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Topic Started: Apr 1 2012, 10:15 AM (251 Views)
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History 281: History of the Cold War

Notes

February 8, 2012

Cold War: Section IV

“In war, there is no substitute for victory.”
- General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur

“The MacArthur strategy would involve us in the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong enemy.”
- General of the Army, Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1951.

“Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
- General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur, farewell speech to Congress, 1951.

Korean War – Diplomatic Signal of No Interest?

April 1948: North Korea started a low level guerilla war in the South; South Korea gradually gained the upper hand over the insurgency.

January 1950: Kim Il Sung gained the approval of Stalin for a conventional attack; China’s Mao Tse-tung concurred, but harbored reservations.

January 1950: U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson made a public statement that left Korea outside of the U.S. “defense line” in Asia.

Many public discussions of the economies placed on U.S. Armed Forces.

North Korea or the Soviets may have taken encouragement from these comments and accepted them as a reason to discount American counteraction.

June 25, 1950: North Korea attacked across the 38th Parallel with 90,000 troops and 150 T-34 tanks.

July 2, 1950: U.S. sent Task Force Smith, 24th infantry Division, 1st Battalion (540+ men) from Japan to Korea.

July 5, 1950: First U.S. combat action at Osan.
55 Days after the start of the Korean War, American Marines arrived with the M26 Pershing Tank (90mm Gun).

U.S. Army Forces in Korea that had come from Japan before the arrival of U.S. Marines from the American West Coast had old weapons and were ill-armed to deal with the North Korean military. When the Marine units arrived they had the newest most effective weaponry and equipment.

The 24th Infantry Division, 25th Infantry, 7th Infantry, and 1st Cavalry among other American military units in the region had become Occupying Military Police Forces for Japan and had not been regularly training for combat.

American Forces were under the impression that just by showing up in uniform that the North Korean forces would turn tail. In fact many of the North Korean Forces had served with or were trained by Russian Forces during and after World War II.

South Korean Forces were even more ill-equipped that the American Forces.


Korean War – Poor U.S. Intelligence

The existence of powerful striking forced in North Korea, and the massing of troops near the North/South Korean Border was no secret to our intelligence. It was our evaluation of the situation that was at fault.

We believed that Communist Forces would not be ready to risk Nuclear War by resorting to armed aggression.



Korean War – Truman Relieves MacArthur

MacArthur did nothing wrong in arguing a point of view contrary to that of the President, Department of Defense, and State Department. However he was properly relieved because he was publicly debating with his bosses about National Policy.

President Roosevelt also failed to deal with MacArthur properly.

After World War II, MacArthur twice refused President Truman’s request to return to the United States to be given thanks and acclamation like other American Commanders.
Had Truman acted earlier than he did to open a liaison between himself and General MacArthur the fallout may not have happened.


Korean War – Air War

F-86 Sabre: 685 MPH
50 Cal. Machine Guns

MIG-15: 670 MPH
37mm Cannon
(2) 20mm Cannons

850 MIG-15’s destroyed vs 58 F-86 Sabre’s

Korean War – Air War: Soviet Pilots

American Pilots shot down Soviet Pilots during the Cold War and vice versa but it was kept secret during the war so as not to escalate into full scale war between the two Superpowers.

Prisoners of War

7140 U.S. soldiers were captured as POW’s, 2701 of these U.S. soldiers died in captivity

1 out of 3 Prisoners collaborated with their jailors in exchange for favors, better treatment, or extra food. Some even turned on their fellow prisoners.

Some prisoners lost the will to resist or continue living and just gave up & died known as “Face to the Wall Syndrome”.

21 U.S. soldiers actually decided to stay in Korea instead of repatriating.

46 Escape attempts were made by U.S. Forces before they were marched North of the Yalu River.
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History 281: History of the Cold War

02/15/2012

Received Quiz 1: 28 points (A-)

Notes:

1949 Revolt of the Admirals
- Roles and Missions of the services
- Navy was losing many responsibilities to the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
1952 National Security Agency

1957 Atomic Energy Commission

Eisenhower’s “New Look”:
1. Money
2. Reduce Army Divisions
3. Reduce Navy Ships
4. MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction: Nuclear Weapons
5. SAC – Strategic Air Command: Developed B-49 & B-52 Bomber Fleets, designed to commit a nuclear strike at the Soviet Union.
6. Orders the Navy to design smaller aircraft to carry smaller Nukes.
7. Orders the Army to design Miniature Nukes to be fired from Artillery.
8. Army develops Nuclear Mines.

Eisenhower’s “Massive Retaliation”:
1. If the Soviet Union attacks the United States or allies then the United States would use its Nuclear Arsenal in response.

Book Suggestion: Safe For Democracy: The Secret Wars Of The CIA.

Joseph McCarthy

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History 281: History of the Cold War

02/22/2012

Exam on 02/29/2012

1956 Suez Crisis

1947 – Britain given mandate over Palestine; they withdrew in 1948 & Israel declared its independence on land the UN had partitioned for creation of a Jewish state.

1948: First Arab-Israeli War

October 1951: Egypt denounced Treaty of 1936 that gave Britain a 20 year lease on Suez bases.

1952: King Farouk ousted by army coup led by Gamel Abdel Nassr who began interfering with ships passing.
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February 29, 2012

Cold War VI Notes: Vietnam (1954 – 1962)

French
- General LeClerc sent to Vietnam with 35,000 troops to replace Japanese in 1944.
- Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu became Provincial Governor.
- Giap [gy-ap] defeats French border posts (1950); escalates to large forces too soon (1951).
- French defeated at Dien Bien Phu (1954).

North & South Vietnam
- Geneva Peace Conference & Division of Vietnam at 17th Parallel (1954)
- Ho Chi Minh cracked down on opposition in North Vietnam.
- Diem consolidated position as President of South Vietnam.
- Diem eliminates opposition groups: General Hinh, Binh Xuyen; Hoa Hoa.
- Madame Nhu: South Vietnam’s “First Lady”.
- Elections postponed indefinitely (1956).

US & China
- Edward Lansdale advised on guerrilla warfare (1954).
- US Ambassador Elbridge Durbrow (1957 – 1961)
- China agreed to support Ho Chi Minh.

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History 281: History of the Cold War

03/07/2012

Notes

Quiz 1: 28 Points (A-)
Midterm Exam: 69 Points (D+)
Total Grade: 97 Points (C)

Suggested Reading
- 1962: The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman. (Influenced JFK and how he handled the Cuban Missile Crisis).
- 1965: on Escalation, by Herman Kahn.


Vietminh – 1947
Geneva Convention – 1954
- Vietnam split into North & South at the 17th Parallel.
- South lead by Emperor Bao Dai.
- South Premier – Ngo Dinh Diem.
- Diem issues a referendum to the people asking if they want him to be President of South Vietnam and there was an overwhelming response of yes. Some would say too high.
- North lead by Ho Chi Minh.
- Ho Chi Minh locked down North Vietnam.
- Diem consolidated his power in the South and eliminated opposition.

1956 – Elections postponed indefinitely.
1957 – Guerrilla Vietcong

Ho Chi Minh

1919 – Appealed in writing to President Woodrow Wilson who was visiting for the Versailles Conference to request Constitutional Government & Democratic Reforms for Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh had visited the United States and discovered that America had judicial rights for immigrants where Vietnamese people had no rights over French Colonial Rule.

He attracted the attention of French Socialists Jean Longuet & Leon Blum (later became Prime Minister) who invited him to attend their Anti-Colonialism Conference in December 1920 at Tours, France. It was here that the Communists decided to break away and form their own party, and Ho joined them. He was 30 years old at the time.

1924 – Ho moved to Moscow taking the name of Linh; he met Joseph Stalin, Trotsky & other Soviet leaders.

He attended the University of Oriental Workers established for Asian Insurgents.

1924 – Later Ho traveled to China using the alias Ly Thuy; he became a part time interpreter for Mikhail Borodin who was Chiang Kai-shek’s Russian agent (at that time Chiang was allied with the Chinese Communists.)

A Divided Vietnam – The South

The South depended on rice and rubber exports, as well as French money to keep the economy going, and that source of funds was about to dry up. There was a large amount of resentment of the French and the Pro-French Vietnamese. The Rural South of South Vietnam was ripe for rebellion. The region was also a melting pot of competing ethnic, religious, economic, and political groups.

Vietnam: US Leadership 1954 –

Edward Lansdale (1954 to ----): Advised Philippine Ramon Magsaysay on combating insurgency in the Philippines against the new Philippine Government (The Philippines were no longer an American Territory). He created a covert CIA team to help Vietnamese condict unconventional and psychological warfare; he became very close to President Diem and was a regular guest at the palace; he helped resettle 1 Million North Vietnamese Refugees.

Lieutenant General Sam Williams (“Hanging Sam”): 1955 – Considered one of the army’s best at training soldiers of all ranks; replaced Lansdale in 1956; knew how to give the Vietnamese advice without being condescending or domineering; became a strong admirer of Diem; often accused of overemphasizing conventional warfare (unfairly); said militia should do counterinsurgency.

1954 – American Advisors to South Vietnam: 348
1958 – American Advisors to South Vietnam: Around 680+

South Vietnamese – Strategic Hamlet Program – 1962
- Built defensive structures around villages
- Bamboo and barbed wire fences, ditches, and moats, rows of traps and stakes.
- 3353 Hamlets established by 1962, 600 of which were fully equipped and armed.
- Some would later say that President Diem pursued the Hamlet Program too vigorously with millions of peasants forced to relocate into these new hamlets from their own homes.
- Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann explained that the Vietnamese Government profoundly angered the peasants by systematically destroying their houses and making them leave their fields and the graves of their ancestors.
- Instead of gaining loyal supporters they fostered peasants that became sympathetic to the Vietcong.

Affects of Korean War – Relation to Vietnam War
- Another Asian Country divided along a parallel.
- A Communist North bordering China and backed by Soviet Russia.
- A war in the South against a US supported, Western-oriented developing country.
- In 1964 it looked like the Korean model of war was to be avoided.
- In 1975 it looked like we should have used the Korean model.

Did the Media Lose the War?

1981: Vice Chief of Staff General Walter Kerwin tasked Colonel Harry Summers to research and write a critical analysis of the war – he was afraid that the Army was about to blame the press for losing the Vietnam War rather than examine the causes of its own failure. The result was Colonel Summers’ book “On Strategy”. By which it was stated that the press did not lose the Vietnam War.

Vietnam Myth: The Napalm Strike & Kim Phuc Photo

The Myth: America used Napalm to bomb a Vietnamese village, which was not true it was a South Vietnamese Air Force unit that bombed North Vietnamese units near the village and the village got caught in the crossfire.

Vietnam: Buddhist Uprising – 1963








Vietnam: Coup to Overthrow Diem – 1963

US Anti-Diem: Averell Harriman, State Department
Roger Hilsman
Michael Forrestal
US Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge
Young, inexperienced journalists such as David Halberstam

US Pro-Diem: Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense
General Maxwell Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
John Mc Cone, Director of the CIA
Experienced Journalists such as Marguerite Higgins, Keyes Beech, & Joseph Alsop.

November 1, 1963: President Diem Assassinated.

One week later the North Vietnamese opened up their huge new offensive.

November 22, 1963: President Kennedy Assassinated.
Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes President.
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Cold War Notes 6

March 21, 2012

Fall to Communism – Domino Theory

First Likely to fall
- Laos
- Thailand
- Burma
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Cambodia

Likely to turn neutral
- Philippines
- Taiwan
- South Korea
- Japan
- India

Likely to continue support
- Australia
- New Zealand

The United States would likely lose its air and naval bases and its island defense chain would likely be broken; trading rights with Japan and other Asians likely to be lost.

Indonesia: Suharto overthrows Sukarno in 1965

Vietnam: Diem’s Assassination

1. General Khanh overthrew President Minh – Jan. 1964
2. Triumvirate of Generals Khanh, Minh, and Kiem – Aug. 1964
3. Coup Attempt by Phat & Duc Halted – Sep. 1964
4. Tran Van Huong became new Prime Minister – Oct. 1964
5. Bloodless Coup ousted Huong as Prime Minister – Jan. 1965
6. Buddhist Phan Huy Quat became Prime Minister – Feb. 1965
7. General Thieu & Marshall Ky given leadership – June 1965

Suggested Reading: Lesson in Disaster

Lyndon B. Johnson – Vietnam must not be lost before the November election of 1964, nor could it become a full scale war.


Bundy to Johnson – “You’ve got to explain this war and unexplained wars are not way to fight”

Suggested Reading: Dereliction of Duty

General Harold K. Johnson
I was ready to go over to the Oval Office and give my four stars to the President and tell him, ‘

Suggested Reading: This Time We Win, Revisiting the Tet Offensive

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Cold War Notes 7

March 28, 2012

CIA’s William Colby Directs “Phoenix Program” and M-16’s
- William Colby took over pacification operations in late 1968; he had operated as a guerrilla himself during WWII (Part of OSS in occupied France & Norway); had argued against toppling Diem while station chief in Saigon; he understood the country as well.
- Under his direction, the Phoenix Program, working with South Vietnamese security forces, helped identify and eradicate the Communist political apparatus in the South’s villages.
- Phoenix was often shown as a program of organized assassination, but in fact many of the people they ‘neutralized’ were captured or induced to defect, not killed.
- The Phoenix Program eliminated some 60,000 authentic Viet Cong agents.
- The Communist senior officers in North Vietnam and South Vietnam viewed Phoenix as a serious threat.

President Thieu Introduces Land Reform
- Giving farmers legal title to the fields they tilled, in order to give them a bigger stake in Southern society.
- Ironically this was Diems plan as well only President Thieu was doing it with U.S. support.

1965: U.S. Marine Corps’ Combined Action Program (CAP) modeled after Marine Corps units that operated in Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua in the 1930’s.
- Squads of Marines would work with Platoons of South Vietnamese Forces.

Pacification Progress: 1970
- 90% of the South’s population had been brought under Saigons control.
- Reduction of VC Taxes
- Decrease enemy’s food supply taken from villages
- Less in-country recruiting by the North in the South.
- Number of roads open were way up.
- Number of bridges functioning and serviceable were way up.
- ARVN Forces freed up from static security missions to take on mobile operations and replace the 500,000 American Troops.

Decision to Withdraw Longest Serving Troops Individually, not as Units
- Abrams strongly favored redeploying units as units, sending them intact with the people currently assigned.
- In Washington, D.C. Army Chief of Staff General William C. Westmoreland argued for sending home the people who had served longest in Vietnam.
- By pulling out the longest serving individuals instead of whole units it disrupted American war efforts by taking out soldiers who had been with their units for periods of time and replacing them with new soldiers with little to no experience and no experience with the unit they would find themselves in.
- By sending home the longest serving first it may have been fair to the individual, but not a militarily sound plan.

1960’s: The Movement of Movements
- Black Civil Rights – Black Panthers
- New Left – Students for Democratic Society (SDS); Weathermen
- American Indian Movement
- Hispanics & United Farm Workers
- Feminists
- Counterculture
- Anti-War Movement

SDS Weathermen: William Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn
- 1968: Advocated the violent overthrow of the United States government
- involved with the bombing of New York City police headquarters
- US Capitol Building bomb (1971)
- Pentagon Bombing (1972)
- Several friends were killed building a nail bomb when it went off.
- Mark Rudd stopped active participation in the SDS when they changed to violence and hatred (24 bombings) he went underground for 7 years and gave himself up to the police in 1977.
- 3 SDS members killed when the bombs they were making went off prematurely, bombs were intended for a military dance.

Violence of 1968
- Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated by James Earl Ray
- John F. Kennedy assassinated

John Kerry testifies before Congress about Genghis Kahn and throws his medals over the White House fence.

In July 1970, President Nixon convened a meeting of the heads of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and each of the armed forces intelligence services to deal with what he perceived as the growing revolutionary threat of the Black Panther Party and the Weathermen.
- Out of the meeting came a plan for illegal wiretaps, burglaries, infiltration of campus groups, and use of military intelligence operatives, mail searches, and mail watches.
- Evidence of these illegal means of gathering intelligence surface during the various Internal Security Division prosecutions of the mid-seventies.


1970 – U.S. Invades Cambodia to destroy Communist caches and enemy forces.
- The day after Nixon announces the action, students at college campus across the United States riot and protest
- The National Guard in Ohio is called out to deal with the protesters.
- ROTC Building in Ohio burned down the night before, rioters cutting fire hoses to prevent the firefighters from putting it out.
- They threatened News Reporters for capturing the event on tape.
- National Guardsmen deployed and armed.
- A shot was fired and no one knows who fired the shot, but as a result the Guardsmen fired in response to the first shot.
- Nixon states that American troops will not advance more than 19 Miles into Cambodia and that U.S. Troops would leave by June 30th.
- Troops stopped at 19 Miles and unable to get to Communist forces nearby because of the 19 Mile limit issued by Nixon.

1971: Invasion of Laos
- No U.S. ground trios were allowed in Laos, only air support.
- North Vietnamese Forces had decimated the South Vietnamese Forces
- 9,000 South Vietnamese dead, 2/3 of their armor lost.
- The South retreated.

North Vietnamese would launch various attacks through Laos into South Vietnam.
- The North Vietnamese was being armed and trained mostly by the Soviet Union and partly by Communist China.
- The NV now had modern tanks, artillery, anti aircraft guns, and an air force.
- The North was building up a mass of divisions of various military units to surround the South..
- The NV would continue to force the South Vietnamese to retreat further and further as the North advanced.
- NV had not planned for how much fuel they would need to advance into South Vietnam and it bogged up their tanks.
- American air and ground forces, along with South Vietnamese forces held against the Vietcong.
- American air forces began bombing North Vietnam.
- North Vietnam had counted on the Soviet Union and China to keep the United States from launching massive air bombings into North Vietnam. The relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States was changing.
- The Soviets wanted to work with the Americans on negotiations, and China wanted to work with both of them as well.
- American air forces were launched from Thailand and the Gulf of Tonkin to bomb enemy targets in both North and South Vietnam.
- The strategic port of Haiphong was blocked with sea mines and the U.S. Navy ended traffic there.
- U.S. Navy and Air Force are now using “smart” laser guided bombs against the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.
- The bombings shocked the North, and had little reaction from the Soviets due to negotiations between the US and USSR.
- President Nixon visits Russia to assist with diplomatic relations.
- Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had been meeting in Paris secretly with North Vietnamese leaders since 1969.
- U.S. Forces temporarily stopped bombing the North due to Peace Talks.
- 1972: Paris Peace Talks break down completely.
- Nixon ordered massive bombing campaigns against North Vietnam and gave them 72 hours to return to the negotiating table.
- December 18, 1972, Nixon orders the bombing campaign to begin.
- US used Fighter Bombers during the day and Heavy Bombers at night.
- North Vietnamese continued to take US casualties with anti-aircraft guns until the US changed its flight strategies.
- 1973: Ceasefire signed between all warring parties, US threatened to stop aid to South Vietnam if they refused to sign the treaty.
- US Forces and US Prisoners of War began returning home, though combat advisors remained.
- 1973: Congress passes bill to end funding for all US military operations in Southeast Asia after US troops are withdrawn in August of 1973.
- War Powers Act passed over Nixon’s veto to require the President to consult with Congress about military action and prohibited spending in SE Asia for more US military action. This was coupled with cuts in aid to South Vietnam.
- 1974: Congress slashed foreign assistance money for South Vietnam.

After the Peace Treaty
- 160,000 North Vietnamese Troops left in South Vietnam
- NVA now had a port facility at Dong Ha just below the DMZ
- NVA began expanding the road network to 12,000 miles thru Laos, Cambodia, and the “third Vietnam” to two lane paved roads, what used to take 75 days to travel no took 25.
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