Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech. He was also very critical of the policy of Peaceful Coexistence as he believed it was a way of being friendly with the United States (the enemy) and also Mao saw it abandoning millions of comrades struggling to free themselves of capitalist and imperialist oppression. This, therefore, made the USSR an ‘enemy’. How could two countries work together if they had such differing beliefs about how to run their countries? This problem had a big contribution to the split as they couldn’t agree on anything, and if they did, it was because their national interests were at risk.
In my opinion Operation Rolling Thunder (ORT) was a massive failure. As the US did not meet its official aims and objectives of stopping the spread of communism to Vietnam. It caused a lot of inexperienced soldiers to lose their lives. Also having a major effect on America its self as the country battled to juggle money to afford the cost of the war. But one of the hardest battle’s for the US was to keep their own countries support.
It has hurt our credibility across the world and caused a loss of faith in government by its citizens. Although the necessity of the war is argued by many, it is only done in an analysis of its occurrence. Had it not happened and the world possibly fell under Communism, then we would be arguing the exact opposite. The United States did what it felt it had to do at the time, given the information it had. To go to war in Vietnam was a risk the US felt it had to take in order to contain Communism, thus securing its economic prosperity and worldwide dominance.
This affected black Americans and ethnic minorities because most of the people that came under that class were on the poverty program, so they opposed the war. The public opinion of the war in America was mainly against the US involvement in Vietnam. When the public heard that America were pulling out of the war they felt as if all the men who had died, had died for nothing. The tactics of the Vietcong were guerilla warfare. This was the type of warfare that the American’s were not use to fighting in.
In a CBS special, Cronkite concluded, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past, to say we are mired in a bloody stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion" ( Hallin, 1986, p.170) This did not help increase the support for our troops in Vietnam. The overall support for the war was diminished by Cronkite's report. The negative coverage of the war influenced politicians, the public, and the American soldier. Concerned with losing support, politicians started to really get involved. The TeT offensive was a last ditch effort for the communists.
The departure of American and Soviet troops from Korea in 1949- The Russians left the communist government in the North with a strong, Soviet-equipped army. The Americans left the pro-Western government in the south with a fairly small military which was used to suppress internal opposition. The weakness of the south was a strong incentive to nationalists in the North Korean government who wanted to reunite the country again. North Korea attacks: June 24, 1950- The role of Soviet Union in North Korea's invasion plans remains unclear however there is reason to believe the North acted without Stalin's prior approval; this was stemmed from the vulnerability of the South and the fact that the American government implied that it did not consider
MacArthur set out to sway his country and his administration into supporting his idea of war and strategy in Korea, while Truman set out to limit it. The mainstay in MacArthur’s argument for broadening the war and utilizing the multitude of resources available to the U.S. was that China was fighting an inherently weak modern war, relying mostly on ground forces and without an industry to supply those forces. He viewed Chinese forces as easily defeatable by disrupting the limited supply systems in place and creating blockades to cut off the distribution of more men. Because China could not deploy an air force or turn out a navy, it was unable to defend itself with larger munitions. Achieving a victory by utilizing tactical advantages, MacArthur felt he could achieve victory within a reasonable time.
The American response to the communist triumph states that the department refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new regime in Beijing and the U.S focused on Japan as its main Ally in Asia. The Cold War then split Asia in two. The Cold war spilled into Korea. North Korea was communist, and South Korea was anti- communist. The President achieved his primary goal of the defense of South Korea and the principle of collective security; however, he shifted his goal to unify North Korea and South Korea by force despite warnings against
1949 was probably the worst year. After the Soviet atomic test in August 1949 and Mao Zedong’s victory in China, communism became an even greater threat. The Truman administration orchestrated NSC 68′s famous call to arms. To move the public to spend more on the Cold War strategy, NSC 68 portrayed the Soviet challenge as a contest pitting good against evil. American strategy remained torn between simply containing Communism or rolling it back by actively supporting the Soviet Union’s opponents.
Just like these two there were many people who did not even like that there was a war in the first place but there was really no choice. Lincoln at one point did not even feel that he was capable enough of completely getting rid of slavery because he knew that it would cause problems in the future. He knew that abolishing slavery would turn the north and south against each other even more than it already had. (Pederson, Estell, & Kenneth, 1994). Just because he did not immediately take advantage of his position, probably do what any other would do today, and abolish slavery does not mean he supported it.