democracy of the United States and the authoritarian communist Soviet Union /capitalism and communism across the globe

Post-WWII View from Washington

• Did not want devastated nations to fall to Soviet-backed communism

• Post WWII Goals:

  • Economic reconstruction of Europe

  • Military superiority

  • Containment

The Post-WWII View from Moscow

• 9-14 million Soviet soldiers killed in WWII

• 8+ million civilians killed

• Invaded by Germany twice in the past 30 years

• Fearful of an invasion by the USA and England (like after WWI)

Across the globe

• Fight over human rights, Enlightenment ideas

• Fight over resources and markets for goods

• Competition over allies (military & economic)

Not all countries allied themselves with the USA or USSR. Many tried to stay neutral as part of the Non-Aligned Movement

Cold War manifested itself in a variety of ways

• Why the Soviets doctored this iconic photo

• Nuclear Arms race

• Olympics

  • • 1956 Olympics-Blood in the Water match (Hungary vs USSR)

    • 1972 Olympic basketball

    • 1980 Olympic hockey

• Space Race

  • • Sputnik

    • Moon landing

• Proxy Wars

  • • Hostility without direct military confrontation between the two Superpowers

    • Proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam & Afghanistan

§ Non-Aligned Movement

• The founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement were Sukarno of Indonesia, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, [and] Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.

1955 Bandung Conference

• a conference of Asian and African states hosted by the Indonesian President Sukarno who gave a significant contribution to promote this movement

• it's underlying principles, the Dasa Sila Bandung, or Ten Principles of Bandung were introduced.

• The attending Nations declared the desired not to become involved in the Cold War and adopted a declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation.

• Conference of Asian and African (29 nations) nations (NOT Australia, Israel, South Africa)

• American Richard Wright' attends and writes The Color Curtain

  • • The real split in the globe isn’t the Iron Curtain, but the curtain between black and brown on one side, and white on the other.

September 1961 in Belgrade

• the first conference and heads of state or government of non-aligned countries

• Tito needed this as a means to resist Soviet influence.

• They meet throughout the ‘60’s, but The notion of Non-Alignment unravels

cohesion of Bandung erodes

• Once the colonial powers are removed from Asia and Africa, the cohesion of Bandung erodes. Religion, ethnicity, and race prove to be a divisive force:

  • • Sino-Indian War (1962 )

    • Sino-Vietnamese War (1979)

    • Cambodian-Vietnamese War (1977-1991)

    • Indo-Pakistan War of 1965; Indo-Pakistan War of 1971

    • 1971 Bangladesh genocide

§ Sukarno in Indonesia

Background of Indonesia

• 200 major language groups.

• 200 major ethnic groups

• Largest population of Islamic country in the world

• Christian, Buddhist, Hindu minorities

• Became a Dutch colony in 1800 when the V.O.C. dissolved due to

Bankruptcy

• 1942-Japanese conquer and throw the Dutch out. Est. 3-Military districts

  • • The elites who worked for the Dutch were absorbed by the Japanese

    • These elites flee in 1945

• August 17, 1945-Sukarno proclaims independence (same as in IndoChina)

  • • The Dutch decide (like the French) that they will reclaim their colony

    • The Dutch do well militarily against the insurgents, but lose politically

      • Not able to establish a stable political order, and fail to get US support

Independence

• 1949-the Dutch leave (most of) Indonesia and it becomes an independent state.

• Problems:

  • Same issues the Dutch had: diversity, decentralized islands, etc.

• SuKarno takes aid from:

  • First the USA

  • Then the Soviets

  • Then the Communist Chinese Sukarno

• The USA worries about the Communist financial ties

• 1965-military coup

  • • Sukarno survives

    • Fear of communist may take over

• 1965-2nd military coup

  • • Muhammad Suharto

    • Suharto is backed by the USA

Muhammad Suharto (ruled 1965-1998)

• anti-communist purge to est. “New Order”

  • • 500,000 + killed in a few weeks

    • 1.5 Million imprisoned

    • Ethnic Chinese minority targeted

• Regarded as one of the most corrupt ruler in 20th Cent.

  • • Suharto and his family are alleged to have embezzled between $15 billion – $35 billion

• Maintained a stable regime

  • • Kept Communist out of Indonesia

    • Green Revolution enabled population to grow

    • Reliable regime for the USA

§ Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana

Returned to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1949

• • • believed that India's independence had set in motion a process of gradual transfer of power in Britain's other colonies

    • with several associates he set up a new party, the Convention People's Party (CPP)

    • 1951 -- won limited self-rule elections

      • • Nkrumah became "Leader of Government Business" -- a de facto prime minister

Self-Rule (1960)

• Kwame Nkrumah made Ghana a republic and proclaimed himself its president

  • • April 1961, he delivered a "Dawn Broadcast"

      • • force the resignation of potential rivals

        • Soon there were political arrests

        • threw out the British officers assigned to train his army

• "scientific socialism"

  • • 1961 -- The United States (Kennedy) signed on to the Volta River Project to prevent the Soviet Union from becoming the backer of Ghana

    • 1961 -- Nkrumah visited the Soviet Union and returned much impressed at the pace of industrialization there

      • • He came back with a rigid Seven-Year Plan

        • January 22, 1966 -- Volta Dam completed

    • "We must try and establish factories in large numbers at great speed"

      • • State-owned companies and public authorities mushroomed in all fields

          • • So did mismanagement and graft

            • The price was most painfully felt in the countryside as Nkrumah used cocoa revenues, controlled by the official marketing board, to cover the growing losses of public companies

    • Results:

      • • Many farmers switched crops altogether due to unrealistically low cocoa prices

          • • combined with the bloated organization of the marketing board

        • others found ways to smuggle their cocoa through neighboring countries, where better prices were offered

        • Ghana lost its mantle as the world's largest cocoa producer

        • Its currency reserves depleted, it fell back on barter trade and loans from the Soviet bloc

• "the Redeemer"

  • • 1964 -- turned the country into a one-party state

    • took to indulging in a sordid cult of personality

    • dubbing himself Osagyefo, "the Redeemer."

• Overthrown in a coup d'etat

  • • Feb. 1966-Nkrumah, while traveling to China, was overthrown in a coup

    • He ended up taking up exile in Guinea, where another experiment in "African socialism" was in progress.

    • Guinea's president, Sekou Toure, his own rule increasingly repressive and arbitrary, endowed Nkrumah with the title of "co-president" until his death in 1972.