Rise to Globalism by Ambrose
Ref: Steven Ambrose (2010). Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938. Penguin.
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Summary
The Rise of The USA and its DIME strategy explained through historic events and strategic responses from WWII to the development of the Atomic Bomb to the Truman Doctrine to Domino Theory to NSC-68 to Containment in Korea to SEATO to the Gaither’s Report to Oil embargoes and more.
In 1939, on the eve of World War II, the United States had an army of 185,000 men with an annual budget of less than $500 million. America had no entangling alliances and no American troops were stationed in any foreign country.
Communism can be understood through the Russian example of how a nation could build its economy through controlled production and consumption, rather than by waiting for the slow accumulation of capital through the profits of free enterprise, appealed to the emerging nations.
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World War II
The central dilemma of WWII was embodied in these considerations; until the end almost no one in power wanted Russia to stop its advance, but few Americans or British wanted Russia to dominate East Europe. It had to be one or the other. FDR decided that the greater danger lay in an end to Russian offensives, and he continued to give Stalin aid and encouragement for the Russian drive to the West.
Hitler, after a long string of successes, made two fatal errors between June and December, 1941- the invasion of Russia and the declaration of War against the US.
Four Policeman: China, Russia, Britain, US.
Tripartite Pact: German, Italian, Japanese defensive alliance that pledged mutual support if any one of the three signatories were attacked.
Italian Surrender: Churchill and Roosevelt gradually gave Ike permission to concede the central Italian demands. They wanted both stability in Italy and a neutral Italian army and were thus willing to deal with Badoglio to avoid social upheaval and possibly chaos. They finally allowed the Italian government to surrender with conditions, to stay in power, to retain admin control of Italy, to retain the Italian monarchy, and eventually to join the Allies as co-belligerent. The result was that by 1945 the same political groups that had run Italy before and during the war were still in power, backed by an Allied Control Council from which the Russians had been systematically excluded.
The challenge for American policy-makers was how to simultaneously drive out the Japanese, prevent the resurgence of Euro colonialism, and foster the growth of democratic, capitalist local governments, all without actually making the effort necessary to put the man with a gun on the spot.
The Pacific Theater
The embargo made it clear to the Japanese that they either had to pull back from Indochina and China and thereby reach an agreement with the US that would provide them with access to oil, or go to war. The one slim hope remaining was that America’s fear of a two-ocean war would impel Roosevelt to compromise. From August until November, 1941, the Japanese sought some form of acceptable political compromise, all the while sharpening their military plans and preparations. If the diplomatic offensive worked, the military offensive could be called off, including the planned attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. In essence, the Japanese demanded from the United States a free hand in Asia. There were variations through a series of proposals, but the central points always included an Anglo-American promise not to “meddle in nor interrupt” a settlement between Japan and China, a recognition of Japan's “special position” in French Indochina, an agreement not to reinforce Singapore and the Philippines, and a resumption of commercial relations with Japan's, which included selling oil.
The Army under General Douglas MacArthur was responsible for the SW Pacific, and the Navy under Admiral Chester Nimitz was in charge in the Central Pacific. MacArthur's base was Australia; his strategy was to move northward throughout the NEI, the Philippines, and Formosa to get at Japan. Nimitz, in Hawaii, was to advance westward through the Central Pacific.
The strategy in the Pacific was to avoid Japanese strong points and to initiate operations that would conserve men and materiel.
Japan was fighting on to avoid the humiliation of unconditional surrender. She wanted some explicit conditions before her capitulation. A few Japanese leaders dreamed of holding onto conquered territory on the mainland, but most were realistic enough to know that Japan would lose control of all but her home islands. What they did want was some guarantee of eventual self-rule, and more immediately a guarantee that the Emperor would remain sacrosanct, both physically and in his official position.
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Marshall Plan
Post WWII, American exports were running at $16B a year, imports at less than $8B. Most of the exports went to Europe. If the Europeans were to pay for them, they had to have dollars, which they could only get by producing goods American could import. Otherwise, America’s export market would dry up. Militarily, only with a healthy economy could Europe support the troops necessary to stop the Red Army.
The area covered by the Marshall plan contained “270,000,000 people of the stock which has largely made America…. This vast friendly segment of the earth must not collapse. The iron curtain must not come to the rims of the Atlantic either by aggression or by default.” A rejuvenated Europe could produce strategic goods that the US could buy and stockpile, preserve Western control over Middle Eastern oil supplies, and free Europeans from economic problems so they could help the US militarily.
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NATO
There were three major objections to NATO: the cost; the abandonment of America’s historical position of no entangling alliances; and doubts about the wisdom of rearming the Germans.
After Truman signed NATO into law, American security thereafter could be immediately and drastically affected by changes in the overseas balance of power over which the US could not exercise much effective control. It meant that the US was guaranteeing the maintenance of foreign social structures and governments for the next 20 years. It committed the US to close peacetime military collaboration with the armed services of foreign nations. It signified the extent both of America’s break with her past and of her determination to halt Communist expansion.
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Atomic Bomb
Thanks to the Atomic Bomb, America could fight a Cold War without demanding any sacrifices of her citizens. America’s leaders hoped that through a judicious use of financial credit and the veiled threat of the bomb of the United States could shape the postwar world. Whatever the limitations on the bomb, the world regarded it as the ultimate weapon, an attitude the American press and politicians encouraged. In the end this backfired, since it meant the bomb could only be used in the most extreme situation imaginable.
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Cold War
At the end of WWII, the Red Army was in sole possession of the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic. The Soviet Union occupied East Europe. This crucial result of World War II destroyed the Grand Alliance and gave birth to the Cold War.
Whenever and wherever an anti-Communist government was threatened, by indigenous insurgents, foreign invasion, or even diplomatic pressure (as with Turkey), the US would supply political, economic, and, most of all, military aid. The Truman Doctrine came close to shutting the door against any revolution, since the terms “free peoples” and “anti-Communist” were thought to be synonymous.
Representative Joseph Martin, a republican, read to the house a letter from MacArthur on 5 Apr, 1951 calling for a new foreign policy. The general wanted to reunify Korea, unleash Chiang for an attack on the mainland, and fight Communism in Asia rather than in Europe. “Here in Asia,” he said, “is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest. Here we fight Europe’s war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words.” The Cold War would be fought Truman’s way. There would be clashes on the periphery but none between the major powers.
It was certain that Stalin would insist on Communist dictatorships controlled by Moscow. The economic and political leaders of the old regimes would be thrown out, along with religious leaders and editors. With them would go some of the most cherished concepts in the West- freedom of speech, free elections, freedom of religion, and free enterprise. The men who ran the American government could not look with any approval on the suppression of precisely those liberties they had fought Hitler to uphold.
In the Cold War, neither the US or USSR had had much interest in ideological purity. At various times the Russians supported the most reactionary of the richest Arab rulers, while the US gave aid to the most radical of the poorest Arab governments.
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Cuban Missile Crisis
Robert Kennedy began to see the absurdity of the situation- the US was on the verge of bombing a small nation with which it was not at war, and risking in the process a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union, over the issue of obsolete missiles in Turkey that he had already ordered obsolete.
The President set the general goals: get the missiles out of Cuba; avoid a nuclear exchange; prepare for Russian moves elsewhere, as in Berlin; do not lose face. He appointed a special committee of a dozen or so members which called itself the Ex Comm to give him advice. The leading figure of Ex Comm was the president’s younger brother, Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy. The Committee debated a wide range of alternatives, which soon narrowed down to launching a nuclear strike against the missile sites, launching a conventional air strike, followed by an invasion, or initiating a naval blockade that would prevent the Soviet’s from sending any further material into Cuba.
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Vietnam War
JFK: Vietnam was an almost perfect place to get involved. There he could show his interest in the Third World, demonstrate conclusively that American lived up to her commitments (the 1954 SEATO treaty had extended protection to South Vietnam if it were attacked from without), and play the exciting new game of counterinsurgency.
LBJ: Thought the S. Vietnamese could do the fighting, aided by American training and equipment. “We are not going to send American Boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
Nixon: His options on taking office: bring the boys home, continue LBJ’s policy of all-out war in the south and hands off the north, turn the war over to the Vietnamese making them do the fighting with American equipment, extend the bombing campaign to the North, devastate Hanoi, mine Haiphong harbor, and invade with ground troops, or use nuclear weapons. So it came down to the program Nixon called Vietnamization. He proposed to withdraw American combat troops, unit by unit, while continuing to give air and naval support to ARVN and rearming ARVN with the best military hardware America had to offer. There were many nuances to Nixon’s policy, but always a consistent aim: to get Moscow and Peking to force Hanoi to allow the US to extract itself from South Vietnam and to refrain from toppling Thieu until a “decent interval” had gone by (presumably until Nixon left the White House in 1977).
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Israel & Palestine
Most Arabs agreed that the Israelis could have peace, or they could have territory, but not both.
It is the presence of the Jewish state of Israel on territory that was once Palestinian that causes the basic Middle Eastern political problem.
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Eisenhower
Eisenhower’s outstanding achievement was to avoid war.
Eisenhower’s fundamental insight, that the more one spent on atomic weapons, the less secure one became, because as the US built more weapons, the Russians were sure to follow.
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JFK
After 2 years in office JFK and McNamara had increased the defense budget from $40billion to $56billion. By 1967 American had 41 Polaris sub carrying 656 missile launchers and 600 long range bombers, 40% of which were always in a high state of alert. In ICBMs, JFK and McNamara had increased the American force level by a factor of five. They had inherited 200 ICBMs from Ike; by 1967 the US had 1,000. The JFK/McNamara team had launched the greatest arms race in the history of mankind.
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Nixon
In the face of great obstacles one of which was the Senate, the Nixon admin had some major foreign policy triumphs. First, it managed to extract the US from Vietnam. Second it opened the door to china. Third it promoted a policy of détente with the Russians. Fourth, it reached an arms control agreement with the Soviets. No other Cold War administration could claim even one such accomplishment.
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Carter
Carter established a Bureau on Human rights in the State Department and gave or withheld economic aid, trade advantages, weapons, and other forms of aid on the basis of a nation’s human rights record.
Unlike his predecessors, he did not regard Communism as the chief enemy; he said repeatedly that Americans had become too fearful of the Communists while giving too little attention to the greater danger of the arms race and too much support to repressive right-wing dictatorships around the world.
In his inaugural address, Carter said his ultimate goal was the elimination of nuclear weapons from the earth.
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Misc Quotes
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.-IKE, 6 Apr, 1953.
Containment was a treadmill policy which at best might perhaps keep us in the same place until we drop exhausted.-John Foster Dulles.
Let Every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foes, in order to assure the survival of liberty. This much we pledge- and more. JFK, Inauguration.
Without having a nuclear war, we want to permit what Thomas Jefferson called the disease of liberty to be caught in areas which are now held by Communists.-JFK.
An attempt to gain a unilateral advantage in the strategic field must be self-defeating.-Henry Kissinger.
Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.-US Pres. Carter.
The peaceful liberation of the captive peoples is, and, until success is achieved, will continue to be a major goal of US foreign policy.-IKE.
At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life….One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I believe that it must be the policy of the US to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.-Truman, March 12, 1947.
Legitimacy cannot be defeated and if you object to revolutionary governments, then you simply argue against the whole of progress.-VK Krishna Menon in response to the 1965 US invasion of the DR, India 1960.
Lame Duck: An official (especially the president) in the final period of office, after the election of a successor.
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Chronology
18 Jun, 1979: The SALT II treaty is signed by the US and USSR at Vienna. It set upper limits toward which both sides could build rather than freezing nuclear weapons and delivery systems, and it failed altogether to even mention the Pershing II missiles or the Backfire Bomber or the IRV problem (multiple warheads for individual ICBMs).-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Dec, 1978: The USA and PRC establish full diplomatic relations while simultaneously ending its mutual defense treaty with the Nationalist Chinese on Formosa.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
31 Oct, 1978: The US Pregnancy Discrimination Act is signed into law by US Pres. Carter extending civil rights protections from sex discrimination to pregnant women in the workplace.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Feb, 1978: US Pres. Carter cuts all military and economic aid to Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua, because of his odious record on human rights. Somoza could not withstand the attacks of the Sandinista guerrilla movement. In July 1979, Somoza fled to Miami; a year later, he was assassinated in Paraguay.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Apr, 1975: Cambodia’s Lon Nol regime in Phnom Penh falls to the Khmer Rouge.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Aug, 1974: Resignation of US President Nixon; Gerald Ford becomes POTUS.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
7 Nov, 1973: The War Powers Act are signed into law in the USA requiring the POTUS to give an accounting of his actions within 30 days of committing troops to a foreign war.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
7 Nov, 1973: The US and Egypt reestablish diplomatic relations (broken since 1967), arrange for an exchange of POWs and lift the Israeli sieges of the city of Suez and of the third Army.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
6-24 Oct, 1973: The Yom Kippur War is fought after an Allied Egypt & Syria strike Israel.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
24 Oct, 1973: USSR Premier Brezhnev proposes to Nixon that they send a joint-Soviet American expeditionary force to Suez to save the Egyptian 3rd Army from Dayan. If Nixon was not interested, Brezhnev added, the Soviet Union would go in alone. Kissinger responded in the strongest terms possible, persuading Nixon to proclaim a worldwide alert of American armed forces, including nuclear strike forces. The Pentagon prepared plans to fly American troops to the Suez to confront the Russian paratroopers, if necessary. Kissinger then made certain that Brezhnev understood that the US would go to the limit to keep Russian troops out of the area. The UN peacekeeping force must be drawn from the armies of non-nuclear powers, Kissinger insisted. Brezhnev agreed and the American alert, which had alarmed everybody, was called off. Dayan ended the pressure on the Third Army and the war was over.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
15, Oct 1973: Israel counterattacks crossing the Suez at two points, and encircling the Egyptian 3rd Army while driving the Syrians back from the Golan Heights.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
13 Oct, 1973: American Military Aid is delivered to Israel.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
6 Oct, 1973: The Yom Kippur War begins when Israel is attacked by an Allied Egypt & Sryia.
1973- 18 Mar, 1974: The Great Oil Embargo; The Arab states, led by Faisal of Saudi Arabia, impose an effective embargo on oil shipments to the US and to Israel’s friends in Europe.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1972: Sadat expels 20,000 Soviets from Egypt.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1972: The SALT I Agreement is signed freezing ICBM deployment (but not MIRV).-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1972: The Helsinki accords are signed recognizing the boundaries of the various Russian satellites in East Europe and committing all signatories (including the Russians) to the defense of human rights (there was no enforcement machinery).-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
22 Nov, 1967: UNSCR 242 ends aggression between Israel and Egypt; for Israel it promised peace with her neighbors, secure and reorganized boundaries, and free navigation of regional waterways. For the Arabs it promised Jewish evacuation of the conquered territories and a national homeland for the Palestinians.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
5-10 Jun, 1967: The Six Days War is fought between Israel and Egypt; Israel conquers all of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula and the Gaza strip, drives 12 miles into Syria and seizes the Golan Heights, and takes all of Jerusalem plus the West Bank of the Jordan River. Israel now occupied territory that was indisputably Arab. The immediate consequence was the expansion of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and a dramatic increase in the scope and number of terrorist acts carried out by desperate PLO.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
6 Jun, 1967: Egypt’s Nasser falsely accuses the US of participating in the attack. He was widely believed in the Arab world. By the morning of June 7, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen had broken relations with the US and Britain.
5 Jun, 1967: The Israeli AF destroys the Egyptian air force; by flying over the Med rather than Sinai, the planes avoided Egyptian radar and achieved complete tactical surprise. They demolished most of Egypt’s planes and left its airfields inoperative, then turned and repeated the operations against the Jordanian, Syrian, and Iraqi air forces.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
May, 1967: Egyptian President Nasser demands the removal of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF), which had stood between the Egyptians and Israelis since 1957.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
May, 1967: Egyptian troops take possession of Sharm al-Shaikh, overlooking the strait of Tiran, and close Israel’s access to the Gulf of Aqaba and thus to the port of Eilat.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
28 Apr, 1965: US President LBJ deploys the Marines to the DR to restore order following political instability in the country.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1 Nov, 1955- 30 Apr, 1975: The Second Indochina War (aka the Vietnam War aka the War of American Aggression).
30 Apr, 1975: The remnants of the SV government announce its unconditional surrender to the Communists. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh city, and Vietnam was again united into one country.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
28 Apr, 1973: US President Ford orders the emergency HELEVAC of all Americans remaining in SV.
23 Jan, 1973: All active US participation in Vietnam ends.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
8 Jun, 1969: After meeting with Pres Thieu of South Vietnam on Midway Island, Nixon announced the first US troops withdrawals from Vietnam. By Aug 1, he said, 25,000 American soldiers would be returned to the US. Further reductions would follow, as ARVN’s fighting quality improved.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
31 Mar, 1968: US Pres LBJ ends aerial bombing in N. Vietnam, except for an area immediately north of the DMZ. To everyone's astonishment, he then withdrew from the presidential race.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Late Jan, 1968: The N. Vietnamese Tet offensive.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
8 Jun, 1965: US Pres. LBJ authorizes US troops, formerly confined to patrolling, to search out and engage the enemy in combat.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
2 Mar, 1965: American bombers hit an ammunition dump ten miles inside N. Vietnam and a harbor 55 miles north of the DMZ. They set limits based on a checklist of 4 items; 1) The military advantage of striking the proposed target, 2) The risk to American aircraft, 3) The danger of widening the war by forcing other countries into the fighting, 3) The danger of heavy civilian casualties.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
2-3 Aug, 1964: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is passed after American destroyers are attacked by North Viet torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. LBJ, without an investigation, charges NV with committing “open aggression on the high seas.”-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
16-28 Oct, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis.
28 Oct, 1962: The DoS had drafted a letter from Kennedy to Khrushchev informing the premier that the US could not remove the missiles from Turkey and that no trade could be made. Robert Kennedy then stepped forward. He suggested that the Ex Comm ignore Khrushchev’s second letter and answer the first, the one that offered to trade the missiles in Cuba for an American promise not to invade the island. Bitter arguments followed, but the President final accepted his brother’s suggestion. He sent an appropriate letter to Khrushchev.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
27 Oct, 1962: A U2 is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet SAM. A majority of Ex Comm agreed on the necessity of an air strike the next morning. The president demurred wanting to wait at least one more day.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
27 Oct, 1962: In a second letter, Khrushchev states he would take out the Cuban Missiles when Kennedy removed American missiles from Turkey. “You are worried over Cuba, you say that it worries you because it lies at a distance of 90 miles from the US. However, Turkey lies next to us…You have stationed devastating rocket weapons…in Turkey literally right next to us” (the US president had actually already ordered the missiles out of Turkey, but due to a bureaucratic foul-up and Turkish resistance they were still there). To remove them now, however, under Soviet pressure, was regarded as intolerable. The JCS recommended an air strike the next morning against Cuba. The generals and admirals said they had always been against the blockade as being too weak and now they wanted immediate action.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
26 Oct, 1962: In a first letter, Khrushchev states he will not send more weapons to Cuba and would withdraw or destroy those already there if JFK would withdraw the blockade and promise not to invade Cuba.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
23 Oct, 1962: Khrushchev said the Soviet Union would not observe the illegal blockade. “The actions of the USA with regard to Cuba are outright banditry or, if you like, the folly of degenerate imperialism.” He accused JFK of pushing mankind “to the abyss of a world missile nuclear war.”-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
13 Aug, 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, separating communist East Berlin from free West Berlin; Khrushchev and the East Germans could not afford to continue to lose their best human resources to the West nor to give the West such an ideal propaganda advantage.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1961: Dominican Rep. Dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated.
Sep, 1959: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is formed by Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq with the first objective to halt a world-wide slump in the price of crude oil.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1958-1960: Castro begins an extensive land-reform program and a nationalization of American-owned property, without compensation; Cuban liberals began to flee the country as Cuban communists rose to power under Castro. Khrushchev welcomed Castro as a new force in Latin America, pronounced the Monroe Doctrine dead, and in Feb 1960 signed a trade agreement to exchange Cuban sugar for Soviet oil and machinery.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
7 Nov, 1957: The Gaither report is published recommending a much-improved defense system with fallout shelters built on a massive scale, an improvement in America’s air-defense capability, a vast increase in offensive power, especially missile development, a buildup of conventional forces capable of fighting limited war, and another reorganization of the Pentagon. As a starter the Gaither report urged an increase in defense spending to $48B.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
4 Oct, 1957: Sputnik, the world’s first manmade satellite, is launched by the USSR.
Aug, 1957: The world’s first ICBM is successfully launched by the USSR.
29 Oct- 7 Nov, 1956: The Suez Crisis (aka the Second Arab-Israeli War aka the Tripartite Aggression aka the Sinai War); Israel with the UK and France invade Egypt to regain control of the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian President Nasser. After initial success, political pressure from the USA, USSR, and UN forced all three nations out of Egypt. The incident forced the resignation of British PM Anthony Eden and ended Britain’s role as a superpower. A UN Emergency Force (UNEF) was deployed to Sinai to ensure peace.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Nasser sunk ships to block the Suez Canal.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
26 Jul, 1956: The Suez Canal is nationalized by Egyptian President Nasser.
1 Nov, 1955- 30 Apr, 1975: The Second Indochina War (aka the Vietnam War aka the War of American Aggression).
18 July, 1955: The Geneva Summit; neither the USA nor USSR was willing to back down from previous positions. The US sought German unification and an ‘open skies’ agreement, which the Soviets saw as a heavy-handed American attempt to spy on Russia.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
14 May, 1955: The Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union and the Eastern European Nations as a Communist military counter to NATO.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
9 May, 1955: West Germany becomes a formal member of NATO.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Sept, 1954: The SE Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) is formed by Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, Thailand, Pakistan, and the Philippines, in which the parties agreed to consult if any signatory felt threatened. They would act together to meet an aggressor if they could unanimously agree on designating him and if the threatened state agreed to action on its territory. Thus, did the US bring South Vietnam into an alliance system.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
20 Jul, 1954: The Geneva Accords and the Geneva Armistice Agreement are signed; France agrees to withdraw its forces from all its colonies in French Indochina while stipulating that Vietnam would be divided at the 17th parallel with control of the North given to Ho Chi Minh as the Democratic Rep. of Vietnam and the South becoming the State of Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai.
19 Dec, 1946- 1 Aug, 1954: The First Indochina War; the French are ousted from Indochina by Vietminh forces under Ho-Chi Minh.
7 Apr, 1954: Domino Theory; IKE introduces a new political use for an old word when he explained at a press conference that all SE Asia was like a row of dominoes.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
3 April, 1954: US Sec State Dulles and Adm Radford meet with 8 congressional leaders looking for support for a congressional resolution authorizing US entry into the First Indochina war.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
13 Mar- 7 May, 1954: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu; the city falls to the Vietminh forces.
Mar, 1953: Death of Soviet Premier Josef Stalin.
Dec, 1952: Truman approves $60M for support of the French effort against Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh. Truman- and later Eisenhower- labeled Ho a communist agent of Peking and Moscow, characterizing the war in Vietnam as another example of Communist aggression.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1 Nov, 1952: US OP Mike; the first thermonuclear weapon is detonated at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Sep, 1951: A peace treaty is signed between the USA & Japan granting the US military bases, allowing for Japanese rearmament and unlimited industrialization, and encouraging a Japanese boom by dismissing British, Australian, Chinese, and other demands for reparations.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
15 Mar, 1951: Iranian Premier Mossadegh attempts full-scale nationalization of Iran’s oil fields.
Jan, 1951: Truman put the USA on a Cold War footing; he got emergency powers from Congress to expedite war mobilization, reintroduced selective service, submitted a $50billion defense, sent 2 more divisions (a total of 6) to Europe, doubled the number of air groups to 95, obtained new bases in Morocco, Libya, and Saudi Arabia, increased the Army by 50% to 3.5 million men, stepped up aid to the French in Vietnam, initiated the process of adding Greece and Turkey to NATO, and began discussions with Franco that led to American aid to Fascist Spain in return for military bases there.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
26 Jun, 1950: The US pledges military intervention against any further expansion of Communist rule in Asia. Truman announces an extension of military aid to the French, who were fighting Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh in Indochina, and to the Philippines, where the Huks continued to challenge the Government. Truman also ordered the Seventh fleet to “prevent any attack on Formosa,” declaring that the determination of Formosa’s future status “must await the restoration of security in the Pacific, a peace settlement with Japan, or consideration by the UN.” America had become involved in the Chinese Civil War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the war of national liberation in Indochina, in one day.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
25 Jun, 1950- 27 Jul, 1953: The Korean War.
Jan- Mar, 1951: A US Offensive led by General MacArthur drives the Chinese and North Koreans back to the 38th parallel. MacArthur sabotaged efforts to obtain a ceasefire by crossing the parallel and demanding an unconditional surrender from the Chinese. Truman was furious and decided to remove the General at his first opportunity.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
30 Jun, 1950: US troops in Japan proceed to Korea with the purpose of restoring the 38th parallel as the dividing line between North and South Korea. The policy, in other words, was containment, not rollback.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
25 Jun, 1950: The Korean War begins when N. Korean troops cross the 38 parallel in force.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
7 Apr, 1950: NSC 68 is published advocating “an immediate and large-scale build up in our military and general strength and that of our allies with the intention of righting the power balance and in the hope that through means other than all-out war we could induce a change in the nature of the Soviet system…calling on the US to assume unilaterally the defense of the non-Communist world. NSC 68 represented the practical extension of the Truman Doctrine, which had been worldwide in its implications but limited to Europe in its application. NSC-68 foresaw “an indefinite period of tension and danger” and warned that by 1954 the Soviet Union would have the nuclear capability to destroy the US.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
9 Feb, 1950: McCarthyism begins; “Given all the power America had at her disposal, given American goodwill, and given the eagerness of peoples everywhere to follow the American example, how had it happened that East Europe and China fell to Communists? I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals (in the state dept) who would appear to be either card-carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are helping to shape our foreign policy.”-Junior WI Sen Joseph McCarthy in a speech at Wheeling, WV.
Jan, 1950: German Klaus Fuchs who was part of the US Manhattan Project is found guilty of giving atomic secrets to agents of the Soviet Union. He serves 9 years in a UK Prison and is released to East. Germany where he continued his work.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
22 Sept, 1949: The USSR successfully explode an Atomic Bomb.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
23 May, 1949: The West German Bonn Rep government is formed.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
4 April, 1949: NATO is formed in Washington by Britain, France, Belgium, the Neth, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Canada, and the US, pledging themselves to mutual assistance in case of aggression against any of the signatories.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
June, 1948: The Truman administration authorizes the CIA to engage in a broad range of covert ops directed against the Soviet Union and Communists elsewhere, including political and economic warfare and paramilitary activities.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
15 May, 1948- 10 Mar, 1949: The Arab- Israeli War; An Arab coalition comprised of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanaon, Syria, and Iraq invade Israel. The Israelis asked the UN for help and the US and the Soviet Union worked together to bring about a 4-week truce. During this time, the Israelis procured quantities of heavy arms from Communist Czechoslovakia. When the shooting started again, it was the Israelis who drove their enemies from the field. The US forced a cease fire resolution through the UN, but it was generally ignored and Israel continued to conquer Arab territory, including Western Galilee and part of the Negev desert.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
14 May, 1948: Israel proclaims independence.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1947: ‘The Sources of Soviet Conduct’ (aka the X-article); Kennan argues that the Soviets were motivated by two beliefs: (1) The innate antagonism between capitalism and socialism; and (2) the infallibility of the Kremlin. Their goal was world conquest, but because of the Soviet theory of the inevitability of the eventual fall of capitalism they were in no hurry and had no timetable. The Kremlin’s “political action is a fluid stream which moves constantly, wherever it is permitted to move, toward a given goal. Its main concern is to make sure that it has filled every nook and cranny available to it in the basin of world power.” What was needed as the adroit and vigilant application of counterforce at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points, corresponding to the shifts and maneuvers of Soviet Policy.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1947-1991: The Cold War is fought between the USA and the USSR.
July, 1947: The National Security Act (NSA) is passed by US congress providing for a single DOD to replace the three independently run services, giving statutory status to the JCS, establishing the NSC to advise the President, and creating the CIA to gather info and to correlate and evaluate intel activities around the world.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1300, 12 March, 1947: US Aid to Greece and Turkey; ‘I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.’-US President Truman.
If Greece were lost, Turkey would be untenable. Russia would move in and take control of the Dardanelles, with the “clearest implications” for the Middle East. Morale would sink in Italy, Germany, and France.-Acheson describing what would become Domino Theory.
19 Dec, 1946- 1 Aug, 1954: The First Indochina War; the French are ousted from Indochina by Vietminh forces under Ho-Chi Minh.
22 Jul, 1946: The King David Hotel Bombing is carried out by Menachem Begin and the Irgun, a ring-wing Zionist underground movement, targeting British Admin HQ killing 91. Exhausted, the British turned the problem over to the UN, where the Soviets and Americans banded together to force a solution on the Arabs. That solution was the partition of Palestine to create a Jewish state along the Med coast, with almost indefensible borders.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Late Mar, 1946: (Within three weeks of Churchill’s iron curtain speech) The Soviets reject membership in the World Bank and in the IMF, and announce the start of a new 5-year plan designed to make Russia self-sufficient in the event of another war, built up the pressure on Iran, and mounted an intense ideological effort to eliminate all Western influences within the Soviet Union.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
5 Mar, 1946: The Iron Curtain Speech; in a speech at Fulton, Missouri, with Truman on the platform beside him, Churchill declared that from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. He wanted to lift that curtain, to liberate East Europe, and to hold the Russians back elsewhere, as in Iran and Turkey. He suggested that a fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples, operating outside the UN, should do it. The tool would be the atomic bomb, which Churchill said, “God has willed” to the United States alone.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Mar, 1945: The Japanese replace the French Civil Government in Vietnam with a Royal Puppet Government under Bao Dai pushing the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, into active resistance. Minh wanted independence within 5-10 years, land reform, a democracy based on universal suffrage, and national purchase of French holdings. He had worked closely with OSS agents during the war (primarily rescuing downed American pilots) and had copied the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence from the American document.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
1 Sep, 1939-2 Sep, 1945: World War II.
2 Sep, 1945: End of WWII; The Japanese formally surrender to the USA aboard the Battleship USS Missouri.
Sep, 1945: The Russians occupy Korea north of the 38 parallel and the Americans the area south of that line. Both agreed that this was merely a matter of convenience- that the Japanese colony eventually would be reunited and given its independence- and both seem to have meant it at the time, although neither gave Korea great deal of thought.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
15 Aug, 1945: Victory in Japan (VJ) Day; the Japanese surrender to the US ending WWII.
9 Aug, 1945: Fat Man, an implosion type Atomic Bomb, is dropped on Nagasaki.
9 Aug, 1945: Russia invades Northern Korea, further pushing Japan out of Manchuria.
6 Aug, 1945: Little Boy, a gun type Atomic Bomb, is dropped on Hiroshima.
Jul, 1945: Potsdam Conference; the USA’s purpose was to get the Russians into the war against Japan as soon as possible and to foster a working relationship with the Russians to prevent another catastrophe.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
8 May, 1945: Victory in Europe (VE) Day.
Jan- May, 1945: The Russians batter their way into Berlin, suffering heavy casualties. 2 months later they give up to the West over half the city they had captured at such an enormous price. At the cost of not a single life, Great Britain and the US had their sectors in Berlin, where they remained through the Cold War.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
6 Jun, 1944: D-Day, the Invasion of Normandy; with 5000 ships, 6000 airplanes, and 175,000 men from 12 nations, allied forces land on mainland France.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
8 Nov, 1942: Operation TORCH, the Allied invasion of French North Africa; Marshall had proposed an emergency landing on the French coast in Sep, 1942. The operation, code name SLEDGEHAMMER, would be a suicide mission designed to take pressure off the Russians. Churchill countered with a proposal, code name TORCH, to invade French North Africa.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
Oct, 1941: Lend Lease; American merchant vessels begin carrying goods to British and Russian ports.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
30 Oct, 1940: In a famous campaign speech in Boston, FDR declared: “and while I am talking to you mothers and fathers, I give you one more assurance. I have said this before, but I will say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”
2 Sept, 1940: Destroyer-for-bases deal; the USA gives the British 50 overage American destroyers in return for rent-free bases on British possessions from Bermuda to British Guiana.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
11 Oct, 1939: Albert Einstein warns FDR that the Germans are working on the problem of harnessing atomic energy into a bomb.-Rise to Globalism by Ambrose.
3 Sep, 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany.
1 Sep, 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland starting WWII.
5 May, 1916- 27 Dec, 1924: US Marines topple a Military Coupe and occupy the Dominican Rep.
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