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The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the Cold War as it unfolded in Asia. As John pointed out last week, the Cold War was occasionally hot, and a lot of that heat was generated in Asia. This is starting to sound weird with the hot/cold thing, so let's just say that the United States' struggle against communist expansion escalated to a full-blown, boots-on-the-ground war in Korea and Vietnam. In both of these cases, the United States sent soldiers to intervene in civil wars that it looked like communists might win. That's a bit of a simplification, but John will explain it all to you.

Full Transcript

The Cold War in Asia Crash Course US History 38

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're going talk about the Cold War again, really less about the Cold War, about the war. As usual, we're not going to focus so much on the generals and the tactics, but instead on why the wars were fought and what it all meant. And today, we get to visit a part of the world that we haven't seen much on this series. Asia, not my best work.

speaker01 00:28:00

So we're going to start today with the place where the Cold War really heated up, at least as far as America is concerned. Mr Green, it's Vietnam, close to me from the past. But like all your romantic endeavors unsuccessful, the correct answer is, of course, Korea.

speaker01 00:41:00

Like me from the past, Americans have forgotten about the Korean War, which lasted three years from 1950 to 1953 and is sometimes called the Forgotten War. But it was real. The Korean War was the first real shooting war that Americans were involved in after World War Ii, and it was also the only time that America American troops directly engaged with an honest to goodness communist power. I'm referring not to North Korea, but to China, which became communist in 1949 and qualifies as a major world power because it was and also is huge. We love you China, just kidding, you're not watching because of the Great Firewall. So the end of World War 2 left Korea split between a communist North led by Kim I crazy-ass pants and antique communist but hardly Democratic South led by singman re 2 supposed to reunite, but that was impossible because they were constantly fighting. Fighting that cost around 100000 lives.

speaker01 01:29:00

The civil war between the two Koreas turned into a full fledged international conflict in June 1950 when kimilsungia vaded the South and the U responded, Truman thought that Kim's invasion was being pushed by the Soviets and that it was a challenge to the, quote, free world. Trueman went to the United Nations and he got authorization, but he didn't go to Congress and never called the Korean War a war, insisting instead that American troops were leading a UN police action. But that was kind of a misleading statement General Douglas MacArthur was in command of this tiny little police force at the start the war because he was the highest ranking general in the region. He was also really popular, at least with the press, although not so much with other generals or with the president under MacArthur UN forces, which basically meant American and South Korean forces pushed the North Koreans back, back past the 38th parallel where the two countries had been divided.

speaker01 02:17:00

And then Truman made a fateful decision. The United States would try to reunify Korea as a non communist state, which if you've looked at a map recently, you'll notice went swimmingly. Ass allies in the U all agreed to this idea. So up north, they went all the way to the northern border with China at the Yalu River. At that point, Chinese forces feeling that American forces were smidge too close to China, counterattacked.

speaker01 02:40:00

On November 1, 19 90s50, and by Christmas, the two sides were stalemated again at the 38th parallel, right where they started, the war dragged on for two more years, with the us pursuing a scorched earth policy and dropping more bombs on Korea than had been dropped in the entire Pacific leader during World War 2. The two sides tried to negotiate a peace treaty, but the sticking was the repatriation of North Korean and Chinese prisoners who didn't want to go back to their communist homeland.

speaker01 03:05:00

Meanwhile, at home, Americans were growing tired of fighting a war that they weren't winning, which helped to swing the election of 1000 and 950 swo for Dwight Eisenhower. Also, he was running against perenn presidential loser Adlai step-son, who was perceived as an egghead intellectual because his name was Adlai Stevenson.

speaker01 03:20:00

In addition to helping I get elected, the Korean War had a number of profound effects. First, and most importantly, it was expensive, both in terms of law and in three years of fighting, 33629 Americans were killed, 102000 were wounded, and nearly 4 million Korean and Chinese people were killed, wounded or missing. The majority of Korean casualties were civilians.

speaker01 03:42:00

The Korean War also further strengthened executive power in the United States. Truman went to war without a declaration, and Congress acquiesced. This doesn't mean that the war was initially unpopular. It wasn't. People wanted to see America do something about communist and allowing Kim to take the South and possibly threaten Japan was unacceptable whole that you don't really need to declare war to go to war, while not new in America, sure has been important in the last 60 years. And the Korean War also strengthened the Cold War mentality. I mean, this was the height of the Red Scare. Also the Korean War set the stage for Americas longer, more destructive and more well known engagement in Asia.

speaker01 04:17:00

The Vietnam War, it's time for the mystery document. The rules here are simple, I guess. The author of the mystery document. I'm either right or I get shocked. All right, let's see what we got. The declaration of the French Revolution made in 1000 and 790 two-one states, all men are born free and with equal rights and must always free and have equal rights. Those are undeniable truth. Nevertheless, for more than 80 years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of liberty, equality and fraternity, have violated our fatherland and oppressed our fellow citizens, have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice in the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every Democratic liberty.

speaker01 04:59:00

Well, Stan, that sounds like a Frenchman who really doesn't want to be French anymore. So it's somebody who's very disappointed by the way that France has been running their colonies. I'm going to guess that it's North Vietnamese leader and Crash Course chalkboard person Ho Chi Minh. Wait, Stan says he needs his real name, it's when Singing Kong, Yes, so this document points out that at least rhetorically Ho Chi Minh was fighting for liberation from a colonial power as much as, if not more than, he was trying to establish a communist dictate in 2009 Vietnam, but because of the Cold War in its prevailing theories, the United States could only see Ho as a communist stooge, a tool of the Kremlin, and under the sole carelle domino theory, Vietnam was just another domino that had to be propped up or else the rest of Southeast Asia would fall to communists like a row of dominoes. Now in retrospect, this was a fundamental misunderstanding, but it's important to understand that at the time people felt that they didn't want the Soviet Union to expand the way that say Nazi Germany had Americas involved in Vietnam.

speaker01 05:57:00

Like most things, Cold War dates back to World War 2, but it really picked up in the 1950s as we threw our support behind the French in their war to maintain their colonial empire.

speaker01 06:06:00

Wait, Stan, why would we fight with the French to maintain a colonial empire? All right, because we were blinded by our fear of communist. Now, Eisenhower wisely refused to send troops or use atomic weapons to help the French. Really good call. And the Geneva Accords were supposed to set up elections to reunite north and south, which had been divided after World War Two. But then we didn't let that happen because sometimes democracies don't vote for our guy.

speaker01 06:29:00

Instead, the us began supporting the repressive, elitist regime of no D diem as a bulwark against Communist. Diem was a Catholic in a majority Buddhist country, and is supportive one. Landowners didn't win him any fans, but he was against Communist, which was good enough for us.

speaker01 06:43:00

The first major involvement of American troops, then called advisors, began in the early 1960s. Technically, their role was to advise the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, also called Arvin. How did they not know this was doomed? Let's fight for Arvin against this guy. You were scared, seriously? Anyway, pretty quickly this advising turned into shooting and the first American advisors were killed in 1000 and 960 andone during John Kennedy's presidency.

speaker01 07:08:00

However, most Americans consider Vietnam to be Lyndon Johnson's War, and they aren't wrong.

speaker01 07:13:00

The major escalation of American troops started under Johnson, especially in 1000 and 965 after the Gulf of Tonkin incidents. This is one of the great incidents in all of American history. So in August 19964 North Korean patrol boats attacked us warships in the Gulf of Tonkin. As a result, Johnson asked Congress to authorize the president to take, quote, all necessary measures to repel armed attack in Vietnam, which Congress dutifully did with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. So why is this one of the great incidents American history? Because the whole patrol boats attacking warships thing, that didn't happen. None of that stuff happened except we did actually go to war.

speaker01 07:51:00

Now, in retrospect, this seems like a terrible idea, but it was very popular at the time because, to quote the histor, James Patterson, preventing communist, after all, remained the guiding star of American policy. Wait a second, did I just say to quote historian James Patterson, like the crime novelist? Now it's a different guy? Apparently that's a bummer he doesn't write his own books because he's so busy with his secret career being a historian.

speaker01 08:13:00

So the number of American troops began a steady increase, and so did the bombing, The frightfully named Operation Rolling Thunder. Thunder began in 2009 and 19 9, 65, and in March of that year, 2 Marine battalions arrived at Da Nang Air Base authorized to attack the enemy. No advising about it, but Johnson didn't actually tell the American public that our troops had this authorization, which was part of a wide credibility gap between what the government told Americans about the war and what was really happening. Let's go to the thought bubble by 1000 and 968, there were about half a million American soldiers in Vietnam, and the government was confidently saying that victory was just around the corner. But then in January, Vietnamese forces launched the Tet Offensive. And while it was eventually repelled, the fact that the North Vietnamese were able to mount such an offensive cast doubts on the claims that us victory was imminent.

speaker01 09:00:00

The Vietnam War itself was particularly brutal, with much of the ground fighting taking place in jungles rather than large scale offensives. Troops were sent on search and destroy missions, and often it was difficult to tell enemy from civilian. Capturing territory wasn't meaningful. Commanders kept track of body counts, like if more enemy were killed than Americans, we were winning. In addition to jungle fighting, there was a lot of bombing, like more bombs were dropped on North and South Vietnam than both the Axis and Allied powers. In all of World War 2, the us used chemical. Deft Alliant is like Agent Orange to get rid of that pesky jungle and also Napal, which was used to burn trees, cones.

speaker01 09:38:00

Television coverage meant that Vietnam was the first war brought into American living rooms, and people were horrified by what they saw. They were especially shocked by the Mai La Massacre, which took place in 1968. It was only reported a year later, in 1969.

speaker01 09:52:00

These draftees were young and disproportionately from the lower classes because enrollment in college or grad school earned you a deferment. So unlike previous American American war, the burden of fighting did not fall evenly across socioeconomic class. So as Americans at home became increasingly aware of what was going on in Vietnam, protests started. But it's important to remember that the majority of Americans were not out in the streets or on college campuses burning their draft cards right up through 1968 and maybe even 1970, Most Americans supported the Vietnam War during the 19 9 68 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon promised that he had a secret plan to end the war and appealed to the silent majority of Americans who weren't on board with the anti-war movement. So the first part of Nixon's secret plan was Vietnamization gradually withdrawing American troops and leaving the fighting to the Vietnamese involved more bombing and actually escalating the war by sending American troops into Cambodia in order to cut off the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail, named for this guy, a supply line that connected north to south. Not only did this not work, also destabilized Cambodia and helped the Khmer Rouge to come to power. Khmer Rouge represented the absolute worst that communists had to offer, forcing almost all Cambodians into communist and massacring one third of the country's population. So not a great secret plan in the United States.

speaker01 11:12:00

By 19 9, 70 anti war protests had grown and discontent within the armed forces was enormous. Vietnam veterans, including Future, almost President John Kerry, were participating in protests, and things got even worse in 1971 when the New York Times published the Pentagon paper classified documents that showed that the government had been misleading the public about the war for years.

speaker01 11:34:00

Congress eventually responded by passing the War Powers Act in 19970 two-three, which was supposed to limit the president's ability to send troops overseas with a their approval and prevent another Gulf of Tonkin resolution. How does that work out? Stan? Great, yeah. I'll say after five years of negotiations, Nixon and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, were able to end America's involvement in Vietnam in 19970. The Paris Peace Agreement made it possible for America to withdraw its troops. The war between North and South Vietnam, however, continued until 1000 and 970 two-five, when the North finally conquered the South and created a single Communist Vietnam.

speaker01 12:12:00

The Vietnam War, the US United States, more than $100 billion, 58000 Americans died, as well as between 3 and 4 million Vietnamese people. And Vietnam was the first war in American history that we definitively lost. We lost it because we didn't understand the Vietnamese and we didn't understand why they were fighting to return. To the historian James Patterson, the unyielding determination of the enemy wore down the American commitment, which proved to be far less resolute. America expected that its superior technology and wealth would eventually wear down the Vietnamese, and they'd just give up communist. But the Vietnamese weren't fighting for communists, they were fighting for Vietnam. This fundamental misunderstanding, combined with the government's dishonesty, changed Americans relationship with their leaders.

speaker01 12:58:00

Before Vietnam. Most Americans trust their government, even when they knew it did horrible things. But after the war, and largely because of it, that trust was gone.

speaker01 13:21:00

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