IB Paper 2 Review
Created and Written by: Ketsia Jean-Charles
Cold War:
Exam 2013: With reference to the two states, each chosen from a different region, examine the cultural impact pf the cold war.
United States
- Abundance of movies that helped spark patriotism
- Propaganda tool: Government encouraged Hollywood to produce anticommunist movies
- Which led to the raise suspicion of communist activity in America.
- Movies like The Manchurian Candidate demonized communism
- The paranoia concerning communism and nuclear holocaust certainly surfaced in movies.
- The presence of the "evil Communists" allowed Presidents the ability to marshal and galvanize public support around initiatives that would keep the enemy at bay, and in the process, allow their own sense of stature and control to increase.
- This ended up impacting American Culture to a great extent in that it perceived consciousness that was not American as potentially hostile or foreign, needing to be subdued or made "friendly."
Soviet Union
- Many repatriated Soviet citizens who had lived abroad during the war, whether as prisoners of war, forced laborers, or defectors, were executed or sent to prison camps.
- The limited freedoms granted in wartime to the church and to collective farmers were revoked
- The party tightened its admission standards and purged many who had become party members during the war.
- Taking advantage of its military occupation of these countries, the Soviet Union actively assisted local communist parties in coming to power.
American Cultural Diplomacy:
- Americans both viewed popular culture as a n important weapon in the struggle to win influence in Europe during the Cold War
- During the 1990s, an isolationist Congress, its understanding of the world singularly unsuited to the new realities of American power, challenged the idea that the United States should disseminate information through educational and cultural exchange.
- Many in Washington believed that the collapse of the Soviet Union was an opportunity to dismantle America's foreign entanglements.
Causes, Practices, and Effects of wars:
Exam 2011: Analyse the impact of guerrilla warfare on the course and outcome of one twentieth century war.
Vietnam War
- Soldiers and civilians worked in sync to battle.
- Used many different types of tactics
-The Spike (Panji trap)
-Tunnel Spike
-Mace Trap
-Evacuation Practices
- Avoided pitched battles unless odds were in their favor
- As of result of the tactics used against the U.S., they were able to have the upperhand.
- Vietcong were more familiar with the land and climate than the U.S. who seemed to come unprepared.
The Spike (Panji trap)
Basically a small hole covered with leaf litter, the victim's foot is impaled when stood on.
Mace Trap
Mace traps take various forms and may consist of a spiked concrete ball, drum, box, a log suspended in a tree on the end of a rope or cable.
Tripwire (Grenade Trap)
Placed along likely paths of travel with 2 stakes embedded on both sides of the creek with the grenade tied to one and the safety pin partially removed from the striker level and tied by the tripwire to the other stake.