Did containment of communism work?
By: Jose Gutierrez
First of we have China
In china it all started with on man. Mao Zedong, this man was poor as a child but had enough money to go to school. So he decided he was going to start communist china. So he started a revolution. And during civil war in 1934 him and 100,000 of his men had to retreat. They had to march 6,000 miles to escape and 97,000 of his men died but the citizens along the way joined the fight. Mao Zedong over took the government in china and became 1st chairman Mao. He decided he wanted to start a cultural revolution in china. By a cultural revolution he meant he was going to change China's culture. If you had anything related to China's past you had to throw it away or burn it. He erased China's culture he wanted people to only focus on communist china and his little red book filled with his beliefs. As he did this he also wanted to make china a very powerful nation like any leader but he did it the wrong way. All the farmers who grew food and fed the country were forced to work in industry's to make steel . And they made a lot of steel but the farmers could not produce enough food. So famine occurred and a lot of people died, it was a failure. People started realizing the truths of communism and some ,while others hid , decided to make a stand and protest. Young children and women and people of all ages. They were protesting for a democratic government system in china, they wanted freedom. In communism you don't get to speak out like that it is unacceptable. So military troops were sent in. 30,000 and the number of how many were killed June 4th 1989 but the estimate is somewhere over 200 to over 2,000. This was communism in china
The Korean War
After WW II Japan's control over Korea was replace by United States control and Soviet Union control. Korea was split into 2 parts. North was controlled by Soviet Union, and the south was controlled by U.S . In other word the north was communist and the south was democratic. The United States feared the domino theory. This theory was that If a country fell under communism all the surrounding countries would become communist to. They feared all of Korea would become communist. Then all the surrounding nation would become communist then all of Asia. So once the governments were established they Koreans made their on decisions. So North Koreans General Chai Ung Chai's communist division from North Korea invaded South Korea in 6 different routes. North Korea wanted to establish one communist nation. So the U.S and U.N sided with South Korea. They counter attacked and started gaining land. They thought they were close to victory because the U.S.S.R could not help North Korea but they completely forgot about china. So the 120,000 Chinese troops got them by surprise. Both sides kept going back and forth across the 38th parallel where the two Koreans were divided. On July 27 1953 along the 38th parallel which said that the division of the Koreans would remain where it was. They lasted 3 years fighting and gained no land. The war ended in stalemate. An armistice was declared.
The Vietnam War
In 1975 the vietnamese fought the invading french and won led by Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh wanted one communist state of vietnam. The UN said no, vietnam was divided at the 17th Parallel. In the norh Ho Chi Minh and his army ruled a communist vietnam. In the south the non-communist state was ruled by president Ngo Dinh Diem. They were separated but both had allies, north vietnam had the Soviet Union and China. The U.S. and its allies supported the south. The vietnam war started out as a civil war. President Dwight Eisenhower of the United states believed the domino theory would take place in vietnam as in north korea. So United States trops were sent to vietnam. The war got stonger in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 where north vietnamese attacked U.S. Navy ships. Many americans were not in support of the war because they felt it was not the united states position to be in vietnam. Plus all the american fatalities. The United states puled out of the war because they were losing and all of south vietnam and north vietnam became one communist vietnam.Not even the united states could win against communism.
So did containment of communism work ?
To be honest it seems like the containment of communism was a complete failure. Nobdy could really contain communism.
EXTRA
This man who's identity is unknown but is nicknamed tank man stood in front of 8 of Mao Zedongs tanks and told them to go away