Containment of Communism
BY: Alex Centis
What is Communism?
Communism is a theory that was once derived from Karl Marx's Theory(Marxism).It is a system where all people will basically be equal in almost all ways and get the same sets of things.Communism is found in North Korea, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and China(they aren't as communist as they were in the past).
Communism in China
How was China developed as a communist country and how was it impacted by it?
Communism in China was formed by Mao Zedong. It was impacted by communism by The Great Leap Forward, The Long March, Cultural Revolution, and Tiananmen Square.
The Long March
The Long March was when the Nationalist Party forced Mao Zedong's Red Army(100,000) out of southern China.They marched for 6,000 miles north and west in order to escape. He lost over 93,000 men during the march. He also got support from the peasant farmers he had met along the way.They helped Mao Zedong rise to lead Chinese Communist Revolution after the 2nd World War.To the right you can see a map of the path that Zedong marched in.
The Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was a attempt to better industrialize China to make it one of the most powerful countries in the Word. The attempt failed,because Mao Zedong tried to convert the peasant farmers into the people that worked in the factories. In doing that he did not have enough food for the people and famine was widely relevant in China at the time.
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution "renew the spirit of the Chinese Communist Revolution" , which means that he didn't want the Chinese people under communism to be influenced by the foreign ideas. In doing this he banned all religions and self expression through the arts.all he wanted was for his people to ONLY celebrate communist government and it's ideals. He put up propaganda posters the helped advertise communism and make it seem like everything will be fine through communism. The propaganda poster to the left talks about how communism is the brightest road and it will forge the future.
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a place in China where a lot of people protested for a democracy and was then suppressed by the military. So there were hundreds of deaths and injuries.
Korean & Vietnamese War
What is the Korean War?
The Korean War was a war that was between North Korea and South Korea,with the help from the US. First, Korea was split into by the 38th parallel, because it was once controlled by the Japanese. Soon after World War 2, Japan lost the country and then the presence from the US and the Soviet was great. Then they split the country into 2, because they had totally different governments. The North had a strong communist presence and the South had a strong democratic presence. Later the North attacks the South in an attempt to make Korea a 100% communist country. The US heard about and started to send support,because the Koreans had destroyed some of our Naval ships. They also helped, because they didn't want the Domino theory, the idea that if one country becomes communist that it will try to make other countries change from having democratic ideas to having communist ideas, to take place. Though at the end the two countries came out with the same amount of land as they did after the war.
What is the Vietnam War?
The Vietnam War was like the Korean War, they were both split into 2 parts (a north and a south) by the 17th parallel. The only difference between the 2 is that North Vietnam won and made the whole country a communist country, with support of the Soviet Union and China. The US again wanted to be involved in the war, because of the Domino Theory. They tried to help, but it did not work. North Vietnam defeated the US and made Vietnam one communist country. The United States pulled out of the war before the war, because there were protest going on saying that we should like focus on their own country and they were having their troops killed and then they were sending out more troops that would eventually die too.
Did Containment in Communism work?
MY Opinion
I think that Containment did not work, because there are still communist countries and there will always be the communist idea out in the world. In the beginning I believe that it had worked, because of the Korean War. In the Korean War we helped and we pushed North Korea back up to where they were before."The war lasted three years and ended in a stalemate, with neither side gaining much in terms of territory.", this quote basically tells you that nothing was kinda different in terms of territory, so it was like the war hadn't even taking place. Then the Vietnam War took place and we also tried to help South Korea( Democratic), but it didn't quite work out as we had thought it would. We tried to help and stop the Communist from taking over, because of the Domino Theory. It says on the Vietnam War reading," The Vietnam War showed the world that even the United States, with the most advanced army and the best equipment, could be defeated by a lesser power", this quote tells you that we had failed in what we were trying to achieve. In this I believe that Containment of Communism did not work.