Containment of Communism
By: Jennifer Casas
The Long March
The Long March is when Mao Zedong took his 100000 red army troops marching 6000 miles to find a way out of southern china. During the march he lost more than half of his troops and gained the support of many peasant farmers. These farmers would help after WWII. The peasant farmers loved the idea of communism because they thought they were going to be like to rich, but what they did not know was that the rich we're going to be like them and the government would own everything.
Long March
100000 troops of red army on a 6000 mile march.
Great Leap Forward
China wanted to become more of a industrialized country.
Cultural Revolution
Students made up the Red Guards that were given the power to enforce the polices.
The Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was is 1958 when Mao Zedong thought china needed to become more industrialized. To make this happen he needed to make more factories. When the factories were built he took all of the farmers and put them to work in factories. When there were no farmers cropping food for china they did not have food for a large population. Millions of people died of starvation because of the shortage of food.
Cultural Revolution
In 1966 Mao Zedong banned all religions,self expressions. He wanted Chinese people to focus on communist ideas and not western democracy ideas. Those who mocked the government were punished or killed. High school students made up the Red Guards who were given the power to enforce the polices of the cultural revolution.
Tank Man
A zoomed out version.
Tank Man
A zoomed in version.
Tiananmen Square
Protesters fighting to end communism.
Tiananmen Square and Tank man
Tiananmen Square is where people met up and protested for the end of communism. While the people of china we're protesting the army ignored it but then it was just too much, the army started using forces and thousands of people were killed or inured.Tank man is when this guy was with his grocery bags just standing there in front of a line of 20 full ready to go military tanks. While he was standing there gun shots we're firing all around him and they all missed. He jumped in the first tank and knocked on it telling them to come out. After he got off because no one came out 3 men ran in and pushed him away from the tanks.
Tank Man (now with more raw footage)
Tank man picture above
In china that tank man photos are banned to be able to keep picture on the news paper they have to substitute the tanks for something that the government will alow.
How this all connects to Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong is the founder of communism. Long march, cultural revolution, Great Leap Forward, and Tiananmen Square all have a connection to Mao Zedong. During the long march him and his troops had a journey to escape southern china. Mao banned all religions and democratic ideals. In the Great Leap Forward, Mao moved all farmers to factories so china could become a industrialized country. At Tiananmen Square Mao sent his troops to stop protesters.
Korean War
After WWII Korea was split into north and south at 38th parallel. The US feared that if Korea became communist that country's around would become communist, that is called the domino effect. On June 25, 1950 North Korea was trying to take over the south so that the Korean Peninsula would become communist. The Chinese went to help North Korea by the end of October 1950. During January to June of 1951 neither side gained or lost, it was a seesaw war. A seesaw war is when one side gained a little the other side gains it back, like a seesaw. In 1953 an agreement was signed, a stalemate which said the war was a draw and an armistice agreed that the war was a tie. North Korea suffered many economic problems and is communist today. South Korea has become a prosperous country and is embracing democratic ideals.
Vietnam War
Vietnam was divided into north and south just like Korea but at the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh and his army Viet Minh were running North Vietnam. South Vietnam was democratic but a group called the Viet Cong were people who lived in South Vietnam and wanted communism, they were always in contact with Viet Minh. The US got congress support to send troops to Vietnam as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Minh created a trail called the Ho Chi Minh Trail, this was a system of paths through the jungle that connects North to South Vietnam. This gave the North an advantage of convincing people in the jungle that communism is the right path. Many US citizens were against this war because of the large number of casualties an the drafting of males into armed forces. Vietnam was able to beat the US because during the war the Viet Congs used guerrilla tactics. Vietnamization is giving control of the war to South Vietnam while US troops withdrew. In 1976 North Vietnam combined both North and South, so to this day Vietnam is communist.
US involvment
The US gets their nose into everything because that is what we do. We got involved in the Vietnam and Korean war. In Korea when we came in the north was on their way to take over the south. When we left Korea south was democratic and the north was communist. In Vietnam when we arrived the north and south wanted to be communist so we could not really help them unless they did not want to be communist. When we left Vietnam all of Vietnam was communist.
My Opinion
In my view i think we did contain communism. To answer the question''Did containment of communism work?'' you have to find out what the word ''containment'' means. I think containment means to keep something in that zone. Think of a butterfly in a jar, if you add more butterfly's into the jar they will all be flying in the same jar but they can not leave the jar.(An example of Jaden and Christy to change my mind). Now it is up to you to ask yourself the question''Did containment of communism work?''