Spread of Communism Lesson

As a result of internal tension and Japanese aggression, Chinese communists seized power. The Chinese Civil War started in 1927 between the Nationalist led by Chiang Kai-Chek and the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong. They did pause their war though to fight the common enemy, the Japanese, during World War II; however, after fighting picked back off where they had left off. The war continued until 1949 when the communist emerged victorious and the nationalists were forced to flee to Taiwan where they set up a government in exile, the Republic of China under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Chek. In China, Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China and set about establishing the communist ideals into the workings of the Chinese government. The government of China controlled the national economy through the Great Leap Forward, often implementing repressive policies, with negative repercussions for the population.

As communism spread, it began to infiltrate other areas outside of the Soviet Union and China and their influence spread. Movements to redistribute land and resources developed within states in Africa, Asia and Latin America, sometimes advocating communism or socialism. Korea was liberated in the North by the Soviets and in the South by the Americans. This impacted the governments that were set up in those areas and in turn led to a divide in the country. The Korean War was fought from 1950-1953 when North Korea went over the established boundary the 38^th parallel, and invaded the South. This brought on the United Nations and the United States as they helped the South Koreans push the North Koreans back however, they continued over the line. This then brought in the Soviets and Chinese as they did not like the UN and the Americans interfering or being so close. In the end the line was reset back at the 38^th parallel and peace was restored. After Vietnam gained their independence from France, the faced a similar internal battle, much like the Chinese, between nationalists and communists. The Soviet Union and the United States became involved, much to the dismay of much of the American public, to try to impact the outcome of this war. The U.S. feared the domino theory, where if one country fell to communism the rest around would follow, and this was a big motivator to aid the nationalists. In the end though, the nationalists were too corrupt and public support was very low in the United States, causing them to pull out of the country. Not long after the country was fully under communist rule. These are just a few instances, but there were many other areas in which ideologies were changing and taking hold of governments.

DMZ 38th Image

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