(contents)
Chapter 2 Global wave – The end of colonial era and the emerging two super powers (8)
046 Clash of
the East and the West (2/3)
In China, Civil War between the Kuomintang
and the Communist Party took place. In Vietnam, Indochina War between Viet Cong
(National Liberation National Front, NLF) and France was broken out in 1954.
Initially it was the resistance campaign of the Vietnamese people against
colonial ruler, France (First Indochina War). When France was defeated in the
Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the US got into the front in Vietnam on behalf
of France. Viet Cong continues to resist the United States under the military
aid of the USSR (Second Indochina War). It was the confrontation of two blocks
as proxy war. In addition, the Korean War broke out in 1950, the front line
stuck at the 38th north latitudes and two blocks ceased the fire in 1953. The
Korean Peninsula was divided into two regions until now.
On the European Continent, tension between
Western and Eastern Europe rose across the border. In 1949 East Germany built a
wall surrounding the West Berlin District, and the blockade of Berlin
eventually continued until 1990 when the USSR collapsed.
Eastern and Western blocks confronted
fiercely in the Cold War, and strengthened military and economic alliance. In
1949, the Western block formed the military alliance called NATO (North
Atlantic Treaty Organization) and took embargo on military technology and
strategic supplies to the communist countries along with COCOM (Cooperating
Committee for Multilateral Export Controls). Against these movements, the USSR
launched a military alliance "Warsaw Treaty Organization" in 1955
involving eight Eastern European countries such as Poland, East Germany and so
on. The United States, furthermore, formed a military alliance SEATO (Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization) in Asia similar to NATO to make up the absence of
France in Southeast Asia after Indochina War.
(To be continued ----)
(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)
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