past with present-day concerns. In the third part of each volume, “Viewpoints,” readers will find longer primary documents illustrating ideas that reflect a certain point of view of the time. Also included are important government documents and key Supreme Court decisions. The KEY CONCEPTS series also features “Milestones in. . . ,” time lines that will enable readers to quickly sort out how one event led to another, a glossary, and a bibliography for further reading. People make decisions that determine history, and Americans have generated and refined the ideas that have determined U.S. history. With an understanding of the most important concepts that have shaped our past, readers can gain a better idea of what has shaped our present. Jennifer L. Weber, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History, University of Kansas General Editor x

What Is

Internationalism?

I

nternationalism is the idea that the United States should be actively involved in world affairs. This includes duties such as peacekeeping, arbitrating disputes between nations, and helping other nations preserve their independence and territorial integrity. The idea of internationalism dates to the end of World War II (1939–1945); before that time, U.S. foreign policy essentially was isolationist. aMeriCaN isoLatioNisM By the eighteenth century, the nations of Europe had developed a complex system of alliances. This system often led to multiple nations fighting in wars that were begun by only two nations. The French and Indian War (a conflict known in Europe as the Seven Years’ War; (1754– 1763), for example, was primarily a dispute between Great Britain and France. Yet Spain, as France’s ally, was dragged into it as well. After the United States won its independence from Great Britain (1775–1783), the new nation was too weak militarily to go into battle for any reason except to defend its own territory. As George Washington, the nation’s first president (1789–1797), left office, President Barack Obama met with several world leaders after he warned citizens that his election in 2008 to discuss solutions to a growing international economic crisis. The meeting reinforced sentiments although the United expressed in his election-night speech: “To those who States might align itself seek peace and security, we support you.” 1

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with other nations for a specific purpose, it should not make long-term alliances in which it promised to fight on behalf of an ally. A few years later, President Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809) recommended “peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” In the nation’s early years, this was not difficult advice to follow. Europe was at least a month’s journey away by sailing ship. The United States traded with Europe, but Americans focused mostly on their own agriculture, businesses, and industries, and on expanding westward across the North American continent. In 1823, President James Monroe (1817–1825) announced the Monroe Doctrine. In it, the president warned European powers not to get involved in affairs in North or South America. This doctrine also pledged that the United States would not take part in “wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves.” Changes in the Late Nineteenth Century The necessity of fighting the Civil War (1861–1865) forced the United States to create a large army and navy for the first time. After the war, the reunited country saw a great burst of industrial growth. The United States’ capitalist system and the system’s protection of individual rights and property led to an enormous increase in the wealth and power of individual Americans. By placing taxes and import duties on this wealth, the federal government also increased its size and spending power. The United States now could afford to maintain a state-of-the-art navy. In the Spanish-American War (1898), United States battleships soundly defeated the forces of Spain, which once had been a great naval power. As president, Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) was the first American head of state to involve himself in foreign disputes that had no direct impact on the United States. In 1905, he helped to negotiate the peace settlement that followed the RussoJapanese War. In 1907, he arbitrated a dispute between France and Germany that concerned Morocco, in North Africa.

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Internationalism

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Why have aN iNterNatioNaList foreigN poLiCy? The beginning of the shift to a foreign policy of internationalism is usually dated to the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). Wilson proclaimed the nation’s neutrality in the early years of World War I (1914–1918) and ran for a second term in 1916 with the slogan, “He kept us out of the war.” After the Germans tried to form an alliance with Mexico, however, Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany. In a speech on April 2, 1917, he stressed that the United States was not entering the war for its own selfish interest: The world must be made safe for democracy. . . . We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek . . . no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. For years, the United States had regarded itself as a beacon of liberty—an example that the rest of the world could see and follow. Wilson’s idea that the United States should actively promote freedom and democracy around the world, no matter what the cost, was new. The idea became the basis for the internationalism that dominated the nation’s foreign policy from the 1940s onward. An internationalist foreign policy also protected the United States and its allies from Communism. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) had served as assistant secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt was strongly influenced by Wilson’s idea that the United States should play an active role in world affairs. On January 6, 1941, in his annual State of the Union address, Roosevelt outlined “Four Freedoms”: In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

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The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world. Roosevelt repeatedly stated that these four freedoms are not just for citizens of the United States, but also for people “everywhere in the world.” He stated that the sort of world where these freedoms are possible is one that we, as Americans, “seek to make secure.” Here is internationalism full grown: the idea that Americans have a responsibility to make the whole world better. The reasons for an internationalist foreign policy were not always selfless. Some economists argued that the United States could not survive unless it had free nations to trade with. On January 20, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) stated, No free people can for long cling to any privilege or enjoy any safety in economic solitude. For all our own material might, even we need markets in the world for the surpluses of our farms and our factories. Often, Judeo-Christian teachings also were cited as a reason for an internationalist foreign policy. At his inauguration, President John F. Kennedy (1961– 1963) vowed that no cost or burden was too great to pay or bear if it meant that the United States could promote freedom: Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient

Internationalism

heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed . . . We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty. Americans would do this, Kennedy concluded, “with a good conscience our only sure reward,” and “asking [God’s] blessing and His help.” Thus, the United States adopted an internationalist foreign policy from a combination of philosophical, economic, and religious reasons. INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE After World War I, President Woodrow Wilson tried to persuade the United States to join the League of Nations. The League’s goals were to arbitrate disputes among nations, prevent massive arms buildups, and provide collective security. Congress refused to allow the country to join the League, however, fearing that membership in the league would prevent the United States from acting unilaterally if the country’s national interest were threatened. The United States did not want to be hindered by membership in the League. During the boom years of the “Roaring Twenties” and the economic collapse of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the United States retreated to an isolationist foreign policy. Congress forbade American companies to sell weapons abroad and refused to ratify United States membership in the World Court. The term isolationism was not used in a negative sense until Germany, under Adolf Hitler (1933– 1945), had already conquered much of Europe, and German submarines were attacking United States’ shipping in the Atlantic. At that point, the term was used to suggest that some Americans would rather hide their heads in the sand than face a new threat to world peace. In 1941, when Hitler’s armies were rolling across Europe, President Franklin Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act. This program allowed the United States to supply war materials to

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Great Britain and other opponents of the Germans. After Japan attacked the United States’ naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II (1939–1945). About 400,000 American lives were lost in that war, and the nation spent billions of dollars to help its allies defeat the Germans and Japanese. World War II marks the end of American isolationism and the beginning of internationalism. The United States and the United Nations After the worldwide devastation caused by World War II, the United States successfully promoted the creation of the United Nations (UN), a successor to the failed League of Nations. The United Nations was founded in an attempt to make cooperation among nations easier and to promote human rights and economic progress around the world. President Roosevelt was the driving force behind the organization. The United States became a charter member of the UN in 1945 and was one of the major powers in the organization. The Cold War Internationalist foreign policy was the basis for the Cold War that began after the end of World War II. The Cold War lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Joseph Stalin’s (1924–1953) rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe showed that Communist rule could lead not only to the loss of freedom, but also to the deaths of millions. It soon became apparent to much of the Western world that the spread of Communism had to be prevented. The United States had emerged from World War II as the mightiest nation on earth. It had the most industry and the greatest wealth. In a speech to Congress in March 1947, President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) established the “Truman Doctrine,” which stated that the United States would contain Communism and prevent Communists from gaining more territory. Many people believed that poor countries were more likely than rich ones to fall to the Communists. The United States therefore undertook the task of offering economic assistance to peoples and governments around the world that were resisting the

Internationalism

threat of a Communist takeover. One of the most important and successful American aid programs of this era was the Marshall Plan. Under the Marshall Plan, the United States sent $13 billion in aid to Europe between 1947 and 1952. From the late 1940s to the 1970s, the United States spent more than $150 billion on foreign aid. DEFENSIVE ALLIANCES It soon became clear, however, that poverty was not the only reason a nation might become Communist. In 1950, Communist North Korea invaded its neighbor South Korea. At about the same time, the United States and the nations of Western Europe realized that Soviet troops might easily overrun Europe. Under American leadership, a number of defensive military alliances were formed around the world to protect against the Communist threat. The most prominent of these was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), whose original members were the United States, Canada, and 10 Western European nations. The United States supplied most of the troops and weapons for these alliances. Germany, Korea, Vietnam, and other Proxy Wars The battles of the Cold War were fought worldwide but not on American or Soviet soil. In 1948, after World War II, the Soviets blockaded the western sectors of the divided German city of Berlin while those sectors were still occupied by French, British, and American forces. The Americans and British airlifted supplies to the city. The United States did not interfere when, in 1961, a wall was built around West Berlin to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin to escape from Communist rule. North Korea, supported by Communist China and the Soviet Union, invaded South Korea in 1950. Eventually, a coalition of UN troops drove the North Koreans back to the original border. In 1962, Communist dictator Fidel Castro (1959–2008) allowed his Soviet allies to build nuclear missile bases in Cuba, a Caribbean island 90 miles (144 km) south of Florida. President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) demanded that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (1953–1964) remove the

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missiles. After a few tense days during which nuclear war seemed imminent, the Soviets dismantled the bases, ending the “Cuban Missile Crisis.” Communists in North Vietnam, backed by the Soviet Union and China, attempted to take over the whole of Vietnam after that Southeast Asian territory ceased to be a French colony. From 1963 to 1973, American troops fought a proxy war alongside the South Vietnamese. When American troops finally were withdrawn, South Vietnam fell to the Communists. Other battles against Communism—some fought with troops and some waged by undercover operatives—took place in the Dominican Republic and Grenada in the Caribbean, in Nicaragua in Central America, and in Angola in Africa. DÉTENTE AND THE END OF THE COLD WAR By the 1970s, as the disastrous Vietnam War wound down and then ended, American presidents came to focus on keeping peace rather than on waging war. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon (1969–1974) promoted a policy of détente, a relaxing of tension with the Soviet Union and opening diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) helped to negotiate a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Through this treaty, Egypt became the first Arab nation to recognize Israel’s right to exist. The United States did not always agree with the anticommunist governments that it helped to support. Such anticommunist leaders as Syngman Rhee in South Korea, Ngo Dinh Diem in Vietnam, the shah of Iran, and Manuel Noriega in Nicaragua—to name a few—were dictators who had no respect for democracy and human rights. These dictators had no desire to institute a limited government that protected individual rights such as that in the United States. They only sought to keep political power for themselves rather than lose it to the Communists. Unfortunately, some anticommunists hated the United States just as fiercely as they hated Communists. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, the United States supplied money, weapons, and training to Islamic

NATO 1949 and 2009

In 1949, 10 western European nations, plus the United States and Canada, became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Through the decades, membership has increased and now includes many former Eastern European Communist nations.

Revised Duranter--Key Concepts in American History Internationalism

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fundamentalists who were fighting against a Soviet occupation of their country. When the Soviets were driven out, the Islamic fundamentalists immediately turned their tactics on the United States, a country that they regarded as just as corrupt as the Soviet Union. AFTER THE COLD WAR When the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, the Cold War ended. Since that time, United States foreign policy has remained firmly internationalist. In 1991, a United Nations force in which most of the troops were American liberated the Persian Gulf emirate of Kuwait from an invasion by its neighbor, Iraq. In 2003, the United States and a coalition of allies went to war against Iraq, which they believed was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. PURSUING A NATIONAL INTEREST The guiding principle of a nation’s foreign policy is always that nation’s interest. Interpretations of what constitutes the national interest can vary widely, however. From the 1790s to the 1930s, the United States’ national interest was generally perceived as minding its own business and keeping out of foreign wars—the isolationist view. Today, most United States’ policy makers consider the national interest to include preserving peace and freedom, as well as protecting its economic and other interests, everywhere in the world—the internationalist view.

FURTHERREADING Leone, Bruno, editor. Internationalism: Opposing Viewpoints, 2nd edition, ISMS Series. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Greenhaven Press, 1986. Willis, Charles A. America in the 1950s. New York: Chelsea House, 2005. Willis, Charles A. America in the 1960s. New York: Chelsea House, 2005.

Internationalism from A–Z

A–B PROVISIONS The first provision of the Atlantic Charter was that neither the United States nor Great Britain would seek to acquire territory in the war. The second provision was that the two countries did not wish to see changes in other countries’ governments unless such changes were by the choice of the governed. This right of peoples to choose the form of government under which they live is known as national self-determination. The Atlantic Charter also stated that after the “final destruction of the Nazi tyranny,” referring to the defeat of Germany in World War II (1939– 1945), the United States and Great Britain hoped for a peace in which all men in all lands might live “in freedom from fear and want.” Finally, the charter expressed hope that the nations of the world would abandon the use of force. In the meantime, however, nations such as Germany, Italy, and Japan, who invaded other nations, would have to be disarmed.

Atlantic Charter Agreement made in August 1941 between United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) and British prime minister Winston Churchill (1940–1945; 1951–1955) regarding the goals of the Allies in World War II (1939–1945). The Atlantic Charter became the statement of the Allies’ war aims after the United States entered the war in December 1941 and served as the basis for the Charter of the United Nations (UN) in 1945. BEGINNINGS OF THE CHARTER By mid-1941, Adolf Hitler’s German army had invaded most of Europe. Great Britain was the last major European power that was not either neutral or under the control of the Axis powers—Japan, Germany, and Italy. The Lend-Lease Act, passed by the United States Congress in March 1941, allowed President Roosevelt to send supplies to Great Britain and other nations fighting against the Axis. The Atlantic Charter stated the aims of those who were fighting the Axis powers. The charter was drafted largely by Franklin Roosevelt during his meeting with Churchill at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, between August 9 and 12, 1941.

EFFECTS OF THE ATLANTIC CHARTER The Atlantic Charter is considered a pivotal document in the campaign for universal principles of human rights and justice. These principles 11

A– B

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Atlantic Charter

also were incorporated into the Charter of the United Nations, which was finalized in June 1945. See also: Churchill, Winston; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; World War II; United Nations (UN).

Berlin Wall Barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and from the rest of East Germany. The Berlin Wall was erected by the East Germans—with the authorization of the Soviet Union—in 1961 to prevent residents of Communist East Germany from fleeing into the freedom of noncommunist West Berlin. The building of the wall caused a crisis in relations between the United States and the Soviets and became a symbol of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was demolished in 1989. GERMANY AND BERLIN AFTER WORLD WAR II At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945—a conference held after Germany’s surrender ended World War II in Europe—the Allies agreed to divide Germany into four occupation zones: British, American, Soviet, and French. Berlin, the capital of Germany, was far inside the zone that was occupied by the Soviet Union. Because of its importance, the city also was divided into zones to be occupied by the four powers. In June 1948, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1922–1953) blockaded West Berlin by closing the roads that led from the city through the Soviet zone to the Western-occupied zones of the country. United States president

Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) arranged an airlift to deliver supplies to the city. A year later, Stalin lifted the blockade. In 1952, the Soviets closed the long border between East and West Germany with a barbed-wire fence. The border between East and West Berlin remained open, however, and from West Berlin, people fleeing from East Germany could travel onward to the West. In 1955, most British, French, and American troops left Germany and the area that the Allies had occupied became West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). The Sovietcontrolled zone became East Germany (the German Democratic Republic). East Germany was a Communist state. It did not allow its citizens the individual rights that West Germans had, and its standard of living soon began to drop steeply as well. By 1961, up to 4,000 East Germans every day were voting against Communism with their feet by moving to West Berlin or to West Germany. BUILDING THE WALL On August 13, 1961, without warning, construction began on a wall that divided West Berlin not only from East Berlin but also from surrounding East Germany. The first version of the wall was 96 miles (155 km) long and consisted of barbed wire. In 1962, a second fence was built that was parallel to the first. Houses between the two barriers were torn down to make a wide, booby-trapped area known as the “death strip.” Armed guards in towers watched the area day and

Berlin Wall

night. In 1965, the barbed wire was replaced by concrete. In 1975, a larger concrete wall was built, 12 feet (3.6 m) high and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. This version is the one most familiar from photographs. REACTION FROM THE WEST West Berliners protested the building of the wall, and their mayor, Willy Brandt, criticized the United States for failing to respond to its building. In July 1961, President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) had admitted that the United States could not hope to free East Germany. After the wall was built, his administration made some polite protests but told the Soviets that they would not challenge the wall by force. On June 26, 1963, President Kennedy visited West Berlin. Standing before a large crowd, Kennedy pointed out the differences between the free world and the walled-off world of the Communists. “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”), he said, emphasizing that no one is free unless all people are free. ESCAPE ATTEMPTS The East Germans claimed that the Berlin Wall would prevent Western spies from entering East Germany. Movement from West Berlin to the east seldom was restricted, however. The trouble came when someone tried to cross from East to West. Through the years, at least 133 East Germans were shot as they tried to cross the barrier to reach

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the West. When a guard shot a fleeing Easterner, the fugitive often was left to bleed to death in the “death strip.” About 5,000 fugitives were lucky or clever enough to make successful escapes into West Berlin after the wall was built. In the early days, people jumped from the windows of apartment buildings that overlooked the barbed-wire fence. More inventive ways of escape included tunnels, hot-air balloons, and aerial wires. An ingenious group of four people modified a low-slung sports car so that its roof and windshield would shear off

East and West Germans celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall—a symbol of the Cold War—as demonstrators tear it down in October 1989. More than 100 East Germans were killed trying to cross to the western side of the wall.

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if the loosened parts hit a barrier. Crouching down in the car, the four escapees drove straight through the metal bar that blocked one of the checkpoints that allowed official passage through the wall. DEMOLITION OF THE WALL On June 12, 1987, United States president Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) stood in West Berlin and challenged Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev (1988–1991): “If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” By the late 1980s, the Soviet Union was weakening. In June 1989, the Communist government of Hungary opened that country’s border with Austria. More than 13,000 East German tourists fled to Austria from Hungary. In East Germany, antigovernment rallies that attracted up to a million protesters each began to be held late in 1989. On November 9, 1989, the checkpoints along the Berlin Wall were opened. In the weeks that followed, people gleefully smashed the wall with sledgehammers. The official demolition began in June 1990. On October 3, 1990, Germany was unified for the first time since Hitler’s defeat in 1945. See also: Soviet Union; World War II; Potsdam Conference; Reagan, Ronald; Communism and the Cold War.

FURTHERREADING Taylor, Frederick. The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961–1989. New York: Harper Perrenial, 2008.

http://www.die-berliner-mauer.de/en/index. html http://www.western-allies-berlin.com/

Bosnia and Herzegovina Republic located on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe, in what formerly was Communist Yugoslavia. Bosnia and Herzegovina (often referred to simply as Bosnia) declared its independence in 1992. Until 1995, Bosnia was at war with newly independent Croatia and the newly formed Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the war, mass murders and acts of ethnic cleansing were committed on all sides. In addition, thousands of people were killed because of religious differences. An estimated 100,000 people died. BACKGROUND Bosnia is slightly smaller than the state of West Virginia. Its capital is Sarajevo, the site of the 1984 Winter Olympic Games. Like their neighbors the Serbs, the Bosnians are descended from the Southern Slavs, the people who gave Yugoslavia its name. Bosnia was independent from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, when it was conquered by the forces of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. When Bosnia was conquered, most of its population was Catholic. The Ottoman Turks classified their subjects by religion, however, and non-Muslim subjects had no rights. Under Turkish rule, many Bosnians converted to the Muslim faith for political reasons. Today, Bosnia still has a substantial Muslim population, known as Bosniaks.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

After World War I (1914–1918), the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. Bosnia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1942, during World War II (1939– 1945), Yugoslavia was occupied by the Germans and the Italians. These two Axis powers encouraged the Croats and Serbs in Bosnia to torture and murder each other. This bloody rivalry kept the Croats and Serbs from joining forces to resist the Axis invaders. After World War II ended in 1945, Bosnia became part of Communist Yugoslavia, a nation run by dictator Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980). Yugoslavia began to fall apart after Tito died, and Bosnia declared its independence in April 1992.

WAR WITH THE SERBS AND CROATS Bosnia soon was at war with two of its neighbors: Croatia (independent as of 1991) and Serbia, which had joined Montenegro, Vojvodina, and Kosovo to form the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic, the president of Yugoslavia (1990–2001), encouraged Christian Serbs who lived within Bosnia to rebel against the Muslim-dominated Bosnian government. To Serbian nationalists, the Muslims in Bosnia were reminders of the hated time when Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Beginning in 1992, Serbian rebels in Bosnia besieged the Muslim part of the city of Sarajevo for 1,395 days, the longest siege in modern history. During the siege, much of Sarajevo was

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destroyed by bombs. The stadium that had been built for the 1984 Olympic Games was used as a graveyard. Milosevic sent paramilitary troops throughout the rest of Bosnia to carry out the ethnic cleansing of Muslim villages. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims fled. In July 1995, more than 7,000 Muslims surrendered to the Serbs and were massacred at the town of Srebrenica—the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.

WESTERN INVOLVEMENT AND A PEACE AGREEMENT In 1995, United States president William Jefferson Clinton (1993– 2001) persuaded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to use air strikes to stop Bosnian Serbs from attacking Bosnian Muslims. Milosevic managed to present himself to the West as a peacemaker. In Dayton, Ohio, in 1995, Milosevic and the presidents of Croatia and Bosnia worked out the “Dayton Accords,” dividing Bosnia into the Bosniak/Croat Federation and the Serbian Republic. The two new countries would cooperate in foreign affairs. The war had caused about 100,000 deaths and devastated much of the infrastructure of Bosnia. Recovery has been slow. As of 2007, unemployment in Bosnia stood at about 45 percent. An estimated 131,600 internally displaced persons—Bosnian Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks—who were driven from their homes during the war still live uncertain lives within the country.

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The Dayton Accords

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he Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia signed the Dayton Accords on November 21, 1995. To try to bring peace to the troubled Balkan region, these nations have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE I The Parties shall conduct their relations in accordance with the principles set forth in the United Nations Charter . . . In particular, th e P arties shall fully respect the sovereign equality of one another, shall settle disputes by peaceful means, and shall refrain from any action, by threat or use of force or otherwise, against the territorial integrity or political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina o r a ny o ther S tate. . . . ARTICLE VII Recognizing that the observance of human rights and the protection of refugees and displaced persons are of vital importance in achieving a lasting peace, the Parties agree to and shall comply fully with the provisions concerning human rights set forth in Chapter One of the Agreement. . . . ANNEX 6, ARTICLE I The Parties shall secure to all persons within their jurisdiction the highest level of inter-

nationally recognized human rights and fundamental freed oms. . . . These include: 1. The right to life. 2. The right not to be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 3. The right not to be held in slavery or servitude or to perform forced or compulsory labor. 4. The rights to liberty and security of person. 5. The right to a fair hearing in civil and criminal matters, and other rights relating to criminal proceedings. 6. The right to private and family life, home, and correspondence. 7. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion. 8. Freedom of expression. 9. Freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association with others. 10. The right to marry and to found a family. 11. The right to property. 12. The right to education. 13. The right to liberty of movement and residence. . . .

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U.S. president Bill Clinton’s (1993–2001) efforts were essential in securing the Dayton Accords, which ended the violence in Bosnia.

See also: Democracy and Human Rights; Kosovo; Yugoslavia, Breakup of.

FURTHERREADING Black, Eric. Bosnia: Fractured Region. World in Conflict. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 1997. Cothran, Helen. War-Torn Bosnia. History Firsthand. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/ Greenhaven Press, 2001. Tekavec, Valerie, compiler. Teenage Refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina Speak Out, Revised Edition. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1997.

Bush, George H.W. (1924– ) Forty-first president of the United States, from 1989 to 1993. Among the

major international events that occurred during President George Bush’s term were the final breakup of the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf War (1991), which followed the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION AND END OF THE COLD WAR During the presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991) instituted reforms in the Soviet Union. These reforms decreased the Communist Party’s control of the country’s economy and the Soviet people. In 1988, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would no longer

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support Communist dictators in Eastern Europe with military force. Most Eastern European nations quickly broke away from Soviet domination. In a historic moment in November 1989, the checkpoints at the Berlin Wall, a barrier that had divided that city since 1961, were opened. Soon afterward, inhabitants of East and West Berlin battered the hated wall to pieces. The next year, East Germany was united with West Germany for the first time since the defeat and death of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in 1945, at the end of World War II. In December 1991, by the vote of its own parliament, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. This marked the end of the Cold War, which had dominated United States’ foreign policy since the end of World War II. PANAMA During the 1980s, Manuel Noriega— the ruler of the Central American nation of Panama and a one-time ally of the United States—was accused of shipping drugs to the United States through Panama and of spying for Fidel Castro, the Communist leader of Cuba. Economic sanctions imposed against Panama by President Reagan failed to topple Noriega’s government. In May 1989, the Panamanian people voted Noriega out of office. He declared the election results invalid, however, and remained in power. President Bush responded by sending troops to the Panama Canal Zone, which the United States and Panama still controlled jointly. After

an American soldier was shot by a Panamanian soldier, Bush sent 25,000 troops to remove Noriega from office. Operation Just Cause was the first United States military operation in 40 years that was not related to the Cold War. Noriega surrendered and was taken to the United States. He was convicted of drug trafficking charges in April 1992 and jailed. In Panama, the president who had been legally elected in May 1989 took office, and American troops withdrew. PERSIAN GULF WAR The high point of George H.W. Bush’s presidency was his success in the Persian Gulf War. In early 1991, Operation Desert Storm—a military action that was authorized by the United Nations (UN) and that used a coalition of international forces—successfully liberated the small but strategic Persian Gulf state of Kuwait from Iraqi invaders. About 300 lives were lost among the coalition forces. At the time of the war and later, some people criticized Bush for not moving into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the leader whose invasion of his smaller neighbor sparked the war. Bush responded that the United Nation’s mission was only to liberate Kuwait, not to interfere with the government of Iraq. See also: Berlin Wall, Bush, George W.; Iraqi War of 2003; Persian Gulf War (1991).

FURTHERREADING Greene, John Robert. The George H. W. Bush Years. Presidential Profiles. New York: Facts On File, 2005.

Bush, George W. (1946– )

Salzman, Marian. War and Peace in the Persian Gulf: What Teenagers Want to Know. Lawrenceville, N.J.: Peterson’s, 1991.

Bush, George W. (1946– ) Forty-third president of the United States (2001–2009), who began the so-called war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the nation. George W. Bush sent the United States’ troops into Afghanistan in October 2001 and into Iraq in 2003. He also negotiated with North Korea, which was developing nuclear capabilities. TERRORIST ATTACKS ON THE UNITED STATES The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, stunned the nation. The attacks caused 2,974 innocent deaths, and property damage was totaled in the billions of dollars. In contrast to the enemies of the Cold War era, the terrorists who attacked the United States on September 11 were not part of a national military force. They worked secretly, in small, independently organized groups, or cells. Their equipment and preparation required substantial funding and training facilities, however. The nations that supply such funds and facilities to terrorists are described by the United States State Department as “state sponsors of terrorism.” In his State of the Union message in January 2002, President Bush identified Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the primary state sponsors of terror-

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ism. Bush stated that if he were given evidence of a serious threat to United States’ security, he would order a preemptive strike—an attack before the threat was carried out. This implied that he would take unilateral action—that the United States, acting alone, could make a decision to attack without consulting its allies or the United Nations (UN). AFGHANISTAN Within days of the September 11 attacks, United States intelligence agencies found evidence that the attacks had been planned by al Qaeda, an Islamic fundamentalist group led by Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian with international connections. Bin Laden was believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, a mountainous country that borders Iran, Pakistan, and several small states that once formed part of the Soviet Union. In 2001, Afghanistan was under the rule of a group known as the Taliban. The Taliban government had imposed strict Islamic law in the country in 1996. When the United States put diplomatic pressure on Afghanistan to surrender bin Laden, the request had no effect. The United States began bombing Afghanistan in October 2001. The Taliban lost control of Afghanistan that December. Today, Afghanistan’s constitution provides for an Islamic republic. Elected members of parliament include former mujahedeen, or leaders of “holy wars”; Taliban members; Communists; reformists; and Islamic fundamentalists. However, as of 2009, the political situation in Afghanistan remains unstable.

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IRAQ Within a few days of September 11, some of President Bush’s advisers were arguing in favor of an attack on Iraq. Intelligence sources, it was said, suggested that Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s dictator, was accumulating weapons of mass destruction. It later was determined that these sources were wrong. Nonetheless, the United States gathered a coalition of more than 35 allies to invade Iraq. The invasion began on March 20, 2003. The Iraqi army was quickly defeated. Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, fell on April 9. President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1. In January 2005, elections were held in Iraq. For the first time in 50 years, there was no interference in a national election from a dictator or a ruling party. Between 2004 and 2007, however, a growing number of insurgents attacked coalition troops stationed in Iraq, and a civil war broke out between Sunni and Shia Muslims. In response, Bush sent more troops into the unsteady country. By 2008, the country had become more stable and an agreement between the Iraqi and United States governments called for all coalition troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, a promise reinforced by then president-elect Barack Obama. NORTH KOREA Kim Jong Il (1994– ) is the son of North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung (1948–1994), the ruler whose invasion of South Korea in 1950 set off the Korean War (1950–1953). North Korea’s nuclear weapons program

began during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union supplied technicians and a nuclear reactor to Kim Il Sung. In 2006, Kim Jong Il announced that North Korea had successfully detonated a nuclear bomb. Kim Jong Il has used North Korea’s potential or actual nuclear capabilities as a bargaining chip to get foreign aid. He has agreed several times to limit development of nuclear weapons but has not allowed international inspectors to check whether he is complying with the agreements. In November 2006, President Bush stated that “the transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities [terrorists] would be considered a grave threat to the United States.” Kim Jong Il later agreed that by the end of 2007, he would dismantle North Korea’s nuclear reactor, the used fuel from which can be transformed into material for nuclear warheads. By June 2008, the plant was dismantled. In 2009, North Korea was again threatening to increase its nuclear capability. See also: Bush, George H.W.; Iraqi War of 2003; Persian Gulf War (1991).

FURTHERREADING Anderson, Dale. America into a New Millennium. Orlando, Fla.: Raintree, 2001. Jones, Veda Boyd. George W. Bush. Modern World Leaders. New York: Facts On File/ Chelsea House, 2006. Lansford, Tom, and Watson, Robert P., eds. George W. Bush. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2004.

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C–D Camp David Accords An agreement signed on September 14, 1978, between Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty that was based on the Camp David Accords made Egypt the first Arab nation to recognize Israel’s right to exist. ARAB-ISRAELI WARS, 1948–1973 For years after the founding of Israel in 1948, Egypt was the leader of the Arab nations. In 1948–1949, Egypt

fought beside Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq against Israel. In 1967 (the Six-Day War), Egypt fought beside Syria and Jordan. In 1973 (the Yom Kippur War), it fought beside Syria. In each war, Israel drove back the Arab forces, but at high cost. In December 1973, a few months after the Yom Kippur War, a peace conference was held at Geneva, attended by Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the United States (which supported Israel), and the Soviet Union (which supported the Arab nations). They failed to reach an agreement.

U.S. president Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) shakes hands with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat after the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords in September 1978.

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Jimmy Carter (1924– ) The high point of the presidency of Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) was the negotiation of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The low point was the Iran hostage crisis.

PEACE AND PANAMA Carter helped to negotiate the first peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, in September 1978, at Camp David. The treaty based on the Camp David Accords was signed in March 1979. Carter also negotiated treaties that transferred control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. The United States built and paid for the canal, which opened in 1914. In return, the United States held a perpetual, permanent lease on the canal and the surrounding Canal Zone. By the new treaties, the Panama Canal Zone was to be turned over to Panamanian control at the end of 1999.

ARMS, AFGHANISTAN, AND IRAN President Carter continued the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II) that

CARTER’S NEGOTIATIONS United States president Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) hoped that it might be easier to negotiate a peace agreement between Israel and a single Arab nation. In September 1978, Carter invited Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. Sadat and Begin were willing to negotiate a

had been started by presidents Richard M. Nixon (1969–1974) and Gerald R. Ford (1974–1977). Carter and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed an agreement but in 1979, as Congress debated whether to ratify the agreement, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Carter withdrew the treaty from consideration by Congress, and the United States began to send covert aid to Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan who were fighting against the Soviets. The shah of Iran, a brutal dictator, had been an ally of the United States since World War II (1941–1945). He was overthrown by Islamic fundamentalists in February 1979. When the United States allowed him to come to the United States in November 1979, Iranian students seized the United States embassy in Tehran, the Iranian capital. The students held 52 hostages captive for 444 days. The hostages were released soon after Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) was sworn in as president in January 1981.

peace but were barely on speaking terms with each other. Carter shuttled between the two. After 12 days, an agreement was signed. PROVISIONS The Camp David Accords called for Israel to withdraw its armed forces from the Sinai Peninsula, a part of Egypt that Israel had occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967. To do this,

Castro, Fidel (1926– )

Israel had to evacuate 4,500 Israeli civilians who had settled in the Sinai. Egypt agreed not only to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a nation but also to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. In addition, Egypt agreed to allow Israeli ships to sail through the Suez Canal and agreed not to station large numbers of troops in the Sinai, a move that would threaten Israel’s border with Egypt. With this agreement, Egypt and Israel gained a long border that did not require defense. Begin and Sadat were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for their successful negotiations at Camp David. THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION The status of Palestinian refugees was not resolved by the Camp David Accords. By a United Nations (UN) estimate, 726,000 Palestinians fled the newly created country of Israel after the first Arab-Israeli War (1948– 1949), a war that began after Israel’s Arab neighbors refused to recognize the new state. Many of these refugees lived in wretched, temporary settlements near the Israeli-Egyptian border and often attacked Israel from these positions. A permanent peace in the Middle East requires that the Palestinian situation be settled. EFFECTS OF THE CAMP DAVID ACCORDS Other Arab nations were angry that Egypt had negotiated peace with Israel. From 1979 to 1989, Egypt was suspended from the Arab League. In 1981, President Anwar El Sadat, who had negotiated on Egypt’s behalf at Camp David, was assassinated by radical Islamicists—individuals who op-

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posed any dialogue or agreements with Israel. See also: Carter, Jimmy; Israel.

FURTHERREADING Blue, Rose, and Corinne J. Naden. The Modern Years: Nixon to Clinton, 1969–Present. Who’s That in the White House? Orlando, Fla.: Raintree, 1997.

Carter, Jimmy See Camp David Accords.

Castro, Fidel (1926– )

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Leader of Communist Cuba 1959 to 2008. Castro’s close ties with the Soviet Union led to the failed Bay of Pigs expedition in April 1961 and to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. This Cold War crisis almost led to a nuclear war. REVOLUTION IN CUBA Cuba, an island nation just 90 miles (144 km) south of the coast of Florida, has had a long relationship with the United States. That relationship has not always been a happy one, however. American troops helped Cuba gain independence from Spain in 1898. A clause in the 1901 Cuban constitution, however, allowed the United States to intervene in Cuban affairs until 1934. As late as the 1950s, many Cubans still remembered that clause and resented the United States. In addition, Americans owned many of the largest businesses in Cuba, including many of the plantations that produced Cuba’s largest cash crop, sugar. In 1959, after several failed attempts, Fidel Castro, his ally, the Argentina-born revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and a small band of

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Cuban guerrilla fighters ousted Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista (1940–1944 and 1952–1959). Castro took over as commander in chief of Cuba in January 1959 and soon afterward became prime minister. At first, he did not call himself a Communist. He did, however, promise to deliver oil to the Soviet Union in February 1960. When the owners of American oil refineries in Cuba refused to process that oil, Castro seized the refineries. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) reduced the amount of sugar that the United States imported from Cuba. Castro responded by seizing even more American property. Meanwhile, upper- and middleclass Cubans began to flee from their homeland by the hundreds of thousands, even though Castro did not allow them to take any of their property with them. Most of these Cuban exiles settled in Florida, where they formed a large and influential community in the Miami area. As early as 1959, Castro began to receive large amounts of economic and military aid from the Soviet Union. By this time, the Cold War was being waged around the world. The United States had confronted Communists in Korea (1950–1953) and in Vietnam (starting in the mid-1950s). Americans had watched as the Soviets smashed a rebellion in Hungary in 1956. Furthermore, the Soviet Union had successfully detonated an atomic bomb in 1949 and a hydrogen bomb in 1961. To have a nation friendly to the Soviet Union so close to the United States was seen as a serious threat to America’s security.

Eisenhower’s advisers suggested a plan to overthrow Castro using Cuban exiles trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Because Eisenhower did not think the exiles were ready for the invasion by the time he left office in January 1961, however, he did not give the plan the go-ahead. Eisenhower’s successor, John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) , chose to authorize the invasion. In April 1961, about 1,400 exiles landed on the southern coast of Cuba, at a place known as the Bay of Pigs. Within three days, 114 of the exiles were killed, and about 1,100 were captured. In 1962, the United States imposed an embargo on trade with and travel to Cuba. THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS On October 15, 1962, American spy planes photographed bases in Cuba that were capable of launching missiles with nuclear warheads. The bases were being constructed with the aid of Soviet advisers and troops and were designed to launch Sovietmade missiles. President Kennedy demanded that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (1958–1964) remove the bases and not allow the missiles to be delivered. After many tense days, Khrushchev agreed, and war was averted. AFTER THE COLD WAR In the late 1980s, when the Soviet economy was weakening, the Soviet Union cut back severely on economic aid to Cuba. Because that aid was Cuba’s major source of income, the Cuban economy was struck hard. Fidel Castro turned 80 in 2006; in

Churchill, Winston (1874–1965)

early 2008, he handed over many of his government powers to his brother Raul Castro. See also: Communism and the Cold War; Cuban Missile Crisis; Soviet Union.

FURTHERREADING Beyer, Don E. Castro. New York: Scholastic Library Publishing, 1993. Markel, Rita J. Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 2007.

Churchill, Winston (1874–1965) Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A brilliant statesman and orator, he is credited with leading the British to victory in World War II (1939–1945). EARLY CAREER In his early years, Churchill combined his military training with high-paying work as a journalist and writer. By his late twenties, he was involved in politics, and by age 33, he was a prominent member of the British cabinet. When World War I (1914–1918) broke out, Churchill was serving as first lord of the Admiralty, a post similar to the United States secretary of the Navy. In September 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain (1937– 1940) signed the Munich Agreement with Germany. Chamberlain believed that this agreement would guarantee “peace for our time” in return for allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. Churchill condemned Chamberlain’s

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policy of appeasement. Germany’s dictator, Adolf Hitler (1933–1945) annexed the Sudetenland in October 1938 and the rest of Czechoslovakia six months later. WORLD WAR II When Great Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939, after Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Churchill was once again named first lord of the Admiralty. Chamberlain resigned as prime minister in May 1940, after Hitler’s invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Churchill was then appointed prime minister. Churchill and the members of his “war cabinet” set the policy for Great Britain in its war against Germany. Because Churchill was on friendly terms with American president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), the United States sent the British supplies of food, oil, and arms long before the United States officially entered World War II. In December 1940, Churchill sent Roosevelt a detailed list of materials that the British urgently needed to carry on the war. Roosevelt’s response was to propose the LendLease program. Lend-Lease eventually provided $50 billion in goods to Great Britain and other Allied nations. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Churchill arranged to send aid to the Soviets, even though Great Britain itself was desperately short of supplies. During the war, Churchill met several times with Roosevelt and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1922–1953) to discuss military strategy. Churchill hated

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Churchill Addresses the House of Commons

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inston Churchill is renowned for directing the military efforts of the British during World War II, but he is also famous for his brilliant speeches to the British Parliament and public. Churchill’s words helped give the British the courage and stamina they needed to fight the Nazis. In his first speech as prime minister on May 13, 1940, Churchill told the House of Commons:

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. . . . We have be fore us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamenta-

Communism and distrusted Stalin, but he worked with the Soviet dictator to crush the Nazis. THE COLD WAR After World War II ended in 1945, Churchill was the first public figure in either the United States or Great Britain to warn publicly of the coming struggle with the Communists. In a speech that he gave on March 5, 1946, less than a year after the Japanese surrender ended World War II in the Pacific, Churchill described an “iron curtain” that divided Eastern from Western Europe.

ble catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. . . . But I ta ke up my ta sk w ith buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men.

See also: World War II; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Lend-Lease Act (1941); Communism and the Cold War; Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech in Viewpoints section.

FURTHERREADING D’este, Carlo. Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War: 1874–1945. New York: Harper Perenniel, 2009.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Agency created during the Cold War to gather information from abroad

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which would help American policy makers. CIA activities are usually secret, and some have created scandals when made public. FORMATION AND EARLY YEARS The CIA was established in 1947, at the beginning of the Cold War. Its primary purpose is to aid U.S. foreignpolicy makers by gathering intelligence about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals. The CIA is allowed to operate overseas only and has no law-enforcement powers. President Eisenhower (1953– 1961) authorized many CIA covert, or secret, activities. The most notable were the overthrow of governments in Iran and Guatemala. Under President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963), the CIA was involved in several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, the communist leader of Cuba. The CIA also was responsible for training the Cuban exiles who, in 1961, landed at the Bay of Pigs—a failed attempt to overthrow Castro. THE 1970s TO THE 1990s In 1972, ex-CIA agents staged a breakin at the Democratic Party’s headquarters at the Watergate complex, and, as was later revealed in a national scandal, President Nixon and his staff tried to pressure the CIA to suppress the story, damaging the agency’s image. In 1975, the Senate set up the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. The “Church Committee” (nicknamed for its chairman, Senator Frank Church) issued 14 lengthy reports that documented the CIA’s illegal operations and failures. After this investigation, the

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CIA’s activities were more carefully monitored and controlled. Under President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), the CIA was involved in the Iran-Contra affair. Congress had forbidden aid to the antiCommunist contras in Nicaragua. To circumvent this, weapons were sold to Iran and the profits were sent to the Contras. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the CIA helped train Afghans to helped drive out the Soviets in 1989. Failure in Afghanistan helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1991. Many of the CIA-trained Afghan fighters later became the core of the terrorist organization al Qaeda, and soon turned their training against the United States. See also: Communism and the Cold War; Soviet Union; Latin America; Castro, Fidel.

Clinton, William Jefferson (1946– ) The first United States president since the end of World War II (1941–1945) whose foreign policy did not deal primarily with Cold War issues. Bill Clinton’s administration (1993– 2001) did not focus on the containment of Communism but on what he called “enlargement”—spreading democracy and free markets. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Despite the fact that United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were in the newly independent nation of Bosnia, the country’s various religious and ethnic groups—Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims),

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Serbs (Orthodox Christians), and Croats (Roman Catholics) were massacring each other and forcibly expelling people from their homes, in an ethnic cleansing that Clinton’s predecessor, George H.W. Bush (1993– 2001), had ignored. This situation had dragged on for three years when, in 1995, President Clinton persuaded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to begin bombing the Serbs. The bombings resulted in a ceasefire and the Dayton Accords later that year. With the Dayton Accords and the treaty based on them, Bosnia was divided into one section that was mostly Serb and a second section that was mostly Croat and Bosniak. Armed troops from NATO have been stationed in Bosnia since 1995 to keep the peace.

House by King Hussein of Jordan (1952–1999) and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel. Jordan became the second Arab nation, after Egypt, to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

ISRAEL, PALESTINE, AND JORDAN In September 1993, Clinton encouraged negotiations between Yasser Arafat (1929–2004), the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1992–1995). At Oslo, Norway, the PLO agreed to accept Israel’s right to exist and Israel agreed that the PLO was a legitimate representative of the Palestinian refugees who had been fleeing from Israel since 1948. The Oslo Accords were signed at the White House in 1993. The accords have had little impact on bringing peace to the region, however. In 1994, a peace agreement was reached between Israel and Jordan. It was embodied in the “Washington Declaration” signed at the White

The governing philosophy of the Soviet Union and the ongoing conflict waged by the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II (1939–1945). The Soviet Union did not allow basic human rights to its citizens and strictly controlled the nation’s economy. It also threatened to spread its form of government across the globe.

See also: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Camp David Accords; Israel; Yugoslavia, Breakup of.

FURTHERREADING Blue, Rose, and Corinne J. Naden. The Modern Years: Nixon to Clinton, 1969–Present. Who’s That in the White House? Orlando, Fla.: Raintree, 1997. Martin, Gene L., and Aaron Boyd. Bill Clinton: President from Arkansas. Greensboro, N.C.: Tudor Publishers, 1993.

Cold War See Communism and the Cold War.

Communism and the Cold War

COMMUNISM Originally, the term communism referred to a society in which all property was held in common. After the term’s use in 1848 by the German philosopher Karl Marx in his Communist Manifesto, communism became a political movement. According to Marx, capitalism—an economic system characterized by the private

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ownership of the “means of production” with a minimum of government interference—always led to the “exploitation of the workers.” Therefore, said Marx, the proletariat, or working class, should overthrow the middle and upper classes, the bourgeoisie. Once the workers controlled the government, the economy, and the means of production, everyone would work as hard as he or she could and would be guaranteed enough to live on. In time, a classless, government-free society would develop—a workers’ paradise, true communism. Marx called the transitional period, during which the workers owned the means of production, but the state had not yet withered away, “socialism.” The twentieth century saw experiments in Marxist communism in the two of the world’s largest countries—Russia and China. COMMUNISM IN THE SOVIET UNION The first large-scale attempt to create a Communist-run country based on Marxist principles began in Russia in 1917. After Russia’s Czar Nicholas II (1894–1918) gave up his throne, Vladimir Lenin’s (1917–1924) Bolshevik Party seized political power. By 1922, four provinces of the former Russian empire had joined to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Bolsheviks, soon renamed the Communist Party, controlled the economy as well as the government. The party decreed who would produce what, and when, and where. The party also decided what jobs workers would hold, how much in-

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come and food they would receive, and where they would live. The party also had absolute control over the rights of the country’s citizens. Soviet citizens did not have freedom of speech. People who spoke out in favor of religion often were punished harshly because the Soviet Union was officially atheist. Citizens who criticized the Communist government or spoke negatively about Party members could be jailed, sent to forced labor in the gulags, or executed. In the 1930s, hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens were killed for political reasons. Millions more died from famines caused by the Communist Party’s inept control of the economy. During World War II (1939– 1945), although the United States, Great Britain, and other Allied powers were opposed to communism, they formed an alliance with the Soviet Union to defeat Germany’s Adolf Hitler and his Nazi war machine. Toward the end of World War II, however, the differences between the Soviet Union and the other Allied nations began to loom very large. BREAK BETWEEN THE SOVIET UNION AND THE WEST Some historians date the beginning of open antagonism between the West and the Soviet Union to the Yalta Conference of February 1945. At that meeting, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1922–1953) demanded that United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) and British prime minister Winston Churchill (1940–1945 and 1951–1955) allow

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the Soviet Union to dominate Eastern Europe. By the time the Germans surrendered in May 1945, the Soviet Union occupied the eastern half of Germany, including the eastern half of the capital, Berlin. At the Potsdam Conference (July–August 1945), most of that area was left under Soviet control. The Americans and the British did not want to alienate Stalin because they expected to need his help to fight Japan and end the war in the Pacific. In March 1946, in a speech that he gave at a college in Missouri, former British prime minister Churchill referred to an “iron curtain” that had fallen across Europe. His eloquent phrase became the standard way to refer to the barrier between Communist and noncommunist countries in Europe. In March 1947, President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) stated in the “Truman Doctrine” that the United States would help any free country that was threatened with a Communist takeover. The official United States policy was known as containment. The United States would not go to war to push the Soviets back to their 1939 borders but would prevent the Soviets from seizing more territory. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union was willing to engage in open warfare with the other because such a conflict—a “hot” war—probably would have led to an appalling loss of lives on both sides. The battle between these superpowers was, therefore, a “cold” war, in which the two powers supported different

sides in proxy wars around the globe. In these proxy wars, the superpowers supported one side or the other with conventional (nonnuclear) weapons, advisers, and, sometimes, troops. MILITARY ALLIANCES In the late 1940s and 1950s, the United States set up many alliances for military defense. The most famous and longest-lasting of these alliances was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was established in April 1949. After Sovietsupported North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950, it seemed possible that Soviet tanks might roll in to take over Western Europe. In 1955, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states formed the Warsaw Pact, the Communist counterpart to NATO. BERLIN BLOCKADE AND AIRLIFT At the Potsdam Conference in mid1945, Germany was divided into zones occupied by the Americans, British, French, Germans, and Soviets. Although Berlin, the capital of Germany, was in the Soviet zone, each of the Allies was given an occupation zone. In June 1948, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered troops to block the highway that led from West Germany through Soviet-controlled East Germany to West Berlin which was controlled by the United States, Britain and France. The three occupying powers now had no way to send supplies or troops to the parts of Berlin that they controlled. In response to the blockade, President Truman ordered massive amounts of supplies to be flown into

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West Berlin. By the spring of 1949, up to 81,000 tons of supplies were being airlifted into Berlin each day. In May 1949, Stalin called off the blockade. COMMUNIST CHINA In 1950, Chinese Communists under the leadership of Mao Zedong defeated the Nationalist Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-shek. The Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan. For a few years, China and the Soviet Union were allies. Then Mao proceeded to develop his own brand of communism. He began to describe the Soviets as counterrevolutionaries. By the 1960s, China and the Soviet Union had become openly hostile to each other. The United States did not consider China as much of a threat as the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, after all, was more economically powerful and shared a long border with Western Europe, a situation that made invasion a constant threat. In 1972, U.S. president Richard M. Nixon (1969–1974) made a state visit to China to establish friendly relations. THE KOREAN WAR, 1950–1953 June 1950 saw the start of the first war fought to contain communism. North Korea, ruled by Communist leader Kim Il Sung (1948–1994), invaded South Korea, a democratic republic. The United Nations (UN) sent in troops that eventually forced the North Koreans to retreat. The Korean War demonstrated that the United States and its allies were willing to use military force to prevent the spread of communism.

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COMMUNIST REPRESSION IN HUNGARY AND GERMANY In 1956, the Hungarian people rebelled against their Communist rulers. The Soviets put down the uprising ruthlessly, within two weeks of its start. About 2,500 Hungarians died. Stalin had lifted the blockade of Berlin in 1949, but by 1952, a barbedwire fence had been constructed around the city to make it difficult for East Germans to flee into the Western-controlled zones of Berlin and from there to West Germany. In August 1961, the Communists built a wall around West Berlin. The Berlin Wall kept all but a few daring East Germans confined behind the Iron Curtain. COMMUNISM IN CUBA In 1959, the government of Cuba, a Caribbean island a mere 90 miles (144 km) south of Florida, was taken over by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (1959–2008). In October 1962, photographs taken by an American spy plane showed that launch pads for nuclear missiles were being built in Cuba. The Soviets were supplying not only the missiles but also the men to install them. After a tense two weeks of negotiations, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (1954– 1964) agreed to dismantle and remove the missile bases. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest that the Cold War ever came to turning into a nuclear war. VIETNAM The longest war fought to contain the spread of Communism took place in the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam. There, North Vietnamese

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Communists and their South Vietnamese allies, the Viet Cong, were attempting to take control of South Vietnam. The Vietnamese Communists received supplies and support from the Soviet Union and Communist China. The United States sent troops to push the North Vietnamese back to their legal border. By 1968, after tens of thousands of American troops and far more Vietnamese had died, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) sought peace. American troops were withdrawn by 1973, but North Vietnam invaded again in 1975 and quickly toppled the South Vietnamese government. The North Vietnamese then united the nation under Communist rule. ARMS RACE AND ARMS REDUCTION In August 1949, the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb. A few months later, President Harry S. Truman authorized the United States to develop a more powerful nuclear weapon—the hydrogen bomb. Truman had been advised that the Soviet Union would be able to develop such a bomb whether or not the United States did so. Truman’s decision set the pattern for the arms race in the Cold War. At first, the United States tried to produce more nuclear weapons than the Soviets. Later, the American policy changed to one of mutual deterrence. The idea behind this policy was that if the Soviets were to attack the United States with nuclear weapons, the United States still would be able to launch enough nuclear weapons to destroy the Soviet Union. By the 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union had roughly the

same number of nuclear missiles: enough to destroy each other several times over. Soviet leaders seemed ready to admit that military spending was crippling their economy. United States presidents Richard M. Nixon (1969–1974) and Gerald R. Ford (1974–1977) began a policy of détente—a decrease of tension. In 1972, based on the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to reduce their stocks of nuclear weapons. THE LAST COLD WARRIOR President Ronald Reagan (1981– 1989) was a fervent anticommunist. He had watched Communists take control in Eastern Europe and elsewhere after World War II. He had seen them brutally put down all rebellions against Communist rule. As late as 1979, he had seen them invade Afghanistan. Reagan was not inclined to continue the policy of détente. In 1983, he proposed the first new military technology in decades, the Strategic Defense Initiative, as a way to stop Soviet nuclear weapons from striking the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991) came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985. Gorbachev instituted policies of perestroika and glasnost, both of which reduced the Communist Party’s grip on the Soviet people and the Soviet economy. In 1987, President Reagan called on Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. A combination of factors led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. These factors included Reagan’s increase in military spending, the Soviet Union’s failure to subdue Afghanistan, and the lessening of the

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Communist Party’s power under Gorbachev’s reforms. One by one, the republics that made up the Soviet Union seceded. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics officially ceased to exist in December 1991. This was the end of the Cold War, which had lasted about 45 years. EFFECTS ON THE WORLD The Cold War’s effects were wide ranging. Because of the arms race, the world’s two superpowers had amassed enough nuclear weapons for instantaneous destruction on a vast scale. This made them more cautious about launching into the sort of all-out struggle that World War I and World War II had been. In the United States, the Cold War led to greatly increased spending on defense. One of the unexpected side effects of this defense spending was the development of the Internet, which originally was created as a way for military researchers to communicate. Similarly, the United States’s vast interstate highway system was designed to allow military equipment to be moved anywhere in the country in case of an attack. The United States space program was funded by a government fearful that the Soviets would gain control of space and launch attacks on the United States from there. Increased spending on education, and especially on science education, was approved from fear that the Soviets might be able to create military and scientific innovations faster than Americans could. Beginning in the late 1950s, the United States began to support more science classes in middle schools and high schools.

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See also: Castro, Fidel; Cuban Missile Crisis; Gorbachev, Mikhail; NATO; Nixon, Richard M.; Reagan, Ronald; Soviet Union; Warsaw Pact.

FURTHERREADING Gottfried, Ted. The Cold War. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group/TwentyFirst Century Books, 2003. Harrison, Paul. The Cold War. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005. Thomson Gale Staff. Cold War Period: 1945– 1992. Topeka, Kan.: Tandem Library Books, 2002.

Cuban Missile Crisis Confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over nuclear missile bases constructed in Cuba. This event was the closest the Cold War ever came to turning into a nuclear war. CASTRO’S CUBA AND THE COLD WAR The Communist leader Fidel Castro (1959–2008) took power in Cuba in early 1959. By 1960, he had developed close ties with the Soviet Union. Faced with a loss of freedom and property as Castro seized industries and land, many upper- and middleclass Cubans fled to Florida. In April 1961, President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) sent a group of exiles trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) into Cuba. The exiles were determined to overthrow Castro; they expected their fellow Cubans to rise up and join them in the fight. Within three days of the exiles’ landing at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs, however, more than 100 of the men were killed and about 1,100 were captured. There was no uprising.

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After this incident, Castro strengthened his ties with the Soviets even as the Soviet Union became more aggressive toward the United States. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (1954–1964) met with President Kennedy in July 1961. Khrushchev predicted that Communism would bury capitalism and threatened to drive the French, British, and Americans out of West Berlin. In August 1961, he ordered the Berlin Wall constructed to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West. Khrushchev also announced that the Soviet Union was resuming

its testing of nuclear weapons and subsequently detonated several hydrogen bombs. Kennedy, in turn, ordered the production of more nuclear missiles for the United States. THE MISSILE CRISIS On October 15, 1962, a United States U-2 reconnaissance plane photographed nuclear missile bases under construction in Cuba. Between 10,000 and 35,000 Soviet troops already were on the island to help with construction. The nuclear missiles had not yet been delivered but were on the way.

Soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. destroyer Barry and a U.S. patrol plane examined the cargo of the Soviet freighter Anosov to determine if missiles were being removed from Cuba, as had been promised by the Soviet government. The interception took place on November 10, 1962, in the Atlantic Ocean about 780 miles (1,255 km) northeast of Puerto Rico.

Democracy and Human Rights

In a television broadcast on October 22, President Kennedy explained the situation to the American people: The purposes of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere. . . . Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking Washington, D.C., the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city in the southeastern part of the United States, in Central America, or in the Caribbean area. Kennedy reminded his audience that in the 1930s, the tactic of allowing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to attack other countries without consequences had made Hitler even more difficult to defeat. Kennedy and his advisers discussed three options: Destroy the missile bases by air, invade Cuba, or use naval power. Kennedy chose to have the U.S. Navy quarantine Cuba and search any ships that approached the island for nuclear missiles. Khrushchev decided to bargain. He said that he would remove the missile bases from Cuba if the United States would remove nuclear missiles from its bases in Turkey and if the United States would promise not to invade Cuba. Kennedy agreed. EFFECTS ON THE WORLD The Cuban Missile Crisis had many and varied effects. Some scholars suggest that Kennedy’s success in getting the missiles out of Cuba encouraged him to commit more American troops to Vietnam in 1963. On the other hand, in June 1963, Kennedy gave a speech in which he

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suggested that both sides call a halt to the arms race. As a first step, he promised that the United States would not test nuclear weapons in the atmosphere as long as other nations did not. The treaty that made this ban official was ratified in 1963. It was the first arms-control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Both sides, however, continued to build their arsenals of nuclear weapons. As an added safety measure, a hotline was installed that allowed the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union to communicate directly, reliably, and immediately in situations in which a delay of even a few hours might mean the difference between a negotiated peace and a devastating nuclear war. See also: Berlin Wall; Castro, Fidel; Communism and the Cold War.

FURTHERREADING Brubaker, Paul E. The Cuban Missile Crisis in American History. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 2001.

Dayton Accords See Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Democracy and Human Rights Terms that describe, respectively, a government run by the people and the liberties enjoyed by all human beings. Democracy and human rights are closely associated in most people’s minds: A nation’s type of government determines, or at least influences, how the nation’s citizens are treated. Democracy and human rights usually are defined somewhat

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vaguely, however; it is difficult to show or prove that a country is not a democracy or that its leaders abuse human rights. DIRECT DEMOCRACY The term democracy dates to fifth century B.C.E. Greece. There, the term meant rule by the people as opposed to rule by a tyrant or a group of powerful men. In the city of Athens, citizens gathered about 10 times per year and voted by a show of hands. This is known as direct democracy. Only adult males whose parents both were Athenians and who had undergone military training were allowed to vote. Greece was the first democracy, but it did not permit universal suffrage, in which all adults have a right to vote regardless of gender, race, or property ownership. REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AND LIBERAL DEMOCRACY As opposed to direct democracy, in a representative democracy, voters elect delegates to act on their behalf. This type of government often is used in places and situations in which there are too many voters to meet in one place or voters are scattered far and wide. The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787. The Constitution calls for a legislature modeled on the British Parliament. Since 1913, members of the United States Senate, who had been chosen by the state legislatures, as well as the House of Representatives, have been elected by all American citizens who are eligible to vote. When Americans think

of democracy, they usually think of the type of representative democracy that is laid out in the Constitution—a government that recognizes the rights of individuals and that limits governmental power. Characteristics of this type of government include: • Separation of the government’s powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, so that no one branch of government has too much power. • Free, fair, and competitive elections, in which the voters have a choice of candidates and are not threatened into voting for a particular candidate or party. • Freedom of speech and of the press, so that voters can make informed decisions regarding current issues. • Civil liberties that protect the voters’ rights against the power of the government. These include freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and the right to own property. • The right to due process of law if the government threatens to deprive a citizen of life, liberty, or property. DEMOCRACY UNDER SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM In countries that are run on Communist or socialist principles, democracy often means that all citizens can vote, but that they have only one choice. The ruler or ruling party can punish opponents with imprisonment, exile, torture, or death. North Korea falls into this category, as does Vietnam. The Soviet Union, which was run by the Communist Party of

Democracy and Human Rights

the Soviet Union, had this type of government until it collapsed in 1991. Communist Yugoslavia had this type of government from the 1940s to the 1990s, as did most of the Eastern European countries that were Soviet satellite states after World War II (1939–1945). CHANGING DEFINITIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS Like democracy, the term human rights is often used but seldom precisely defined. When the United States Constitution was written, the term individual rights referred to civil and political rights such as freedom of speech, association, and religion, as well as to the right to own property and to due process of law. Such individual rights were guaran-

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teed to Americans under their Constitution. During the two centuries that followed, the idea of rights changed to include economic and social rights as well as civil and political ones. In his State of the Union address in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) described “Four Freedoms” that he believed were universal: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, ratified in 1948, included as basic human rights dignity, liberty, equality, and brotherhood, plus economic, social, and cultural rights. The writers of the United States Constitution would have found Article 3 of the Declaration of Human

Emerging Democracies: Changes in Lithuania The fate of the Eastern European countries that gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 varied according to their history. Immediately after World War I (1914–1918), Lithuania (on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea) became independent and adopted a republican government. In 1940, however, Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union. Under Soviet rule, Lithuanians were denied such rights as freedom of speech and freedom of association. Every aspect of Lithuania’s weak economy was dictated by the Communist government. In 1990, following the reforms of Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991),

Lithuania declared its independence. Today, Lithuania is a parliamentary democracy, with 11 active political parties. Members of the executive and legislative branches of the government serve for four- or five-year terms. Lithuania has not been destroyed by war. Its infrastructure is sound, and most of the industries that were run by the state under Communist rule have been transferred to private ownership. The country’s average annual income is $17,700 per person, with a healthy annual economic growth rate of 8.8 percent. Lithuania became a member of the European Union and NATO in 2004.

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Rights familiar: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” On the other hand, Article 23 could have been conceived only after Communism was widely adopted as a social system, and after the welfare state became common worldwide. (In a welfare state, the government undertakes to supply the financial and social needs of its citizens by government-sponsored and government-funded payments, jobs, healthcare, and so on.) Article 23 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states:

dealt with refugees, torture, and the status of women, children, minorities, and migrant workers.

Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

MONITORING HUMAN RIGHTS Monitoring human rights is difficult because the nations that are the worst offenders usually forbid the presence of outside observers. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs—privately run groups not affiliated with a specific country) such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International publish annual lists of human rights abuses and rank nations according to whether they comply with human rights conventions. The United States State Department submits to Congress an annual report on human rights practices in more than 190 nations. A long list of abuses can lead Congress to deny economic aid and trade privileges to a particular country.

HUMAN RIGHTS AGREEMENTS AFTER WORLD WAR II Before World War II (1939–1945) the only widely accepted human rights agreement was the 1864 Geneva Convention, which set rules for the treatment of victims of war. The Geneva Convention has been revised several times in the twentieth century to cover matters such as noncombatants and prisoners of war. In the wake of the horrors of World War II (1939–1945), there came a flood of other human rights agreements. Remembering Hitler’s (1933–1945) murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others in Nazi concentrations camps during the Holocaust, a 1948 United Nations convention addressed the issue of genocide. Other agreements under UN auspices have

PUNISHING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS The United Nations Security Council is the only international body that has the power to punish human rights violations. The Security Council can apply economic sanctions, order other nations to end diplomatic relations with a country, or authorize military force. The International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2002, has the power to investigate and punish war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United States has not ratified its membership in the court. The United States is concerned that the ICC, under the influence of nations ruled by Communists or Islamic fundamentalists, might use the ICC to prosecute United States military personnel.

Ford, Gerald R. (1913–2006)

See also: Communism and the Cold War; Israel; Kosovo; World War II; Yugoslavia, Breakup of.

FURTHERREADING Head, Tom. What Is the State of Human Rights? At Issue Series. Farmington

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Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Phibbs, Cheryl, ed. Pioneers of Human Rights. Profiles in History. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Solis, Adela. Human Rights. Contemporary Issues Companion Series. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2006.

F–I Ford, Gerald R. (1913–2006) Thirty-eighth president of the United States (1974–1977); Vice President Ford became president after the Watergate scandal caused President Richard M. Nixon (1969–1974) to resign. Gerald Ford had to deal with the effects of Communist aggression in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Angola. At the same time, he tried to continue Nixon’s policy of détente and to prove to the other NATO powers that the United States was still a reliable ally in that organization. BACKGROUND Ford was the only president in American history who was not elected as either president or vice president. Nixon’s running mate in the 1968 election was Spiro Agnew. Vice President Agnew resigned, facing criminal charges, in 1973. Gerald Ford, the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, was chosen to replace Agnew as vice president. Ford took office as president in August 1974, after Nixon’s resignation.

VIETNAM By 1973, President Nixon had negotiated a peace agreement with North Vietnam, and all American troops had been withdrawn from South Vietnam. Under the terms of the agreement, American troops in Southeast Asia were to move in if North Vietnam again invaded its neighbor to the south. In August 1973, however, Congress prohibited all further action by United States troops in Southeast Asia. Then, late in 1973, North Vietnam launched another invasion. Fighting in South Vietnam continued sporadically through 1974 and into 1975. Finally, on April 30, 1975, helicopters rescued the last few Americans in South Vietnam, along with a few thousand South Vietnamese citizens, from the roof of the United States’ embassy in Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital. The next day, the North Vietnamese and their allies, the Viet Cong, overran the city, and South Vietnam ceased to exist as a nation. The failure of the United States in Vietnam and the humiliating lastminute evacuation of Americans from Saigon led America’s allies to doubt

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its strength and led America’s enemies to test the nation. DÉTENTE, THE HELSINKI ACCORDS, AND ANGOLA President Ford continued Nixon’s policy of détente. Ford met with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev (1964– 1982) in 1974 and visited China at the end of 1975. Further easing of the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union came with the Helsinki Accords, which were worked out in July and August 1975 among the United States, the Soviet Union, Canada, and 32 European countries. Signers of the accords agreed to 10 points. Signers agreed to respect the sovereign rights of nations, refrain from using force, not violate frontiers, not intervene in the internal affairs of other nations, and respect human rights. The provision about not violating national borders was viewed as a triumph for the Soviets. It was looked on as confirmation that the West would not interfere with the Soviet Union’s satellite states in Eastern Europe. The Soviets did not foresee that the provision in the accords that called for respect for human rights would become the justification for dissidents within the Soviet Union to expose human rights abuses by members of the Communist Party. With the signing of the Helsinki Accords, the Soviet Union agreed not to interfere with other nations. In the same year, however, Fidel Castro’s (1959–2008) Cuba, a country that relied heavily on Soviet economic and military support, was preparing to send troops to Angola. Angola, on the west coast of Africa, was scheduled

to gain independence from Portugal in November 1975. If Angola’s new government were to be a Communist government, the African nation would make an excellent base for Soviet submarines in the South Atlantic Ocean. As of 1975, all of the Soviet Union’s naval bases were far away from those waters. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to intervene in Angola. Congress learned of this, and in 1976 eliminated funding for CIA action in the African country. Cuba sent tens of thousands of troops to Angola. The Cubans fought alongside the Angolan Communists until 1991. At that time, the collapse of the Soviet Union abruptly ended Soviet funding of the Cuban military—funding that Castro had relied on to train and supply the troops he sent to Africa. See also: Communism and the Cold War; Nixon, Richard M.; Democracy and Human Rights; Vietnam War.

FURTHERREADING Blue, Rose, and Corrine J. Naden. The Modern Years: Nixon to Clinton, 1969–Present. Who’s That in the White House? Orlando, Fla.: Raintree, 1997.

Germany The most important of the Axis powers in World War II (1939–1945). Under Adolf Hitler (1933–1945), Germany invaded and conquered much of Europe. Hitler’s horrific goal of purifying what he and his Nazi followers considered the Aryan “master race” led to the deaths of millions of people and included the direct and

Germany

deliberate slaughter of 6 million Jews during what has come to be called the Holocaust. RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY AND ADOLF HITLER After World War I (1914–1918), the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay reparations for all losses and damages suffered by France, Great Britain, and the other victors in the war. Reparations payments were scheduled to continue for well over 60 years. Germany also was ordered to keep the size of its army very small. Many Germans resented these restrictions. In the 1920s, a political party appeared that promised to lead Germany back to its former powerful position in the world. The party’s official name was the National Socialist German Workers Party, but it was commonly known as the Nazi Party. The Nazis promised a strong government, a strong military, and a return to traditional values. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis, declared that his goal was to purify the so-called Aryan race, which he traced back thousands of years and called the “master race.” He proclaimed that Aryans (Northern Europeans) should rule the world. Members of other races could be killed at the whim of Aryans or have their lands taken if the Aryans needed Lebensraum (living room). The Nazis were anti-Semitic, but they also despised Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally and physically disabled, and Communists. Adolf Hitler appeared on the German political scene in 1921. By early

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1933, the Nazi Party had the support of about one-third of the nation. In that year, Hitler was named chancellor of Germany. In 1934, he became president of Germany as well. To Germans, Hitler was known as der Führer (the leader). HITLER’S RULE IN THE 1930s A month after Hitler became chancellor, a fire occurred at the parliament building (Reichstag) in Berlin, Germany’s capital. The Nazis blamed the fire on Communists, although the Nazis probably set the blaze. Hitler’s government immediately passed decrees that severely limited the rights of all German citizens. Among other things, the decrees allowed the Nazis to imprison people without proving that they had any legal reason to do so. By March 1933, most German government officials were members of the Nazi Party. Soon, all political parties except the Nazis were banned. A force that came to be known as the Gestapo was formed in April 1933 to act as the Nazi secret police. Based on information provided by the Gestapo, tens of thousands of people who opposed the Nazis were sent to prison camps or executed. In 1937, Hitler announced a plan to transform Germany, within four years, into a nation capable of winning a war. This plan required increasing the size of the army and producing huge numbers of airplanes, submarines, tanks, and other war machines. To accomplish this, the government put strict controls on prices, wages, and production. By 1940, German factories still were

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owned officially by private individuals, but the German government told the owners what to produce and when, how, and where to produce it. CONQUESTS IN THE LATE 1930s The Versailles Treaty, which ended World War I, assigned some territories in which the population was mostly German speaking to several neighboring countries. Hitler decided that these territories should be “returned” to Germany. In 1936, he sent soldiers to take over the Rhineland, a major industrial area that had been assigned to Belgium. In 1938, he annexed Austria. At an infamous meeting with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1937–1940) in September 1938, Hitler agreed that once he had control of the Sudetenland—a part of Czechoslovakia—he would stop annexing territory. In October 1938, Hitler occupied the Sudetenland. Six months later, he invaded and occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia as well. In August 1939, Hitler signed a treaty with the Soviet Union. They secretly agreed to divide between them six independent nations in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. The German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, was the result of this agreement with the Soviets. It was carried out as a blitzkrieg, or lightning war, using motorized vehicles such as panzer tanks. The invasion of Poland prompted France and Great Britain to declare war on Germany within days. This marks the official beginning of World War II.

CONQUESTS IN WORLD WAR II In April 1940, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. In May, he invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. For almost nine months, from September 1940 until early May 1941, he sent the German air force to bomb Great Britain. Hitler’s goals were to destroy the British air force and the factories that produced British airplanes, to destroy Britain’s infrastructure, and to terrorize the British people into surrender. The German attacks caused enormous damage and loss of life. More than 27,000 civilians died. What came to be called the Battle of Britain was one of Hitler’s notable early failures, however. Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) fought back boldly and heroically and Hitler achieved none of his goals. In September 1940, Hitler formed an alliance with Italy and Japan. These nations became known as the Axis powers. In February 1941, Hitler sent his Afrika Korps to assist the troops of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1922–1943) in North Africa. In April, Hitler invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. In June, he invaded the Soviet Union. By late 1941, the Germans and the Italians controlled almost all of mainland Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. From 1939 on, German submarines torpedoed shipping in the Atlantic. These attacks made it difficult for United States’ shipments of war materials and food to reach Great Britain and the other nations fighting on the side of the Allied powers. The United States declared war on Japan the day after the Japanese attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Decem-

Germany

ber 7, 1941. A few days later, Hitler declared war on the United States. The United States then declared war on Germany and prepared to send troops into battle against both Germany and Japan. THE HOLOCAUST Because the Nazis believed that Jews were inferior to the Aryan “master race,” Germany’s Nazi government stripped German Jews of their citizenship in 1935. By September 1939, when World War II broke out, at least 200,000 Jews had fled from Germany. After much debate about how to deal with Germany’s remaining Jews, in January 1942, at a meeting known as the Wannsee Conference, top government officials devised a Final Solution. Many Jews already had been shipped to concentration camps at such places as Dachau and Buchenwald in Germany and Auschwitz in Poland. In these camps, the inmates were forced to perform hard labor. After the Wannsee Conference, the concentration camps were converted into death camps, where prisoners were killed in gas chambers by the tens of thousands. By 1945, when the war ended, more than 6 million Jews and millions of other people labeled “undesirables” by the Nazis had been murdered on Hitler’s orders. Toward the end of the war, the Nazis deliberately set out to obliterate the evidence of these mass murders by cremating, or burning, untold thousands of bodies. Another 10 million people had been forced into slave labor in concentration camps. THE TIDE TURNS In 1942, the Allies slowly began to win the war against the Axis powers,

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with decisive defeats of the Germans and Italians in North Africa. In 1943, the Allies invaded Italy and the Italians threw Mussolini out of power. In February 1943, on the Eastern Front, German troops lost the Battle of Stalingrad to the Soviets. Soviet troops began to push the Germans back toward Western Europe. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies began to land troops on the northern coast of France. By August 1944, the Allies had driven the Germans out of Paris, the French capital. In April 1945, British and American troops advancing from the west met Soviet troops advancing from the east on German soil. In late April, German troops fought a last, desperate battle against Soviet forces in the streets of Berlin. Blockaded inside his bunker beneath the city, Hitler refused even to consider surrender. On April 30, he committed suicide. Berlin surrendered on May 2. The rest of Germany followed on May 8, 1945. POSTWAR GERMANY The victorious Allies were determined not to allow Germany to become a threat to world peace again, as it had after World War I. In July 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, Germany was divided into zones to be occupied by the British, the French, the Americans, and the Soviets. The capital, Berlin, which was far inside the Soviet occupation zone, also was divided into four zones. In 1949, the zone controlled by the Soviets became the nation of East Germany, officially called the German Democratic Republic. Until 1990, East Germany was a Soviet satellite

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state. Also in 1949, the zones controlled by the British, French, and Americans became the nation of West Germany—the Federal Republic of Germany. The allied occupation of West Germany ended in 1955. East and West Germany played prominent roles in the Cold War, particularly after 1961, when the Communists built the Berlin Wall to prevent people from escaping from the East to the West. In 1990, when the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, East and West Germany were reunited. See also: Churchill, Winston; Potsdam Conference; World War II; Yalta Conference

FURTHERREADING Freeman, Charles. The Rise of the Nazis. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005. Gottfried, Ted. Nazi Germany: The Face of Tyranny. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 2000. Layton, Geoff. Germany the Third Reich 1933–1945. London: Hodder Education/ Hodder Murray, 2005.

Globalism Term used to describe the fact that economies, cultures, and government policies around the world are becoming more and more interdependent. In many ways, nations of the world are developing similar economic policies, and their cultures also are becoming more similar. ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF GLOBALISM As transportation and communication have improved with time, the

world has come to seem smaller. People, goods, and messages move more quickly and more cheaply. Since the 1980s, this phenomenon has been known as “globalization.” Globalization of trade, for example, has increased the speed with which goods can be moved to where they are most needed or wanted. During the Irish Potato Famine of the late 1840s, a succession of poor harvests led to about a million deaths by starvation. In North Korea in the 1990s, however, poor harvests led to massive shipments of food from other countries— shipments that saved many lives. Today, people in less developed nations are healthier because of globalization. Medicines are shipped worldwide to treat diseases such as smallpox, polio, and influenza that once killed or maimed millions. The move toward globalism makes the latest technology—from Japanese cell phones to wireless-enabled laptops— readily available on every continent. The move to globalism also makes many more options available to people seeking work. In 1985, a young man or woman who loved computers had to move to the United States to work with them. Today, a teenager can write software wherever he or she lives and sell it over the Internet. Because of the Internet, American and European companies now can outsource many jobs. This enables residents of cities such as Mumbai, India, to earn good wages without leaving their native countries. (This type of arrangement tends to benefit companies that can pay overseas workers cheaper wages, but often hurts people in developed countries

Globalism

because they lose their jobs to overseas workers.) Financial markets have been globalized for many years. It is common, for example, for Japanese investors to buy stock in American companies, and vice versa. Financial globalization helps to guarantee that a start-up company with a great product can find backers even if investors in the company’s home country are unwilling or unable to invest in it. Globalization of the economy tends to promote free markets. Governments have recognized that a free exchange of goods and services can benefit the national economy. Today, nations are working to remove trade barriers such as tariffs (taxes on imports). In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) drastically reduced trade barriers between Mexico, Canada, and the United States. The mission of the World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995, is “to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible.” POLITICAL EFFECTS OF GLOBALISM In countries where citizens have a say in their government, faster travel and communication help voters to make better-informed decisions at all levels, from the local to the national. In countries run by dictators or by a single party today’s easy availability of news and information make government control of information much more difficult than in the past. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1922–1953) had absolute control over his country’s media. He fooled many Soviets into believing

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that Communism was the world’s only hope because (Stalin insisted) the capitalist West was collapsing under the weight of its own corruption. By controlling communications, Stalin also managed to conceal from the Soviet people and the rest of the world the millions of deaths he caused in the 1930s through political purges and economic mismanagement. Today, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il cannot conceal the effects of his economic and military policies. North Korea is known to be one of the worst human-rights abusers in the world and is an outcast among nations. GLOBALISM AND IDEAS The most important long-term effect of the move towards globalism may be on the spread of ideas. With instantaneous communication via the Internet, ideas are circulated, considered, and discussed worldwide. As it is with decisions regarding government policy, so it is with political and philosophical ideas. People who are better informed make better choices and are more difficult to frighten into obedience. ARGUMENTS AGAINST GLOBALISM Some people have criticized the move toward globalism for economic and cultural reasons. Those who view Communism or socialism as ideal systems object to the fact that globalization promotes free markets. Some people fear the loss of American jobs to people willing to work for lower wages in other countries. Others fear that globalization will bring a culture of boring sameness—a world in which there is no difference

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Shopping in Poland Basic commodities and consumer goods were scarce in Poland during that country’s Communist era. This was typical of all Communist countries, in which the government controlled the economy. Every day, Poles struggled to get the most basic food products such as bread, milk, and eggs. Shoppers stood in long lines for hours and often found that the supply of goods had run out by the time their turn had come. People sometimes bought items that they really did not want; they bought things simply because they were available. Poles could not buy a house or an apartment; people had to apply for them and then wait, sometimes for decades. A consumer might have some luck getting a car or other big-ticket item

if he or she knew or was a relative of the “right people”—Communist Party officials. Even a home telephone line was beyond the reach of the ordinary Polish consumer. Today, with a Western-style capitalist economy in place, Poles shop for ordinary consumer goods and even luxury items in much the same way as shoppers in the United States and Western Europe. This change came about after 1989, when Communism was replaced in Poland by a democratic government, and the statecontrolled economy was quickly privatized. The economy was turned over to individuals and to private companies. Poland today has one of the most robust economies in central Europe.

between Poughkeepsie and Panama City or between Boston and Bangkok. Globalization is a reality of the modern world, however, and it will no doubt continue to evolve during the twenty-first century.

premier of the Soviet Union (1985– 1991). Gorbachev tried to rescue the ailing Soviet economy by introducing perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) to the Soviet system.

See also: Democracy and Human Rights.

BACKGROUND Mikhail Gorbachev grew up under the rule of Joseph Stalin (1922–1953) and became a member of the Communist Party at age 19. He eventually became a high-ranking member of the party, which allowed him to travel abroad: in 1975 to West Germany, in 1983 to Canada, and in 1984 to Great Britain. What he saw there affected his view of the Soviet political and economic systems. Gorbachev became premier of the Soviet Union in 1985. Gorbachev was the first pre-

FURTHERREADING Frost, Randall. The Globalization of Trade: Understanding Global Issues. Mankato, Minn.: Smart Apple Media, 2004. Gerdes, Louise I., ed. Globalization. Opposing Viewpoints. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/ Greenhaven Press, 2005.

Gorbachev, Mikhail (1931– ) Last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and last

Gorbachev, Mikhail (1931– )

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F– I Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (center) speaks with President Ronald Reagan (third from right) as Vice President George H.W. Bush (second from left) and political aides look on. Gorbachev’s reforms decreased the Soviet government’s control of people and economy.

mier to have been born after the Russian Revolution in 1917. REFORMS WITHIN THE COMMUNIST PARTY By the time Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union, the Soviet economy and military were faltering. The reforms that Gorbachev instituted were attempts to solve these problems. At a meeting of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1986, Gorbachev announced his plan for perestroika, a restructuring of the economy. In 1988, he announced his plan for glasnost, or openness. These measures decreased the party’s control over the Soviet people. Greater freedom of speech and freedom of assembly were allowed. Criticism of

the government was tolerated for the first time since the Russian Revolution. Previously, criticism often had led to severe punishments such as imprisonment in a gulag—a forced labor camp. In 1990, Gorbachev abolished the party’s control over broadcasting and other media. MILITARY CUT-BACKS The Soviet Union’s economy, run by decrees of the Communist Party, had never been strong. Since the beginning of the Cold War in 1945, much of the country’s productive capacity had been devoted to the arms race with the United States. In 1979, the Soviets had invaded neighboring Afghanistan and, instead of an easy victory, had found themselves embroiled

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in a long war against guerrilla fighters. By the early 1980s, the burden of military spending on the Soviet economy had become intolerable. Gorbachev proposed that the Soviets and the Americans cut their nuclear arsenals in half. By this time, each superpower had enough missiles to destroy the other several times over. In 1987, Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) signed a treaty that eliminated intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. EASTERN EUROPE In 1988, Gorbachev announced that Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe would be allowed to determine their own affairs. Effectively, this meant that Communist dictators in those countries no longer could count on Soviet troops to help keep them in power. Between 1989 and 1992, peaceful revolutions overthrew Communist rulers in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. Only in Romania, ruled by the ruthless Nicolae Ceausescu (1967– 1989), was there violence when the Communists were overthrown. COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION In August 1991, a group of hard-line Communists in the military tried to overthrow Gorbachev. Gorbachev was placed under house arrest. The credit for putting down the attempted coup went to Boris Yeltsin (1996–1999), president of the Russian Republic. In the month that followed the failed military coup, 13 of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union declared their independence. In December, Gorbachev agreed to dissolve the Soviet Union.

See also: Communism and the Cold War; Reagan, Ronald; Soviet Union; Yeltsin, Boris.

FURTHERREADING Daniels, Robert V. Gorbachev and the End of Communism. New York: Routledge, 1993. Kort, Michael G. Mikhail Gorbachev. Impact Biographies. Danbury, Conn.: Scholastic Library Publishing/Franklin Watts, 1990. Roberts, Elizabeth. Glasnost: The Gorbachev Revolution. People and Issues. London: Evans Publishing Group, 1991. Sullivan, George E. Mikhail Gorbachev. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

Hitler, Adolf See Germany.

Human Rights See Democracy and Human Rights.

Iraqi War of 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq to overthrow the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (executed in 2006), who was mistakenly believed by some to be accumulating weapons of mass destruction for sale to terrorists and for use against his own citizens. The American invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was completed the following month. As of late 2009, however, American troops remain in Iraq, in a controversial war that grew increasingly unpopular with the American people. SADDAM HUSSEIN AND THE PERSIAN GULF WAR On August 1, 1990, the army of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, a country slightly smaller than New Jersey that holds about 10 percent of the world’s known reserves of crude oil. The high point of the presi-

Iraqi War of 2003

dency of George H.W. Bush (1989– 1993) was the rapid defeat of Iraq by the United States and its allies in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. This action, known as Operation Desert Storm, forced Iraq out of Kuwait. It involved four weeks of heavy bombing followed by about 100 hours of fighting on the ground. The anti-Iraq coalition forces, acting on the authority of the United Nations, suffered fewer than 300 casualties. In 1991 and later, some people criticized President George H.W. Bush for not removing Saddam Hussein from power. At the time of the war, however, Bush and his advisers thought that interfering with the government of Iraq was clearly more than the United Nations had authorized the coalition troops to do. Bush and his advisers believed that the coalition might break up if troops moved against Iraq. WAR IN IRAQ Within a few days of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, some of President George W. Bush’s (2001–2009) advisers called for an attack on Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Saddam was believed to be accumulating weapons of mass destruction such as chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. (The evidence for this was later disproved.) Members of the United Nations Security Council refused to approve an attack on Iraq. The United States gathered a coalition of more than 35 nations, and the invasion of Iraq began on March 20, 2003. The Iraqi military was defeated quickly, and Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, fell to the invaders on April

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9. President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1. In this phase of the war, 138 Americans died. Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13, 2003. He was put on trial by a newly established Iraqi Special Tribunal and convicted of crimes against humanity—in particular, the murder of 148 people and the torture of women and children after a 1982 assassination attempt. Saddam Hussein was executed by the Iraqis on December 30, 2006. In January 2005, elections were held in Iraq. For the first time in 50 years, there was no interference from a dictator or from a ruling party. A transitional Iraqi government wrote a constitution that established a parliamentary democracy. The legal system established by the constitution was based in part on European civil law and in part on Islamic law. In December 2005, a 275-member Council of Representatives was elected. Although the major battles of the war were over, a growing number of insurgents continued to attack coalition troops in Iraq during the years between 2004 and 2007. In addition, a civil war between the Sunni and Shia Muslim sects tore the country apart. In early 2008, President Bush committed more troops to Iraq to fight insurgents and requested funds from Congress for reconstruction of the Iraqi infrastructure and for job programs. By mid-2008, violence in Iraq had declined, and most of the American people were calling for the complete withdrawal of military forces. Since 2003, more than 4,000 American troops have died in Iraq. As of late 2008, all coalition troops were to be withdrawn from Iraq by 2011.

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See also: Bush, George H.W.; Persian Gulf War (1991); Bush on the War Against Iraq in Viewpoints section.

FURTHERREADING Sinkler, Adrian. Iraq: Nations in Transition. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Thompson, William, and Dorcas Thompson. Iraq: Modern Middle East Nations and Their Strategic Place in the World. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers, 2003.

Israel Jewish homeland created in the Middle East, in the former British Mandate of Palestine, in 1947 by a resolution of the United Nations (UN) following the extermination of more than 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II (1939–1945). Israel frequently has been at war with its Arab neighbors and with Palestinian Arab refugees who have refused to accept Israel’s statehood and have threatened its borders. Israel is the most reliable ally of the United States in the Middle East. BACKGROUND The region of Palestine, at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, was the home of the Jewish people in the second millennium B.C.E. Around the eighth century B.C.E., the Jews began to scatter, a movement known as the Diaspora. During the centuries that followed, however, at least some Jews always have lived in the region. (The name Palestine was first given to the region by the Romans, in the second century B.C.E., as the empire

of Rome began to solidify its hold on the area.) As Jews moved from their ancestral homeland into other regions of the world, they often were subjected to anti-Semitism—a hatred of Jews simply for being Jews. In Europe during the Middle Ages, for example, Christians were forbidden to lend money and charge interest. Because Jews were allowed to handle money, jobs that involved the management of money and the transfer of funds fell to them. Many of these Jews managed to build thriving businesses and accumulate some wealth, and this caused their Christian neighbors to envy them. Throughout the Middle Ages and well into the modern age, Jews were persecuted. They were forced to live in special neighborhoods called ghettos and sometimes were made to wear distinctive clothing or other signs that they were Jews. They were exiled from some countries and faced with forced religious conversion in others. Often, they were massacred. A series of violent persecutions in Eastern Europe during the late nineteenth century led to a political movement known as Zionism. Zionism’s goal was to establish a Jewish homeland in the region called Palestine. At the time, Palestine was under the control of the Ottoman Empire, an Islamic empire with its capital in present-day Turkey that ruled over many peoples and lands in the Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe. In 1917, toward the end of World War I (1914–1918), the government of Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, a document that

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favored the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side in World War I. After the war, the empire’s territory was divided into many different nations. Some of those nations were placed under the control of the European powers that had won the war. The League of Nations decreed in 1922 that the British should temporarily govern the region of Palestine while details of a Jewish homeland were worked out. At this point, Palestine was populated mostly by Muslim Arabs; only 11 percent of the population was Jewish. Jerusalem, the region’s largest city and the one whose history was essential to Jewish identity, was predominantly Jewish, however. WORLD WAR II AND ITS AFTERMATH Adolf Hitler’s viciously anti-Semitic Nazi Party came to power in Germany in the 1930s. At that time, at least 200,000 Jewish immigrants fled from Germany to Palestine. The arrival of these Jews in Palestine led to a revolt by the Arabs who lived there. Just as many more Jews urgently needed a place to which to flee, the British rulers of the region decided to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. Immigration continued, illegally. By the end of World War II, Jews made up 33 percent of Palestine’s population. In 1947, the British announced that they had been unable to arrive at a solution regarding Palestine that could satisfy both Palestinian Arabs and Jews. The issue was raised in the

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newly formed United Nations (UN). With the support of United States president Harry S. Truman (1945– 1953), the United Nations General Assembly voted on November 29, 1947, to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. INDEPENDENCE AND RISE AS AN ECONOMIC AND MILITARY POWER The provisional government of Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. The United States was the first nation to give it diplomatic recognition. Between 1948 and 1958, the population of Israel rose from 800,000 to 2 million. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it was the only country in the Middle East with a government that is truly a representative democracy rather than a monarchy or a dictatorship. Israeli citizens enjoy freedom of the press and freedom of speech. In economic and industrial development, Israel is one of the most advanced countries in the region. Today, its population is more than 7 million, of which about 75 percent are Jews and 16 percent are Muslims. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS As the most reliable ally of the United States in the Middle East, Israel has received more aid from the United States than from any other country. Since its creation, Israel has fought three major wars against neighboring Arab countries. In 1948–1949, Israel was attacked by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. That Arab-Israeli War ended in victory for Israel. By UN estimates, about 700,000 Palestinians fled Israel at that time.

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In 1967, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt massed troops on the borders of Israel and blocked Israel’s access to the Red Sea. Israel retaliated. It won the war and occupied the West Bank, an area west of the Jordan River, between Israel and Jordan; the Gaza Strip, where Israel borders Egypt; Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula; and the Golan Heights, in Syria. After this disastrous Arab defeat, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded to seek a permanent homeland for the Palestinians. PLO members and their allies in similar groups often have used terrorist tactics such as suicide bombs in Israel. In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Within the first four days of the war, Israel lost one-fifth of its air force and one-third of its tanks. The United States quickly sent replacements. The Israelis managed to defeat the Egyptians and Syrians once again.

At Camp David, Maryland, in 1978, President Jimmy Carter (1977– 1981) negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel by means of two agreements known as the Camp David Accords. By signing the 1979 treaty based on the accords, Egypt became the first Arab state to grant Israel diplomatic recognition. Attacks on Israel by other Arab nations and by various Palestinian groups continue. Negotiations are ongoing but have not yet resulted in a long-term settlement. See also: Camp David Accords; Germany; World War II.

FURTHERREADING Glassman, Bruce, ed. Israel. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Margulies, Philip, ed. The Creation of Israel. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time. New York: Knopf, 2007.

J–L Japan Island nation located off the eastern coast of Asia. In World War II (1939– 1945), Japan aligned itself with the Axis powers—Germany and Italy— and conquered much of Southeast Asia and the islands of the western Pacific. Japan’s unconditional surrender in August 1945 ended World War II.

HISTORY In 1889, Japanese officials wrote a new constitution, known as the Meiji Constitution. It included an official religion, National Shinto, which was taught to all Japanese schoolchildren for more than 40 years. According to National Shinto, the emperor of Japan was a living god whose orders must be obeyed without question.

Japan

In truth, however, the emperor was mostly a figurehead. Real political power was in the hands of a group of military leaders. In the late nineteenth century, these leaders decided that Western influence was a threat to traditional Japanese ideas. They built up the Japanese army and navy so they could take control of the Asian mainland near Japan and drive out Westerners. Japanese victories in wars against China (1894–1895) and Russia (1904–1905) gave Japan control of Taiwan, Korea, and the southern half of the large island of Sakhalin. In 1931 and again in 1937, Japan invaded China. At the Chinese city of Nanking, Japanese soldiers slaughtered an estimated 200,000 Chinese civilians and military prisoners of war. World leaders condemned Japan’s deeds but took no military action. WORLD WAR II In 1936, Japan signed a treaty with Nazi Germany. In 1941, Japan became one of the Axis powers and conquered Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) in Southeast Asia. Then, on December 7, 1941, in an effort to cripple American naval power so that Japan could conquer more territory in the Pacific, Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought the United States into World War II. Some of Japan’s leaders argued that Japan could not possibly win a war against the United States. The United States, they pointed out, had far more natural resources and a greater industrial capacity. For exam-

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ple, it produced 20 times more steel than Japan and 100 times more oil. Other Japanese leaders argued that to honor the emperor and the national spirit of Japan, they had to fight to the death of the last man. This idea came from the National Shinto religion. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) recognized the influence of such ideas in 1943, when he stated that the aim of the Allies was not to destroy the people of Germany, Italy, or Japan, but to destroy the philosophy that made possible their determination to conquer other nations. Within a few months after the United States entered the war, it won critical victories against Japan. The next step was to get American troops closer to the islands of Japan by capturing a series of islands that the Japanese had invaded. These actions cost tens of thousands of lives and were likely to cost even more when the Allies reached the islands of Japan itself. In June 1945, Japanese military leaders distributed instructions for the final defense of Japan. They ordered that 10,000 suicide planes, 2.3 million troops, and even the millions of Japanese civilians attack the Allies. In the Potsdam Declaration of July 1945, China, Great Britain, and the United States demanded unconditional surrender from Japan. Japan refused. In early August, United States president Harry S. Truman (1945– 1953) ordered the detonation of the newly completed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. When the Japanese did not surrender,

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Truman ordered the use of a second atomic bomb dropped three days later over the city of Nagasaki. Even then, Japanese leaders were deadlocked. Finally, they asked the emperor what he wished—something they had never done. The emperor wished to surrender. POSTWAR JAPAN General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific Theater, was placed in charge of the American forces that occupied Japan. MacArthur’s orders were not only to govern Japan but also to create democracy and the rule of law there. MacArthur prohibited Shinto as a national religion and removed all mention of it from the schools. Millions of Japanese citizens had died in the war, and much of the country’s industry and infrastructure lay in ruins. The country recovered and became a major economic power (with companies such as Sony, Mitsubishi, and Toyota) largely because of the rules and laws imposed during the American occupation. In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution based on a democratic model. The constitution called for elections, universal suffrage, a congress, and a prime minister. The American occupying forces left Japan in 1952. In 1956, Japan joined the United Nations (UN). See also: Germany; Potsdam Conference; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; World War II.

FURTHERREADING Grant, R.G. Hiroshima. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005.

Roberson, John R. Japan Meets the World: The Birth of a Super Power. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 1998.

Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–1973) Thirty-sixth president of the United States (1963–1969), who assumed the office following the assassination of John F. Kennedy (1961–1963). As president, Lyndon B. Johnson confronted the aftermath of Kennedy’s decisions about Vietnam and Cuba and dealt with those decisions’ effects in other places such as the Dominican Republic. VIETNAM The most difficult foreign-policy problem President Johnson faced was the war in Vietnam. Kennedy had committed 16,000 American troops to help the South Vietnamese fight a takeover of their country by Communist North Vietnam. By early 1965, with South Vietnam about to collapse, Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam. By 1969, he had increased the number of troops in Southeast Asia to 543,400. At home, the Vietnam War faced increasingly fierce opposition, especially from the young men who were being drafted into the army. The final blow for Johnson was the enemy’s Tet Offensive in January 1968. (Tet is the Vietnamese name for the annual holiday that marks the lunar New Year.) The North Vietnamese launched a series of attacks that were repelled with massive losses to the North Vietnamese. The media, however, generally portrayed the event as a major defeat for the Americans and the South Vietnamese. After Tet,

Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–1973)

Johnson refused, for the first time, a request by his military commanders to send more troops to Vietnam. He also halted the bombing of North Vietnam and requested peace talks. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: BACKGROUND The Dominican Republic is an island nation about 900 miles (1,450 km) south of Miami, Florida. It was ruled for more than three decades by Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina (1942– 1952) and (1959–1961), a military dictator. Although he was both corrupt and violent, Trujillo was friendly toward the United States and was a strong anticommunist. Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, and in December 1962, Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño (1963) was elected president of the Dominican Republic. Bosch received 60 percent of the vote. Bosch advocated land redistribution (a policy by which a government takes control of all farmlands and distributes them in equal parcels to farmers) and other measures for agrarian reform. This was a policy often used by Communist leaders. Although Bosch did not declare himself a Communist, he had worked in partnership with the Cuban Revolutionary Party and had been a founder, in the 1930s, of the Dominican Revolutionary Party. After seven months in office, Bosch was overthrown in a coup. He was replaced at the head of the government by three men, led by businessman Donald Reid Cabral. This new government had the support of the United States State Department, which provided it with $100 million in aid.

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COUNTERCOUP On April 24, 1965, Reid Cabral’s government was attacked by young army officers who were trying to reinstall Bosch as president. Senior army officers resisted, but Bosch’s supporters distributed arms to civilians so that they, too, could fight. This near–civil war made life dangerous for the thousand or so Americans in Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital. Ambassador William Tapley Bennett told President Johnson, “The issue here now is a fight between Castro-type elements and those who opposed. I do not wish to be over-dramatic but we should be clear as to the situation.” Johnson took Bennett’s warning seriously. He feared political disaster if he took no action and American lives were lost, or if another Communist dictator came into power in the Caribbean region. In an announcement to the American public, Johnson stressed that hundreds of lives already had been lost, that the ambassador in Santo Domingo was making desperate telephone calls as bullets whizzed over his head, and that foreign powers might be interfering in Dominican affairs. On April 28, four days after the fighting began in Santo Domingo, Johnson sent 20,000 United States Marines to the island nation. They established a cease-fire by May 5. After one month, the marines were replaced by a peacekeeping force from the Organization of American States (OAS). A year later, in a presidential election that was monitored closely by the United States, Joaquin Balaguer defeated Juan Bosch by 57 percent to 39

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percent. Belaguer was duly installed in office and served until 1978. See also: Castro, Fidel; Cuban Missile Crisis; Democracy and Human Rights; Vietnam War.

FURTHERREADING Collins, David R. The Long Legged School Teacher: Lyndon Baines Johnson, From the Texas Hill Country to the White House. Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1987. Eskow, Dennis. Lyndon Baines Johnson. Impact Biographies Series. Danbury, Conn.: Scholastic Library Publishing/Franklin Watts, 1993.

Kennedy, John F. See Berlin Wall, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War.

Korean War (1950–1953) The first military action taken to enforce the United States Cold War policy of containing Communism. It was also the first military action to involve troops raised by the United Nations (UN). KOREA SPLIT INTO NORTH AND SOUTH Korea was conquered by the Japanese in 1895 and annexed to Japan in 1910. When the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945, at the end of World War II, Soviet troops marched into Korea as far south as the 38th parallel. By that time, Korea had been under foreign rule for almost 50 years. Postwar negotiations failed to establish a government that would rule all of Korea. The Soviets were given control of the North, and the

Americans were given control of the South. In November 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution that called for elections in Korea. South Korea (the Republic of Korea) elected Syngman Rhee (1948– 1960) as president. He had been educated in the United States after having fled Japanese rule. Rhee immediately assumed the powers of a dictator. He tortured and killed Communists and other opponents. The Soviets refused to allow United Nations observers to supervise elections in North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). Not surprisingly, the man who was elected head of state was a Communist, Kim Il Sung (1948– 1972). He had the backing of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1922–1953). The Soviet Union withdrew its troops from North Korea in late 1948. The United States withdrew its troops from South Korea in June 1949. Both Kim and Rhee wanted to control all of Korea, and armed clashes occurred frequently along the border between North and South. NORTH KOREA ATTACKS On January 12, 1950, American secretary of state Dean Acheson declared that in the Pacific, the United States would defend the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska, Japan, and the Philippines. He said that Korea’s defense would be the responsibility of the United Nations. Kim Il Sung promptly asked Stalin to help him overthrow the government of South Korea. In April 1950, Stalin agreed.

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North Korean troops launched a surprise attack across the border on June 25, 1950. The South Koreans, with far fewer troops and much less military equipment, retreated. Because President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) wanted to send help quickly, he did not ask Congress to declare war. Instead, he sent planes and troops to South Korea for what he called a “police action.” By August, however, the North Koreans had driven the South Korean and United States forces into the southeasternmost corner of South Korea. On the day that North Korea invaded, the United Nations Security Council called for it to withdraw. North Korea ignored the demand. The United Nations General Assembly then voted to send troops to Korea—the first time since its founding in 1945 that the UN had made such a decision. Although the UN forces came from 16 different nations, almost 90 percent of the troops were supplied by the United States. In September 1950, United Nations troops arrived in Korea. They were commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, the international hero who had commanded the final phase of World War II (1939– 1945) in the Pacific region. Most recently, MacArthur had been in charge of the postwar occupation of Japan. The United Nations troops landed at Inchon, behind the North Korean lines, and routed the North Koreans. By October, the UN forces had driven the North Koreans to the 38th parallel and were still driving northward.

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COURSE OF THE WAR The People’s Republic of China shares a long border with North Korea. Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong (1949–1976) had warned in early October 1950 that if non-Korean troops moved into North Korea, China would enter the war. When the United Nations troops crossed the 38th parallel in mid-October 1950, Mao sent Chinese troops to support the North Koreans. Although these Chinese troops had very few large weapons, they were adept at guerrilla warfare. They used camouflage, fought in small groups, and took advantage of the mountainous, heavily forested landscape. Soon, the United Nations troops were being driven south. President Truman and his advisers wanted to keep the war in Korea limited in scope. It would be sufficient to see the North Koreans driven back to their territory north of the 38th parallel. In April 1951, after MacArthur publicly disagreed with Truman’s policy, Truman dismissed him. NEGOTIATIONS FOR ENDING THE WAR Peace negotiations began in July 1951 but dragged on for two years. One major problem was that many North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war refused to be returned to their Communist homelands. An armistice finally was signed between the United Nations command, the North Koreans, and the Chinese on July 27, 1953. The armistice established a demilitarized zone (DMZ) on either side of the 38th parallel. More than 50 years later, that zone is still heavily guarded.

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The United States lost about 33,000 troops on the Korean battlefield and another 20,000 from disease and other causes. Other members of the United Nations force lost a total of about 3,000 men. In North and South Korea combined, about 1 million Korean soldiers and 2 million Korean civilians died. The Chinese admitted to 382,000 deaths, but the United States estimated Chinese losses at 1.5 million.

EFFECTS The participation of the United States and the United Nations in the Korean War proved that both were willing to use military force to stop Communist invasions. It was the first time the United Nations had called for such military action. The immediate consequence of the invasion of South Korea by North Korea was to make the United States and Western Europe worry that Com-

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) Commander of the Allied forces that defeated the Germans in World War II. As president (1953–1961), he resolved several crises in the Cold War without either giving in to the Soviet Union or triggering a major conflict.

WORLD WAR II AND NATO General Dwight D. Eisenhower led British and American troops in North Africa and Italy before being appointed supreme commander for the invasion of Normandy, in France, on June 6, 1944—the day known as DDay. Eisenhower left the United States Army in 1948 as the most famous and most popular of all World War II generals. Between 1951 and 1952, Eisenhower served as NATO’s first supreme allied commander.

KOREAN WAR Eisenhower, a Republican, easily won the 1952 election against Democrat Adlai Stevenson with the promise that if elected, he would seek an “early and honorable” peace in Korea. North and South Korea and their allies had

been fighting since mid-1950 and had reached a stalemate. In July 1953, a few months after Eisenhower was sworn in as president, a Korean armistice was signed.

COLD WAR CONFLICTS Given the American public’s reaction to United States involvement in the Korean War, Eisenhower was cautious about committing troops to conflicts in the Cold War era, although he often sent military advisers. He did not send troops to help the French fight Communists in their former colony of Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia). In 1956, when Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev (1953–1964) sent tanks to crush an anti-Communist rebellion in Hungary, Eisenhower did not intervene. When Fidel Castro (1959–2008) seized control of Cuba in 1959, Eisenhower considered sending in a force of Cuban exiles to overthrow him but decided in late 1959 (when he was about to leave office) that the exiles did not yet have a chance of defeating Castro.

Kosovo

munist East Germany might invade capitalist West Germany. The fear that this could happen led to a massive rearmament program in the West, and to an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted until the late 1980s. Today, South Korea has a republican government and a thriving free economy. North Korea is a Communist nation with an economy that is about 4 percent the size of South Korea’s. See also: Communism and the Cold War; Truman Doctrine; United Nations; Vietnam War.

FURTHERREADING Blohm, Craig E. Strategic Battles. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2003. Edwards, Paul M. A to Z of the Korean War. A to Z Guides. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2005. Edwards, Richard. The Korean War. Vero Beach, Fla.: Rourke Publishing, 1998.

Kosovo Former province of Communist Yugoslavia; independent as of early 2008. For 10 years, Kosovo was the site of ethnic cleansing as Serbs, who are primarily Eastern Orthodox, and ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, fought for control of the province. An estimated 700,000 ethnic Albanians were driven from their homes and about 10,000 were murdered. BACKGROUND Until the 1990s, perhaps the most noteworthy event in the history of tiny Kosovo (about the size of the

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state of Delaware) was a battle that took place on June 27, 1389. According to old Christian chronicles, Prince Lazar, leader of the Serbs, was told by a messenger from God that he could have an earthly kingdom if he surrendered to the invading Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire, or he could fight the invaders, lose, and gain a heavenly kingdom. Prince Lazar chose death and the heavenly kingdom. He and thousands of his followers died in battle the next day. The Turks left their bodies unburied, as a feast for carrion-eating birds. Because of this, the Battle of Kosovo and the field on which it was fought are sometimes called the Field of Blackbirds. The Battle of Kosovo stands as a defining moment in history for most Serbs. The story of Prince Lazar’s heroism has been told and retold to generations of children, with the twin morals that no compromise is possible when the nation’s honor is at stake and that death is better than dishonor. Serbs regard Kosovo as the heart of Serbia. In modern times, the Serbs captured the territory during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and proceeded to massacre thousands of ethnic Albanians who were, for the most part, Muslims. The Serbs considered the ethnic Albanians (whose ancestors had lived in Kosovo for centuries) to be direct descendants of the hated Ottoman Turks who had ruled Serbia for centuries. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE In 1981, a year after the death of dictator Josip Broz Tito (1945–1980), the ruler of Communist Yugoslavia,

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Kosovo demanded its independence. The rebellion was crushed by Yugoslavian troops. Ten years later, after several republics that had been part of Communist Yugoslavia declared their independence, Kosovo did so as well. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (1990–2001) crushed that rebellion, too. Milosevic used military, police, and paramilitary forces to massacre or expel Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians. By 1995, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was formed. Within a few years, it took control of most of Kosovo. By that time, Kosovo’s population was 90 percent ethnic Albanian. Both the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians began to carry out ethnic cleansings of the territories in Kosovo that they controlled. The Serbs, encouraged by Slobodan Milosevic, were particularly vicious. More than 700,000 ethnic Albanians fled from Kosovo. The international community was so shocked by the Serbs’ behavior that in March 1999, NATO forces were sent to bomb Serbia. The bombings continued for 78 days. In June 1999, Milosevic signed a cease-fire agreement and promised to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo. A peacekeeping force of 48,000 NATO troops under the sponsorship of the United Nations (UN) was sent to Kosovo. Most of the ethnic Albanians who had fled from Kosovo returned. Most of the 200,000 Serbs who had fled did not. Kosovo declared its independence on February 17, 2008. Kosovo’s citizens are among the poorest in Europe. Unemployment

stands at about 40 percent. About 21,000 people are internally displaced persons (IDPs) whose homes were destroyed during the war for independence. See also: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Dayton Accords; Democracy and Human Rights; Yugoslavia, Break up of.

FURTHERREADING Grant, R.G., and Stewart Ross. The War in Kosovo. New Perspectives. Chicago, Ill.: Raintree, 2000.

Latin America Located to the south of the United States, a vast region that stretches from Mexico in the north to the southern tip of South America. During the Cold War, the United States tended to support any Latin American leader who was anti-communist— even brutal military dictators. Although the United States sometimes intervened with military force if communists came to power, it consistently withdrew troops shortly after sending them in. THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES (OAS) In 1948, as part of the policy of containing communism, the United States joined with 20 other countries to form the Organization of American States, which still exists. The OAS, like NATO, was an alliance for mutual defense if any member country were to be attacked. Cuba Because Cuba is a mere 90 miles (144 km) off the coast of Florida, the United States has always been

Latin America

concerned with who controls it. After Cuba became independent in 1898, many Americans invested in land and businesses there. To protect these American interests, the United States government backed military dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s. After the United States withdrew its support of Batista and he resigned, Fidel Castro, a communist, took power in 1959. His government seized all American property and began developing close ties with the Soviet Union. The United States then broke diplomatic relations with Cuba and implemented a trade embargo. Soviet troops helped build bases for nuclear missiles aimed at the United States, which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. To remove Castro from power, many American presidents authorized unsuccessful attempts to assassinate him. Dominican Republic For more than 30 years, the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean nation located on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola, was ruled by General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, a military dictator who was friendly toward the United States and strongly anti-Communist. After he was assassinated in 1961, Juan Bosch was elected president. Bosch, who had Communist sympathies, was overthrown a few months later. When Bosch’s followers tried to retake power in 1965, the American ambassador begged President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) to send troops to protect Americans in Santo Domingo, the capital. Johnson

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sent 20,000 U.S. Marines. Within a week they had established a ceasefire. After a month, they were replaced with peacekeeping forces from the OAS. A year later, elections were held, and President Joaquin Balaguer took office peaceably. Grenada In October 1983, President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) sent U.S. Marines to Grenada, a small Caribbean island that had been taken over by militant Communists. After free elections, representative government was quickly restored. The Marines were withdrawn the following month. Nicaragua In Nicaragua, the Communist Sandinista Party overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, with the assistance of troops from Cuba and the backing of the Soviet Union. In October 1984, the U.S. Congress banned funds to the Contras, who were the Sandinistas’ opponents. The Reagan administration felt the Contras should be given aid because they were anti-Communist. The matter was handed over to National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, Admiral John Poindexter, and Lt. Col. Oliver North. Using funds collected from foreign governments and wealthy donors, these three bought arms to send to the Contras. In addition, they sold arms to Iran and funneled money from the weapons sales to the Contras. The Iran-Contra Scandal, exposed by the media in 1986, became the most controversial event of Reagan’s presidency. Panama During the 1980s, Manuel Noriega, dictator of Panama and one-

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time ally of the United States, was accused of shipping drugs to the United States and of spying for Fidel Castro. President Ronald Reagan tried but failed to topple Noriega by using economic sanctions. In May 1989, Noriega lost a nationwide election but refused to leave office. In December 1989, President George H.W. Bush (1989–1993) responded by sending 25,000 troops to the Panama Canal Zone, which was still under joint U.S.-Panamanian control. Noriega eventually surrendered and was taken to the United States for trial. President Guillermo Endara, who was legally elected in May 1989, took office. American troops withdrew in January 1990. See also: Communism and the Cold War; Johnson, Lyndon B., NATO; Cuban Missile Crisis; Castro, Fidel.

Lend-Lease Act (1941) Law passed by the United States Congress in March 1941 that allowed President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) to send war materials to countries fighting the Axis powers in World War II (1939– 1945). The Lend-Lease Act was a critical factor in the Allied victory in the war. AMERICAN AID DURING WORLD WAR I AND IN THE 1930s When Europe began to rearm in the 1930s, isolationists in the United States Congress passed a series of neutrality acts. One law made it illegal for the United States to lend money to nations who had not repaid their loans from World War I (1914–

1918). That included most European nations. Another neutrality act prohibited Americans from selling weapons abroad. The neutrality acts applied whether a nation had invaded another country or was the victim of an invasion. During the Battle of Britain, from July to October 1940, the German air force rained bombs down on England. By early 1941, Japan had invaded China; Italy had invaded Ethiopia; and Germany had occupied Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. German submarines were sinking ships in the Atlantic Ocean. The only major European nation that was not either neutral or already under the control of Germany or Italy was Great Britain. Americans remembered the bloodshed of World War I, and they did not want to fight another war on European soil. In a speech on December 29, 1940, however, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the American people that sending aid to the British and others to use in their struggle to defeat Germany might prevent Americans from having to fight. The people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting. They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, the guns, the freighters, which will enable them to fight for their liberty and our security. Emphatically we must get these weapons to them in sufficient volume and quickly enough, so that we and our children will be saved the agony and

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The war materials that the United States sent to Great Britain under the terms of the LendLease Act were essential to British war efforts against Nazi Germany.

suffering of war which others have had to endure. The United States, said Roosevelt in the same speech, should become “the great arsenal of democracy.” Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act on March 3, 1941, barely two months after Roosevelt’s speech. The program allowed the president to send ammunition, aircraft, ships, food, and other materials necessary for the war effort to countries whose defense he thought was vital to the defense of the United States. No payment was required.

EFFECTS ON FOREIGN POLICY During 1941, the enormous power of American industry turned to the production of war materials. The United States committed troops to the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Even after the United States entered the war, Lend-Lease remained important. It gave the Allies American materials with which to fight as American troops were recruited, trained, and transported to the war zones. The Lend-Lease Act expired in September 1945, after the surrender of Japan. By then, the United States

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had shipped about $50 billion worth of war materials to the Allies—a figure that represents nearly $700 billion in 2009 prices. In the broader picture, Lend-Lease marked an important step away from the isolationist policies

that the United States had adopted in the 1930s. See also: Churchill, Winston; Germany; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; World War II.

M–N Marshall Plan Foreign aid plan passed in 1948, known officially as the European Recovery Program. Between 1948 and 1952, amid fears that hunger and despair might make war-torn Europe turn to Communist governments, the Marshall Plan distributed more than $13 billion in American aid to 16 countries. BACKGROUND In a speech on March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) stated that the United States would help any free nation that was in danger of being taken over by Communists. This policy became known as the Truman Doctrine. Truman proposed that the United States send financial and military assistance to Greece and Turkey, a plan that Congress passed in May 1947. The aid was effective; Greece and Turkey did not fall to the Communists. The Marshall Plan offered the same sort of assistance, but on a much larger scale. PROPOSAL OF THE MARSHALL PLAN On June 5, 1947, at a speech at Harvard University, Secretary of State

George Marshall announced that the United States would assist the world in the fight against “hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos” and would help the world to return to “economic health.” Marshall asked European nations to calculate how much it would cost to restore their economies after the devastation of World War II (1939–1945) and to submit the numbers to the United States government. Representatives from a group of European nations met in Paris in June 1947 to discuss costs. Marshall invited the Soviet Union to this meeting. One condition for receiving United States aid, however, was that a country receiving aid would have to agree to have its economic situation checked by outside observers. The Soviets refused to agree to this condition, and their delegation stormed out of the conference. Poland and Czechoslovakia, both Soviet satellite states, had agreed to attend the Paris conference but were forbidden to do so by the Soviet Union. Sixteen nations asked for a total of $28 billion in aid. After further discussion, the amount was reduced to

Marshall Plan

between $16 and $22 billion. Truman submitted a bill to Congress at the end of 1947 in which he requested $17 billion. The aid was to be divided among the recipient countries roughly on the basis of population. More aid would be given to countries that had fought with the Allies rather than the Axis powers. It was the Soviets, however, who helped push the bill through Congress. In February 1948, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1924–1953) authorized a Communist coup in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Shortly after-

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ward, Congress authorized the first funding for the Marshall Plan. RESULTS OF THE PLAN The Marshall Plan has been called the most successful foreign aid program ever run by the United States. Between 1948 and 1952, more than $13 billion in economic assistance was dispensed (about $93 billion in 2009 dollars). The aid first brought economic recovery; it later helped to fund the recipient nations’ rearmament against the threat of Soviet invasion. By 1950, production levels in

George Marshall (1880–1959) George Marshall is considered by most historians the architect of the Allied victory in World War II (1939–1945). He also was largely responsible for the Marshall Plan, which was one of the most successful foreign aid programs in United States history.

Roosevelt that Nazi Germany was a bigger threat to the United States than Japan and so should be confronted and defeated first. At the end of the war, Churchill called Marshall the “true organizer of victory.”

WORLD WAR II

As secretary of state under President Harry S. Truman from 1947 to 1949, Marshall was most famous for the Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Plan). Marshall outlined the plan in a speech on June 5, 1947, and campaigned for it intensively during the months that followed. Marshall has been called the greatest American soldier and statesman since George Washington. In 1953, in recognition of his work on the Marshall Plan, he became the first professional soldier ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

George Marshall had served with distinction in World War I (1914–1918) and had taught hundreds of officers at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) appointed him as his Army chief of staff. In September 1940, Marshall helped to push through Congress the first-ever peacetime draft for military service. After the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Marshall worked with British prime minister Winston Churchill to persuade President

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Western Europe were 25 percent higher than they had been before World War II. Inflation and unemployment had dropped, and cooperation among Western European governments had improved. Originally, the aid given to each nation under the Marshall Plan was supposed to be a loan to be repaid to the U.S. government. In most cases, however, the loans simply were forgiven and forgotten. See also: Communism and the Cold War; Truman Doctrine.

Nazi Party See Germany.

NATO The acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance based on a treaty signed in 1949 between the United States and 11 other nations, mostly in Western Europe. The most important provision of the treaty was a promise that if any one of the member nations were attacked, all of the signers would help to defend it. BACKGROUND AND SIGNING OF THE TREATY When the Allies defeated Germany in World War II (1939–1945), the Soviet Union gained control over Eastern Europe. Soon, the United States and the nations of Western Europe came to fear that the Soviet Union might try to impose Communist governments in Western Europe as well. President Harry S. Truman (1945– 1953) and his advisers believed that the way to help the nations of West-

ern Europe withstand Communism was to support their economies through aid such as the Marshall Plan. Economic strength, however, might not be enough on its own. In June 1948, the Soviets blockaded West Berlin. It suddenly became obvious that the forces of the United States and its European allies were no match for the Soviet Union’s army of 2.5 million troops. With this in mind, on April 4, 1949, the United States signed the North Atlantic Treaty. This treaty established a collective security agreement between Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. These countries agreed that an attack on any one of them would be considered an attack on all, and that all the others would respond to an attack in some way, as they thought best. The military arm of this treaty was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. The organization’s troops were contributed by the nations who had signed the treaty. NATO FROM THE 1950s TO THE 1990s In 1952, Greece and Turkey became members of NATO; West Germany joined in 1955. The Soviet Union reacted in 1955 by signing a treaty known as the Warsaw Pact with seven of its Eastern European satellite states and East Germany. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO turned to crisis management. It sent peacekeeping troops to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Afghanistan, and to Iraq. During the 1990s, some member states of the

Nixon, Richard M. (1913–1994)

United Nations (UN) argued that any NATO military action required the approval of the UN Security Council. NATO members pointed out that NATO and the United Nations were separate organizations, and that the UN Security Council included members who might very well want to veto any NATO action. Spain joined NATO in 1982, after the death of dictator Francisco Franco (1939–1975). In the 1990s, NATO membership was expanded to include the former Soviet satellites Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. In 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia also joined. Albania and Croatia became members in 2009. See also: Communism and the Cold War; Truman Doctrine; United Nations (UN).

FURTHERREADING Ferrara, Peter L. NATO: An Entangled Alliance. London: Franklin Watts, 1984. Grant, R.G. NATO. World Organizations. London: Franklin Watts, 2001.

Nixon, Richard M. (1913–1994) Thirty-seventh president of the United States (1969–1974). Richard Nixon was responsible for withdrawing American troops from Vietnam, opening relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1972, and promoting détente through a summit meeting and other discussions with the Soviet Union in 1972. Richard Nixon’s assistance to Israel in the Yom Kippur War (1973) contributed to the Israeli victory.

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VIETNAM Following huge financial costs and the loss of many American soldiers’ lives in Vietnam since 1961, President Nixon began a gradual withdrawal of American troops in 1969. In late spring and summer 1970, however, he also ordered the bombing of North Vietnamese supply lines in the neighboring nation of Cambodia. Although the fighting continued, the president set out to negotiate what he termed “peace with honor” with the North Vietnamese. He used that phrase to describe the signing, in January 1973, of an agreement between the United States and the North Vietnamese. Under the terms of the agreement, United States warships and aircraft stationed in Southeast Asia were to move in if the North Vietnamese invaded South Vietnam. The United States Congress cut off funding for such operations in August 1973, however. The North Vietnamese overran South Vietnam in early 1975, a few months after Nixon was forced to resign from the presidency. That resignation came in the wake of the domestic Watergate scandal, in which it was revealed that Nixon and his aides had engaged in a wide range of illegal activities. The presence, all across the United States, of huge numbers of protesters against the Vietnam War made it clear to Nixon that the American people no longer were united in the goal of containing Communism. As the Vietnam War wound down, Nixon decided to try a different approach to dealing with Communism. This approach was known as détente—an easing of tensions.

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CHINA In 1949, Communists under Mao Zedong (1949–1978) gained control of mainland China and drove Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist government onto the island of Taiwan. China under the Nationalist government was a founding member of the United Nations (UN) and had held a seat on the Security Council since the organization’s founding in 1945. Chiang’s government in Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China or Nationalist China) continued to hold China’s UN membership and the seat on the Security Council after the Communist takeover of the mainland. The People’s Republic of China, the Communist power on the mainland, did not recognize the Nationalist government on Taiwan. The People’s Republic claimed that the island was a province of China. The United States recognized the Taiwanese government as China’s legal government, however, and refused to grant diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic. The United States used its Security Council veto to keep the People’s Republic of China from being admitted as a member of the United Nations. Nixon argued that the People’s Republic of China was too large to be ignored: A fourth of the world’s people live in Communist China. Today they’re not a significant power, but 25 years from now they could be decisive. For the United States not to do what it can at this time, when it can, would lead to a situation of great danger. We could

have total détente with the Soviet Union but that would mean nothing if the Chinese are outside the international community. Nixon believed that establishing good relations with China might keep that nation from making any new alliances with the Soviet Union. The two nations had been fighting for the position of leader of the Communist world since the 1950s. In 1969, Chinese and Soviet troops had battled at the border that separated the two countries. In October 1971, the United States withdrew its objection to seating the People’s Republic of China at the United Nations. Communist China was promptly accepted for membership, and Taiwan was expelled. In February 1972, Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China; he was the first American president to do so. At the end of the visit, Nixon and Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (1949–1976) issued the carefully worded Shanghai Communiqué. It stated that there was only one China and that Taiwan was part of it. The communiqué also stated that the United States would withdraw its troops and military installations from Taiwan. The communiqué did not, however, say when the United States would do so. Nor did it say which of the governments of China was the legitimate one—the one in Taiwan or the one on the mainland. Nixon’s visit laid the groundwork for President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) to grant the People’s Republic of China full diplomatic recognition in 1979.

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SOVIET UNION Nixon also worked to achieve friendlier relations with the Soviet Union. In May 1972, he attended a summit meeting in Moscow with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev (1964–1982). At the meeting, Nixon signed a number of agreements with the Soviet leaders in which the two nations promised to cooperate in educational, environmental, medical, and other matters. Nixon’s most controversial act, however, was the signing of a treaty that limited a specific type of nuclear missile. That treaty was based on the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) that were held at Helsinki, Finland, in 1969.

United States and the Soviet Union did not prevent the Soviet Union from resupplying Egypt and Syria. After the war, even Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s so-called “shuttle diplomacy” could not mend American relations with the Egyptians, Syrians, and other Arab nations. Soon afterwards, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) placed an embargo on oil exports to the United States. The embargo caused shortages of gasoline and led to lengthy lines at American gas stations in 1974.

YOM KIPPUR WAR In 1973, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. The attack destroyed one-fifth of Israel’s air force and one-third of its tanks within four days. Nixon promptly airlifted supplies to Israel. Détente between the

FURTHERREADING

See also: Communism and the Cold War; Israel; Soviet Union; Vietnam War. Barr, Roger. Richard Nixon. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 1992. Goldman, Martin S. Richard M. Nixon: The Complex President. New York: Facts On File, 1998. Pious, Richard M. Richard Nixon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

P–S Persian Gulf War (1991) War fought in February 1991 to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded the previous year. An international coalition of troops authorized by the United Nations (UN) fought the Iraqis. KUWAIT On August 1, 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sent his army to invade neighboring Kuwait. Kuwait, a desert

country slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey, has about 10 percent of the world’s known reserves of crude oil. Kuwait has a population of 1 million, plus 1 million guest workers, and an army of only 16,000 troops. Iraq’s army, at 1.2 million, was larger than Kuwait’s permanent population. Saddam claimed that Kuwait was stealing oil from a field at the Iraqi border. Within a few hours of the

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invasion, the Iraqis controlled all of Kuwait.

until Saddam withdrew or was driven out of Kuwait.

WORLD REACTION: DESERT SHIELD The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning the invasion. The UN also imposed economic sanctions on Iraq and authorized the use of “all necessary means” if Saddam did not withdraw his troops from Kuwait by January 15, 1991. In the meantime, President George H.W. Bush (1989–1993) ordered American troops to be sent to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield. Desert Shield was intended to protect Saudi Arabia (with 20 percent of the world’s known crude oil reserves) and other Persian Gulf states

DESERT STORM Iraq chose not to withdraw by the January 15, 1991, deadline. On January 17, Operation Desert Storm— authorized by the UN and using a coalition of UN troops—was launched to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. The first phase of the operation was a fourweek-long series of bombing runs against Iraqi positions in Kuwait and against Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. On February 22, President Bush gave Saddam Hussein an ultimatum: Withdraw within 24 hours, or Iraq itself will be invaded. Saddam responded by setting major Kuwaiti oil fields ablaze. The second phase of Operation Desert Storm was undertaken by a co-

Iraqi soldiers set fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they fled Kuwait after Iraq’s defeat in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

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alition of 40 nations, including the United States, Great Britain, France, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. The United States contributed more than 500,000 troops. Other coalition members contributed about 160,000. The liberation of Kuwait took about 100 hours. By February 26, coalition forces had driven the enemy to the Iraqi border. Saddam announced that he would withdraw from Kuwait and abide by all United Nations resolutions. Military operations ended on February 28. The United States lost 148 soldiers in combat and 145 from other causes. Other coalition members lost, in all, 76 soldiers. Although estimates of Iraqi deaths vary widely, the original estimate was about 100,000. EFFECTS OF THE WAR The Persian Gulf War was an impressive demonstration of the efficiency of high-tech warfare. Coalition forces used precision weapons that could operate at night and in any weather. The war was also noteworthy because, for almost the first time since the Vietnam War ended in 1973, most Americans were proud of the American military. Bush said that the United States had “licked the Vietnam syndrome”—the fear that the use of military power might get Americans involved in another long drawn-out defeat. See also: Bush, George H.W.; Iraqi War of 2003.

FURTHERREADING Sinkler, Adrian. Iraq. Nations in Transition. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005.

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Thompson, William, and Dorcas Thompson. Iraq. Modern Middle East Nations and Their Strategic Place in the World. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers, 2003.

Potsdam Conference Meeting among United States president Harry S. Truman (1945–1953), British prime minister Winston Churchill (1940–1945) and (1951– 1955), and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1922–1953), held from July 17 to August 2, 1945, at Potsdam, Germany. The meeting was called soon after Germany’s surrender, with the goal of determining the fate of Germany and of the lands that the Germans had invaded. BACKGROUND OF THE CONFERENCE After Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, the leaders of the three most important Allied nations met to discuss how to reorganize and govern the lands that had been occupied by the Germans. Stalin made numerous demands, as he had at the Yalta Conference five months earlier. DIVISION OF OCCUPIED GERMANY Germany was defeated in World War I (1914–1918) but soon rearmed itself. Under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in the 1930s, Germany started another major war. At Potsdam, the leaders of the Allied powers were determined to eliminate Nazi influence and prevent Germany from becoming a military threat again. To this end, Churchill, Stalin, and Truman agreed to divide Germany

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into four zones. The zones would be occupied and governed by the British, the Americans, the Soviets, and the French. Within the areas that they controlled, the occupying Allied powers were allowed to seize goods as reparations—payment for war damages and expenses. War crimes tribunals were established to put Axis leaders on trial. Berlin, the capital of Germany, was far inside the zone occupied by the Soviet Union. The city also was divided into zones to be occupied by the four Allied powers. During the conference, the United States, Great Britain, and China (whose leader, Chiang Kai-shek was not present in Potsdam) signed the “Potsdam Declaration.” They demanded unconditional surrender from Japan. Soviet dictator Stalin did not sign the declaration. Although he had agreed to declare war against Japan by August, he did not want to make an openly hostile statement at Potsdam. He feared that Japan might launch an immediate attack on the Soviet Union’s eastern frontier.

sion of Germany that lasted for almost 50 years. The United States, Britain, and France withdrew their occupying forces from their respective zones in 1955, leaving behind an independent West Germany. The zone controlled by the Soviet Union became the Soviet satellite state of East Germany. In 1961, in an attempt to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West, the Soviets built the Berlin Wall to divide West Berlin from East Berlin and from the rest of East Germany.

EFFECTS ON THE WORLD As President Truman was on his way home from the Potsdam Conference, he was given the news of the first successful test detonation of an atomic bomb. When the Japanese failed to respond to the Potsdam Declaration’s demand for surrender, Truman authorized the use of such bombs on Japanese targets. The city of Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, and Nagasaki was bombed on August 9. The decisions made at the Potsdam Conference led directly to a divi-

REAGAN AND COMMUNISM Reagan was a passionate anticommunist. He watched as the Soviets dominated Eastern Europe after World War II (1939–1945) and saw further Communist aggression in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. During the presidency of Reagan’s predecessor, Jimmy Carter (1977–1981), the Soviets sent troops into Afghanistan (1979).

See also: Berlin Wall; Communism and the Cold War; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Soviet Union; World War II; Yalta Conference.

Reagan, Ronald (1911–2004) President of the United States (1981– 1989) who worked to win the Cold War against the Soviet Union. By the end of Ronald Reagan’s second term, he saw fundamental reforms under way in the Soviet government, and he had signed a major arms-reduction treaty with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991).

REFORMS IN THE SOVIET UNION Reagan’s strong stand on American defense probably helped persuade

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“Tear Down This Wall”

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n June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave a moving speech at the Berlin Wall, a long-standing symbol of the Cold War. In his speech, he pointed out the shortcomings of Communism.

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the s ame . . . Yet i t i s h ere i n Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the w orld. . . . Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city i n G ermany . . . From d evastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on e arth. . . .

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: “We will bury you.” But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind—too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. . . . General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

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Soviet leaders to negotiate arms reductions. In December 1987, Reagan and Soviet Premier Gorbachev signed a landmark treaty that eliminated intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. The treaty also allowed each country to inspect the other’s nuclear arsenals, so that each could confirm that reductions had taken place. Never before had the Soviets permitted such inspections. Other important changes were under way in the Soviet Union. By 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev had decreased the Communist Party’s control over the government, as part of an attempt to revive the failing Soviet economy. Reagan saw this as a major step forward. In June 1987, he stood beside the Berlin Wall and told Gorbachev that if he really wanted peace and prosperity, he should tear down the wall and allow freedom to the people who lived in East Germany and in all countries dominated by the Soviets. The Berlin Wall was demolished in 1989, not long after Reagan left office. The Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991. Many historians see Reagan’s outspokenness and willingness to spend billions of dollars to strengthen the American military as decisive factors in the fall of the Soviet Union. See also: Berlin Wall; Communism and the Cold War; Gorbachev, Mikhail; Soviet Union.

FURTHERREADING Devaney, John. Ronald Reagan. Presidential Biography Series. New York: Walker & Company, 1990. Israel, Fred L., and David J. Frent, eds. The Election of 1980 and the Administration of

Ronald Reagan. Presidential Elections and the Administrations That Followed, ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers, 2002. Larsen, Rebecca. Ronald Reagan. Impact Biographies. Danbury, Conn.: Scholastic Library Publishing/Franklin Watts, 1994.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1882–1945) Thirty-second president of the United States (1933–1945), during the Great Depression and most of World War II (1939–1945). With the rise of dictatorships in Europe and Asia during the 1920s and 1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt was convinced that the United States must engage in a foreign policy of internationalism. FOREIGN POLICY IN THE 1930s Franklin D. Roosevelt served from 1913 to 1920 as assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). During that time, he grew to favor a foreign policy of internationalism. Wilson was one of the first American presidents to believe that the United States ought to play a major role in the world. During Wilson’s presidency, World War I (1914–1918) engulfed most of Europe. The United States entered the war in 1917 and lost more than 100,000 troops. Wilson argued that the postwar world urgently needed the League of Nations, an international organization to promote peace. The United States Senate, however, did not approved the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war and established the league. In 1932, when Roosevelt was elected president, the United States

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) and British prime minister Winston Churchill (1940–1945) forged a close working relationship before and during World War II (1939–1945). Their cooperation was a key factor in the Allied victory in 1945.

was in the midst of the Great Depression, a severe economic downturn. At the time, most Americans favored isolationism—a policy of keeping the United States out of international affairs. During the 1930s, Congress passed several neutrality acts that restricted loans to European governments and sales of arms abroad. By 1939, however, Germany, under Adolf Hitler, had rearmed and had invaded Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. In response, Great Britain and France had declared war against Germany. Roosevelt wanted to help Britain and France, but the neutrality acts made that impossible.

WORLD WAR II The Lend-Lease Act, passed by Congress on March 11, 1941, allowed Roosevelt to supply arms and war materials to countries that were fighting the Germans. At first, the largest recipient of this aid was Great Britain— the only major power left to fight the Germans in Western Europe. (France had fallen to the Germans in 1940.) In late 1941, when the Germans broke their treaty with the Soviet Union and invaded that country, the Soviets also began to receive LendLease aid. In August 1941, Roosevelt met secretly with British prime minister

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Winston Churchill (1940–1945) and (1951–1955) on naval ships anchored off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. After the meeting, the two leaders jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, most of which Roosevelt wrote. The charter stated that the aims of the countries fighting the Germans were to end fascism and guarantee national self-determination around the world. Later, in 1945, the Atlantic Charter served as the basis for the Charter of the United Nations (UN). A carrier-based force of Japanese planes attacked the United States’ naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Roosevelt declared that day a “date which will live in infamy” and asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Within days, the United States also was at war with Nazi Germany. Influenced by Prime Minister Churchill, Roosevelt decided to concentrate America’s efforts first on ending the war in Europe. During the course of the war, Roosevelt met twice with Churchill and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1922–1953). At Tehran, Iran, in November 1943, the three leaders discussed opening a second front in the European War. The result was Operation Overlord, the invasion of France that began on the beaches of Normandy on the day that we now know as D-Day: June 6, 1944. Roosevelt liked Stalin. The president also felt that he could handle Stalin better than the officials in the State Department could. “I think that if I give [Stalin] everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return . . . he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.”

Roosevelt met again with Stalin and Churchill in February 1945, at a conference at Yalta, on the Black Sea. The three men negotiated a postwar settlement of Europe that left most of Eastern Europe under Soviet domination. In return, Stalin promised to declare war on Japan within three months of the defeat of Germany. Roosevelt died suddenly two months after the Yalta Conference, and was succeeded in office by President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953). EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONALIST POLICY Roosevelt committed the United States to a foreign policy of internationalism that has guided the nation since the 1940s. Through programs such as Lend-Lease and statements such as the Atlantic Charter, he set the framework for the United States’ place in the postwar world. Some historians have criticized Roosevelt for his trust in Stalin, however, and for his failure to order American forces to advance farther into Europe at the end of World War II. See also: World War II; Lend-Lease Act (1941); Soviet Union; Atlantic Charter; Yalta Conference.

FURTHERREADING Bardhan-Quallen, Sudipta. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, A National Hero. Sterling Biographies. New York: Sterling Publications, 2007. Morris, Jeffrey B. The FDR Way. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 1996.

Serbia See Bosnia and Herzegovina; Kosovo; Yugoslavia.

Soviet Union

Soviet Union Federation of European and Asian republics established in 1922; also known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union was ruled by the Communist Party, whose stated goal was to spread Communism around the world. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States dominated foreign affairs in both countries and in most of the rest of the world from 1945, when World War II ended, until 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. BEGINNINGS Soon after the abdication of Czar Nicholas II (1894–1917) in 1917, the government of Russia was overthrown by Vladimir Lenin (1917– 1924) and his Bolshevik Party. The goal of the Bolsheviks after their October Revolution was to create a nation run on the principles set forth by nineteenth-century German philosopher Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto. Marx wrote about the development of communism in industrial nations. Under the czars, however, Russia had been a nation of poor farmers. Lenin’s adaptation of Marx’s ideas for use in Russia is called Marxism-Leninism. The revolutionary government was supposed to be run by soviets— elected workers’ councils. The nation formed by Lenin, which consisted of provinces of the former Russian empire, therefore was called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. From its earliest days, however, the Soviet Union was not run by soviets, but by members of the Communist Party. High-ranking party

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members dictated everything about the Soviet government. From the 1920s on, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was, in effect, the dictator of the Soviet Union. The most famous general secretaries were Joseph Stalin (1922–1953), Nikita Khrushchev (1954–1964), Leonid Brezhnev (1964–1982), and Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991). The KGB (Committee for State Security) helped the Communist Party leaders to control Soviet citizens. A combination of secret police and intelligence agency, the KGB spied on Soviet citizens and encouraged them to inform on each other. STALIN’S RULE IN THE 1930s Lenin died in 1924. Stalin, who had worked closely with Lenin, was skilled at playing his enemies off against one another. By the late 1920s, Stalin had assumed dictatorial powers in the Soviet Union. He remained in power until his death in 1953. Stalin wanted to switch the Soviet economy as quickly as possible from agriculture to industry—mining, the production of steel, and the manufacturing of factory machines. He ran the economy by means of decrees issued from Moscow, the capital. Official Five-Year Plans set out goals for industrial production. To achieve these goals, the Soviet government took over all industries and collectivized agriculture. The Soviet republic of Ukraine once was known as the “bread-basket of the world.” The misguided collectivization of the farms there led to between 1.5 million and 5 million deaths by famine in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933.

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Stalin’s focus on heavy industry led to constant shortages of food and consumer goods. People lined up for hours outside shops without even knowing what goods the shops had available for sale. The people were resigned to taking whatever small amounts they were allowed of whatever the shops had on hand. Not all deaths under Stalin were by-products of the drive to industrialize. From 1936 to 1938, Stalin decided to rid the Communist Party of those people whom he saw as enemies. The death toll of Stalin’s Great Purge is estimated at 700,000. The names of well-known people who were executed or exiled in the purge were removed from textbooks, and their images were deleted from official photographs—as if those people had never existed. Like deaths in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler (1933–1945), deaths in the Soviet Union under Stalin are difficult to count accurately. The most widely accepted estimate of deaths under Stalin is between 10 million and 20 million. In the 1930s, before the advent of television and the Internet, few people outside the Soviet Union knew of Stalin’s atrocities. In 1933, as millions of people died of famine in the Ukraine, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) became the first United States president to grant diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union. WORLD WAR II In 1939, Stalin signed a treaty with Adolf Hitler. They agreed that neither the Soviet Union nor Nazi Germany would join an alliance against the

other or attack the other if a third party attacked. Secretly, they also agreed to divide between them six independent countries in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. The Soviets and the Germans then proceeded to invade those countries and to slaughter civilians as well as soldiers. In June 1941, Germany broke the 1939 treaty by invading the Soviet Union. At that point, the Soviet Union joined the Allied powers and began to fight against Germany and the Axis powers. The German advance into the Soviet Union was halted at the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943. Soviet troops then began to drive the invaders back toward Germany. The Soviets occupied the territory over which they advanced as they drove the Germans back. By the time Germany surrendered in May 1945, the Soviets dominated all of Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union suffered the highest death rates of any nation during World War II: 10 million soldiers and 11 million civilians. These figures represented fully 13 percent of the nation’s 1939 population. Germany lost 10.7 percent of its population. COLD WAR After Japan’s surrender in August 1945, relations quickly cooled between the United States and the West on the one hand and the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states on the other. It seemed clear that the Communists wanted to expand their territory whenever and wherever possible. The United States

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Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) Boris Yeltsin (1990–1999) played an important role in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. A member of the Communist Party for almost 30 years, Yeltsin rose to prominence in May 1990 as the first popularly elected president of Russia. Russia (officially the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) was the largest of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union. A protégé of Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991), Yeltsin criticized Gorbachev for reforming the Soviet system too slowly. In August 1991, hard-line Communists in the Soviet military tried to stop Gorbachev’s reforms by overthrowing his government. With Gorbachev under house arrest, Yeltsin helped halt the attempted coup.

YELTSIN’S POLICIES Yeltsin introduced free trade policies and the privatization of many industries that had been run by the Soviet

and the Soviet Union now were the world’s superpowers. The two began a Cold War that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This was a “cold” war rather than a full-scale war because neither the United States nor the Soviet Union was willing to risk the use of nuclear weapons. Both knew that the use of such weapons would lead to an appalling loss of lives on both sides. In response to the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-

government for decades. Vouchers for ownership of these industries were issued to Soviet citizens. In October 1992, however, the Russian economy crashed. Prices skyrocketed, and total production of goods and services fell by 50 percent. Violent crime increased. So did corruption within the Russian government. In 1994 and again in 1999, Yeltsin sent troops to Chechnya, a territory of Russia that was seeking independence. A large majority of Chechens are Muslims. The Chechens have been accused of terrorism for their attacks against Russia. Unofficial estimates of the death toll in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War (1999) range from 25,000 to 50,000. Yeltsin resigned from the Russian presidency on December 31, 1999. He left control of the government to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (2000– 2008). Yeltsin died on April 23, 2007.

tion (NATO) in 1949, the Soviet Union organized its satellite states in Eastern Europe into a similar organization under the Warsaw Pact of 1955. The Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship and alliance with the Communist-run People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong (1949–1976). The Soviet Union also sent economic aid to Communists around the world, including those in Cuba and North Vietnam.

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KHRUSHCHEV AND BREZHNEV Stalin died in 1953. He was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who held power from 1954 until 1964. Under Khrushchev, the Soviet Union maintained rigid political and economic controls at home and in its satellite states. When Hungary rebelled in 1956, for example, Soviet tanks were sent to suppress the rebellion. Leonid Brezhnev controlled the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. By this time, the race to build more nuclear weapons than the United States was putting a great burden on the Soviet economy. In the 1970s, Brezhnev and President Richard Nixon (1969–1974)agreed to a policy of détente—an “easing of tension.” In 1972, the Soviet Union and the United States signed an arms reduction treaty based on the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I). MIKHAIL GORBACHEV Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991) attempted to preserve the Soviet Union through changes in the economy (perestroika) and by loosening the Communist Party’s control on the nation (glasnost). In the early 1990s, the republics that formed the Soviet Union began to secede from it. In 1991, even Rus-

sia withdrew. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev declared his office as president of the Soviet Union extinct and handed his powers over to Boris Yeltsin (1990–1999), the president of the Republic of Russia. The next day, the Supreme Soviet (the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union) dissolved itself. This marked the end of the Soviet Union. It also marked the end of the Cold War, which had dominated international affairs since the end of World War II. See also: Castro, Fidel; Communism and the Cold War; Gorbachev, Mikhail; World War II.

FURTHERREADING Gottfried, Ted. The Great Fatherland War: The Soviet Union in World War II. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing Group/ Twenty-First Century Books, 2003. Hunter, Jason, ed. Communist Leaders. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Stoff, Laurie S., ed. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Vail, John J. Peace, Land, Bread!: A History of the Russian Revolution. Collingdale, Pa.: Diane Publishing Company, 2006.

Stalin, Joseph See Soviet Union.

T–Z Truman Doctrine Policy stating that the United States would provide economic aid to countries in danger of a Communist takeover. The Truman Doctrine, pre-

sented to Congress in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953), marked the beginning of the United States’ policy of containment of communism and helped prevent the spread of communism in Europe.

Truman Doctrine

THE SPREAD OF COMMUNISM The Soviet Union emerged from World War II (1939–1945) in control of vast territories in Eastern Europe. In 1946, former British prime minister Winston Churchill (1940–1945) and (1951–1955) described an “iron curtain” that had fallen across Europe, with Poland, Czechoslovakia, parts of Austria and Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria all either influenced by or controlled completely by the Soviets. In postwar China, Communists under Mao Zedong (1949–1978) were slowly winning a civil war against the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek. In France and Italy, members of the Communist Party were being elected to national offices. Many Americans and Western Europeans feared that the Communists were about to take over most of Western Europe and Asia. WHAT TRIGGERED THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE In February 1947, Great Britain announced that because of the losses it had suffered during World War II, it no longer could provide military and economic aid to the governments of Greece and Turkey. Greece was in ruins after four years of occupation by Nazi Germany. By 1947, a battle was raging for control of the Greek government between monarchists, who favored a return to rule by a king, and Communist-led rebels, who were funded by Communist Yugoslavia. At the same time, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1922–1953) was demanding that Turkey give the Soviet

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Union joint control of the Dardanelles Strait. This would have given the Soviet Navy year-round access to the Mediterranean Sea. With such access, the Soviets could, at any time, attack any country that bordered the Mediterranean. Stalin threateningly stationed troops at the long border shared by Turkey and the Soviet Union. The United States, meanwhile, had emerged from World War II as a military and economic superpower. In a March 1947 speech to Congress, President Truman stated, “There is no other country [than the United States] to which democratic Greece can turn.” The strongest argument for sending aid to Greece was the domino theory. Truman and his advisers believed that if Greece and Turkey fell to the Soviets, other governments also would topple. In May 1947, Congress voted to send $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey. Neither country fell to the Communists. The success of this aid program paved the way for the Marshall Plan, which Secretary of State George Marshall proposed in June 1947. EFFECTS ON FOREIGN POLICY Since the American Revolution in 1776, the United States had avoided permanent, long-term alliances. The Truman Doctrine, together with the Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed the basis for a new, internationalist foreign policy. The United States rejected its former isolationism and took on the status of a world leader. Today, international economic aid of

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Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) is remembered today as the man who ordered atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. The war in Europe ended with the surrender of Germany in May 1945. In the war against Japan in the Pacific, however, no end was in sight. In early June, Japan’s military leaders issued orders for the last-ditch defense of Japan, using 10,000 suicide planes, 2.3 million troops, and 28 million civilians to attack Allied troops. In July, with the Potsdam Declaration, the Allies demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender. Japan did not respond. Soon afterward, Truman was told that the first atomic bomb had been successfully detonated. Truman’s use of the atomic bomb must be viewed in the context of other bombings during World War II. Throughout the war, both the Axis powers and the Allies had used mass bombings to terrify and kill the enemy

the sort first offered under the Truman Doctrine is one of the nation’s most important methods for promoting its interests abroad. The establishment of the Truman Doctrine often is cited as the start of the Cold War. The primary goal of United States foreign policy until the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 was to do as Truman proposed: to contain the spread of

and to keep their own casualties to a minimum. Incendiary bombs, which caused fires as well as explosions, were used by the Germans on London and by the Allies on Cologne (in Germany) and Tokyo (in Japan). Truman saw the new atomic bomb as another, more powerful weapon in the Allied arsenal. He ordered that it be used against Japan as soon as possible. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, probably killing at least 100,000 people. Japan’s leaders again ignored a demand for surrender. A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9; killing about 75,000 people. On August 14, Japanese leaders agreed to unconditional surrender. Truman believed that the use of the atomic bombs had shortened the war in the Pacific and saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Japanese and American lives. Others, however, have criticized the president’s use of these devastating weapons.

communism and Communist-ruled states, rather than to appease or destroy them. See also: Cold War; Marshall Plan; NATO.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) See Soviet Union.

United Nations (UN)

United Nations (UN) Established in 1945, an international organization that aims to facilitate cooperation among nations regarding international law, international security, economic development, social progress, and human rights. The United Nations’ membership has grown from 51 to 192 nations. HAMMERING OUT THE CHARTER The idea of an international organization that would peacefully resolve disputes among nations goes back to the League of Nations. The league was established in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I (1914–1918). Although President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) strongly supported it, the United States did not join the league. Opponents argued that membership would prevent the United States from acting independently if its interests were threatened. The term United Nations was first used during World War II (1939– 1945), to refer to the Allies who were fighting against the Axis powers. The United Nations includes a General Assembly in which representatives of member nations can hold discussions. Each member has one vote on resolutions made in the General Assembly. Members can choose to follow the resolutions or not. The International Court of Justice, headquartered in The Hague (Netherlands), is the UN’s judicial branch. It attempts to settle disputes among nations and has heard cases that involved war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

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The UN’s Security Council originally was composed of five permanent members, with two additional members serving two-year terms. Today, the Security Council has 10 nonpermanent members in addition to the permanent members. The original permanent members of the Security Council were the major Allied nations: the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and China. Nationalist China (Taiwan) was replaced on the council by the People’s Republic of China in 1971; the Soviet Union was replaced by Russia in 1991. The Security Council’s purpose is to maintain peace and security among nations. To that end, it decides when to send peacekeeping forces and when to apply economic sanctions (such as stopping trade) if a member violates United Nations policy. The Security Council also authorizes military actions. United Nations members are required by the United Nations Charter to comply with Security Council resolutions. FINALIZATION AND RATIFICATION OF THE CHARTER The final details of the United Nations Charter were hammered out in 1945 among representatives of 50 nations. The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, after its charter was ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of the other 46 nations who had signed the charter. On December 19, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly ad-

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opted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by a vote of 48 in favor, 0 against, and 8 abstentions. The Guinness Book of World Records ranks this declaration as the world’s most translated document. SINCE WORLD WAR II Since its creation, the way the United Nations functions has changed a great deal. In the 1940s and 1950s, the United States dominated the UN. At the same time, however, the Soviet Union often used its veto on the Security Council to prevent the council from condemning such acts as the Soviets’ invasion of Hungary in 1956 to quell an anticommunist rebellion. To avoid the Soviet veto, the United States shifted much of the debate about such issues from the Security Council to the General Assembly. In the 1960s and 1970s, many new members joined the UN. These new members included nations that formerly had been colonies of European powers. These developing nations had far more sympathy for the Communists than for the United States and the Western European nations. By the 1980s, the United States and its allies were a minority in the General Assembly. By this time, the United States often used its Security Council veto to block resolutions by Communist and/ or developing countries. FIGHTING WARS AND KEEPING THE PEACE In 1950, the United Nations supported the suggestion of the United States to send troops when North Korea invaded South Korea. This action and the 1990 sending of troops to Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion

were the only two cases in which the UN authorized troops to fight, rather than to keep the peace. UN peacekeeping troops are supplied voluntarily by member nations. Their orders are to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage the resumption of hostilities. Such peacekeeping actions can succeed only when the nations that are at war agree to United Nations intervention. United Nations peacekeepers have served in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Central America. See also: Atlantic Charter; Communism and the Cold War; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Yalta Conference.

FURTHERREADING Fasulo, Linda. An Insider’s Guide to the UN. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005. Weiss, Thomas G., et. al. The United Nations and Changing World Politics. Jackson, Tenn.: Westview Press, 2007.

Vietnam War (1950–1975) Conflict in Southeast Asia (1950– 1975) in which the United States attempted to prevent the takeover of South Vietnam by its Communist neighbor, North Vietnam. In its length, in the number of American troops involved (more than two million), in its expense, and in its consequences at home and abroad, the Vietnam War was one of the most significant and costly wars in American history. THE FRENCH IN INDOCHINA Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, was part of the French colony of Indochina. France had controlled Indochina

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since the nineteenth century. In 1941, however, after Germany invaded France, Indochina was taken over by Germany’s ally, Japan. When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, Indochina declared its independence under Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh (1945–1969). The French refused to recognize the former colony’s independence and in 1946 began a war against Ho. Ho was supported in the war by the Soviet Union and later by the People’s Republic of China. The period immediately following World War II (1939–1945) saw the beginning of Communist expansion and the Cold War. In 1950, the United States began to support the French in their attempt to prevent Indochina (which France had by now divided into Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) from falling into Communist hands. By 1953, the United States was paying about 80 percent of the cost of the French war in Indochina. It was already clear, however, that the Vietnamese under Ho would not be easy to defeat. In 1954, at Dien Bien Phu, the French finally surrendered. Soon afterward, France agreed to withdraw its troops from and give up control of its former colonies in Indochina. By the terms of the settlement that ended the war, Vietnam was to be divided temporarily at the 17th parallel. In a year, there were to be nationwide elections to determine the country’s government. Meanwhile, North Vietnam was under the control of Ho Chi Minh’s Communists. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) decided not to send aid

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directly to South Vietnam. To do so might involve the United States in another conflict in Southeast Asia, barely a year after the end of the Korean War (1950–1953). Instead, the United States joined a new defensive alliance based on the model of NATO. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) provided military and economic aid to South Vietnam. The leader of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem (1955–1963), refused to hold elections, however. As he became more like a dictator, he became less popular with the Vietnamese people. In 1957, the North Vietnamese took advantage of this situation by supporting a new guerrilla movement in the South—the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong were South Vietnamese guerrilla fighters who were willing to use military and terrorist tactics to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem’s government. KENNEDY SENDS AMERICAN TROOPS TO VIETNAM By November 1961, toward the end of his first year in office, President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) already had lost two Cold War battles. He had failed to evict Fidel Castro (1959–2008) from Cuba with the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion, and he had not prevented the building of the Berlin Wall in East Germany. In Vietnam, however, Kennedy was more forceful. Eisenhower had sent only military advisers to South Vietnam. Kennedy sent additional advisers, money, and 16,000 American troops to fight the Viet Cong. In late 1963, Kennedy also authorized the overthrow of the increasingly

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that the Maddox had been taking part in a spying mission. Later that month, both houses of Congress passed, by overwhelming majorities, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. According to the U.S. Constitution (Article I, section 8), it is the responsibility of Congress to declare war. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed President Johnson to take any action necessary to repel attacks against the United States military and to prevent future attacks. In effect, the resolution gave Johnson the ability to go to war without congressional approval. He inAmerican and South Vietnamese troops fought against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong in an effort to keep creased the nation’s South Vietnam from falling to the Communist North. The troops in Vietnam to United States withdrew from South Vietnam in 1973, but 23,300. the nation fell to the Communists in 1975. In early 1965, with unpopular Ngo Dinh Diem. The situ- South Vietnam about to collapse, ation in South Vietnam then became Johnson ordered a bombing cameven more chaotic. paign against North Vietnam and against the supply routes and bases of ESCALATION OF THE CONFLICT the Viet Cong. Bombing campaigns President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963– had worked in World War II against 1969), took office after Kennedy’s as- the Germans and Japanese. Such acsassination in November 1963. In tions allowed military commanders August 1964, Johnson approached to inflict considerable damage on the Congress about the situation in Viet- enemy before risking the lives of nam. An American destroyer, the their foot soldiers. Vietnam’s landUSS Maddox, had been attacked scape, unfortunately, was more like by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf Korea’s than Europe’s. The Viet Cong of Tonkin, off the coast of North and North Vietnamese lurked in the Vietnam. Johnson told the Senate forests and in the mountains. They about the attack without mentioning were lightly armed but highly mobile,

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and they did not gather in sizeable groups that made easy targets. They concealed their ammunition dumps and other vital resources. They stationed soldiers in fortified villages, so that to bomb soldiers meant to bomb civilians, too. At no time did Johnson and his advisers clearly define what “victory” in Vietnam would mean. Additionally, Johnson was not willing to take the brutal steps that would have achieved rapid military success. American troops were forbidden to start offensive actions; they could only respond to attacks. The number of bombs and their targets were severely restricted. After the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong received sophisticated air defense systems from the Soviets and the Chinese, bombing runs became less effective and, for the American pilots, much more dangerous. Johnson gradually increased the number of American troops in Vietnam, eventually reaching 543,400 in 1969. By late 1967, the death toll was almost 500 American soldiers per week. ANTIWAR PROTESTS In the United States, an increasingly large number of people did not agree with the way Johnson was waging the war. So-called “hawks” wanted the military to deliver a knockout blow and finish the war. “Doves” wanted the United States to withdraw entirely from Vietnam. One especially vocal antiwar group came from the large age group known as the baby boomers. These were young people who had been born in the years between 1946 and

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1964, after the end of World War II. In 1966, an eighth of the U.S. population, or about 24 million people, was between the ages of 13 and 19. The antiwar protesters were angry that an increasingly large number of young men were being drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. Draftees— young men who were contacted by the government and told to go to war—made up as much as 88 percent of infantry riflemen in Vietnam. Draftees also accounted for over half of the deaths in battle. Antiwar protesters filled college campuses and marched on Washington. A favorite slogan of the late 1960s was, “Make love, not war.” The Vietnam War was the first war to receive extensive coverage on television. Every night, on the evening newscasts, Americans saw images of violence and death. Sitting in their living rooms, Americans saw human beings maimed or killed by bombs, mines, napalm (a sticky, flammable liquid used as a weapon), and even forms of torture. The images made even moderately pro-war Americans wonder whether saving South Vietnam from Communism was worth so much agony and death. THE TET OFFENSIVE In January 1968, on Tet (the Vietnamese New Year), North Vietnam launched a surprise attack on five of six major cities in South Vietnam, 36 provincial capitals, and 64 district capitals. Within two weeks the Americans and the South Vietnamese had recaptured all of the ground that was lost. They also inflicted enormous

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Dean Rusk (1909–1994) Dean Rusk was secretary of state from 1961 to 1969, under presidents John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) and Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969). He was a major spokesman for the Johnson administration’s policies and actions during the Vietnam War.

RUSK AND CONTAINMENT In the 1930s, while Rusk attended college in Great Britain, he watched as the British refrained from punishing Nazi Germany when that country invaded other nations. Rusk firmly believed that not stopping the Germans at that time caused millions of deaths a few years later, during World War II (1939–1945). Rusk’s experience in prewar Britain affected his attitude toward the Communists during the Cold War. He was a strong supporter of the policy of containment. He thought that the Communists should not be allowed to gain an inch of ground without a fight. As he told President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) in 1965:

damage on the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. By military standards, it was an overwhelming victory for the Americans and the South Vietnamese. The media showed a different story, however. The images that were shown most often on television were of the fighting in Hue, Vietnam’s ancient imperial capital and the one city that was not recovered for three weeks. After the Tet Offensive, for the first time, President Johnson refused

The integrity of the U.S. commitment [to containing Communism] is the principal pillar of peace throughout the world. If that commitment becomes unreliable, the communist world would draw conclusions that would lead to our ruin and almost certainly to a catastrophic war. SECRETARY OF STATE Rusk was intensely loyal and discreet, never disclosing confidential information. He was not always straightforward with the press, especially when it came to revealing future military actions, such as an increase in the number of troops in Vietnam. After a while, the press and then the public stopped trusting what Johnson and Rusk said. This mistrust became known as the “credibility gap,” and it lasted long after Johnson ended his term as president.

a request from the military to send more troops to Vietnam. He reduced and then halted the bombing of North Vietnam. He also invited the North Vietnamese to discuss peace terms. NIXON AND THE WITHDRAWAL FROM VIETNAM President Richard M. Nixon (1969– 1974) said that America’s aims in South Vietnam should be to train the South Vietnamese to fight for themselves (a policy known as Vietnamiza-

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tion) and to guarantee that the South Vietnamese would be able to determine their future without foreign interference. Nixon set a schedule for gradually withdrawing American troops. Over four years, he reduced the number of troops in Vietnam from more than 550,000 to about 24,000. He also cut spending on the war from $25 billion to $3 billion per year. The shock effects of the war in the United States were not over, however. In 1969 and 1970, while the withdrawal was in progress, Nixon ordered the bombing of North Vietnamese military bases in the neighboring country of Cambodia. As soon as the media learned of this, there was an uproar. Once again, war protesters marched on college campuses across the country. In May 1970, at Kent State College in Ohio, four students were shot by members of the Ohio National Guard. In January 1971, Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, thereby removing the president’s justification for having troops in Vietnam. PEACE AND THE FALL OF SOUTH VIETNAM Peace terms with North Vietnam were settled in January 1973. By these terms, American troops were to leave South Vietnam, and American prisoners of war were to be returned. South Vietnam was to remain independent. If North Vietnam invaded the South again, it would be attacked by American warships in Vietnamese waters and American aircraft based in Thailand and Taiwan. Seven months later, however, Congress passed the Eagleton Amend-

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ment, which prohibited any American combat operations in Southeast Asia. Then, in November 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act over President Nixon’s veto. This law required the president to inform Congress whenever he sent troops abroad and to withdraw the troops promptly if Congress did not approve of the president’s decision. The president’s ability to defend South Vietnam was gone. By the time Nixon was forced to resign (during the Watergate scandal, in which it was revealed that he had engaged in illegal domestic activities) and President Gerald R. Ford was in office (1974–1977), the North Vietnamese had attacked South Vietnam again. In April 1975, the last Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the roof of the United States embassy in Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital. Hours later, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops marched into the city. Today, all of Vietnam is under Communist rule, and Saigon is known as Ho Chi Minh City. About 58,000 American soldiers died in the Vietnam War. In South Vietnam, the death toll was probably more than 350,000 Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. In North Vietnam, military deaths alone are estimated at between 500,000 and 1 million. North Vietnamese civilian deaths were in the millions. Bombs destroyed agriculture and infrastructure in huge areas of the country. EFFECTS OF THE WAR The Vietnam War was like the Korean War (1950–1953) in that the United States did not enter it with the firm

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intention of defeating the enemy. The United States’ goal was to keep South Vietnam a noncommunist country, rather than to destroy North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese, on the other hand, never wavered in their goal. It was to occupy South Vietnam and to impose Communism there. The Vietnam War was the first American war that provoked widespread protests among the American people. Decades later, few Americans who lived through the Vietnam War talk about it with indifference. For the most part, they either supported it wholeheartedly or protested against it. The behavior of the presidents and their advisers led some Americans to develop a profound distrust of anything related to the government or the military.

(East Germany) joined the group in 1956. The alliance ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

See also: Communism and the Cold War; Johnson, Lyndon B.; Korean War (1950–1953); Nixon, Richard M.

TERMS OF THE WARSAW PACT Officially, the Warsaw Pact was the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. It was signed on May 14, 1955, by the Soviet Union and its satellites states in Eastern Europe—Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. East Germany joined a year later. Like the members of NATO, these countries pledged to defend each other if one or more of them were attacked. The Supreme Commander for the Warsaw Pact was always the Soviet Union’s minister of defense, who carried out the orders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 2005, years after the Soviet Union had collapsed and the Warsaw Pact had dissolved, the alliance’s files at its headquarters in Warsaw were opened to the public. It was discov-

FURTHERREADING Adams, Simon. Eyewitness Vietnam War. New York: DK Publishing, 2005. Clare, John D. Hodder 20th Century History: Vietnam 1939–75. 2nd edition, Foundation Edition. London: Hodder Education/ Hodder Murray, 2004. Gifford, Clive. The Vietnam War. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005.

Warsaw Pact In Eastern Europe, a 1955 treaty that organized an alliance of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in response to the formation of NATO in Western Europe. Originally, there were seven Warsaw Pact members; the German Democratic Republic

POSTWAR EUROPE After the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviets dominated much of Eastern Europe. In response to the growing threat of Communism, the United States and 11 other nations joined together in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. Organization members promised to defend each other if any one of them was attacked. The original members were joined in 1955 by the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), which had become independent after the last Allied occupation troops withdrew. West Germany’s membership in NATO prompted the Soviets to form the Warsaw Pact.

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ered that the plans for this supposedly defensive alliance were, in fact, largely offensive. The plans included the use of nuclear missiles to subdue Western Europe, if necessary. Poland had 250 such missiles in place by the late 1980s. See also: Communism and the Cold War; NATO; Soviet Union.

World War II (1941–1945) The most extensive and destructive war in history, waged from 1939 to 1945 in Europe, Asia, and Africa. About 50 million soldiers and civilians died worldwide. The opponents were the Axis powers, led by Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the Allies, led by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States. American troops became actively involved only after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. BACKGROUND OF THE WAR World War I (1914–1918) involved more than a dozen European countries plus the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. It was called “the war to end all wars.” By the early 1930s, however, Europeans once again were building up their armies and navies. The two most active countries were Germany, under the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler (1933–1945), and Italy, under Benito Mussolini (1922–1943) and his Fascists. In Asia, Japan, ruled by a group of military leaders, also was building up its power. Germany and Italy were run by dictators. Japan was run by a small

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group of men who had nearly absolute power over the people they ruled. All three countries sought to expand their influence through military conquest. In 1936, Italy invaded Ethiopia, in Africa. In 1937, Japan launched a full-scale attack on China. In 1939, Germany invaded neighboring Poland. World War II officially began on September 3, 1939, when France and Great Britain declared war on Germany after the German invasion of Poland on September 1. The United States had helped to win World War I, but America’s citizens preferred isolationism to becoming involved in foreign wars. Warren G. Harding (1921–1923) won the 1920 presidential election with a promise of a return to what he called “normalcy.” During the 1930s, Congress passed several neutrality acts. These acts prohibited Americans from selling arms or ammunition abroad and from lending money to either side in a war. AXIS CONQUESTS AND AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT, 1940–1941 In the spring and summer of 1940, Hitler’s armies invaded Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. From July to October, he ordered massive bombing raids on England. The Battle of Britain, as these raids came to be known, was Hitler’s attempt to weaken his last major enemy before sending troops across the English Channel to invade the island nation. Meanwhile, Mussolini’s armies pushed farther into Africa: into Libya, the British protectorate of Somaliland, Kenya, and Sudan.

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On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the alliance that came to be called the Axis powers. Each power promised that if the United States interfered with or blocked the military expansion of any of the three, they would unite against the United States. Many Americans began to fear that if the Axis powers defeated Great Britain, their next target would be the wealthy, highly industrialized United States. With that fear in mind, in September 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) persuaded Congress to pass the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States. Roosevelt told the American people on December 29, 1940: “No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. We know now that a nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender.” The United States must become, he said, the “great arsenal of democracy.” Three months later, the United States began the Lend-Lease program. Lend-Lease eventually provided Great Britain, China, and other Allied nations opposing the Axis powers with $50 billion worth of war materials. The Soviet Union was added to the list of Lend-Lease recipients when Germany invaded it in June 1941. In July 1941, Japan invaded the Southeast Asian French colony of Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia). The United States refused to release Japanese funds that had been deposited in banks in the United

States. The United States also refused to sell Japan oil, which Japan urgently needed. Japan began to plan an attack that would disable the United States’ Pacific Fleet and allow Japan to conquer oil-rich territories in Southeast Asia. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States naval base in Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. President Roosevelt called that day “a date which will live in infamy” and asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Congress overwhelmingly did so. A few days later, Germany declared war on the United States. By this time, the Germans had invaded Yugoslavia and Greece and had advanced into the Soviet Union, to the outskirts of the major cities of Moscow and Leningrad. German armies were threatening the oil fields of the Middle East and the Suez Canal, a vital shipping passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. In addition, German submarines, knows as U-boats, were sinking millions of tons of shipping in the Atlantic. UNITED STATES’ CONTRIBUTIONS By 1943, the United States raised an army of more than 7 million. To win the war called for more than soldiers, however. The United States turned its enormous industrial capacity—built up by private enterprise over the previous century—to the production of war materials. In early 1942, Roosevelt proposed to use 50 percent of the national income for defense spending, as opposed to 15 percent before the war. In 1943, the United States produced more war materials than all the Axis powers combined:

Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy Speech

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n December 8, 1941, the day after Japan carried out a surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress and asked for a declaration of war.

Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleagues delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack. It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. . . . The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces.

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Very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu. Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island. This morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. . . . No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.

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47,000 airplanes to the Axis powers’ 27,000 and 24,000 tanks to their 11,000. The United States also contributed vast amounts of money to warrelated research. When the Americans and the British learned in 1941 that the Germans were developing a super bomb, the United States government recruited scientists for the top-secret Manhattan Project. In July 1945, after several years of intense effort, the Manhattan Project team successfully detonated the first atomic bomb. COURSE OF THE WAR IN EUROPE, 1942–1945 When the United States entered the war in late 1941, the Allies agreed to put most of their effort into defeating the Germans first and to focus later on the Japanese and the Pacific region. In November 1942, in the first major land offensive involving American troops, British and American forces under General Dwight D. Eisenhower invaded North Africa. There, in May 1943, they defeated the Germans and the Italians. In July 1943, Allied forces landed on the Italian island of Sicily. The Italian government ousted Mussolini and surrendered to the Allies. The Germans, the Italians’ former ally, immediately occupied most of Italy, however. Allied bombing raids gradually wore down the German air force. In June 1944, again under the command of General Eisenhower, the Allies launched a massive invasion across the English Channel, from southern England to the northern coast of France. The invasion was code named Operation Overlord. The Normandy

Invasion began on the day known as D-Day, June 6, 1944. Within six weeks, the Allies landed about 1 million troops. By August, they had driven the Germans out of Paris, the French capital. The Soviet army defeated the Germans at the city of Stalingrad in January 1943. By August, the Soviets were pushing the German army back into Eastern Europe. In the process, the Soviet army occupied most of Poland and eastern Germany. The Germans launched a desperate counterattack in Belgium in December 1944, a brutal and bloody campaign that became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans failed. By March 1945, British and American troops had crossed into western Germany. The next month, they met the Russian army as it advanced from the east. By April 1945, the Russians and the Germans were battling in the streets of Berlin, the German capital. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, and Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8. COURSE OF THE WAR IN THE FAR EAST, 1942–1945 In 1942, just after Pearl Harbor, Japan occupied much of Southeast Asia and many islands in the Pacific Ocean— Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and New Guinea. Japanese troops threatened to invade Australia and India as well. The United States’ counterattack began in August 1942, with the invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. To reach the main islands of Japan itself from that base, the Ameri-

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cans had to capture a chain of heavily fortified Japanese-held islands that stretched northward for about 14,000 miles (22,530 km). Early in the war, American commanders realized that there would be far fewer American casualties if they fought the Japanese by dropping bombs rather than by sending in ground troops. American advances toward Japan therefore were preceded by bombing raids. The Americans slowly began to turn the tide against the Japanese. In October 1944, at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, United States forces severely crippled the Japanese Navy. On March 9 and 10, 1945, American planes firebombed Tokyo, Japan’s capital city, killing as many as 100,000 people. During the Battle of Okinawa (April 1 to June 21, 1945), 12,500 Americans and 185,000 Japanese went missing or died. In July, after Germany finally had been defeated in Europe, the Allies demanded unconditional surrender from Japan. The Japanese refused. President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) ordered an atomic bomb to be dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6. It killed about 100,000 people. The Japanese leaders still refused to surrender. A second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. It killed about 75,000 people. Japan finally surrendered unconditionally on August 14, and World War II ended. CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR The most immediate effect of the war was the enormous number of deaths. American deaths in battle totaled 292,131. American deaths from

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wounds, diseases, and other causes ran to 115,185. Worldwide, about 50 million soldiers and civilians died. The war’s effects on military technology and on economic and political systems were far-reaching. The widespread use of incendiary bombs and the introduction of the massively destructive atomic bombs changed people’s ideas about war. Now, war was “total war”: Civilians as well as soldiers were at constant risk. This change in the destructive power of weapons helps to account for the fact that the United States’ battle with the Soviet Union after World War II remained a Cold War. The new superpowers were careful not to push their hostilities into an all-out war in which nuclear weapons might be used. Fear of the atomic bomb also accounts for the widespread desire for an international body that could help keep world peace or even impose it. This desire led directly to the creation of the United Nations (UN). Beginning in August 1945, at the close of the war, the United States was the world’s dominant military and economic power. It had suffered no bombs or invading armies. It had the world’s most powerful navy and air force and was the sole possessor of atomic weapons. It had about half the world’s manufacturing capacity and produced most of the world’s surplus food. During the war, the United States had supported the Soviet Union by sending it war materials. Soon after the war, after seeing the Soviet Union’s domination of Eastern Europe, the United States began to consider the Soviets a threat. Thus

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emerged the Cold War, which dominated relations between the United States and the Soviet Union from the mid-1940s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. See also: Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Churchill, Winston; Japan; Germany; Soviet Union; Lend-Lease Act (1941); Atlantic Charter; Yalta Conference; Potsdam Conference.

FURTHERREADING Adams, Simon. Eyewitness World War II. Photographed by Andy Crawford. London and New York: DK Publishing, 2007. Clare, John D. Second World War. London: Hodder Education/Hodder Murray, 2004. Egendorf, Laura K., ed. World War II. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2004. Senker, Cath. World War II. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005.

Yalta Conference One of the most important meetings of Allied leaders during World War II (1939–1945). The conference was held at the Black Sea resort of Yalta in the Soviet Union from February 3 to 12, 1945. Attending were American president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), British prime minister Winston Churchill (1940–1945) and (1951–1955), and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1924–1953). The most important issues discussed were control of Eastern Europe after the defeat of Nazi Germany, voting in the United Nations, and the participation of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan. BACKGROUND OF THE MEETING The Yalta Conference was arranged when it looked as if the Allies would

defeat the Germans very soon. British, American, and Soviet armies were converging on Berlin, the German capital. The Germans did, in fact, surrender less than three months later, in May 1945. The Japanese were still fighting in the Pacific. There, no end to the war was in sight. CONCESSIONS TO STALIN Stalin had a great deal of bargaining power at the Yalta Conference because Churchill and Roosevelt wanted him to promise to fight with them against Japan when the war in Europe ended. In return for that promise, Stalin demanded that the Soviet Union be given political control of most of Eastern Europe, which the Soviets had occupied after driving out German troops. Stalin also demanded to annex the eastern part of Poland. He insisted further that the Allies recognize Soviet control over certain territories in the Far East held by Japan or China, including Outer Mongolia, southern Sakhalin Island, and the Kuril Islands. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to these demands virtually without argument. They did so even though, according to the Atlantic Charter of 1941 and the proposed United Nations Charter, such changes in who governed a territory were to be made only by the territory’s inhabitants— not by outside powers. Roosevelt and Churchill did persuade Stalin to agree that Poland would be “recompensed” for land given to the Soviet Union by receiving land taken from occupied Germany. Stalin also agreed to allow the United Nations Security Council to

Yugoslavia, Breakup of

discuss matters relating to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union reserved the right to veto any resolution that resulted from such discussion, however. Finally, Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan within three months of Germany’s surrender. The Soviets marched into Manchuria, a region of China that was occupied by Japan, on August 8, 1945, two days after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. EFFECTS ON THE WORLD The Yalta Conference marks both the high-water mark of cooperation between the Soviets and the Americans, and the beginning of the end of such cooperation. Conceding Soviet domination of Eastern Europe set the stage for the division of postwar Europe into Communist and anticommunist countries along the line that Churchill later called the “iron curtain.” See also: Communism and the Cold War; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Soviet Union; World War II.

Yugoslavia, Breakup of The separation of the former Communist country composed of six republics (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro) and two provinces subject to Serbia (Vojvodina and Kosovo). In the early 1990s, Yugoslavia disintegrated in a bloodbath; hundreds of thousands of people were exiled or murdered in acts of ethnic cleansing.

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BACKGROUND The Balkans are the crossroads where Europe meets Asia. By the first century C.E., the Roman Empire controlled nearly all the land around the Mediterranean Sea. In the third century, the Roman emperor split the empire into eastern and western sections to make governing it easier. The dividing line between the eastern and western halves ran through the Balkans. The western part of the empire was overrun by barbarians—Germanic tribes from the north—in the fifth century. The eastern part, with its capital at Constantinople (modern Istanbul) eventually became the Byzantine Empire. Croatia, Slovenia, and Vojvodina once were part of the Western Roman Empire. Over the centuries, most of the people living in this area became Roman Catholic, like the rest of Western Europe. The people of Serbia, which once was part of the Eastern Roman Empire and then became part of the Byzantine Empire, became Orthodox Christians. The Serbians remained Orthodox Christians even during the later centuries when they were ruled by the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire. In Bosnia and Kosovo, also once part of the Byzantine Empire, many people converted to Islam during their years under Ottoman rule. Religious disputes among the various religious groups in the Balkans were common. FORMATION OF YUGOSLAVIA After World War I ended in 1918, several new nations were created from the lands once ruled by the losing nations—Germany, the Austro-

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Beginning in 1991, the republics that made up Yugoslavia declared their independence. Ethnic and religious rivalries played a key role in the nation’s breakup.

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Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Many of these new nations were formed on the basis of the inhabitants’ ethnicity. Czechoslovakia was created as the land of the Czechs and Slovaks. The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was cobbled together for the Southern Slavs. That nation was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (the Kingdom of the Southern Slavs) in 1929. On a map, Yugoslavia was a tidylooking area about the size of Oregon. In fact, its residents passionately hated each other on both religious and ethnic grounds. Furthermore, the boundaries of the republics within Yugoslavia did not reflect who lived in each region. For example, many Serbs lived in Croatia and in Bosnia, as well as in Serbia. WORLD WAR II In April 1941, during World War II (1939–1945), Hitler’s German forces occupied Yugoslavia and fanned the flames of ethnic and religious hatred. In Croatia, a Nazi-supported group called Ustashi sent tens of thousands of Serbs to be murdered in concentration camps. COMMUNIST YUGOSLAVIA Yugoslav Communists played a major role in resisting the Nazi occupation during the war, and Soviet tanks helped to drive the Germans out. In 1945, Communist Josip Broz Tito (1945–1980) became Yugoslavia’s ruler. Soon, however, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1922–1953) accused Tito of not following the Communist Party line, and Tito became one of the few Communist leaders to distance himself from the Soviet Union’s leadership.

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Communist Yugoslavia officially recognized two alphabets, three religions, four languages, and seven major nationalities. Although Tito kept Yugoslavia united, soon after his death in 1980 the separate republics began to demand independence. SERBIA Serbia was the largest of the Yugoslav republics in both size and population. Slobodan Milosevic, a former Communist bureaucrat from Serbia, was elected president of Serbia in 1987. In 1988, Vojvodina, a province of Serbia, became the site of the first ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia. NonSerbs were driven out, their homes were burned, and any who refused to leave were murdered. BREAKUP OF YUGOSLAVIA In 1990, Milosevic was elected president of all of Yugoslavia (1990–2000). Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991. Milosevic let it go because its population was mostly Roman Catholic and only 2 percent Serbian. Then, in the same year, Croatia seceded. Milosevic encouraged Croatia’s substantial Serbian population to rebel. He supplied them with weapons and troops. He promoted the idea of a “Greater Serbia” that would include all areas of Yugoslavia in which the Serbs were a majority of the population. Croatia, once relatively prosperous, emerged from its war for independence economically devastated, with most of its infrastructure destroyed. Macedonia seceded in 1991, and in 1994, ethnic Albanians (people of Albanian descent who lived in Macedonia) declared their own independence from Macedonia. The rebellion

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was crushed. In the late 1990s, Macedonia’s weak economic situation was made worse by a flood of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo. The republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in April 1992 and soon was at war with both Croatia and Serbia. The war lasted until the signing of the Dayton Accords in 1995. After Bosnia’s secession, Serbia, Montenegro, and the Serbian provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo formed a new nation, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Fighting broke out in Kosovo in 1998, however, and it declared its independence from the new Federal Republic in 1999. The Serbs again began a campaign of ethnic cleansing. This time, a three-month NATO bombing campaign persuaded the Serbs to withdraw their troops from Kosovo. After being governed by a temporary United Nations administration for several years, Kosovo de-

clared its independence again in February 2008. Montenegro seceded from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and declared its independence in June 2006. Today, Serbia is the Republic of Serbia, joined only with the autonomous province of Vojvodina. See also: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Democracy and Human Rights; Kosovo.

FURTHERREADING Roucek, Joseph S. Tito: Modern Leader of Yugoslavia. Outstanding Personalities, 62, ed. D. Steve Rahmas. Charlotteville, N.Y.: SamHar Press, 1973. Walker, Tim. War in Yugoslavia: The Return of Nationalism. Alexandria, Va.: Close Up Foundation, 1993. Transchel, Kate. The Breakup of Yugoslavia. New York: Chelsea House, 2006.

Zionism See Israel.

Viewpoints About

Internationalism “Iron Curtain” Speech, Winston Churchill, 1946 Former British prime minister Winston Churchill (1940–1945) and (1951–1955) spoke at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946. He warned of the descent of an “iron curtain” across a divided European continent.

The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For with this primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future. As you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done, but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity is here now, clear and shining, for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of t he af tertime. . . . I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain—and I doubt not here also—toward the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to persevere through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships. It is my duty, however, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.

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From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. . . . In a great number of countries, far from the Russian frontiers and throughout the world, Communist fifth columns are established and work in complete unity and absolute obedience to the directions they receive from the Communist center. Except in the British Commonwealth and in the United States where Communism is in its infancy, the Communist parties or fifth columns constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization. (continues)

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(continued) For that reason the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength. . . . If we adhere faithfully to the Charter of the United Nations and walk forward in sedate and sober strength, seeking no one’s land or treasure, seeking to lay no arbitrary control upon the thoughts of men, if all British moral and material forces and convictions are joined with your own in fraternal association, the high roads of the future will be clear, not only for us but for all, not only for our time but for a century to come.

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The outlook is also anxious in the Far East and especially in Manchuria. The agreement which was made [in February 1945] at Yalta, to which I was a party, was extremely favorable to Soviet Russia, but it was made at a time when no one could say that the German war might not extend all through the summer and autumn of 1945 and when the Japanese war was expected by the best judges to last for a further eighteen months from the end of t he G erman war. . . . From what I have seen of our Russian friends and allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness.

Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 1948 On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of Human Rights. The UN called for the declaration “to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”

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PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged

the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people . . . Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as

Internationalism

Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression . . . Article 22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 23. (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unem ployment. . . . (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. . . . Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays wit h pay. . . . Article 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. . . .

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a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nat ions . . . Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. . . . Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile . . . . Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and r eputation. . . . Article 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to r eturn t o his c ountry. . . . Article 17. (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in a ssociation wit h ot hers. . . .

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America in the Cold War Era, John Foster Dulles, 1955 On April 11, 1955, United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles described America’s role in the Cold War. Dulles served under President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961).

It is difficult to exaggerate the horrors of war or the longing of humanity for peace. Wars used to be limited in their scope, and they were regulated so as to spare civilians from most of their dir e c onsequences. . . . The Fir st and Second World Wars showed that modern war is “total” war and that it is whole peoples, rather than the military, who suffer its cruel effects. . . . The Communist leaders know that, if pacifism becomes a prevalent mood among the free peoples, the Communists can easily conquer the world. Then they can confront the free peoples with successive choices between peace and surrender; and if peace is the absolute goal, then surrenders bec ome inevit able. . . . It is almost always easy to find a solution if only part of a problem is known. . . . There is har dly any international problem which lends itself to easy or sure solution. Those who principally know Europe readily judge that the problems of Asia are unimportant and that almost any solution will serve so long as it does not trouble Europe. Those who are principally concerned with Asia are sometimes annoyed if it is suggested that Asian problems cannot be solved without regard for Europe. The fact is that today any problem in any part

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of the world ramifies into almost every part of the world. There are no longer any simple problems, nor any easy solutions. A course of action for Indochina [now Vietnam] may have to be judged in the light of its repercussions in Europe, the Middle East, or M oscow, and vic e ver sa. . . . Our nation was founded as an experiment in human liberty. Our institutions reflect the belief of our founders that all men were endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights and had duties prescribed by moral law. They believed that human institutions ought primarily to help men develop their God-given possibilities and that our nation, by its conduct and example, could help men everywhere find the way to a better and more abundant life. Our nation realized this vision. There developed here an area of spiritual and economic vigor the like of which the world had never seen. . . . No doubt we have made mistakes. But broadly speaking, our nation has played a role which I believe history will judge to have been honorable. It is a role which we could not have played unless those who exercised the power of government had believed that they were justified in putting moral considerations above material c onsiderations. . . .

It seems to me that a nation situated as is ours needs to follow a consistent and predictable course. We represent great power in the world—morally, intellectually, and

materially. Other peoples and nations who are free and want to stay free usually want to coordinate their policies with our own.

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“Ich bin ein Berliner,” John F. Kennedy, 1963 President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) addressed the people of Berlin, then a divided city, as well as citizens of the world, to explain some of the key differences between life under Communism and life in the West. He gave this moving speech on June 26.

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keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us . . . . While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together. Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. . . .

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Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was “civis Romanus sum.” Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is “Ich bin ein Berliner.” . . . There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to

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“Shanghai Communiqué,” President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, 1972 The Shanghai Communiqué, issued jointly by the United States and the People’s Republic of China on February 28, 1972, marked the beginning of a new era in relations between the two nations.

The leaders of the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America found it beneficial to have this opportunity, after so many years without contact, to present candidly to one another their views on a variety of issues. They reviewed the international situation in which important changes and great upheavals are taking place and expounded their respective positions and attitudes. The U.S. side stated: Peace in Asia and peace in the world requires efforts both to reduce immediate tensions and to eliminate the basic causes of conflict. The United States will work for a just and secure peace; just, because it fulfills the aspirations of peoples and nations for freedom and progress; secure, because it removes the danger of foreign aggression. The United States supports individual freedom and social progress for all the peoples of the world, free of outside pressure or intervention. . . . The Chinese side stated: Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. Countries want independence, nations want liberation and the people want revolution—this has become the irresistible trend of history. All nations, big or small, should be equal; big nations should not bully

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the small and strong nations should not bully the weak. China will never be a superpower and it opposes hegemony and power politics of any kind. The Chinese side stated that it firmly supports the struggles of all the oppressed people and nations for freedom and liberation and that the people of all countries have the right to choose their social systems according to their own wishes and the right to safeguard the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of their own countries and oppose foreign aggression, interference, control and subversion. All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries. . . . The two sides reviewed the longstanding serious disputes between China and the United States. The Chinese reaffirmed its position: The Taiwan question is the crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations between China and the United States; the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government of China; Taiwan is a province of China which has long been returned to the motherland; the liberation of Taiwan is China’s internal affair in which no other country has the right to interfere; and all U.S. forces and military installations must be withdrawn from Taiwan.

Internationalism

Taiwan as the tension in the area diminishes. The two sides agreed that it is desirable to broaden the understanding between the two peoples. To this end, they discussed specific areas in such fields as science, technology, culture, sports and journalism, in which people-to-people contacts and exchanges would be mutually beneficial. Each side undertakes to facilitate the further development of such contacts and exchanges. Both sides view bilateral trade as another area from which mutual benefit can be derived, and agreed that economic relations based on equality and mutual benefit are in the interest of the peoples of the two countries. They agree to facilitate the progressive development of trade between their t wo c ountries. . . .

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The Chinese Government firmly opposes any activities which aim at the creation of “one China, one Taiwan,” “one China, two governments,” “two Chinas,” an “independent Taiwan” or advocate that “the status of Taiwan remains to be determined.” The U.S. side declared: The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves. With this prospect in mind, it affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan. In the meantime, it will progressively reduce its forces and military installations on

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Invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush, 2003 On March 19, 2003, President George W. Bush addressed the American people and explained why American and coalition forces were attacking Iraq. This marked the beginning of the increasingly unpopular and unexpectedly long Iraqi War. My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine

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Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. More than 35 countries are giving crucial support—from the use of naval and air bases, to help with intelligence and logistics, to the deployment of combat units. Every nation in this coalition has chosen to (continues)

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(continued) tion and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people. . . . Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly—yet, our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities. Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. And I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome but victory. My fellow citizens, the dangers to our country and the world will be overcome. We will pass through this time of peril and carry on the work of peace. We will defend our freedom. We will bring freedom to others and we will prevail.

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bear the duty and share the honor of serving in our common defense. To all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces now in the Middle East, the peace of a troubled world and the hopes of an oppressed people now depend on you. . . . The enemies you c onfront will come to know your skill and bravery. The people you liberate will witness the honorable and decent spirit of the American military. In this conflict, America faces an enemy who has no regard for conventions of war or rules of morality. Saddam Hussein has placed Iraqi troops and equipment in civilian areas, attempting to use innocent men, women and children as shields for his own military— a final atrocity against his people. I want Americans and all the world to know that coalition forces will make every effort to spare innocent civilians from harm. A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as California could be longer and more difficult than some predict. And helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and free country will require our sustained commitment. We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civiliza-

Glossary of Key Terms align Ally oneself with. During the Cold War, a nonaligned nation was one that did not side with either the United States or the Soviet Union. Allies (Allied powers) The victors in World War II, including Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Australia, and many other nations. anti-Semitic Discriminatory against, or prejudiced and hostile toward Jews. appeasement Giving in to the demands of a nation, group, or person in order to achieve peace, sometimes at the expense of justice or honor. arbitrating The process of settling a dispute. armistice Temporary end to fighting before a formal peace treaty is signed. arms race Competition between countries to achieve a greater number of weapons. Aryan Member or descendant of the prehistoric people who spoke the ancient Indo-European language. According to the Nazis, Aryans were tall, with blue eyes and blond hair. atheist One who does not believe in a god. Axis (Axis powers) The losing side in World War II. Balkans Southeastern Europe, including the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Serbia.

bourgeoisie In Communist theory, the middle and upper classes who control the means of production and the wealth within a society. capitalism An economic system in which the means of production is owned by individuals and businesses, and decisions about what goods to produce are made by the free market. coalition Temporary alliance to achieve a goal, such as, winning a war or an election. Cold War Conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union (and their allies) that lasted from just after the end of World War II (1945) until 1991; characterized by a nuclear arms race and proxy wars. collective security Type of alliance in which nations agree to help defend any member that is attacked. collectivization Bringing privately owned means of production under the control of the government. containment Foreign policy strategy during the Cold War that aimed to prevent Communists from taking over more countries as set out in the Truman Doctrine (1947). coup Change of government by a sudden, illegal action; the overthrow of elected officials. covert aid Military aid given in such a way that the parties giving the aid may be known, but their responsibility cannot be proved.

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D-Day During World War II, June 6, 1944, the day on which the Normandy invasion occured and the Allies began the final push to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation. demilitarized zone Buffer zone between two enemy nations in which soldiers and weapons are forbidden; abbreviated DMZ. détente Term used to describe efforts to lessen the hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s. developing nation A country that is, in general, primarily agricultural and working to build up industry, social services, and infrastructure. direct democracy Method of government in which all eligible citizens vote on all government decisions. dissident A person who publicly disagrees with the methods or goals of the government, usually at the risk of imprisonment. domino theory Idea that if one nation in an area becomes Communist, others in the area will do so as well. due process of law Idea that that a government must respect a person’s legal rights when it deprives that person of life, liberty, or property. economic sanctions Restrictions on trade meant to force a nation to take a specific action. embargo Government prohibition of trade with a particular nation, intended to isolate and weaken the other nation. ethnic cleansing Use of military or paramilitary forces to rid an area

of a particular ethnic group, either by forcing people to leave or by mass murder. fascism Type of government that promotes nationalism, usually through military conquest. Political and economic power are in the hands of a dictator or a central government. foreign policy A nation’s goals when dealing with other countries. genocide Systematic murder of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. The term was coined after World War II to describe the murder of millions of Jews by the Germans during the Holocaust. glasnost Policy of open discussion of political problems begun by Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. Great Depression Worldwide economic collapse in the 1930s. guerrilla warfare A type of warfare that involves a small group using its greater mobility to combat a larger, less mobile opponent. gulag Forced-labor camp in the Soviet Union. infrastructure Basic elements usually required to allow business and industry to function, including roads, bridges, communications, and water supply., insurgent Rebel against an established political authority. internally displaced persons (IDPs) People forced to flee their homes due to war, human rights abuses, or natural disaster, but who remain within their country’s borders.

Internationalism

Islamic fundamentalist Muslim who advocates a return to the “fundamentals” (basics) of Islam. isolationism Foreign policy that avoids alliances with other nations. napalm A sticky, flammable substance used in warfare to destroy forests and villages. national self-determination Right of a nation’s citizens to choose their government freely. nationalist A person who has great devotion to his or her nation; also, a policy that promotes national independence or a strong national government. Nazi Party National Socialist German Workers’ Party, active in Germany from 1919 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler; stressed the superiority of Germany and the purity of the Aryan race and promoted anti-Semitism. neutrality acts A series of laws passed by Congress in the 1930s that restricted loans to European governments and sales of arms abroad. Ottoman Empire Empire that existed from 1299 until 1923. At its greatest extent, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Ottoman Empire ruled parts of Africa, Asia, and southeastern Europe. paramilitary Armed troops not part of a country’s military forces, sometimes but not always illegal. perestroika A policy of economic restructuring begun by Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. privatization Process of transfering ownership of property or in-

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dustry from government control to private ownership; the opposite of collectivization. proletariat Members of the working class, who earn their living by daily labor and who own no property or capital, as opposed to the bourgeoisie (middle class). proxy war War in which two nations support wars between other parties rather than fighting each other directly. ratify Formally approve. rearmament The process of equipping troops with new or improved weapons, usually after a war. reparations Payment for war damages. representative democracy Method of government in which voters elect representatives to make decisions for them. satellite state Country that is officially independent but is controlled or heavily influenced by another country in its political, economic, and/or military policies. socialism In Marxist theory, the type of governmment that appears after the proletariat takes over the means of production, but before the state withers away and true communism is achieved. Socialist An advocate of governmental ownership of resources and the means of production. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) Series of discussions that began in 1969 between the Soviets and Americans regarding reductions in nuclear and conventional weapons.

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superpower Nation that is powerful because of its industry, wealth, and/or military power; used to refer to the United States and Soviet Union in Cold War period. terrorism Use of force or the threat of force by a person or organization outside the government, with the goal of gaining political ends through fear. unconditional surrender Complete surrender at end of a war. unilateral Done by one party only, when a second party could or should have had input.

universal suffrage System in which all adults have the right to vote, regardless of race, sex, belief, intelligence, or economic or social status. Viet Cong Communist soldiers and guerrilla fighters from South Vietnam who helped the North Vietnamese overthrow the South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. Zionism International movement that originally called for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Selected Bibliography Adams, Simon. Eyewitness Vietnam War. New York: DK Publishing, 2005. ———. Eyewitness World War II. Photographed by Andy Crawford. New York: DK Publishing, 2007. Alcock, John B., Marko Milivojevic, and John J. Horton, eds. Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia: An Encyclopedia. Denver, Col.: ABC-CLIO, 1998. American Rhetoric: speeches of American presidents, politicians, pop stars and pundits. http://www. americanrhetoric.com/ Anderson, Dale. America into a New Millennium. Orlando, Fla.: Raintree, 2001. Avalon Project, Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. A treasure trove of primary source documents such as speeches, treaties, legislation, and other documents. http://avalon.law. yale.edu/default.asp Bardhan-Quallen, Sudipta. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, A National Hero. New York: Sterling Publications, 2007. Barr, Roger. Richard Nixon. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 1992. Beyer, Don E. Castro. New York: Scholastic Library Publishing, 1993. Black, Eric. Bosnia: Fractured Region. World in Conflict. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 1997. Bliven, Bruce. Invasion: The Story of DDay. New York: Sterling Publishers, 1956 (rev. 2007). Blohm, Craig E. Strategic Battles. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2003. Blue, Rose, and Corinne J. Naden. The Modern Years: Nixon to Clinton, 1969–Present. Who’s That in the White House? Orlando, Fla.: Raintree, 1997. Brubaker, Paul E. The Cuban Missile Crisis in American History. Berkeley

Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 2001. CIA World Factbook. For every independent nation in the world, a map, a brief history, statistics on population and geography, and information on the current political, economic, and diplomatic situation. https:// www.cia.gov/library/publications/ the-world-factbook/. Clare, John D. Hodder 20th Century History: Vietnam 1939–75. 2nd edition, Foundation Edition. London: Hodder Education/Hodder Murray, 2004. Clare, John D. Second World War. London: Hodder Education/Hodder Murray, 2004. Collins, David R. The Long Legged School Teacher: Lyndon Baines Johnson, from the Texas Hill Country to the White House. Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1987. Cothran, Helen. War-Torn Bosnia. History Firsthand. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2001. Daniels, Robert V. Gorbachev and the End of Communism. New York: Routledge, 1993. Devaney, John. Ronald Reagan. Presidential Biography Series. New York: Walker & Company, 1990. Edwards, Paul M. A to Z of the Korean War. A to Z Guides. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2005. Edwards, Richard. The Korean War. Vero Beach, Fla.: Rourke Publishing, 1998. Egendorf, Laura K., ed. World War II. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2004. Eskow, Dennis. Lyndon Baines Johnson. Impact Biographies Series. Danbury, Conn.: Scholastic Library Publishing/ Franklin Watts, 1993. Fasulo, Linda. An Insider’s Guide to the UN. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005.

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Ferrara, Peter L. NATO: An Entangled Alliance. London: Franklin Watts, 1984. Freeman, Charles. The Rise of the Nazis. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005. Friedman, Thomas. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Revised and updated edition. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Frost, Randall. The Globalization of Trade: Understanding Global Issues. Mankato, Minn.: Smart Apple Media, 2004. Gerdes, Louise I., ed. Globalization. Opposing Viewpoints. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Gifford, Clive. The Vietnam War. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005. Glassman, Bruce, ed. Israel. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Goldman, Martin S. Richard M. Nixon: The Complex President. New York: Facts On File, 1998. Gottfried, Ted. Nazi Germany: The Face of Tyranny. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 2000. ———. The Cold War. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group/Twenty-First Century Books, 2003. ———. The Great Fatherland War: The Soviet Union in World War II. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group/ Twenty-First Century Books, 2003. Graff, Henry F., ed. The Presidents: A Reference History. Third edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002. Grant, R.G., and Ross, Stewart. The War in Kosovo. New Perspectives. Chicago, Ill.: Raintree, 2000. ———. Hiroshima. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005. ———. NATO. World Organizations. London: Franklin Watts, 2001. Greene, John Robert. The George H. W. Bush Years. Presidential Profiles. New York: Facts On File, 2005. Harrison, Paul. The Cold War. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005.

Head, Tom. What Is the State of Human Rights? At Issue Series. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Hunter, Jason, ed. Communist Leaders. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Israel, Fred L., and David J. Frent, eds. The Election of 1980 and the Administration of Ronald Reagan. Presidential Elections and the Administrations That Followed, ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers, 2002. Johnson, Paul. History of the American People. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Jones, Veda Boyd. George W. Bush. Modern World Leaders. New York: Facts On File/Chelsea House, 2006. Keller, Mollie. Winston Churchill. New York: Scholastic Library Publishing, 1984. Kort, Michael G. Mikhail Gorbachev. Impact Biographies. Danbury, Conn.: Scholastic Library Publishing/Franklin Watts, 1990. Kurland, Gerald. Lyndon Baines Johnson: President Caught in an Ordeal of Power. Charlotteville, N.Y.: SamHar Press, 1972. Kutler, Stanley I., ed. Dictionary of American History. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002. Lansford, Tom, and Robert P. Watson, eds. George W. Bush. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2004. Larsen, Rebecca. Ronald Reagan. Impact Biographies. Danbury, Conn.: Scholastic Library Publishing/Franklin Watts, 1994. Layton, Geoff. Germany the Third Reich 1933–1945. London: Hodder Education/Hodder Murray, 2005. Leone, Bruno, ed. Internationalism: Opposing Viewpoints. 2nd ed. ISMS Series. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Greenhaven Press, 1986.

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Lipman, Jonathan N., et al. Imperial Japan: Expansion and War. Boulder, Col.: Social Science Education Consortium, 1995. Margulies, Philip, ed. The Creation of Israel. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/ Greenhaven Press, 2005. Markel, Rita J. Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 2007. Martin, Gene L., and Aaron Boyd. Bill Clinton: President from Arkansas. Greensboro, N.C.: Tudor Publishers, 1993. Morris, Jeffrey B. The FDR Way. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 1996. New York Times. Invaluable for details about events such as the Korean War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and for getting a feel for the context of events. http://www.nytimes.com/ref/ membercenter/nytarchive.html. Phibbs, Cheryl, ed. Pioneers of Human Rights. Profiles in History. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Pious, Richard M. Richard Nixon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Retracing the Berlin Wall. Pictures, history, and maps of the Wall. http:// www.die-berliner-mauer.de/en/ index.html Roberson, John R. Japan Meets the World: The Birth of a Super Power. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publishing Group, 1998. Roberts, Elizabeth. Glasnost: The Gorbachev Revolution. People and Issues. London: Evans Publishing Group, 1991. Roucek, Joseph S. Tito: Modern Leader of Yugoslavia. Charlotteville, N.Y.: SamHar Press, 1973. Salzman, Marian. War and Peace in the Persian Gulf: What Teenagers Want to Know. Lawrenceville, N.J.: Peterson’s, 1991.

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Scandiffio, Laura. Evil Masters: The Frightening World of Tyrants. New York: Annick Press, 2005. Senker, Cath. World War II. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale/Lucent Books, 2005. Sinkler, Adrian. Iraq: Nations in Transition. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/ Greenhaven Press, 2005. Solis, Adela. Human Rights. Contemporary Issues Companion Series. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2006. Stoff, Laurie S., ed. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale/Greenhaven Press, 2005. Sullivan, George E. Mikhail Gorbachev. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990. Taylor, Frederick. The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961–1989. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. Taylor, Theodore. Air Raid—Pearl Harbor! The Story of December 7, 1941. San Diego: Gulliver Books, Harcourt, 1991. Tekavec, Valerie, comp. Teenage Refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina Speak Out. Revised edition. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1997. Thompson, William, and Dorcas Thompson. Iraq: Modern Middle East Nations and Their Strategic Place in the World. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers, 2003. Thomson Gale Staff. Cold War Period: 1945–1992. Topeka, Kan.: Tandem Library Books, 2002. Vail, John J. Peace, Land, Bread!: A History of the Russian Revolution. Collingdale, Pa.: Diane Publishing Company, 2006. Walker, Tim. War in Yugoslavia: The Return of Nationalism. Alexandria, Va.: Close Up Foundation, 1993. Weiss, Thomas G., et al. The United Nations and Changing World Politics. Jackson, Tenn.: Westview Press, 2007.

Index Page numbers in boldface indicate topics covered in depth in the A to Z section of the book.

A Afghanistan, 19, 22, 27 al Qaeda, 19, 27 Angola, 40 Arab-Israeli Wars, 21, 23, 51 Arafat, Yasser, 28 arms race, 32, 34–35, 47–48, 58–59, 80 Atlantic Charter, 11–12, 76. See also World War II

B Balaguer, Joaquin, 55, 61 Balfour Declaration, 50–51 Batista, Fulgencio, 23–24, 61 Bay of Pigs invasion, 24, 33 Begin, Menachem, 21–23 Bennett, William Tapley, 55 Berlin blockade, 12, 30–31 Berlin Wall, 12–14, 18, 31, 73–74. See also Communism; Soviet Union bin Laden, Osama, 19 Bosch Gaviño, Juan Emilio, 55–56, 61 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14–17, 27–28, 97. See also Kosovo; Yugoslavia Brezhnev, Leonid, 22, 40, 69, 77, 80 Bush, George H. W., 17–19, 48–49, 62, 70 Bush, George W., 19–20

C Camp David Accords, 21–23, 52 Carter, Jimmy, 8, 22, 52 Castro, Fidel, 7–8, 18, 23–25, 31, 33–34, 61 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 24, 26–27, 33, 40 Chamberlain, Neville, 25, 42 Chiang Kai-shek, 31, 68, 72, 81

China, 31, 57, 68, 81, 83 Churchill, Winston, 11, 25–26, 29–30, 71–72, 75–76, 96–97 Clinton, William Jefferson (Bill), 15, 27–28 Cold War. See also Communism about, 28–33, 78–79 arms race in, 32, 34–35, 47–48, 58–59, 80 end of, 17–18, 27, 33 and internationalism, 6–7 start of, 82, 95–96 communism. See also Berlin Wall; Cold War; containment policy; Soviet Union; individual countries about, 28–33 and arms race, 32, 34–35, 47–48, 58–59, 80 and democracy, 36–37 and globalism, 45 shortcomings of, 73 The Communist Manifesto (Marx), 28, 77 containment policy, 30, 80–82 Croatia, 14–16, 99 Cuba, 7–8, 23–25, 31, 33–35, 40, 61–62 Cuban Missile Crisis, 7–8, 24, 31, 33–35, 61. See also nuclear technology Czechoslovakia, 25, 42, 48, 64–65, 99

D Dayton Accords, 15–16, 28 D-Day, 43, 76, 94 democracy and human rights, 27, 35–39, 40, 83–84. See also individual countries Desert Shield, 70 Desert Storm, 18, 48–49, 69–71

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détente, 8, 32, 40, 67–69, 80 Diem, Ngo Dinh, 85–86 Dominican Republic, 55–56, 61

E Egypt, 21–23, 51–52 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 4, 24, 27, 58, 85, 94 ethnic cleansing, 14, 28, 59, 97, 99

F Ford, Gerald R., 32, 39–40 France, 30, 66, 83, 84–85, 92. See also D-Day

G Geneva Convention, 38 Germany. See also World War II about, 40–44 and Atlantic Charter, 11–12 and Berlin blockade, 12, 30–31 and Berlin Wall, 12–14, 18, 31, 73–74 division of, 30, 71–72 glasnost, 32, 47, 80 globalism, 44–46 Gorbachev, Mikhail, 14, 17–18, 32, 46–48, 74, 80 Great Britain. See Atlantic Charter; Balfour Declaration; Churchill, Winston; North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); Potsdam Conference; World War II Great Depression, 5, 74–75 Great Purge, 78 Grenada, 61 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 86, 89

Internationalism

H Harding, Warren G., 91 Helsinki Accords, 40 Herzegovina. See Bosnia and Herzegovina Hitler, Adolf. See Germany; World War II Holocaust, 43 human rights. See democracy and human rights Hungary, 31, 48 Hussein, Saddam, 18, 48–49, 69–70

Kosovo, 59–60, 97, 100. See also Bosnia and Herzegovina Kuwait, 18, 48–49, 69–70, 84

L Latin America, 60–62 League of Nations, 5, 51, 74, 83 Lend-Lease Act, 5–6, 11, 25, 62–64, 75, 92 Lenin, Vladimir, 29, 77 Lithuania, 37

I

M

Indochina, 84–85, 92 Iran, 19, 22, 27, 61 Iran-Contra affair, 27, 61 Iraq, 18, 19, 20, 48–50, 51 Iraqi War, 48–50 iron curtain. See communism isolationism, 1–2, 81, 91 Israel, 21–23, 28, 50–52 Italy, 42, 66, 91

MacArthur, Douglas, 54, 57 Macedonia, 99–100 Mao Zedong, 31, 57, 68, 81 Marshall, George, 64, 65, 81 Marshall Plan, 7, 64–66, 81 Marx, Karl, 28, 77 Milosevic, Slobodan, 15, 60, 99 Minh, Ho Chi, 85 Monroe, James, 2 Monroe Doctrine, 2 Munich Agreement, 25 Mussolini, Benito, 42, 91, 94

J Japan, 52–54, 82, 85. See also World War II Jefferson, Thomas, 2 Jews, persecution of, 43, 50–52 Johnson, Lyndon B., 31–32, 54–56, 61, 86–87 Jordan, 28, 51–52

K Kennedy, John F. and Berlin Wall, 13 CIA, use of, 27 and Cuban Missile Crisis, 7–8, 24, 33–35 foreign policy of, 4–5 and Vietnam War, 85–86 Khrushchev, Nikita, 7–8, 24, 31, 34–35, 80 Kim Il Sung, 20, 31, 56 Kim Jong II, 20, 45 Korea. See North Korea; South Korea Korean War, 20, 31, 56–59, 84

N NATO. See North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Nazi Party. See Germany; World War II neutrality acts, 62, 75, 91 Nicaragua, 27, 61 Nixon, Richard M. about, 67–69 and China, 31 and détente, 8, 32, 40, 80 and Vietnam War, 88–89 Noriega, Manuel, 18, 61–62 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 45 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). See also Warsaw Pact about, 66–67 and Bosnia, 15, 28 establishment, 7, 30, 90 and Kosovo, 60, 100

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North Korea, 19, 20, 30, 36, 56–59, 84 nuclear technology. See also Cuban Missile Crisis; weaponry arms race, 32, 34–35, 47– 48, 58–59, 80 arms reductions, 72–74 atomic bomb, 53–54, 72, 82, 94, 95 hydrogen bomb, 32 in North Korea, 20

O Obama, Barack, 20 Operation Just Cause, 18 Operation Overlord, 76, 94 Organization of American States (OAS), 55, 61–62 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), 69 Oslo Accords, 28 Ottoman Empire, 14, 50–51, 59, 97

P Palestine, 23, 28, 50–52 Panama, 18, 22, 61–62 Pearl Harbor, 42–43, 53, 76 perestroika, 32, 47, 80 Persian Gulf War, 18, 48–49, 69–71 Poland, 42, 46, 48, 64, 91, 96 Potsdam Conference, 12, 30, 43, 53, 71–72. See also World War II

R Reagan, Ronald about, 72–74 and Berlin Wall, 14 and the Cold War, 32–33 and Grenada, 61 and Iran-Contra affair, 27, 61 and nuclear technology, 48 and Panama, 62 Rhee, Syngman, 56 Roosevelt, Franklin D. See also World War II about, 74–76 on Allied Powers’ goals, 53

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and Atlantic Charter, 11 Day of Infamy speech, 93 foreign policy of, 2 “Four Freedoms,” 3–4, 37 Lend-Lease Act, 5–6, 11, 25, 62–64, 75, 92 at Yalta Conference, 29– 30, 76, 96–97 Russia, 80. See also Soviet Union

S Sadat, Anwar El, 21–23 Serbia. See Bosnia and Herzegovina; Kosovo; Yugoslavia Six-Day War, 21 socialism, 29, 36–37, 45. See also communism South Korea, 30, 56–59, 84 Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), 85 Soviet Union. See also Berlin Wall; communism; Potsdam Conference; Stalin, Joseph; Warsaw Pact about, 77–80 collapse of, 18–19, 32–33, 48, 74, 79, 80 and Cuba, 24, 31, 33–35, 40 and democracy, 36–37 and Germany, 42, 78 reforms in, 72–74 U.S. relations with, 69 after WWII, 95–96 Stalin, Joseph. See also Soviet Union about, 77–78 and Berlin blockade, 12, 30–31 and Korean War, 56 and Marshall Plan, 65 at Potsdam Conference, 71–72 propaganda of, 45 and Turkey, 81 and Winston Churchill, 25–26 at Yalta Conference, 29–30, 76, 96–97 and Yugoslavia, 99

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks I & II, 22, 32, 69, 80 Strategic Defense Initiative, 32 Sudetenland, 25, 42 Syria, 51–52

T Taliban, 19 terrorism, 19, 49 Tet Offensive, 54–55, 87–88 Tito, Josip Broz, 15, 59, 99 Trujillo Molina, Rafael Leonidas, 55, 61 Truman, Harry S. about, 82 and Berlin blockade, 12, 30–31 and Berlin Wall, 12 and communism, 30, 66 and Korean War, 57 and nuclear technology, 32, 53–54, 82, 95 and Palestine, 51 at Potsdam Conference, 71–72 Truman Doctrine, 6, 64, 80–82

U Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). See Soviet Union United Nations (UN). See also individual countries about, 83–84 charter, 11–12, 76, 83–84 establishment, 6, 95 and human rights, 37–38 and Iraqi War, 49 and Korean War, 31, 56– 58, 84 and NATO, 66–67 and Persian Gulf War, 70

V Versailles Treaty, 41–42, 74, 83 Vietnam, 31–32, 36, 39–40, 54–55, 67, 84–90 Vietnam War, 84–90

W War Powers Act, 89 Warsaw Pact, 30, 66, 79, 90– 91. See also North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Washington, George, 1–2 weaponry, 71. See also nuclear technology Wilson, Woodrow, 3, 5, 74 World Trade Organization (WTO), 45 World War I, 62–63, 74, 91 World War II. See also Atlantic Charter; Germany; Potsdam Conference; individual countries about, 91–96 and Dwight Eisenhower, 58, 94 and end of isolationism, 5–6 and Franklin Roosevelt. see Roosevelt, Franklin D. and Harry Truman, 53–54, 71–72, 82, 95, 96–97 human rights, effect on, 38 Lend-Lease Act, 5–6, 11, 25, 62–64, 75, 92 Marshall Plan, 7, 64–66, 81 and Winston Churchill, 25–26, 29–30, 71–72, 75–76

Y Yalta Conference, 29–30, 76, 96–97 Yeltsin, Boris, 48, 79 Yom Kippur War, 21, 69 Yugoslavia, 37, 97–100. See also Bosnia and Herzegovina

Z Zhou Enlai, 68 Zionism, 50