11.3 - Conflicts and Endings

Indochina and Afghanistan

• Indochina
  • modern day Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
  • Colonized by France during 1800s
  • Overrun by Japanese during WWII
  • French returned to try and reconquer the area
  • French are unsuccessful
• Geneva Conference (1954)
  • Future of Indochina was determined
  • Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia were declared as nations
• Ho Chi Minh
  • led North Vietnam
• Tet Offensive (January 1968)
  • North Vietnamese Army allied with Vietkong to seize the upper hand in the war
  • Heavy losses on both sides
  • Led to loss of support of the war in the US and elsewhere
• Khmer Rouge
  • In Cambodia, communist revolutionaries
  • Pol Pot was the leader
• “Killing Fields”
  • Systematic killing of 1.5-2 million Cambodians, carried out by Pol Pot
    • 1/4 of the population
• Soviet-Afghan conflict (1979-1989)
  • Soviets try to support the communists
  • Soviets had better technology, but Afghan resistance had better fighting technique
• Mujahideen
  • Jihadist warriors
  • Likeminded fighters
  • Keep fighting no matter what!
• Osama bin Laden
  • Part of the Muhajideen
• Brezhnev Doctrine
  • Soviets should support socialist countries in war
• Leonid Brezhnev
  • Leader of USSR during the Soviet-Afghan conflict

Fall of the Iron Curtain/Soviet Collapse

• détente
  • Agreements that led to less tension between US and USSR
• Mikhail Gorbachev
  • Took power in 1985
  • Perestroika (restructuring)
  • Glasnost (openess)
  • Did not turn fully to capitalism
• Ronald Reagan
  • Increased tension between US and USSR
  • Increased military spending a ton
• Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”)
  • Space-based anti-missile projects
• Lech Walesa
  • Leader of a Polish trade union Solidarity
  • Advocated for several reforms
  • Became president of Poland
• Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu
  • Romanian dictators w/ cult of personality
  • Led to violent overthrow of regime
• Francis Fukuyama and the “end of history”
  • Believed the events at the end of Communism would lead to the "universalization of Western liberal democracy"
• Velvet Revolution
  • End of Communism across much of Europe
• Boris Yeltsin
  • former mayor of Moscow