The Cold War. Australia in Korea, Malaya, Vietnam

51 Pages·2013·8.091 MB·English

by  Michael Andrews

Australian Timelines
The Cold War: Australia in Korea,
Malaya and Vietnam
by Michael Andrews
ISBN 978 086427 268 3
Published in electronic format by
Trocadero Publishing
GPO Box 1546
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
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[email protected]
www.trocadero.com.au
Created and produced in Australia
Copyright © 2012 S and L Brodie
The information in this eBook was
current at the time of writing
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DEFENDING AUSTRALIA
Other books in this series
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World War II: The Australian Experience
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AUSTRALIAN TIMELINES THE NATIONAL IDENTITY
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The Constitution: The Document that Created the
Immigrants Who Changed Australia
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Exploration and Settlement in Colonial Australia LINKING THE NATION
The Commonwealth of Australia: Evolving into a Australia’s Airlines:
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Convicts: The Story of the Penal Settlements that Australia’s Railways:
Created Australia How the Land Was Conquered
Gold: The Precious Metal that Brought Instant AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY
Wealth and Long-term Prosperity Influencing Australia
The States: Their Place in Federal Australia
THEY MADE AUSTRALIA
About the Money: Australia’s Economic History
Leaders in Inventions and Innovation *
Australia at the Time of Federation
ASIA-PACIFIC TIMELINES
The Industrial Revolution and its Impact on
Australia European Colonialism in the Asia-Pacific
How Communications United Australia Shogunate Japan: 800 Years of Military Rule
Bushrangers: Australia’s Wild Colonial Boys Imperial China *
The Role of Women in Australian History * ASIA-PACIFIC RELATIONS
AUSTRALIA YEAR BY YEAR Australia’s Pacific Neighbours
1788 to 1809: From First Fleet to Rum Rebellion Australia’s Asian Neighbours
1810 to 1845: From the Macquarie Era Japan: The Story of the Nation
to Ending Transportation China: The Story of the Nation
AUSTRALIAN DECADES India: The Story of the Nation
The 1950s: Building a New Australia Indonesia: The Story of the Nation *
The 1960s: Reshaping Australian Society
The 1970s: It’s Time for Change * Please check www.trocadero.com.au for publication date
THE COLD WAR BEGAN in the wake of World WarII
and lasted until 1991. It was a confrontation between two
superpowers — the United States of America and the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics, better known as the Soviet
Union. It was ‘cold’ because there was no actual fighting as
there would be in a ‘hot’ war.
At the core of the Cold War was a battle to see which
What was the Cold War? 2 ideology — capitalism or Communism — would prevail in
the new world after 1945. In this new conflict Australia was
firmly on the side of the USA, the leader of the capitalist,
Korean War 6
market economy nations. Australian politicians convinced
themselves and the majority of the population that
Anti-Communist Communists, particularly from China, were poised to sweep
paranoia 14 down through Asia taking countries like a line of falling
dominoes. The last domino would be Australia.
Conservative governments of Robert Menzies, Harold
Malayan Emergency 17
Holt, John Gorton and Bill McMahon were ever ready to
involve the nation in whichever campaign the US called
Global tensions 22 them to. It began with the Berlin Airlift, expanded through
the Korean War, and reached its peak with the war in
Vietnam. The Malayan Emergency differed in that it was a
War in Vietnam 24
British involvement.
The Australian Defence Force, particularly the Army, was
The Cold War ends 47 stretched to its limits to maintain these commitments made
by a government reluctant to spend anything more than was
absolutely necessary to impress its allies. In most cases the
Index 48
USA or Britain provided the logistical support; Australia
supplied the fighting men.
Of all the commitments during the Cold War, it was
Vietnam that cost the most in lives and money and scarred
the nation for decades to come. Undertaken to gain favour
with a powerful ally, the Vietnam involvement needed
conscription to make it work — something that has always
caused deep divisions in Australian society.
In the end Australia gained nothing for its loyalty. Even
today there is no guarantee that the USA will come to its
aid, no trade concessions, no special relationship. This was
Edited by Lynn Brodie
the major lesson of the Cold War, but one that subsequent
ISBN 978 086427 268 3 governments have failed to heed.
Copyright © 2011 S and L Brodie
All rights reserved
Published by Trocadero Publishing
GPO Box 1546 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia For links to websites of interest, please go to
www.trocadero.com.au
www.trocadero.com.au/coldwar
Produced in Australia
2
What was the Cold War?
THE COLD WAR WAS the name given to the period from
1945 to 1991 when the USA and its allies and the Soviet Union
and its allies opposed each other on the world stage. The term
‘cold’ referred to the fact that, while it may have seemed the
world was constantly on the brink of war, it never expanded to
become actual combat — i.e., a ‘hot’ war.
During World WarII the western Allies — the USA and
WHICH WORLD? Britain and its Dominions such as Australia and Canada —
entered into a fragile coalition with the Soviet Union. The sole
As the post-war confrontation
reason for this was to defeat the German Nazi regime in Europe.
between the USA and the Soviet
Union developed, a new set of Until the last week of the war the Soviet Union maintained a
terms came into use to describe treaty of neutrality with Japan, and so never really entered the
international alliances.
war in the Pacific.
First World
The USA and its allies.
Second World
The Soviet Union and its allies.
Third World
All countries not aligned with
either superpower.
Winston Churchill (Britain), Franklin Roosevelt (USA) and
Josef Stalin (Soviet Union) meet at Yalta in February
1945. The conference went a long way to deciding how
the newly liberated countries would be controlled. The
visibly ailing Roosevelt had only two more months to live.
As the European war drew to a close the USA, Britain and
the Soviet Union were jockeying for control of countries then
under German domination or recently freed from it. This
largely depended on whose liberating army reached a country
first. The result was that most of eastern Europe fell under
Harry Truman, US President from
Soviet domination, while western Europe became allied with
1845 to 1952, was directly
involved with most of the major the USA. In Germany itself, Allied forces swept in from the
events of the post-war years west while the Soviet Union took the east, including the
capital of Berlin. The two sides met on the banks of the River
Elbe on 25April 1945.
3
In part to counter this, the
Germany divided administration of President Harry Truman
launched the European Recovery Program,
AT THE END OF World WarII Germany better known as the Marshall Plan. It
was divided into four zones of occupation: was named after Truman’s Secretary of
US, British, French and Soviet Union. In State, former wartime General George
general the US–British–French sectors Marshall. The primary intention was to
worked well together; however, the Soviet restore and improve European industry,
Union made it clear from the start that reduce trade barriers, renew the morale
there would be little or no cooperation of the population, and ensure continuing
from its sector. US trade.
The German capital, Berlin, lay within The Marshall Plan was launched on
the Soviet zone. Given the strategic and 5June 1947. For the next four years it
psychological importance of the city, it delivered US$13billion worth of aid into
was also divided into four zones: the the non-Soviet countries of Europe. The
Soviets in the east, the others in the west. US offered Marshall Plan aid to countries
An informal agreement permitted road, within the Society bloc as well; however,
rail and air traffic from the western sectors they refused to accept it.
to cross the Soviet zone into Berlin.
The Soviet Union saw these Berlin Airlift
arrangements as purely temporary. Its General George Marshall
plan was to use East Germany as a base ON 19JUNE 1948 SOVIET border guards
from which it would ultimately secure control of the closed down all rail, road and canal routes from the
whole country. The allies, particularly the USA, were western sectors of Germany into Berlin. Travel between
equally determined this would never happen. the eastern and western sectors of the city
was also restricted and electricity to West
Josef Stalin, the ruthless
Marshall Plan Berlin cut off — most power stations were
leader of the Soviet Union
in the Soviet sector.
who planned to bring all of
MUCH OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE Germany and as much of This was intended to force the USA,
was devastated by the war. The German Europe as he could under Britain and France to allow the Soviet
Communist domination
economy had been crushed and its cities Union to provide all the food and supplies
and industries all but destroyed by Allied for the western sector of Berlin. Such a
bombing. As the Soviet Union gained move would, in effect, give the Communists
domination over countries such as control of the city.
Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, the By this time, three years after the war
US State Department realised a dramatic ended, Berlin had become a potent symbol
gesture was needed to ensure other countries, of the clash between western capitalist and
particularly in western Europe, did not fall Communist ideologies. The western allies
to Communism. were determined the city would not fall to
Strong Communist movements existed Communist control. With all ground
in France and Italy, based largely on wartime transport routes closed, the only way into
anti-German resistance groups. In the chaos Berlin from western Germany was by air.
of the early days of peace, these groups With just a few weeks supply of food and
threatened to take over the governments of other vital supplies left in West Berlin, the
France and Italy. USA and Britain created the Berlin Airlift.
OPERATION LITTLE VITTLES
An airlift pilot, Gail Halvorsen them as he flew over. He writing to Halvorsen at his idea, made the drops
of the US Air Force, after would rock the aircraft from USAF base. Wide media official, naming it Operation
meeting a group of German side to side so the children coverage followed, inspiring Little Vittles.
children at Berlin’s knew it was him and be children all over the USA to
It was a huge propaganda
Templehof Aerodrome, ready for the drop. send confectionery for
success, with more than
began dropping packets of aircraft to drop to the
The numbers of children three tonnes of chocolate
chocolates and chewing German children. The US
waiting each day grew into dropped on Berlin during
gum attached to tiny Air Force, after initially
a huge crowd. Before long the airlift.
handkerchief parachutes to condemning Halvorsen’s
the German children were
4
A US Air Force Douglas C-54 is
about to land at Berlin’s Templehof
Aerodrome, watched by a large
crowd of Berlin residents
The airlift began in earnest on Monday
28June 1948 using Douglas C-47 Dakota
transport aircraft of Britain’s Royal Air
Force and the US Air Force. They were
soon joined by larger C-54s: four-engined
aircraft able to carry a much larger payload.
Soon they were departing bases in western
Germany every four minutes, transporting
1000tonnes of supplies each day. Milk,
foodstuffs, clothing and coal were all
carried into Berlin by air.
US and British aircraft were soon
joined by others from Canada, New
YUGOSLAVIA
Zealand, South Africa and Australia. The
Royal Australian Air Force formed a special In 1945 Yugoslavia was a
Berlin Airlift Squadron of C-47 Dakotas confederation of Croatia, Montenegro,
Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and
in August 1948. Based at Lübeck, they
Herzegovina, and Macedonia. Under
began operations on 15September and the leadership of Josip Broz Tito it
remained in Germany until August 1949, remained Communist, but not part
flying 2062 missions. of the Soviet bloc. Yugoslavia
formally split with the Soviet Union
In the end the Soviet Union backed
in September 1947.
down and agreed to end the blockade. At
The nation gradually became less
midnight on 12May 1949 road barriers
centralised, with powers and
opened enabling a convoy of British
responsibilities being devolved to
vehicles to drive to Berlin. Before dawn the governments of the federal states.
the first train travelled from the west into Economic growth, particularly in the
Berlin. The Allies, remaining wary of 1950s, was much more rapid than
in the Soviet Union. By the 1970s
Soviet intentions, maintained the airlift
Yugoslavia was beginning to open
until 30September 1949 to build up
up to western tourism, long before
Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito
sufficient stockpiles in case the blockade this happened in the Soviet Union.
(left) with US President Richard
was reimposed.
Nixon on a visit to Washington
IRON CURTAIN
Speaking at Westminster College on populations around them lie in
5 March 1946, former British Prime what I must call the Soviet
Minister Winston Churchill said: sphere, and all are subject, in
one form or another, not only to
From Stettin in the Baltic to
Soviet influence but to a very
Trieste in the Adriatic an ‘iron
high and in some cases
curtain’ has descended across
increasing measure of control
the continent. Behind that line
from Moscow.
lie all the capitals of the ancient
states of central and eastern His term ‘iron curtain’ became
Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, widely used, with all those countries
Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, under Soviet domination being
Bucharest and Sofia; all these referred to as ‘behind the iron
famous cities and the curtain’ or ‘iron curtain countries’.
Winston Churchill
5
The original partner countries of the North
Atlantic Treaty gather with US President
Harry Truman (seated) in the White House
to sign the document in 1949
headquarters developed a range of protocols and
specifications that became standard within the armed
forces of each member nation. The Soviet response to this
was the Warsaw Pact, which encompassed Russia and
its territories and the other Communist nations of
eastern Europe.
The original members of NATO were Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and USA. France
began to withdraw in 1959 because of President Charles
deGaulle’s concerns about his country’s lack of influence
in the group’s development.
Forming NATO
AS TENSIONS GREW IN Europe, eight nations signed
the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. This led to the formation
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). With
headquarters in Brussels, NATO was to be a united front
against Soviet expansionism in Europe.
In 1951 NATO became a military force with each of
the member nations contributing combat groups. NATO NATO flag
6
Korean War
Dividing Korea
ALTHOUGH IT DID NOT lead to the two superpowers —
the USA and the Soviet Union — being pitted against each
other in battle, the Korean War was very much a conflict of the
ideologies of the two sides: western free-market capitalism
RISE OF ASIAN versus Communism.
COMMUNISM In line with an agreement between the USA, the Soviet
Union and Britain in 1945, Korea was divided into two separate
The confrontation between the
western Allies and the Communist territories at the 38thparallel. From 1910 it had effectively been
bloc in Europe grew ever more tense. a colony of Japan and a source of the mineral resources Japan
Into this picture, on 1October 1949, desperately needed.
stepped the Communist People’s
On 9August 1945 the Soviet Union broke its treaty of non-
Republic of China led by Mao Zedong.
intervention with Japan to invade Japanese-occupied Manchuria
Mao’s forces comprehensively
defeated the US-backed Nationalists [Manchukuo] in northern China. Under an agreement made at
led by Chiang Kai-Shek, who were the Potsdam Conference of July 1945, the Soviet Red Army
reduced to forming a government in
moved swiftly down the Korean peninsula and reached the
exile on the island of Taiwan,
38thparallel on 26August. The Americans met them there on
protected by the US Navy.
8September, accepting the surrender of Japanese forces at
Communism was viewed by the rest
Incheon on the west coast.
of the world, including Australia, as
one giant monolith controlled from
Moscow. In reality, there were many Two nations
differences in the European and
Asian brands. IN THE SOUTHERN SECTION the United States Army
Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) was established
under Lieutenant General John Hodge. He reinstated Japanese
officials and Korean police collaborators to their previous
positions in order to maintain law and order until new civilian
bodies could be created. North of the 38thparallel the Communist
People’s Republic of Korea was quickly established, but
collapsed almost immediately.
In December 1945 the United States – Soviet Union Joint
Commission agreed that Korea would become independent
after five years. Unfortunately, nobody thought to ask the
Koreans about this. They reacted violently, forcing USAMGIK
to declare martial law in the south.
Mao Zedong
Troops of the Soviet Red Army on
their way down the Korean peninsula
to the 38th parallel, where they met
US forces moving up from the south
on 8 September 1945
7
South Korean leader Syngman Rhee
(right) meets with US General
Douglas MacArthur, commander of
the occupation forces in Japan
A propaganda banner depicts north Korean leader Kim Il-sung.
He founded a ruling dynasty that continues to control North
Korea today. Kim, his son Kim Jong-il and grandson Kim
Jong-un are the only leaders North Korea has had since 1948.
Holding elections
IN 1948 THE USA decided to ignore the five-year term
in favour of immediate elections for South Korea, in line
with demands coming from the United Nations. A new
constitution was promulgated on 17July; three days later
Syngman Rhee was elected President. Rhee was American-
educated, ferociously right-wing and fervently anti- Setting up an invasion
Communist. More than 600 people
died in a wave of violence during the ALTHOUGH BACKED BY THE
election campaign. Soviet Union in the struggle to gain
The new Republic of [South] Korea C H I N A control of their country, China’s
was created on 15August 1948. Rhee Communists were ideologically
systematically removed all suspected different. This enabled North
Communists or opponents from the Korean leader Kim Il-sung to play
government system. This began NOR T H China and the Soviet Union off
decades of relentlessly tough against each other.
K O R E A
government under which South Kim was determined to reunite
Koreans suffered. E a s t the two Koreas under Communist
In the Soviet north, elections were Pyongyang S e a control. He knew he would have to
held on 25August 1948. From these make a move sooner rather than
emerged a government led by Kim 38th Parallel later, to take advantage of his army’s
Il-sung, the favoured candidate of the Seoul superior numbers and while the
Soviet Union. Both Kim and Rhee Incheon largely agricultural south remained
were determined to reunite the two economically and industrially weak.
S O U T H
Koreas, but neither was willing to Eventually, in April 1950, he
Y e l l o w
work for a compromise. K O R E A convinced a sceptical Soviet leader,
As agreed, Soviet forces withdrew S e a Josef Stalin, and China’s Mao
from Korea in 1948; US forces Zedong to back an invasion of the
Pusan
followed in 1949. They left two poorly south, although both refused to
trained and equipped armies behind, provide troops. Stalin and Mao
although the north was marginally wanted a confrontation with the
better off. Both countries continued to USA and its allies, but they
depend on their political sponsors for Korea 1950 preferred to await a time and place
their existence. of their own choosing.