Effects of the

Cold War on
Asia and Vietnam

Nguyen Lan Huong

Nguyen Phuong Anh
 Content:
1. The affection of cold
war on Asia. (Korea and
China)
2. How did the cold
war affect Vietnam?
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 Cold War

Cold War, the open yet restricted rivalry

that developed after World War II
between the United States and the Soviet
Union and their respective allies. The
Cold War was waged on political,
economic, and propaganda fronts and
had only limited recourse to weapons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IcmL
kuhG0

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1. Korea
• As a product of the Cold War, the Soviet Union
and the United States divided Korea into two
sovereign states in 1948 with the border set at the
38th parallel.
• A socialist state was established in the north
under the communist leadership of Kim Il-sung
and a capitalist state in the south under the anti-
communist leadership of Syngman Rhee.
• (1953 - The end of the Korean War) The governments
of the two new Korean states claimed to be the sole
legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither
accepted the border as permanent.
 Causes:
⬗ The main reason the United States got involved in Korea was the purpose of doing
everything possible to keep communism from spreading around world.
⬗ For its part, the Soviet Union had actively supported the spread of communism around
the world in places such as Cuba, Korea, Vietnam and Eastern Europe.
⬗ The American containment policy is often referred to as the Truman Doctrine, since
American President Harry S. Truman argued that the United States should actively
support the containment of Soviet Communism in the years immediately after World
War II. Further to this idea, the reasons for American involvement in the Korean War
are often held as part of the Domino Theory.

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 Major Effects:
⬗ The Korean War was among the most destructive
conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3
million war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian
death toll than World War II or the Vietnam War.
⬗ It incurred the destruction of virtually all of Korea's
major cities, thousands of massacres by both sides
(including the mass killing of tens of thousands of
suspected communists by the South Korean
government), and the torture and starvation of
prisoners of war by the North Korean command.
⬗ North Korea became among the most heavily-bombed
countries in history.

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 2. China
⬗ At the start of the war in 1950, China was drawn into
the conflict when North Korean troops were pushed to
their border. This resulted in the bombing of supply
bases and power stations in China, drawing the Chinese
into the conflict as they now conceded the United States
a direct threat to their sovereignty.
⬗ This resulted in China intervention to protect its own
interests and those of the communist movement in
North Korea.
⬗ The 400,000 Chinese troops given the title of
“volunteers” to avoid an American attack on China
pushed United States and United Nations troops back
below the 38th parallel.
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 1949, declaring the Peoples Republic of China
Before the People's Republic of
China was created:
⮚ There was little industry in
the region.
⮚ After so many years of war,
what had existed had been
destroyed.
⮚ Cash had been valueless.
⮚ High unemployment rates.
⮚ China's population grew by
14 million a year in the
countryside, which would
further contribute to the
shortages of food.
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After Creation of the People’s
Republic of China:
❖ Reforms have taken place,
including the Law on Agrarian
and the Law on Marriage.
❖ The farmers were given
machinery and land, so the
landlords started to fear for their
safety.
❖ Through regulating wages and
Mao Zedong prices, the government managed
proclaimed the People's to control inflation.
Republic of China.
❖ All private banks have been
closed and a new bank has been
set up.
 Causes

✔ Ineptitude and corruption within

Jiang’s regime.
✔ Corruption had corroded the
people’s confidence in the existing
government.
✔ Heavy need for reforms in social
and economic aspects.

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 Furthermore
• When Moa Zedong came to power in China in 1949, declaring the Peoples Republic of China. The Soviet Union was the
first to offer its support. The Soviets boycotted the United Nations in protest to the new government been unrecognised
by the international community, and the two countries singed a treaty of friendship in 1950. The Soviets gave large
amounts of aid the China, and Mao’s first Five-year plan (1953 to 1957) was largely based on the Soviet model.
• At first, the relationship went well; however, by the mid 1950s problems were beginning to emerge. The Soviets failed to
play anything but a minor role in the Korean War due to their policy of peacefully coexistence with the west. At this point
China began to feel that the Soviet policy was merely a sell out to imperialism and difference in interpretation of
communism were been drawn.
• In the late 1950s the PRC was trying to develop its Nuclear defences, it was keen for the Soviets to share the technology
and wanted a nuclear bomb as a prototype, however the Soviet Union refused to cooperate send a signal to Mao that
China was not trusted.
• At the heart of this disagreement were Khrushchev’s hopes to carry out reforms in the Soviet Union, to do this he had to
reduce the high cost of maintaining military confrontation with the west.
• By the mid 1960s relations between the Soviet Union and the PRC were so bad that all aid to China had been stopped and
all advisors withdrawn. In 1962, China and India were involved in a boarder dispute and the Soviet Union declared itself
neutral to the conflict, from this point onwards China and the Soviet Union took opposite stances in international issues.
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 Major effect
❖ The impact of the Sino-Soviet split was not felt straight away in the Asia-Pacific, nor did the
United States who engineered the split know how to exploit it. The collapse of the Sino-Soviet
packed divided the Communist world, therefore making it less appealing to other countries. The
Sino-Soviet spilt reached its pinial in the late 1960s when there was a fundamental change in the
balance of power. At this point, the Cold war in Asia took a new turn as both the Soviet Union
and the United States saw China as an enemy. The new status of China was indicated during the
Vietnam War as the Soviet Union took the opportunity of reducing China influence by supplying
arms.
❖ A depressing defeat for America and its Allies in the Cold War.
❖ Nearly a quarter of the world’s population had fallen into the “communist camp”.
❖ Ended the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalist Party.

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COLD WAR
EFFECTS ON
VIETNAM
 “
The Vietnam War is one of
the typical cold war
manifestations that
researchers often call a
"proxy war".

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 Viet Nam relationship with the Soviet Union

➢ The United States officially launched the Cold War

(March 1947)
➢ The Soviet Union is both the largest helping
country for the people of Vietnam, and the leader
of the socialist system, one of the two key
superpowers of the Cold War.

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Still…
during the Cold War, Indochina
peninsula was not determined
to be the focus of US and Soviet
strategy. Compared to Europe,
this is only a region of "strategic
coast"

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However, the Indochina peninsula is one of the places where the "hot war"
was very fierce and bloody in the cold war between the two systems in
the world.

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 The Vietnam War is a struggle
to protect the unity and
territorial integrity - a basic
content of national rights.
However, the development of
the war shows that it also has
the appearance of
international conflict,
becoming a battleground of
fierce struggles between the
two superpowers.

This is directly related to the strategic calculations of the United States, the
Soviet Union and the participation of the two major countries in these wars.

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 America’s attitude towards Viet Nam before and after
since the end of 1949
During World War II after the birth of the
the United States Then having to enlist
allies to oppose the People's Republic of
protested against the old China, especially after
French colonial policy in Soviet Union, in the
early years after the the outbreak of the
Vietnam, showing Korean War (June 1950),
support for the Viet birth of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, the the US attitude towards
Minh in the struggle for Indochina and Vietnam
independence from the US government showed
its attitude of not had been landmark
French colonialists. and change. From no
put forward the policy of interfering in Indochina
intervention, the United
"international States began to provide
management" in aid to France during the
Indochina. Indochina War.
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From the early 1960s, the US began to send troops to
intervene directly in Vietnam.

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 The US direct military intervention in Vietnam can be explained by the
following reasons:

➢ First, before the development ➢ Second, with the escalation of

of the Vietnamese the cold war, US-Soviet
revolutionary movement since relations became increasingly
the late 1950s, the US realized tense. Therefore, the Soviet
that without help of American Union's public support for
support, the South Vietnamese Vietnam made the United
government created by the US States more determined to turn
will not last long and South Vietnam into a
communism will prevail over springboard to destroy
the entire Vietnamese territory communism, in order to
prevent "Southeast Asia from
turning red."

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➢ Thus, the Vietnam War had the basic points that it
was strongly influenced by the East-West
confrontation relationship, especially the US-
Soviet relationship in the cold war, the "hot war" -
a form of conflict during the cold war.

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Soviet participation in the Vietnam War went from indirect support
through its allies to publicity and directly helping the Vietnamese
people both economically and militarily to fight the US.

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➢ Stemming a policy of mutual
restraint in relations between
the United States and the Soviet
Union, from putting national
interests above the ideological
confrontation of the US and the
Soviet Union, the two sides
went to find a harmonious
solution. peace in order to end
the conflict on the Indochina
peninsula in 1973.

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 In summary: the effects of Cold war to Vietnam

The Cold War

The Soviet Union

The US
(or the USSR)

Forcefully intervene in the Aim: to prevent Vietnam from Maintained a close

Provided aid to Vietnam in the
Vietnam war with the hatred turning in to Communist like relationship that last till this
war
towards the USSR proposed in the Domino theory day

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 “
➢ Vietnamese
Relationships with the
US and the USSR
afterward...

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The Soviet Union, as the leader of a system of socialist countries, in
addition to the benefits of a "superpower", has the responsibility to
help Vietnam - a country that always shows firm attitude towards its
children on the socialist road and a faithful relationship with the
Soviet country. These are important prerequisites of the Vietnam -
Soviet friendship relationship in this period. At the same time, the
history of Vietnam-Soviet relations is itself a solid foundation of
Vietnam-Russia relations today.

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After a 20-year hiatus of severed ties, then-U.S. President Bill
Clinton announced the formal normalization of diplomatic
relations between the United States of America and the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam on July 11, 1995.
U.S. relations with Vietnam have become deeper and more diverse
in the years since political normalization. The two countries have
broadened their political exchanges through regular and regional
security.

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 References

➢ https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/the-cold-war-in-relation-to-asia-history-
essay.php
➢ https://www.historycrunch.com/causes-of-the-korean-war.html#/
➢ https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War
➢ http://hnue.edu.vn/directories/Science.aspx?username=thanhvn&science=90&fbclid=IwA
R35I-ZwhDMVN2vu_FGAbpJ9LCzQJnpshFexx4lPFxtuI1aZmx90BbOB0e0
➢ http://livinghistory.sanford.duke.edu/timelines/vietnam-cold-war/?fbclid=IwAR35I-
ZwhDMVN2vu_FGAbpJ9LCzQJnpshFexx4lPFxtuI1aZmx90BbOB0e0
➢ https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-
history?fbclid=IwAR3sRhh52VaeyEbxw_Dddc5eDoFA2Tt9vVGtb6THv_Z3O7TUhS2RaXOc
hKo

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question
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THANKS!
Any questions?

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