History Wars Weapons » History

Background to the Korean War

Thor — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:54:54 +0000

The background to the Korean War began with some decisions made by the Allies at the end of World War II. Once the Soviet Union declared war on a collapsing Japanese Empire, it was decided that the American forces would accept the surrender of the Japanese troops in the south of Korea, and that the Soviet Army would accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in northern Korea. Thus, an arbitrary line was drawn along the 38th parallel of north latitude to divide what would be the American theater of operations from the Soviet in the north. As it had been agreed beforehand, on August 10, 1945, after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Soviet Union invaded the northern half of Korea. On September 8, after the Japanese final surrender, US troops landed on the Korean peninsula to occupy the southern half. By that time, the Red Army had already reached the 38th parallel.

In order to establish an independent Korea, in 1947, the UN General Assembly approved the creation of a special commission to deal with this issue. This UN commission had the task of supervising a national constitutional assembly elections to approve a national constitution for Korea. However, the Soviet Union, under Josef Stalin, rejected the job of the UN commission in the northern half of Korea, since the Soviets had already established a government for the northern half; a same type of puppet government they had set up in Eastern European countries.

In March 1948, having been rejected in the north, the UN commission supervised the elections in the south. The elections created a national assembly composed of 200 representatives. Syngman Rhee, an older patriotic figure, was elected president as the new democratic Constitution was approved on July 13, 1948; thus the Republic of Korea (or South Korea was born). As a result, the newly-created democratic institutions in the southern half claimed ruling jurisdiction over the whole Korean territory, which of course the pro-Soviet temporary government rejected. To counteract the constitutional and democratic government in the south, elections were held in the north on August 25, 1948, and a new socialist pro-Soviet government was established as the Constitution of the "Democratic Popular Republic of Korea" was approved. However, in December 1948, the United Nation recognized only the government in the south and demanded that both the Soviet Union and the United States of America withdrew their troops. By July 1949, both countries had withdrawn their forces from the Korean peninsula. An from then on, a growing ideological campaign took place on both side of the 38th parallel.

Terrorist Groups in Latin America

Thor — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:59:25 +0000

In the course of the 20th and 21st centuries there have been violent terrorist and insurgent groups that have attempted to overthrow established government (democratic and non-democratic) in Latin America to set up totalitarian regimes. Most of them have operated under the misleading and deceptive facade of "Liberation Front" or "People Movement", and so forth, purportedly fighting to "liberate the people from oppression". Nevertheless, from the many terrorist groups, organized in guerrilla armies, only two succeeded in toppling governments and establishing tyrannical regimes: the MR-26-7, which stands for "Movimiento Revolucionario 26 de Julio" (26th of July Revolutionary Movement in English), which was the Fidel Castro-led insurgent group that toppled Fulgencio Batista in Cuba; and the FSLN, Spanish acronym for "Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional" (Sandinista National Liberation Front), the extremist group that overthrew Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua in 1978.

Alghough both Fulgencio Batista and Anastasio Somoza had been dictators, they were replaced in office by brutal regimes who suppressed the press and imprisoned and executed all oppositions; thus, by supporting messianic and megalomaniac individuals, gullible peoples come out the pan and into the fire. Fidel Castro started the guerrilla war in Sierra Maestra, along Camilo Cienfuegos and Che-Guevara, promising the people that he would establish democracy in Cuba as soon he came to power. However, since 1959, the year he seized power, Cuba has been ruled by the same regime as Fidel has never called a presidential election, wielding at his whim executive, legislative, and judicial powers.

Among the most murderous, terrorist groups in Latin America were the Maoist-oriented ERP ("Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo": People Revolutionary Army), and Montoneros, led Marxist individuals. These two movements operated in Argentina from the late 1960s until 1978 approximately. Although they began their operations under a military government, in 1973, when General Agustin Lanusse called a general election as Argentina returned to democracy, the bosses of these extremist organizations did not participate in the election, preferring not to submit their political ideas to the will of the people as they continued the wave of terrorist attacks on military outposts and civilian population.

Acting in the name of the "people" they fought to "liberate", they planted bombs everywhere, kidnapped and assassinated businessmen, union leaders, and military personnel; among the thousands of victims killed by these terrorist groups was John Patrick Egan, the American consul in Argentina, who was kidnapped on February 28, 1975, by Montoneros and executed three days later, on March 3, and his body was dumped in plot of wasteland by a roadside. They had organized two guerrilla armies that operated in the tropical jungle in the province of Tucuman, in Northwest Argentina, but they were extremely dangerous since these groups were also composed of urban cells who planted bombs and carried out the assassinations. The members of these organizations are the people whose human rights President Jimmy Carter defended, but the American President never stood up for the rights of the thousands of human beings murdered by these "idealists".

There are two terrorist groups that are still operating in the jungle of South America as guerrilla armies. One of them is a Peruvian maoist group called "Sendero Luminoso" (Shining Path) whose violent path peaked in the 1980s; among their victims are Indian peasants who are murdered when they refuse to make donation or contribution to the organization. But the most famous of all terrorist groups in Latin America is the Colombian terrorist group known by the Spanish acronym FARC, "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Colombianas" (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces). With its origin going back to 1964, the FARC’s most famous boss was Manuel Marulanda. This Colombian guerrilla group run concentration camps in the middle of jungle where they have kept in captivity hundreds of victims, from Colombian military to American engineers. French journalist Romeo Langlois is the FARC’s last victim, kidnapped on April 28, 2012, during a firefight with the Colombian Army. But the source of finance of these leftist group is not ransoms but cocaine drug trafficking.

Reagan Administration (Summary)

Thor — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:33:30 +0000

The Reagan Administration comprises the two presidential terms of Ronald W Reagan, Republican, from 1981 to 1989. From the beginning, the new president had to deal with Jimmy Carter’s botched jobs: stagflation (recession plus a high inflation rate), high unemployment, energy crisis, the American hostages in the US embassy in Teheran, new communist governments in Central America (the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua and Cuban troops in Grenada). To solve these and other international problems, Ronald Reagan appointed capable men for his cabinet: Alexander Haig, a retired US Army General, as Secretary of State; Caspar Weinberger, a businessman and World War II veteran from San Francisco, as Secretary of Defense; Donald Regan (1981-1985) and James Baker (1985-1988) held the administration Secretary of the Treasury position; and William French Smith as Attorney General.

To get America out of the economic slump, the President boosted the economy with large tax cuts, at the same time curbing currency supply in order to avoid generating inflation. To encourage private investment, the Reagan administration deregulated the economy, especially the oil industry, generating new and larger economic ventures with new oil explorations and oil drilling. As a result of these and other measures, the inflation rate, which was at 12.5% in 1980, went down to 4.1% in 1989; unemployment rate was reduced from 10% to 5.4%; and oil prices came down from $35 a barrel (about $100 in today’s dollars) to $22 a barrel by 1988, due to an oil glut.

During the first year of the Reagan administration, the 52 US citizens held captive by Iranian Islamist students in the US embassy since 1979 were released. In 1983, the President authorized Operation Urgent Fury, which was the military invasion of Grenada, an island country in the Caribbean controlled by Cuban troops; the operation was successful as several American students were liberated by the US Marines. In order to bolster and support opposition to the Sandinista Marxist government of Daniel Ortega, the CIA carried out undercover operations to supply the center-right oriented militias, who were known as the Contras, with weapons. He also supported the opposition in communist Poland, led by the labor union leader Lech Walesa, co-founder of Solidarity.

Ronald Reagan increased the military spending, with a massive medium-range missile deployment in West Germany as new nuclear submarines were launched that functioned as mobile launching plataform deterrents, counteracting the Soviet nuclear threats. At the end the Soviet Union could not withstand this new arms race as the Soviet economy collapsed at the end of the Reagan administration: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down the wall," he said in a speech addressed to the Soviet government in 1989.

Johnson Administration

Thor — Sat, 05 May 2012 22:31:14 +0000

Succeeding John F Kennedy after his assassination, Lyndon Bain Johnson administration extended from 1963 to 1969. The spirit of compromise made of Johnson one of the most successful politicians of his time. With those who worked under him, he could be demanding. In a number of addresses beginning in mid-1964, President Lyndon B Johnson outlined the goals he wanted for the nation; goals that would bring about what he referred to as the Great Society. He asserted that the federal government should assume a role more commanding than it had ever before played in improving the quality of life in the United States. During the Johnson administration the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Amendments to the Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed, as it was the climax of the Black Revolution.

Passed in 1962 and ratified in 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment banned the States to use poll tax as a requirement for voting in federal elections. The Twenty-fifth Amendment was passed by Congress in late 1963 and ratified in 1967; it provided means for the vice-president to assume the office of acting president in case the president should become incapacitated. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (1) prohibited discrimination in places of public accommodation, such as stores, restaurants, hotels, and theaters; (2) it required the federal government to withdraw financial assistance from any State or local government that allowed discrimination in its operation; (3) strengthened voting rights protection; (4) authorized the attorney general to institute suits to schools where there was segregation; (5) established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to foster compliance with the law, forbidding discriminatory practices by employers and labor unions.

Strongly believing in the Domino Theory, Lyndon B Johnson sharply increased the number of military personnel in Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, in August 1964, which provided the US President with the right to use the Armed Forces in combat without the Senate’s approval. Thus, at the end of 1968, there were more than 500,000 troops deployed in South Vietnam as the bombing of North Vietnam had been increased. On March 31, 1968, Lyndon Bain Johnson announced in a televised speech that he would not run for another term in office.

Johnson’s Cabinet

Secretary of State: Dean Rusk, who was president of the Rockefeller Foundation, an organization that aids projects to advance welfare and culture.

Secretary of Defense: Robert S McNamara, who was president of the Ford Motor Company.

Post-War Domestic Problems in England

Thor — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:11:14 +0000

When the noise of World War II subsided, many domestic problems, most of them economic ones, cropped up on the political horizon in England, such as unemployment and a huge debt due to the returning soldiers and war effort. Although the English people approved of Churchill as a war leader, they preferred another man for peace. Thus, in July, 1945, the Labour Party won an election, gaining control of the House of Commons. With Clement R Attlee as Prime Minister, the party undertook the task of post-war reconstruction. Attlee, supported by a large majority in the House of Commons, proceeded to nationalize the Bank of England, the coal industry, civil aviation, telecommunications, radio, inland transport, the electric supply industry, and other phases of industrial life that had been under private control.

The National Insurance Act of 1946 sought to provide social security "from the cradle to the grave". It included payments for unemployment, sickness, maternity, widows’ benefits, care of orphans, retirement, and death. The National Health Service Act of 1946 provided free medical, dental, and hospital services. In education, free nursery school and free "county colleges" were to be organized. To insure efficient use of the nation manpower, a law was passed restricting the right of workers to leave one job to take another. The Trade Union and Disputes Act of 1927 was repealed. Work went forward in rebuilding houses and building destroyed in the war bombing. A loan of 3,750,000,000 was obtained from the United States to promote foreign trade and aid in England’s critical dollar shortage. This far-reaching Labour program aroused so mush opposition, however, that in the election of 1950 the party won a bare majority in the House of Commons. Even so Parliament voted to nationalize the steel industry.

In 1951, however, the Conservatives returned to power, and under the leadership of Churchill arrested what had seemed a trend toward Socialism. Conservative leadership continued under the premierships of Anthony Eden, and Harold Macmillan (1957).

Nixon Administration

Thor — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:33:22 +0000

The Richard Nixon Administration was the period of government of President Richard Nixon, Republican, taking place from 1969 to 1974. In 1968, in a well-managed national convention, Republicans had nominated Richard M Nixon for president and Spiro T Agnew of Maryland for vice-president, who won the national election in November that year, defeating the Democratic ticket Hubert H Humphrey (President Johnson’s vice-president) and Edmund Musky (Senator). Nixon would win a second term again in the 1972 presidential election, but he would not complete his second period due to the Watergate Scandal. Inheriting the war in Vietnam, civil rights issues and economic problems, Richard Nixon made numerous changes in his cabinet as he began his second term.

Richard Nixon’s foreign policy was characterized by a de-escalation of the war in Vietnam, implementing what was known as the vietnamization of the conflict, which consisted of replacing US troops by South Vietnamese soldiers, who had to be trained, leaving behind only military advisers and observers. In 1972, American bombings of North Vietnam were increased in order to put pressure on Ho Chi Minh government during the peace negotiation. Finally, in 1973, the US negotiator, Henry Kissinger, and North Vietnamese representatives signed the Paris Peace Accords, which was deemed an honorable way out of a war in which the United States became involved during a Democratic administration. In 1972, Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), which was a nuclear weapon limitation pact or treaty. Also in 1972, accompanied by Henry Kissinger, the President Nixon visited China, meeting with Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-Tung and the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, paving the way for future US-Chinese relations.

In domestic policy, the Nixon administration initially attempted to stem the ever-increasing inflation and the rising budget deficit by employing the usual approaches: 1) cutting back on government spending; 2) having the Federal Reserve banks charge high interest rates to commercial banks, so that commercial banks in turn would charge high interest rates to the people and thereby discouraging them from borrowing; 3) using influences with businesses to have them curb large increases in price and with labor unions to have them refrain from demanding large increases in wages. However, in October 1971, Nixon implemented what was called the phase two of the administration program to halt inflation; this phase included the establishment of a Pay Board, which limited wage increases to 5.5 % and the establishment of a price commission, which limited price increases to 2.5%.

The Richard Nixon Administration Cabinet

Secretary of State: William P Rogers, a lawyer from New York, succeeded in 1973 by Henry Kissinger, who had been an adviser to the Nixon administration on matters of foreign policy.
Secretary of Defense: Melvin P Laird of Wisconsin
Attorney General: John N Mitchell, a New York lawyer and leading bond specialist

20th Century Energy Crisis

Thor — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:04:28 +0000

In the 20th century the United States of America suffered two oil-related energy crises, both of them taking place in the 1970s; the first one during Richard Nixon Administration and the second under Carter. The 1973 oil crisis arose as a direct result of an oil embargo imposed on America by the Arab countries, who accused the United States government of supplying Israel with military equipment during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

During the 1973 oil embargo the gasoline price skyrocketed in the USA due to supply shortages. Harassed by the Watergate Scandal and the Vietnam War peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon was hindered and too busy to take any action to counteract the effects of the Arab oil embargo; thus, it was left to President Gerald Ford to take the initiative in 1974. He proposed raising the price of domestic oil and natural gas to help alliviate the energy crisis; his purpose was twofold: first, to reduce the consumption of those two high-demand dwindling commodities, and, second, to stimulate the search for new and additional sources by American oil and natural gas firms. Nevertheless, Ford was severely criticized by consumer groups, who accused him of lack of empathy for their cause; the environmentalists found even greater fault with Ford than did the consumerists as environmentalist groups pointed out the President had assumed an anti-environmental posture on the use of land for industrial purposes and on the production of nuclear energy. As a result, Ford backed down on such specific issues as water pollution and automobile emissions standards.

The 1979 energy crisis arose as a result of the Iranian Revolution, when the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was ousted from power by Shi’ite fundamentalists, led by Ayatollah Khomeini. This Islamist revolution caused an interruption in the Iranian oil production as exports stopped. Despite an increase of oil production by Saudi Arabia, there was 5 % drop of world oil supply; and It severely affected the United States, when President Jimmy Carter decided to impose a ban on Iranian imports as a reprisal for the kidnapping of American citizens in the US embassy in Tehran. To counteract the oil shortage in the United States, the President deregulated oil prices to stimulate production. However, this did not prevent the gasoline prices from going up sharply again as car drivers waited in long lines for more than an hour at gas stations.

Boers

Thor — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:46:57 +0000

The Boers were the Dutch colonists and their descendants in South Africa (Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal). "Boer" is a Dutch word which literally means farmer. The first Dutch settlers began to arrive in South Africa in the second half of the 17th century, when the region was under the control of the Dutch East India Company. When Great Britain took over from the Netherlands Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope in 1806, a number of its Dutch-speaking inhabitants traveled inland in 1835 to escape British colonial government rules and regulations; this migratory movement became known as the Great Trek, as the Dutch spoken by the Boers over time became the Afrikaans. To fight against the war-like local tribes and later the British Army, the Boers organized guerrilla armies and became tough fighters.

French Second Empire

Thor — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:05:54 +0000

The French Second Empire was the French empire that was created by president Louis Napoleon in 1852, after approval by the legislature and a national referendum, lasting until 1871. Thus, the president of the French Second Republic was proclaimed Emperor of the French Second Empire, with the name of Napoleon III. Nevertheless, the empire collapsed in 1871, when the French Imperial Army was defeated by the Prussian Army at the Battle of Sedan, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. After a series of communist revolts in Paris, the French Second Empire was succeeded by the French Third Republic.

Since the time he had been elected president, Louis Napoleon made it his aim to abolish the republic and to revive the empire. In complete contrast to Louis Philippe, who had relied upon the middle class, he sought support from the peasants, the army, and the priests. The expedition to Rome under Ouclinot was intended as a bribe to the soldiers and the church. The constituent assembly, having completed its work, was dissolved, and a new legislative assembly met in Paris on May 26, 1849. The elections gave evidence that the republicans had lost the confidence of the people. Neither Laniurtine, Distent de 1′Eure, Gamier Pages, Flocon, nor Marie had obtained seats. The opposition consisted of about 120 extreme democrats under the lead of Ledru-Rollin, and they revived the old revolutionary title of the "Mountain." In October the President dismissed his ministers, who were too constitutional for Ids tastes, and filled their places with more obscure but more docile instruments.

At last Louis Napoleon considered that his time had come, and fixed December 2, 1851, the anniversary of Austerlitz, as the date for the long-meditated coup d’etat. The necessary preparations had been carefully made by Napoleon’s agents. The first blow was struck by the imprisonment of the most dangerous opponents. Generals Cavaignac, Changarnier, Lamoriciere, Bedeau, together with Thiers, Victor Hugo, and Eugene Sue, were simultaneously seized in the middle of the night and dispersed to different prisons. In the morning proclamations appeared in all the streets announcing that the National Assembly had been dissolvtd, that a new election was to take place on December 14, that universal suffrage was restored, and that Paris and the department of the Seine were in a state of siege. A new ministry was announced, in which Momy was minister of the interior; St. Arnaud, of war; M. Rouher, of justice, and M. Fould, of finance, in an "appeal to the people" Louis Napoleon proposed that the executive head of the government should be chosen fur ten years, and that a Council of State, a Senate, and a Legislative Assembly should be created on the model of his uncle’s constitution of the 18th Brumaire. Meanwhile, about 250 deputies met in the Palais Bourbon, and were preparing a protest against the action of the presi lent, when the hall was surrounded by troops, and they found themselves prisoners.

The new constitution was formally issued on January 15, returned to the system of the first Napoleon. To have himself proclaim emperor, it was decided once more to have recourse to a plebiscite. The proposal was that Louis Napoleon should be chosen hereditary emperor of the French, with the right of settling the succession among the members of his family. It was carried without discussion by 7,824,129, to 253,145. So far universal suffrage had shown itself sufficiently favorable to despotism. On December 2, 1852, the new Emperor was proclaimed as Napoleon III.

France was once more subject to the absolute rule of an individual, and the character of that individual was one of the riddles of the agf. Napoleon’s personal courage was indisputable, but it was combined with invincible procrastination. No advice could turn him from his purpose, but no one could predict the moment when lie would carry it out. He could not endure opposition, and he surrounded himself with clerks rather than with ministers Men like Guizot and Thiers refused to serve him, and he could never have tolerated their superiority. His early training had been that of a conspirator, and a conspirator he remained when he had attained the throne.

French Third Republic

Thor — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:42:54 +0000

The French Third Republic was the French democratic government which originated in 1871, in the wake of the fall of the French Second Empire, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. It lasted until 1940, when its last president, Albert François Lebrun, was replaced by the Nazi-backed Vichy government right after the Battle of France, during World War II. Although at the beginning there was social unrest and communist revolts everywhere, the constitutional laws passed in 1875 stabilized the French Third Republic politically, paving the way for several decades of prosperity as France took part of the European industrial development of the Second Industrial Revolution. However, during this period most French presidents did not complete their terms in office as they were forced to resign due to massive demonstrations and scandals.