Vietnam War: Causes, Impact, and End of Communism

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War began when the Communist Vietcong launched a struggle for the reunification of Vietnam with the help of China and the USSR. The United States sent weapons to support the Saigon regime. In the 1960s, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson sent in troops. The Vietnam War was a peripheral conflict. In American society, a broad movement of rejection emerged. The United States withdrew its troops in 1973, and in 1975, the Communists achieved the country's reunification.

The Upsurge in Tension Between the Blocks

The end of the decade saw a new escalation of tensions with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The United States, in turn, increased its interventions in Latin America. Ronald Reagan arrived at the White House in 1981. The new president boosted an arms race known as "Star Wars."

Perestroika and Glasnost

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the USSR. He identified with the ideas of Lenin's New Economic Policy-based program of perestroika and glasnost. Perestroika, meaning "restructuring," aimed to provide the system with more social and democratic features without abandoning the basic principles of communism. Glasnost, meaning "transparency," sought to ease press censorship and implement less strict control of freedom of expression.

International Relations

The Washington Treaty of 1987 saw both powers agree to reduce their arsenals. Gorbachev's lack of interest in endorsing Reagan's policy convinced him of the need for the USSR's proposals. The real cause was the exhaustion of resources and the inability to continue the "Star Wars" race.

The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe

In April 1986, a serious accident destroyed the Chernobyl nuclear power station. This great human disaster demonstrated the technological backwardness and bureaucratic lawlessness of the Soviet regime. The most symbolic event was the opening of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. There was also the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Finally, in 1990, Gorbachev carried out a reform of the Soviet Constitution that ended the monopoly of the CPSU and allowed some political pluralism. In August 1991, the fall of Gorbachev occurred. The war was over.

A Divided Europe

One of the most important consequences of the Second World War was the division of Europe. Germany was divided into four occupation zones assigned to the U.S., France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. From 1949, the first three combined to form the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The old capital, Berlin, lay within the GDR.

• Eastern European countries that were liberated from Nazi occupation by Soviet troops became communist regimes instituted democracies.

The People's Democracies

Behind the Iron Curtain were the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Albania. Besides, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were incorporated into the USSR. Although the people's democracies were independent states, there was submission to Moscow through total integration into the Warsaw Pact and COMECON. The exceptions were Yugoslavia and Albania, countries where Communism was imposed without outside help: Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia. Albania, an economically very backward state with a peculiar communist system, also circumvented Sovietization.

The democracies had common characteristics:

• The label of "democracy" was justified because they tolerated the existence of other political parties besides the Communist Party.
• State institutions' operation followed the pattern of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Dissidence and Tensions in Eastern Europe

Problems:

• Low standard of living.
• A strain on budgets due to the arms race demanded by the Cold War.
• Lack of freedoms.

Tensions erupted in a succession of conflicts:

• The coup in Prague in 1948.
• The Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
• The Prague Spring of 1968.
• In the 1980s, the struggle for freedom had its focus in Poland.

Capitalist Europe

• In the UK, Margaret Thatcher.
• Charles de Gaulle, a symbol of Free France during the German occupation. The country faced the difficult process of independence in Algeria and then the student revolt of May 1968.
• In Germany, the toughest moment was the construction of the Berlin Wall on the night of August 21, 1961, a concrete wall that separated East Berlin from West Berlin.

The Welfare State

The welfare state was a historic achievement: strong states whose priority is the welfare of their citizens, understood in economic and social terms.