SOS HERMANN GMEINER SCHOOL, MEKELLE

History note for grade 12

UNIT-5
GLOBAL AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS SINCE 1945
5.1. The Aftermath and Consequences of WW II
 World War II had manifold, long-lasting consequences. The war claimed the lives of
approximately 55 - 62 million soldiers and civilians. It also left millions of homeless refugees. At
the end of the WW II, the European economy had collapsed, and 70% of the European industrial
infrastructure was destroyed. WWII was never formally terminated. As in 1919, no peace treaty
ratified the defeat of Germany. In contrast to WWI, the Western victors in WWII did not
demand compensation from the defeated nations. On the contrary, a plan created by U. S.
Secretary of State George Marshall, the “European Recovery Program”, better known as the
Marshall Plan, called for the U.S. Congress to allocate billions of dollars for the reconstruction of
Europe.
 The war served as a catalyst for major changes such as the redrawing of European borders, the
communist takeover of China and Eastern Europe, the creation of Israel, and the divisions of
Germany and Korea. It was also because of this war that, for the first time in modern history,
geopolitical power shifted away from western and central Europe. That multi-polar world was
replaced by a bipolar one dominated by the two most powerful victors, the United States and the
Soviet Union. The war increased the strength of independence movements in African, Asian, and
American colonies, and most of them became independent in the following 20 years. A new
international order was constructed since the League of Nations had obviously failed to prevent
the war. In 1945, the United Nations was founded. Moreover, the following global organizations
came into being: the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
 In the areas occupied by Western Allied troops, democratic governments were created; in the
areas occupied by Soviet troops, communist governments were created. Germany was
partitioned into four zones of occupation, with the American, British, and French zones grouped
as West Germany and the Soviet zone as East Germany. The Cold War had begun, and soon
NATO and the Warsaw Pact were formed.
Peace Agreements
 From Jan 1943 to July 1945, the Allies held conferences in Casablanca, Tehran, Yalta, and
Potsdam to fortify their wartime alliances and devise strategies for defeating the Axis powers. In
Feb 1945, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin met at Yalta to make
plans to end the war and to discuss the future of Eastern Europe. According to the Yalta
Conference, Germany itself was to be divided into American, British, French and Russian
military zones, and to bring all war criminals to just and swift punishment. Moreover, the Allied
powers met at Potsdam in July 1945. They agreed on a peace settlement with Germany and drew
up plans for Japan’s surrender and occupation. An important result of this series of meetings b/n
the victorious leaders was the establishment of the United Nations Organization (UN). In April
1945, in San Francisco, 50 nations signed the charter in which they agreed to set up a new
international organization that would be strong enough to prevent war.
War Crime Trials
 Acts of genocide or mass killing of civilian population occurred in the territories and/or occupied
territories of most great powers during the war, including Germany, Japan, the United States,
and the Soviet Union. The worst massacres were carried out in Nazi concentration camps. Most
camps specialized into forced labor camps, starvation camps, and, later, extermination camps,
though Auschwitz, the largest and most infamous, had a separate camp for each purpose. In the

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 Holocaust “deathcamps,” large numbers of people were killed using gas. Jews were the largest
group of people killed, numbering approximately 6 million.
 War Crimes Trials are trials of persons charged with criminal violations of the laws and customs
of war and related principles of international law. The first war crimes trials in modern times
were held after WWII by the victorious Allied nations to prosecute German and Japanese war
criminals. The most important war crimes trials were held in Nuremberg (Germany) and Tokyo
(Japan).
 The most well-known of all war crimes trials was conducted at Nuremberg in 1946. Nuremberg
was the former site of Nazi propaganda triumphs. Under the London Agreement of 1945, the
crimes charged against defendants fell into 3 general categories: Crimes against peace, war
crimes, and crimes against humanity.
 On Oct 18, 1945, the chief prosecutors lodged an indictment with the tribunal charging 24
individuals with a variety of crimes and atrocities, including the deliberate instigation of
aggressive wars, the extermination of racial and religious groups, the murder and mistreatment
of prisoners of war, and the murder, mistreatment, and deportation to slave labor of hundreds of
thousands of inhabitants of countries occupied by Germany during the war. Among the accused
were the top Nazi officials.
 After a long trial in which many documents from the German archives were read into the record,
the sentence was announced on Oct 1, 1946. 3 of the defendants were freed; 7 were given terms
from 10 years to life; 12 were sentenced to death. Goring committed suicide in prison a few hours
before he was to be executed. Those who had been condemned to death were executed in Oct 1946.
The Tokyo and Other Trials
 The Tokyo trial was another war crimes trial that was held under international authority. The
Tokyo Trial was convened to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for the same 3 types of
crimes. The Tokyo trial opened on May 3, 1946, and held its final session on Nov 12, 1948. 25
Japanese military and political leaders were charged with crimes against peace, and more than
300,000 Japanese nationals were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
5.2. The United Nations Organization (the UN)
 The United Nations (UN) is an international organization of nation-states based on the sovereign
equality of its members. The UN is forbidden to intervene in the internal affairs of states. It was
established with the major aims of maintaining international peace and security; developing
friendly relations among nations; and achieving international cooperation in solving economic,
social, cultural, or humanitarian problems. All member states are pledged to fulfill the
obligations they have assumed, to settle international disputes by peaceful means, to refrain
from the threat or use of force. On Dec 10, 1945, the United States Congress invited the UN to
establish its headquarters in New York, in US. The General Assembly of the UN meets annually
in New York.
The Organizational Structure of the United Nations
 The 6 principal organs of the United Nations are: the General Assembly, the Security Council,
the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice,
and the Secretariat.
 The General Assembly is the main organ of the UN. It represents all member states. But it has
less power than the Security Council. It appoints many standing as well as temporary ad hoc
committees to carry out its recommendations. To mention some of the most important ones: the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF).
 The second principal organ of the United Nations is the Security Council. This organ is
primarily responsible for maintaining international peace and security. It has 15 members, of
which 5 are permanent members (the US, Ruaaia, Great Britain and France, and China). Each

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 of the countries that has a permanent seat in the Security Council has the right to veto any
decision.
 The third principal organ of the United Nations is the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Today, the problems of developing nations are its major concern. ECOSOC coordinates the
economic and social activities of the UN and its specialized agencies, such as the World Health
Organization (WHO); the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO); the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); and the International Labor
Organization (ILO).
 The Trusteeship Council is the fourth principal organ of the United Nations. It was responsible
for the supervision of territories that were under the international trusteeship system, which
included former colonies of Germany, Italy, and Japan, and League of Nation mandates that had
not gained independence by the end of World War II in 1945. It was charged with helping these
areas to achieve independence.
 The fifth principal organ of the United Nations is the International Court of Justice. Situated in
The Hague, the Netherlands, it is the judicial body of the UN. The court hears cases referred to it
by UN members. Fifteen judges sit as members of the court; they are elected for 9-year terms by
the General Assembly and the Security Council.
 The last, but not least, principal organ of the United Nations is the Secretariat. According to the
United Nations Charter, it is the administrative organ of the UN and is composed of a secretary
general. The secretary general, appointed for a 5-year term by the General Assembly on the
recommendation of the Security Council, is the chief administrative official of the UN.
5.3. The Post-War Global Socio- Economic Recovery and Developments
 In the post-war period, Europe would be divided into two major spheres: the “West,” mainly
influenced by the USA, and the “Eastern Bloc,” dominated by the Soviet Union. Western Europe
was composed by all the countries liberated by the Western Allies (USA, Canada, UK, France,
etc) from German occupation, the European western allies themselves, plus Italy (a former Axis
Power) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) formed by the three of the four
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany, namely the zones of the USA, UK, and France. Almost all
countries of Western Europe received economic assistance from the United States through the
Marshall Plan.
Economic Recovery
 The economic recovery of Western European nations after the end of World War II, was at first
very slowly. The USA wanted to withdraw from European affairs soon after the end of the war.
But it soon realized that to do so would leave Europe completely at the mercy of the Soviet Union
and that American security would be endangered. As a result, the United States entered into
active participation in European affairs. This policy in turn led to a rivalry with the Soviet
Union for influence which is referred to as the “bipolarization” of political power. A divided
Europe began to play a secondary role in the rivalry b/n the two super powers.
 In 1948, alarmed by the establishment of Communist governments in Eastern Europe and by the
vulnerability of a Western Europe that lay in economic ruin, US Secretary of State George C.
Marshall proposed a program of aid designed to speed European recovery. This program of
financial assistance was known as European Recovery Program (ERP) or the Marshall Plan,
named after U.S. Secretary of State. Rejected by the Soviet-dominated governments to the East,
the Marshall Plan made possible a miraculous economic recovery in the West. There are many
suggested reasons behind America’s decision to aid West European nations. Firstly, Europe had
been a great market for American goods; without a prosperous Europe, the United States might
have suffered a severe economic depression. Secondly, Western Europe would be open to
influence by the Soviet Union. Finally, Germany should be integrated into a larger Europe and it
should be used as a buffer against Soviet expansion.

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 On April 3, 1948, the law providing for the European Recovery Program (ERP, Marshall Plan)
was signed by President Truman. The European countries which participated in this program
established a permanent organization known as the Organization for European Economic Co-
operation (OEEC), with headquarters in Paris. The largest amounts of money went to Britain,
France, Italy, and West Germany, in that order. The US Congress granted more than $13 billion
in aid.
 As Cold War tensions rose in 1949, the funds increasingly went into military expenditures rather
than industrial rebuilding. However, the Marshall Plan did much to set the European economy
back on its feet after the war and to foster economic co-operation. Moreover, the program
achieved both its immediate and long-term aims: When the aid ended in 1952, Communist
control of Western Europe had been averted, the region’s industrial production stood 35
percent above pre-war levels, and West Germany was independent, rearming, and economically
booming. The Marshall Plan also increased the co-operation of European states among
themselves.
Eastern Europe
 During World War II, the Eastern European countries either fell under Nazi occupation or allied
themselves with the Nazi regime. Towards the end of the war, Soviet troops occupied all but
Yugoslavia and Albania, freeing them from German control. Soon after the end of the war, Stalin
imposed communist governments in the Soviet-occupied countries of Poland, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. As a result, as the British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill said in 1946, “an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” separating Eastern
and Western Europe. The phrase “iron curtain” came to describe a policy of isolation that
prevented travel and communication b/n the two regions.
 The Soviet Union created the Molotov Plan (named after Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov) in
1947 to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and
economically aligned with the Soviet Union. This plan was the Soviet Union’s version of the
Marshall Plan. The Molotov Plan was a system of bilateral trade agreements that also
established the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON or CMEA) in Jan 1949 to
create an economic alliance of socialist countries. The original members were Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Later, Albania, East
Germany, the Republic of Mongolia, Cuba, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Angola, and Ethiopia (with
observer status) also joined it. In 1973, Finland was the first non-Communist country to sign a
cooperation agreement with COMECON.
Classifying Countries into the Third World and the North-South Division
 Countries were classified as Third World, North, and South, in addition to the postwar East and
West divisions. The term “Third World” arose during the Cold War to define countries that
remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. According to this political and
economic division, the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Western European nations and
their allies represented the “First World,” while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam, and
their allies represented the “Second World.” The Third World is normally seen to include many
countries with colonial pasts in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. It is being replaced with terms
such as developing countries, least developed countries or the Global South.
5.4. The Cold War Realities: The Relation b/n the Capitalist and Communist
Blocs
 The origin of the term “Cold War” is a matter of debate among scholars. It first came into
general use in Sep 1947, when journalist Walter Lippmann published a series of newspaper
columns (and books) on US-Soviet tensions entitled “The Cold War”. Historians differ
regarding the beginning date of the Cold War, but 1947 is usually pointed out as the starting
year for the Cold War. The prolonged global contest led by the two superpowers, the USA and

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 the USSR, was popularly termed “The Cold War.” The two superpowers did not directly
engage each other, but both sought to extend their influence and win territorial advantages in
adjacent parts of the world. The Cold War took the form of an arms race involving nuclear and
conventional weapons, networks of military alliances, economic warfare and trade embargoes,
propaganda, espionage, and proxy wars. The major civil wars polarized along Cold War lines
were the Greek Civil War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Soviet-Afghan War,
along with more peripheral conflicts in Angola, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. It should be noted
that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was the most important direct confrontation, together
with a series of confrontations over the Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Wall.
The Major Characteristic Features of the Cold War
 A major characteristic feature of the Cold War was the arms race b/n the member states of the
NATO and those of Warsaw Pact. This resulted in substantial scientific discoveries in many
technological and military fields. Some particularly revolutionary advances were made in the
field of nuclear weapons and rockets, which led to the space race. Many of the rockets used to
launch humans and satellites into space were originally based on military designs formulated
during this period. Other fields in which arms races occurred include: jet fighters, bombers,
chemical weapons, biological weapons, anti-aircraft warfare, surface-to-surface missiles, inter-
continental ballistic missiles, anti-tank weapons, submarines, submarine-launched ballistic
missiles, electronic intelligence, signals intelligence, reconnaissance aircraft and spy satellites.
The Cold War was primarily fought by intelligence agencies like the CIA (United States), MI6
(United Kingdom), BND (West Germany), Stasi (East Germany) and the KGB (Soviet Union).
 Cold War hostilities reached peak in the period b/n the changes in leadership for both
superpowers in 1953 to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Major events took place in this period
included the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Cuban
Missile Crisis in 1962 and the Prague Spring in 1968 (a movement to reform the Communist
system in Czechoslovakia). During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world was closest to a third
(nuclear) world war.
 The period b/n the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as
Soviet leader in 1985 was characterized by a marked “freeze” in relations b/n the superpowers
after the Detente period of the 1970s. The election of Margaret Thatcher as UK Prime Minister
in 1979, followed by that of Ronald Reagan to the American Presidency in 1980, saw the
elevation of two hard-line Cold Warriors to the leadership of the Western World.
When did the Cold War come to an end?
 This period began with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader in 1985 and continued
until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Events included the Chernobyl Accident in 1986,
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991. Through his policy of Perestroika (reconstruction) and Glasnost (openness),
Gorbachev provided new momentum for political and economic liberalization and the impetus
for cultivating warmer relations and trade with the West.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was a regional defense alliance created in April,
1949. NATO has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. It was an association of 12 states
(Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway,
Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States). It declared that an armed attack on any
one of them in Europe or North America would be regarded as an attack on all of them. Greece
and Turkey joined the alliance in 1952, the German Federal Republic (West Germany) in 1955
and Spain in 1982. It was a defensive gesture by the principal western powers based on fear of
Russian aggression. The dissolution of the Communist bloc and the breakup of the Soviet Union

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 drastically reduced the military threat to NATO. However, NATO continued after the end of the
Cold War, even expanding to include nations once in the Soviet bloc.
Warsaw Pact
 The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance of eight European Communist nations (Albania,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the USSR)
established by the treaty which was signed in Warsaw, Poland, on May 14, 1955. The
rearmament of West Germany and its admission to NATO prompted the establishment of the
Warsaw Pact. The alliance was dominated by the USSR, which kept strict control over the other
countries in the pact. In 1961, Albania broke off diplomatic relations with the USSR because of
ideological differences, and in 1968, it withdrew from the pact.
 The Warsaw Pact was profoundly affected by the political transformation of Eastern Europe at
the end of the 1980s. The USSR began withdrawing its troops from other Warsaw Pact
countries, and East Germany pulled out to join West Germany as the reunified nation of
Germany in Oct 1990. All joint military functions ceased at the end of March 1991, and in July,
the leaders of the remaining 6 member nations agreed to dissolve the alliance.
The Nonaligned Movement (NAM)
 The Nonaligned Movement (NAM) was a loose association of countries that had no formal
commitment to either of the two power blocs of the Cold War. In other words, it was an
association of nations that resisted supporting either the United States or the USSR during the
Cold War. An important milestone in the process of the establishment of the Nonaligned
Movement was reached at the Bandung (Indonesia) Conference (April 1955), where
representatives from 22 Asian and 7 African countries participated. The conference
demonstrated the determination of those 29 nations, which had recently freed themselves from
colonialism, to have an independent voice in international affairs and rejected renewed ties to
any big power.
 However, the Nonaligned Movement was formally formed in Sep 1961 by a conference of 25
heads of state in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The movement grew to include more than 110 countries,
mostly from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. A large majority of NAM nations opposed the
United States during the Vietnam War (1957–1955) and the USSR after its 1979 invasion of
Afghanistan. In practice, however, many NAM nations leaned heavily toward one power bloc or
the other.
5.5. Situations in Asia during the Cold War: Japan, Indo-china
(Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), India, China, and Korea
Post- War Japan
 On Aug 15, 1945, the Japanese emperor announced Japan’s surrendered. General Douglas
MacArthur was the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan. The soldiers that
occupied Japan were almost entirely Americans. The chief concerns of the first phase of the
occupation were demilitarization and democratization. The military was demobilized.
Ultranationalist organizations were dissolved. Political prisoners were released. An education
program along democratic lines was organized. Women were given the franchise in the first
general election in April 1946. A new constitution became effective in May 1947.
 By the end of 1947, most of the planned reforms had been carried out. The scarcity of food had to
be offset by imports from the Allied powers, and from the United States in particular. Severe
bombing during the war had almost abolished Japanese industrial capacity. To revive the
Japanese economy, the USA encouraged the Japanese government to curb inflation and cracked
down on Communist unions that used strikes for political ends. The United States also gave
Japan $2 billion in economic aid.
 The question of rearmament was widely debated throughout 1952. The government was
reluctant to commit itself in favor of rebuilding the country’s defenses, mainly because of

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 economic difficulties and legal obstacles (in the Japanese constitution of 1947 war is renounced
“forever”).
 In Oct 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan agreed to end the technical state of war that had existed
b/n the 2 countries since Aug 1945. In Dec 1945, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to
admit Japan to the United Nations. While maintaining close relations with the United States,
Japan sought to expand trade with the USSR and China as a means of reducing unemployment.
 Japanese productivity in 1945 was about the same as it had been in 1918. It took a decade to
recover to pre-war levels. In the 1960s, Japan surpassed every nation in Western Europe in
terms of gross national product and ranked next to the United States as a world industrial
power.
 Economists attribute Japan’s extraordinary growth to a number of combined factors. An
infrastructure of banking, marketing, and manufacturing skills had carried over from pre-war
Japan. The international situation was also favorable: oil was cheap, access to raw materials and
export markets was easy, and American sponsorship gained Japan early entry into the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other international organizations. Japan’s high
rate of savings also contributed to reinvestment. New technology and education also stimulated
growth. In the postwar period, an increasing number of people gained access to universities.
Another factor was the abundance of high-quality, cheap labor. Government economic policy
also played a crucial role in Japanese success. Governmental measures helped accelerate
savings and investment, the absorption of new technologies, and the shift to modern industries
and high-value exports.
The Indian Independence Movement
 India was the most important colony of the British. It was exploited by European colonial
powers from 1605 to 1947. The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events
with the aim of ending British rule in India. The movement spanned from 1857 to 1947. The
Indian National Congress, which was founded in 1885, played a leading role in the struggle for
national independence. Initially, the Indian elite sought only more economic rights under British
rule, but later on, in the early 20th c, the movement saw a more radical approach towards
political self-rule. On their part, the British worked to sow differences b/n Muslims and Hindus.
That was aimed at weakening the struggle of Indians for self-rule. In 1906, the Muslim League
split away from the Indian National Congress to stand for the rights of Indian Muslims. And the
League became a rallying point for Muslims, while the Indian National Congress was identified
with Hindus.
 During the inter-war period, Congress adopted Mahatma Gandhi’s policy of non-violence and
civil disobedience as forms of struggle against British colonial rule. The period of World War II
saw the peak of the campaigns by the Quit India Movement, led by Congress, and the Indian
National Army movement, led by Subhas Chandra.
Bose with the help of Japan.
 Under 1946 agreement, Indians were allowed to establish a Provisional Government and a
Legislative Assembly, though still under British colonial control. Nehru was appointed head of
the Provisional Government. At that time, the Muslim League was calling for a separate Muslim
state, which later became Pakistan. The British government agreed to give independence to two
separate states in the Indian sub-continent, namely Pakistan (Muslim) and India (predominantly
Hindu) in 1947. Finally, on Jan 26, 1947, India became an independent state, with Jawaharlal
Nehru as its first Prime Minister. Pakistan gained independence as well, with Mohammed Ali
Jinnah as its first President. Moreover, in 1971, East Pakistan declared independence as the
People’s Republic of Bangladesh. While India and Bangladesh have been good neighbors,
relations b/n Pakistan and India have been characterized by tension, accompanied by
intermittent armed clashes. Both have now become nuclear powers.

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 The People’s Republic of China (PRC)
 The end of the Second World War and Japan’s surrender in 1945 marked the resumption of
civil war b/n the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP, with
a better disciplined Red Army and widespread peasant support, completely defeated the KMT
forces in just 4 years. In Oct 1949, the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war and
established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland, led by Mao Tse-tung (Mao
Zedong). The Kuomintang, which was led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to the island province of
Taiwan, and established a Nationalist government.
 The first step taken by the Communist government was military consolidation. It also brought
an end to the long period of Western domination of China. Regions within the country’s historic
boundaries that had fallen away were reclaimed. Tibet, for example, was seized in 1950. As
China established alliances with the Socialist bloc, in 1950, the Sino-Soviet Alliance was formed.
The decade that followed is often called the “Soviet Period” because the Soviet model was adopted
for the government, the army, the economy, and higher education. During the Korean War
(1950–1953), Chinese troops aided the Communist regime of North Korea against South
Korean and United Nations forces. China also aided the Communist insurgents fighting the
French in Vietnam.
 Starting in the second half of the 1950s, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated, partly because of
border disputes and Chinese dissatisfaction with the level of Soviet aid, and partly because the
Chinese restored non-Soviet methods to accelerate the pace of their revolution.
 To revive the economy, which had been disrupted by decades of warfare, the CCP adopted a new
policy for economic development. A major achievement of the new regime was to curtail
famine. The CCP also made fundamental changes to society. Women also received equal rights
with respect to divorce, employment, and ownership of property. The CCP assumed strict
control over religion, forcing foreign missionaries to leave the country. The land of landlords
was redistributed among the landless.
 By 1956, Mao felt that even intellectuals should be adequately indoctrinated. Thus, Mao
launched a campaign to expose the party to the criticism of Chinese intellectuals under the
slogan “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom.” Although most intellectuals were cautious at first, Mao
repeatedly urged people to speak up. In 1957, Mao changed course and launched the so-called
“anti-rightist” campaign against the critics for harboring rightist ideology. About half a million
educated people lost their jobs and often their freedom, usually because something they had said
during the Hundred Flowers period had been interpreted as anti-Communist.
 In 1958, Mao took ideology a step further and abandoned the Soviet model in favor of a mass
spiritual mobilization for economic development. He called it the Great Leap Forward.
 Within a couple of years, the Great Leap had proved an economic disaster. Industrial
production dropped by as much as 50 percent b/n 1959 and 1962. Grain was taken from the
countryside based on wildly exaggerated production reports, contributing, along with
environmental calamities, to a massive famine from 1960 to 1962 in which more than 20 million
people died. The utter failure of the Great Leap Forward and the consequent widespread hunger
and malnutrition led China to turn toward a more moderate economic policy. Mao retained his
position as the head of the party but gave up his post as head of state to another veteran Communist
official.
The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, 1965-1976
 In mid-1966, Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, known simply as the
Cultural Revolution. The announced goals of the revolution were to eradicate the remains of so-
called bourgeois ideas and customs and to recapture the revolutionary zeal of early Chinese
Communism. Mao also wanted to increase his power over the government by discrediting or
removing party leaders who had challenged his authority or disagreed with his policies. He

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 called for a new revolution to create a truly egalitarian culture, urging students and teenaged
youth to form bands of Red Guards and attack the party bureaucracy.
 In June 1966, nearly all Chinese schools and universities were closed as students devoted
themselves full-time to Red Guard activities. Joined by groups of workers, peasants, and
demobilized soldiers, the Red Guards took to the streets in pro-Maoist, sometimes violent,
demonstrations. They made intellectuals, bureaucrats, party officials, and urban workers their
chief targets. The central party structure was destroyed as many high officials were removed
from their positions. During the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, college professors,
middle-school teachers, newspaper journalists, musicians, party cadres, factory managers, and
others who could be categorized as educated suffered a wide variety of brutal treatments. Men
and women were tortured, imprisoned, starved, denied medical treatment, and forced to leave
their children unsupervised when they were sent to labor camps in the countryside. Tens of
thousands were killed or committed suicide.
 Eventually, even Mao grew tired of the violence and near anarchy. In 1968 and 1969, he called in
the army to take over the revolutionary committees. In 1969, a new Central Committee,
composed largely of military men, was established, and General Lin Piao was named as Mao’s
successor.
 The second phase of the Cultural Revolution, during the years b/n 1969 and 1976, was moderate
only in comparison with what had gone before. On farms and in factories, ideology was still seen
as an adequate substitute for economic incentives. Universities reopened but students were
admitted not by examinations but by their class background. In 1971, Lin Piao, who was
regularly referred to as Mao’s closest comrade in arms and best student, turned against Mao.
Lin plotted unsuccessfully to assassinate Mao, but he was killed in an airplane crash while
attempting to flee to the USSR. Lin’s place was taken by the so-called Gang of Four.
China after Mao
 Mao died in 1976. In that same year, the Gang of Four and other prominent radical officials
were arrested. The Gang of Four was charged with the crimes of the Cultural Revolution. This
event came to mark the official end of the campaign.
 Greater tolerance on the part of the government soon resulted in a much better press and media
in China. This, in turn, fueled calls for greater liberty and political democracy. Student protests
occurred in several cities during the 1980s. The most massive one occurred in Beijing in 1989. In
April and May of 1989, hundreds of thousands of students, workers, and people from all walks
of life demonstrated for democracy in Tiananmen Square in Peking and in dozens of other
cities. As a symbol of their protest, demonstrators erected a 10-m (33-ft) statue called the
Goddess of Democracy. The protesters occupied Beijing’s Tiananmen Square until the
morning of June 4. The government sent tanks and troops. Hundreds of students were killed,
and the leaders who did not escape abroad were jailed.
Vietnam: Decolonization and War
 France completed its conquest of Vietnam and Cambodia by 1883, formed the Indochinese
Union in 1887, and added Laos to the Union in 1893. This union was known as the Indochinese
Union or French Indochina. In the early 20th c, as Vietnamese nationalism rose, political exiles
in China, Japan, and France formed nationalist parties. But when they tried to organize within
Vietnam, their leaders were jailed or executed. Under the French, only clandestine parties
survived. The most skilled organizer of such parties was Ho Chi Minh. Ho founded the
Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. In 1940–41, however, the Japanese occupied Vietnam.
Ho organized the broad Vietminh Front and prepared to launch an uprising. Therefore, Ho led
the Vietnamese against French and Japanese forces for control of their homeland. At the end of
World War II, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with Ho as
president. However, France was unwilling to cede its former colony. For more than a year, the

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 French and Vietnamese sought a negotiated solution. But the talks failed to resolve differences,
chiefly because of the French determination to reoccupy Vietnam.
 The war b/n the two lasted from 1946 to 1954. In late 1946, France drove the Vietnamese out of
southern Vietnam. The French tried to legitimize their rule by setting up a puppet government.
In 1954, after eight years of guerrilla attacks by the Vietnamese and a major defeat at the battle
of Dien Bien Phu, the French government agreed to negotiations to end the war. At a
conference held in Geneva, the two sides accepted an interim compromise to end the war. They
divided the country at the 17th parallel, with the Vietnamese in the north and the French and
their Vietnamese supporters in the south. Thus, the country was divided into a Communist
north and a non-Communist south.
The Vietnam War
 After Geneva, the Vietnamese in Hanoi began to build a Communist society. In the southern
capital, Saigon, the non- Communist regime was toppled by an anti-Communist president Ngo
Dinh Diem (1901–1963), who declared the Republic of Southern Vietnam. With diplomatic
support from the United States, Diem refused to hold elections and attempted to destroy
Communist influence in the South. By 1959, fighting had started with guerrilla warfare in the
south. The struggle grew into a full-scale war b/n the north and the south. The north was aided
by the USSR and China. The South was aided by the USA, which sent soldiers to Vietnam
numbering up to half a million.
 In the fall of 1963, Diem was overthrown and killed in a coup launched by his own generals. In
the political confusion that followed, the security situation in South Vietnam continued to
deteriorate, putting the Communists within reach of victory. In early 1965, to prevent the total
collapse of the Saigon regime, US President Lyndon Johnson approved the regular intensive
bombing of North Vietnam and the dispatch of US combat troops into the South, marking the
overt entry of the United States into the Vietnam War. Eventually, however, the resistance of the
South Vietnamese forces collapsed, and on April 30, 1975, the Communists seized power in
Saigon. Therefore, despite massive support, South Vietnam and the United States lost the war.
The Vietnam War had left more than 15 per cent of the Vietnamese population killed or
wounded. In 1976, the South was reunited with the North in a new Socialist Republic of
Vietnam, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
 There are several reasons for the defeat of South Vietnam and the United States by the North
during the Vietnam War. The South Vietnamese government was corrupt and unpopular; Ho
Chi Minh was a national hero not only for the northerners but also for South Vietnamese; even
anti-Communists viewed the USA as the successor to France and supported Communist
guerrillas; both the Communist guerrillas in the south and the North Vietnamese troops fought
better than the South Vietnamese troops; the jungle terrain of Vietnam made the US’s military
technology ineffective; and strong opposition against US involvement in Vietnam at home
forced the US to withdraw its troops.
Korea: Partition and War
 Korea was a colony of Japan b/n 1910 and 1945. The USA and the USSR divided Korea along
the 38 parallel into American and Soviet zones of liberation after World War II. Both the USA
and the USSR used their presence to promote friendly governments. The USSR gave its support
to Kim Il Sung, a Communist who had led anti-Japanese guerrillas. In the South, the United
States suppressed Syngman Rhee, a nationalist who had opposed the Japanese and had lived in
exile in the United States. Both Kim Il Sung and Syngman Rhee strongly favored reunification,
but each under their own rules, of course. In 1947, both the US and the USSR began arranging
separate governments. Subsequently, US-sponsored elections in 1948 led to the founding of the
Republic of Korea (south) in Aug 1948. The north followed in Sep 1948 by establishing the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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 The Korean War was a military struggle fought b/n 1950 and 1953. Considerable civil strife in
South Korea and growing opposition to President Syngman Rhee persuaded Kim Il Sung that
he would be welcomed by many South Koreans as a liberator to overthrow the Rhee
government and reunite the two Koreas. Hence, the North Korean army, substantially equipped
by the Soviet Union, invaded South Korea on June 23, 1950. The Cold War had already begun in
Europe, and the invasion, was seen in the United States as an act of aggression by world
Communism. Thus, the conflict swiftly developed into a limited international war involving the
United States and 19 other nations.
 The United States immediately responded by sending troops from Japan to South Korea. On
June 27, the UN Security Council, with the Soviet Union voluntarily absent, passed a US-
sponsored resolution calling for military sanctions against North Korea. 19 UN member states
including Ethiopia sent soldiers to support South Korea against the North. The UN force was
placed under An American officer, General Douglas MacArthur. The action was unique because
neither the UN nor its predecessor, the League of Nations, had ever used military measures to
repel an aggressor.
 The Communist offensive was halted in Jan 1951. Finally, the war became stalemated in 1951
and ended with an armistice on July 27, 1973. The Korean War was one of the most destructive
conflicts of the 20th c. The Korean War resulted in an estimated four million casualties. South
Korea suffered 1,312,836 casualties, North Korea sustained around two million casualties, the
United States suffered 157,530 casualties, casualties among other UN allies totaled 16,532, and
China’s estimated losses in action were 900,000. The economic and social damage to Korea was
incalculable.
5.6. The Middle East
Geographical Setting of the Middle East
 The term “Middle East” came into common use in the early 20th c, but remains loosely defined.
Defining the Middle East through ethnicity, religion, or national identity is problematic.
Therefore, for our purpose, the Middle East will include the states of Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Syria,
Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine.
Arab Nationalism: The Struggle for Independence, the End of the Mandates and Pan-
Arabism
 Much of the Middle East had been under the control of the Ottoman Turks until the end of
World War I. Soon after the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned b/n the
British and the French. 5 new mandate states were created: Britain took over Iraq, Palestine,
and Transjordan (now Jordan), while France took Syria and Lebanon. The Middle East was
more united under the Turks than under the West. Nationalism has been a powerful force shaping
the destiny of the region. In their mandated territories Britain and France encountered demands
from Arab nationalists and others for greater independence. The French rule was eliminated by
the British when the French authorities in Syria and Lebanon declared for Vichy. But British
rule, was maintained. The British were therefore the sole surviving target of Arab nationalism.
 Soon after World War II, British control over the Middle East came to an end. In 1946, the
mandate was replaced by a treaty of alliance, and Transjordan was made independent. In 1947,
Britain referred the future of Palestine to the United Nations (UN). The UN adopted the decision
that partitioned Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. Although Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and
Egypt obtained sovereign-state status after World War I, and Lebanon and Syria were officially
given their freedom during World War II, these states only became truly independent after
World War II.
 Since World War II, the Middle East has been encountered with two main types of conflict:
internal and interstate. It should be noted that the two conflicts also overlapped in some Middle
East countries. In major conflicts included the civil war in Lebanon from 1975 to 1989; the civil
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 war in Yemen, the long Kurdish insurgency in Turkey (1989 to 2000), the persistent Arab-
Israeli dispute; and the Suez Crisis of 1956; the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, the Gulf War of
1990-1991 and the War on Iraq of 2003.
Zionism and the Creation of the State of Israel
 The Jewish people were expelled from the land of Palestine by the Romans in 70 AD. This
episode is known in history as “Diaspora” (Greek for “dispersion”). But the Jews had long
maintained the idea of regaining control of the area, which they considered home. In 1897,
Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), a Jewish journalist living in Austria, founded the Zionist Movement
that advocated re-establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. This idea became the foundation of a
movement known as Zionism. Zionism is both a religious and political movement among the
Jewish people with the aim of creating a Jewish state in the territory defined as the historic Land
of Israel in Palestine, then an area controlled by the Ottoman Empire.
 In the late 19th and early 20th cs, the Zionist movement gained strength in Europe, and large
numbers of Jews migrated to Palestine. The movement focused on self-reliance through
agriculture, and many immigrants settled in the countryside. To do so, Jews had to buy land from
local Arab holders of small tracts and from absentee Arab landlords of large areas. As a result,
Jews and Arabs came into increasing contact; at times, Jewish purchases led to the displacement
of Arab peasants from the land. Although the Ottoman government sought to slow the Zionist
movement, Jews established a significant and expanded presence.
 During World War I, Britain was fighting against Ottoman Turkey. In return for their help in
the war, Britain had promised autonomy to both Zionists and Arabs. Thus, in 1917, the British
issued the Balfour Declaration, which favored the establishment of a national homeland for the
Jews in Palestine. The interwar period witnessed increasing Jewish settlement and growing
communal conflict that was poorly mediated by the British. Terrorist attacks and intermittent
low-level warfare were carried out by both Jews and Arabs.
 After World War II, the world became aware of the murder of millions of Jews in the Holocaust,
and opinion began to favor creating an independent Jewish state. Arabs in Palestine and
elsewhere continued to resist the idea, but on Nov 29, 1947, the United Nations (UN) passed a
resolution which called for the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The
Arab states refused to accept the U.N. resolution, but the Jewish leaders in Palestine proclaimed
the independent state of Israel in 1948.
The Arab-Israeli Wars and the Peacemaking Efforts
 The declaration of the state of Israel led to the Israeli-Arab War of 1948, in which Syria,
Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia attacked Israel. This was the first of a major series of
conflicts b/n the Jews and the Arabs. In the war, Arab forces had expected an easy victory over
the small and isolated Jewish state. Despite heavy casualties, Israel became victorious. Israel not
only repulsed the Arab nations but also expanded beyond the U.N. partition line, creating an
even larger Jewish nation for the Arabs to deal with. For the surrounding Arab countries, Israel
has been a bitter problem ever since. The war had created a large population of Palestinian
Arab refugees who fled Israel for camps maintained by the UN in neighboring Arab states. The
Arab world was unwilling to accept the Israeli victory, and shortly after the war, the Arabs
began to regroup for more fighting.
 After the 1948 war, the most serious military confrontations b/n the Jews and the Arabs were the
Suez Crisis of 1956, when Israel, with France and Britain, invaded the Sinai after Egyptian
provocations. In July, 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company and closed the canal to
Israeli shipping. Israel responded by invading the Sinai Peninsula with British and French
military support. During the Suez Crisis, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.
The United States and the United Nations soon pressured it into a ceasefire. Israel agreed to
withdraw from Egyptian territory. Egypt agreed to freedom of navigation in the region and the
demilitarization of the Sinai.
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 In 1967, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan massed their armies on Israel’s borders, and several Arab
states called for war. Assuming the Arabs would attack, Israel struck first, in June 1967. In the
Six-Day War that followed, Israel demolished the armies and air forces of Egypt, Syria, and
Jordan. It also gained control of the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, the Golan
Heights of Syria, and all of the previously partitioned city of Jerusalem. In late November, the
UN Security Council passed a resolution which called for an exchange of territory for peace and
for the resettling of Palestinian refugees. Nevertheless, both Arabs and Israelis rejected the
resolution. The Arab states continued to call for the destruction of Israel, while Israel, for its
part, refused to withdraw from the territories it occupied.
 After the 1967 war, the leading role in the struggle against Israel was taken over by Palestinian
refugee guerrilla organizations. Under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO), the Palestinians stepped up border raids and terrorist attacks inside Israel. Israeli
counterterrorist activities and harsh treatment of Arabs living within Israel’s borders cost Israel
some international support from this time on.
 In Oct 1973, the Arabs attacked Israel on the Jewish holiday known as Yom Kippur, and caught
Israel by surprise. Egypt and Syria pushed across the armistice lines established after the Six-
Day War, which had kept Egyptian troops west of the Suez Canal and Syrian troops north-east
of the Golan Heights. Israel, however, quickly recovered from the surprise and again pushed into
Arab territory, surrounding, or destroying the bulk of the Egyptian and Syrian forces.
 In the late 1970s, peace initiatives by Egypt’s new leader, Anwar Sadat, were coupled with
mediation by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Egypt entered direct negotiations with Israel’s
Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. The two countries reached an agreement known as the Camp
David Accords in 1978 and, in 1979, signed a formal peace treaty. Under the peace treaty signed
in March 1979, Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula, which was partially demilitarized, and Israel
and Egypt began normal diplomatic relations. For these reasons, the Arab League expelled
Egypt, and the rest of the Arab world widely condemned the accords. In 1981, President Anwar
Sadat of Egypt was assassinated by Egyptian Muslim extremists.
 In 1982, Israel waged its second invasion (the first in 1978) of Lebanon in the context of the
Lebanese-Syrian conflict to attack terrorist refuges of the Palestinian Liberation Organization
(PLO). The assault on the PLO, which Israel called Operation Peace for Galilee, quickly
escalated into ground battles in Lebanon and full-scale engagements b\n the Israeli and Syrian
air forces. The invasion finally resulted in defeats for both Syria and the PLO. But Israel’s effort
to establish a strong client regime in Beirut failed, and the Israelis eventually withdrew from
Lebanon with little but a puppet Christian army in southern Lebanon.
 In the 1980s and 1990s, bloodshed has become commonplace. In the late 1980s, Palestinians
began the intifada (Arabic, “uprising”), a widespread campaign against the continuing Israeli
occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The campaign combined elements of mass
demonstrations, civil disobedience, riots, and terrorism. The revolutionary impetus of the
intifada encouraged the emergence of the radical Islamist Palestinian group called Hamas.
Thus, the cycle of violence continues. Even after the historic peace agreement of Sep 1993 b\n the
PLO and Israel, not all Arab states, particularly Syria, have been willing to sit at the negotiation
table with Israel, and Israel has remained unchanged in its determination to expand West Bank
settlements, publicly announcing its determination to retain all of Jerusalem and parts of the
occupied territories.
5.7. The Dissolution of the Communist Bloc and the Aftermath
 The early 1980s witnessed a final period of friction b\n the United States and the USSR, resulting
mainly from the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 to support a Communist regime and
from the firm line adopted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1981-1985). Reagan believed that
rather than appeasement, the Soviets should be challenged. He expanded American military
capabilities to levels not seen since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Regan’s declaration that the

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 Soviets were “an Evil Empire” started a western world policy of an enhanced and updated
military build-up and a threat to develop a Strategic Defense Initiative (also known as “Star
Wars”) that the Soviets would never be able to compete with financially. Although reform in the
Soviet Union slowed down b\n 1969 and 1982, a generational shift gave new momentum for
reform with the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. The Chernobyl Accident in
1986 also added impetus for reform.
 The Chernobyl Accident of 1986 was a nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl, in the
Ukrainian Republic of the USSR. The accident produced a spiral of radioactive debris that
drifted over parts of the western USSR, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. It was the worst
nuclear power accident in history. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Russian
republics of the USSR were contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of
200,000 people. The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power
industry while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive.
 Gorbachev and his supporters challenged the way the party and bureaucracy had traditionally
managed the Soviet government and economy. Under the program of perestroika, or
restructuring, Gorbachev proposed major economic and political reforms. Gorbachev and his
advisors considered policies to liberalize the economy and move it rapidly toward a free market.
The government also relaxed restrictions on foreign trade and investment. Despite these
organizational changes, the Soviet economy stagnated and even declined. The shortage of food,
consumer goods, and housing has become chronic.
 In addition, Gorbachev soon launched ambitious political and social reforms. The most dramatic
change was adopting glasnost, or openness about public affairs. This reform allowed an
exceptionally broad public discussion and criticism of Soviet history and Soviet Communist
Party policy. In quick succession, the Soviet authorities released political prisoners, relaxed
censorship in the mass media, encouraged debate over the sins of the Soviet past. Gorbachev
accompanied these measures with a shift in foreign policy, pledging to curb Soviet military
spending and negotiate an end to the Cold War with the West. It should be noted that Gorbachev
and Reagan held a series of summit talks b/n 1985, and 1987 the two leaders agreed to eliminate
their countries’ nuclear missiles, those capable of striking Europe and Asia from the USSR and
vice versa. The Soviet government began to reduce its forces in Eastern Europe, and in 1989 it
pulled its troops out of Afghanistan.
 In 1989, Soviet domination and Communist rule in Eastern Europe came to an end. The wall that
had divided East and West Germany since 1961 was torn down, and in 1990, Germany once
again became a unified country. By 1991, the communist governments of Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania were brought down as
revolution swept Eastern Europe. The liberation of East Europe inspired many Soviet Union
republics to struggle harder for liberation from Moscow. Gorbachev resisted the dissolution of
the Union. He threatened military force against any republic that attempted secession.
Liberation movements simply grew stronger. Finally, Gorbachev attempted to restructure the
Soviet Union into a less centralized state by offering the republics autonomy within a union.
 The Soviet republics accelerated their process of independence, declaring their sovereignty one
by one. On Sep 6, 1991, the Soviet government recognized the independence of the three Baltic
States. Then, on Dec 1, 1991, Ukraine reaffirmed its independence after a popular referendum in
which 90% of voters opted for independence. On Dec 8, 1991, the leaders of the Russian,
Ukrainian, and Belarusian republics met and signed the Belavezha Accords, declaring the Soviet
Union dissolved and replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Consequences of the Collapse of the Communist Bloc
 The fall of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union meant the end of the Cold War.
Hence, the world began to see different domestic politics, economic policies, and international
relations. The problems in the new political and economic situation are enormous.

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 Unemployment was widespread throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. As a
result, hundreds of thousands of people began migrating from Eastern to Western Europe to
look for work. Economic problems in some East European countries helped former communists
to regain power. For example, in Poland former Communists gained in the elections of 1993.
1. Did the fall of Communism bring conflicts to an end in Europe?
 The collapse of Communism also caused very serious political challenges, particularly in
different parts of Eastern Europe. Economic strains reinforced ethnic and religious conflicts. A
civil war led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The potential for ethnic violence threatened the
former Soviet Union. The Czechs and the Slovaks, unable to establish a stable and unified state,
hence divided Czechoslovakia into two separate nations in 1993.
 In his book “Clash of Civilizations,” Samuel Huntington argues that post-Cold War conflict
would be most frequent and violent along cultural lines rather than ideological ones. Huntington
believes that this cultural organization better describes the world than the classical notion of
multicultural sovereign states. He stated that to understand conflict in the period after the
collapse of Communism, cultural rifts must be understood, and culture must be accepted as the
locus of war.
Unit Review Exercises
Instruction I- Fill in the Blank Spaces with Appropriate Names
1. The permanent headquarters of the United Nations Organization is found in____________.
2. The judicial body of the UN, the International Court of Justice, is situated in ___________.
3. ___________ was the founder of the Zionist Movement.
4. In 1917 the British issued a decree that favored the establishment of a national homeland for
the Jews in Palestine is known as _____________.
5. __________ was the first of major series conflicts between the Jews and the Arabs.
6. After 1979, Israel and Egypt entered normal diplomatic relations by the __________ treaty.
7. Gorbachev proposed major economic and political reforms known as ______________.
8. Gorbachev’s reform that allowed an extra-ordinarily broad public discussion and criticism of
Soviet history and Soviet Communist Party policy was called _________________.

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