America’s Assistance to the Tibetans Essay

The Cold War was the name given to the political economic, military and ideological contention that occurred between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and their allies after World War II. The two forces never directly engaged in military activity in light of the fact that both had atomic weapons that if utilized, might have had crushing outcomes for both sides. Instead, proxy wars were battled. A proxy war results when contradicting forces utilize outsiders as substitutes for battling each one other and is ordinarily launched by a power that does not itself partake. The Korean and Vietnam wars are two examples of proxy wars on the grounds that the U.S. and the Soviet Union did not directly engage one another however, Soviet endeavors to spread and bring together both Korea and Vietnam under communist rule provoked mediation either by the United States and/or by their allies. These two occasions were simply a few of the impacts of the Cold War in Asia. This paper will examine each war individually and in more detail and endeavor to persuade that the Korean and Vietnam Wars were the immediate aftereffects of Soviet endeavors to expand communist influence in Asia and the United States and their allies' approach of forestalling and holding such endeavors.

The year 1949 is often called the “great historical watershed from old to new China.” This is when the Chinese Communist Party won the two month long civil war against the

In 1950, China sent 40,000 Chinese troops, ironically known as “the People’s Liberation Army”, to invade a relatively large and peaceful country named Tibet for their abundant resources. Due to this national crisis, the position of the 14th Dalai Lama was given to Tenzin Gyatso (“Birth to Exile”). Over the next few decades, China’s harassment of Tibet caused a myriad of problems, such as famines, the destruction of many sacred Buddhist monasteries and other cultural sites, etc. Thirty year after the initial Chinese invasion, the people of Tibet protested out of outrage that nothing has changed for thirty years, to which China responded with brutal force to stop the protesters. Due to the Dalai Lama’s

The policies enacted by American leaders were very effective in Europe, but failed to help Asia. In 1945, much of China had been corrupted by communism rule. Under the command of Mao Zidong and funding provided by the Soviet Union, Mao was able to take over China easily and corrupt much of its neighbor, Asia (Document F). Failing to prevent the corruption of Asia, the United States began to combat the oncoming fear and concern at

Almost as soon as World War II had ended, the Cold War began, and the Soviets wasted no time in spreading their communist ideals to nearby countries by forcefully establishing communist governments. Soon after, they held on tightly to their eastern block of Germany as a first defense from western political thought, even going as far as blockading Berlin from any form of help, especially from the West. The West quickly responded by airlifting supplies that included food, coal, etc. . This marked the first instance of the American policy of containment, which was the idea that the Soviet Union and Soviet communism should not be allowed to spread (Background Essay). As time went on and acts of communism began to burst out globally, the U.S. policy of containment became an effective

Political leaders could not let this system, that they highly opposed be accepted into their country. Even within our own shores, the growing popularity of the CPA saw it almost banned because of the threat it had on the nation. Advisors and spys mainly from the U.S increased and were distributed into North Vietnam, not knowing the rebellion of Vietminh and Viet Cong soldiers were planning. After the communist revolution in China in 1949, the reliable primary source 5 image, shows the strength and people power coming in support of the North Vietnamese from China. The reliable secondary source 4 explains that we must be afraid of communism and the intensions and campaigns it is putting forth, as the U.S must defend the freedom of people in these neighbouring countries. Primary source 1 image further emphasises this with the domino theory, that if one country is going to fall to the communism reshime, the rest will follow, especially the vulnerable nations that surround Vietnam, including Cambodia and

In this way, the Truman administration attempted to justify its hostility toward all communist states; the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War stems directly from the paranoia of communism that caused Truman to implement this policy. It is clear that the American government under the duress of the slow expansion of communism felt that using force to prevent the spread of an opposing economic and political structure was perfectly justifiable. However, this policy likely led to more disastrous military conflict, such as the Vietnam War, was based primarily on fears of a conflicting ideology, and had little evidence to back up the fears that may otherwise have been rational. The Western policies of containment exacerbated the issue of communism and its spread through Asia, perhaps even enabling it through worsening foreign relations with countries that otherwise posed no threat.

that (arguably) flowed from the U.S. stand in Southeast Asia: the failure of the attempted communist

During the Vietnam War era, the United States and other democratic and free nations were fearful of communism spreading to more parts of the world. They fought two world wars to protect freedom, and to contain the communist movements. The foreign policy of the United States evolved to that of a pre-emptive type strike on the possibility of communism surfacing and threatening free countries. Harry S. Truman began to theorize that if a communist nation took over a non-communist state, then neighboring countries would also fall. This became known as the “domino effect,” and was the foreign policy that Dwight D. Eisenhower applied to countries in South East Asia in the 1950s.

America’s war on this communist regime began during World War II. US foreign policy held that communism must be contained and that governments susceptible to communist infiltration and takeover must be assisted. “If this did not occur then communism would expand its global reach, jumping from one nation to its neighbours.” This particularly relevant to Asia, where national governments are weaker and borders are poorly controlled; Asian nations therefore had a lower capacity for resisting communist infiltration and invasion (Alpha

Months later, Mao declared the founding of the new Chinese state in October 1, 1949 which is the People's Republic of China (13). Chiang Kai-shek on the other hand retreated to Formosa which is now Taiwan to seek refuge from Mao’s advancing armies (Ford 36) which it still continue to occupy until this day.

Today, Tibet looks more like China because of increasing number of Chinese residents, Chinese letters on the street, and even Chinese schools are getting popular due to better opportunities for children after school. One way in which China is infiltrating in Tibet is through investment in infrastructure projects and economic development that bring thousands and thousands of workers of Han Chinese descends. For example, from the 1950s to 1999, over 200,000 Han workers have migrated to Tibet to work on infrastructure projects (Hessler, 1999). Some people fear that Tibet will become just like the Inner Mongolia where Mongolians are the minority to Chinese people. If we ask a random Chinese person on the street about Tibet, that person is likely to say that Tibet is a part of China. Likewise, according to Liang Xiangming who is a researcher in Beijing stated that "The dialogue between Dalai and the central government is not a dialogue between two

As much as I would like to take a neutral approach to the Tibetan-Chinese issue, I am concerned it is simply impossible. I remember when I first read Patric French's “Tibet, Tibet. A personal history of a lost land”. I was in my dorm room up all night, shivers constantly running down my spine, from time to time tears running down the cheeks too, I have to confess. Back then I did not know what exactly was going on in this remote and mysterious country, apart from that it is under Chinese occupation and the people are looking for liberation.* But when I read the book I instantly empathized with the story of Tibet. This is probably due to the fact that Estonia, my home country, once was in a similar desperate situation, being succumbed to

After a bitter civil war (1946-1949), which faced the major Chinese parties Kuomintang and CCP, Kuomintang’s defeat, evidenced with Chiang’s and 200.000 people´s fled to Formosa, Mao Zedong (1893-1976), born in Shoshan, Hunan, proclaimed the new People´s Republic of China with himself as both Chairman of the CCP and President of the republic in October 1949. How did the under numbered and weak CCP, founded by the same person in 1921 manage to survive several extermination campaigns and re-organize the party to win the civil war, crushing opposition and establish the Chinese

The Coming to Power of the Communists in China in 1949 The leadership of China at the beginning of the 20th Century was very different to how it is today. The Communists did not come to power without a long and bitter struggle against the many foes that came across their path between the time of their creation, in 1921, and their eventual success in 1949. The Double Tenth Revolution of 1911 overthrew the emperor of China, as he was only a child and could not contain the ever-depleting condition of the nation.