The Korean War

38th parallel

The 25^th June in 1950 is the beginning of the Korean War. Korea was divided into two parts: into the communist North and the democratic South. The border between North and South is the 38^th parallel. The Korean War lasted three years and can be seen as a war during the period of the Cold War. Many Americans today already forgot about the Korean War, that’s why it is also called the “Forgotten War”. It was the first real “shooting” war after World War II the Americans were involved in.

Before and during WWII Korea belonged to the Japan Empire. After Japan surrendered in 1945, the Soviets and Americans had to decide what happens with Kora. They divided it into two parts along the 38^th parallel of the globe.

In 1949 China became communist and they started to support North Korea in order to conquer the South. The communist dictator of the North was Kim Il Sung, the “democratic” dictator of the South was Syngman Rhee, both unable to reunite Korea which caused a Civil War. But this war became more than a Civil War when the US started to support the South Korean government. They thought the North was supported by the Soviets. The American president at that time, Truman, did not ask the Congress if he could send troops in order to invade North Korea, he asked the UN for a “UN police action” because of National Emergency. Truman declared his aim to reunite Korea as one non- communist country.

“If we let Korea down,” President Harry Truman (1884-1972) said, “the Soviet[s] will keep right on going and swallow up one [place] after another.” The fight on the Korean peninsula was a symbol of the global struggle between east and west, good and evil. As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the United States readied its troops for a war against communism itself.

In November 1950, American troops came close to the Chinese boarder so the Chinese feared an attack by them. That’s when China started to join the Korean War. The war went on for two years, in total America dropped more bombs on Korea than in the whole Pacific Theater during WWII. When the Americans realized they were not going to win that war, they started to look for a way out and elected a new president in 1952: Eisenhower.

In 1953 both sides of Korea signed a treaty: it gave more territory to the South and created a 2-mile- wide demilitarized zone which exists still today.

The most important facts about the Korean War:

1.      It was expensive: in both, money and lives. Nearly four million Chinese and Korean people were wounded or killed, most of them Korean civilians.

2.      Truman went into war without asking the Congress for permission, he gave the position of the President new power and going into war without asking the Congress became quite popular in the last 60 years in US history. The people wanted to see the US doing something and to take South Korea to help them.

3.      The war was the beginning of a bigger intervention of America in Asia: the Vietnam War.

The Domino Theory

Because the Americans believed in the so called “domino theory” they had to eliminate the northern communist state of Korea and to support the democratic South. They were feared that if one state gets communist whole South East Asia would become communist like a row of dominoes. The people at that time were afraid that the Soviet Union had the power over a whole continent.

Personal opinion:

From our point of view, this war was just another occasion to show the world that America is the “police” of the world and helps poor countries to fight against communism. They were so scared of communism and the Soviets that they had to join the war because the whole world expected them to do so. 

We understand that they wanted to follow their interests and to support the South Korean government, but when we take a look at the millions of people who died during this war, we are so shocked. Civilians had to die because America fought for their interest: “eliminating communism”.

Bibliography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IcmLkuhG0

http://www.history.com/topics/korean-war

World War III

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/05/28/413287/US-war-China-Russia-

In this post you can read an article that appeared some days ago talking about the possibility of a World War III between Russia, USA and China.

Personally, we think it is something that could happen because Russia and China (especially China) are growing very fast and USA just left behind a recession and maybe actually they are no longer the first economic power in the world. Also because even if China has a capitalist system, it is a "communist" dictatorship, and Human Rights are not respected there. So this feeling that Americans have that they have been chosen by God to protect the weakest people could again appear. 

In the other hand, European Union has now many problems with Russia due to the war in Ukraine, because Russian gouvernment is helping Ukranian separatist who want to join Russia, so the USA could help its Euuropean partner in order to get a more peaceful and tolerant world (ironic).

All these reasons would only be a pretext, and of course, the main reason for a war is always the money. USA want to keep on being the most powerful country in the world.

What do you think about?

The Vietnam War simplified

In case you did not understand something explained in the previous post, here you can watch a short video talking about the Vietnam War in a very simple way, 

Vietnam War

At the end of World War II, political and military tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union increased sustainably. The U.S. perceived communism, the political system in the Soviet Union and China, as a significant threat to its national security and power. Fearing communism would spread over to Vietnam and potentially South East Asia, called the “Domino Theory”, the U.S. opposed the independence movement there.

U.S. first involvement in Vietnam began when they financially supported France in the first Indochina War from 1946 under President Eisenhower. The French defeat in Dien Bien Phu led to a peace conference in Geneva in July, 1954 which resulted in splitting the former French colony Indochina into 3 separate countries, viz. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The last was also temporarily divided into the Communist North Vietnam and the anti-Communist South Vietnam until a nationwide election would be held to unify the country. However, in 1956, South Vietnam backed by the American refused to hold the election. To support the South’s government, 2,000 military advisors were sent to Vietnam under President Kennedy – which rocketed to 16,300 in 1963. By 1960, the National Liberation Front also known as Viet Cong had begun to crush the South Vietnamese government.

In 1964, after an alleged attack on two U.S. Navy vessels, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress authorizing President Johnson to use military forces in Southeast Asia. The first U.S. combat troops were sent to Vietnam a year after that. In 1968, a surprising and massive attack known as the “Tet Offensive”  threatened U.S. position in both South Vietnam and its own country, and therefore was widely considered as a turning point of the Vietnam War.

Napalm attack in Vietnam

In 1969, President Nixon proposed the so-called “Vietnamization” which gave South Vietnamese forces greater responsibility in fighting the war while still receiving American aid as well as air and naval support if required. However, the 1972 Easter Offensive put a big question mark on the policy’s effectiveness, suggesting that the South Vietnamese forces could not wage a full-scale war against the North Communists without considerable support from the U.S.

In 1970, the war escalated into Vietnam’s neighbours as Nixon attempted to destroy Viet Cong’s supply bases to the South in Laos and Cambodia. That, however, provoked anti-war protests in the U.S.  and all around the world, which had been started since the Tet Offensive and My Lai massacre in 1968.

In January 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed establishing a ceasefire and allowing prisoners of war exchange following U.S. force withdrawal from Vietnam. The accord officially ended the U.S. and its allies’ direct involvement in Vietnam despite its continued support for South Vietnam until the end of the war. Eventually, the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War and Vietnam was reunified as a communist country.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Personal opinion:

We ourself cannot imagine the cruelty and misery that happened during the Vietnam War. Also, we are convinced that it is one of the most difficult things to think about causes of war, wars itself, all the casualties and leaders’ hatred and trying to understand it. Trying to understand the reasons is impossible, at least it is for us. Furthermore, there is always this “What would have happened, if….?”-question. Nobody is able to answer this because nobody can change the past.

The only thing WE can do is to prevent further wars like this. This is a great ethical subject about which one could write more than one book with controversial questions and thoughts in it. Do you agree with our opinion? What do you think, feel when it comes to wars – not only the Vietnam war but wars in general?

You are welcome to leave a comment. 

Bibliography:

http://www.bo-ra.ch/vietnamkrieg/index.php?id=5,0,0,1,0,0

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=18

http://www.historynet.com/vietnam-war

Cold War

As the Cold War was a too long period, we will try to summarize the most important events during those years.

Cold War is called the political phase running from 1945 to 1990. His main characteristic is the rivalry between the two superpowers that won the Second World War. On the one hand the United States (USA) leading the capitalist bloc, on the other hand the Soviet Union (USSR) directing the communist bloc. He did not have a direct war between the two powers, but there were proxy wars in other countries in which each power supported its allies. In these peripheral wars the USSR supported the guerrillas or communist government and the US supported the guerrillas or anti-communist government. The balance of these wars was 60 million deaths (45 to 95). Direct conflict for fear of a nuclear war ended without victors, with mutual annihilation (MAD "Mutually Assured Destruction") was avoided.

There are three periods during the Cold War:

1^st phase: Maximum tension (1947-1953).

In this phase there are two important events, such as:

-      The Berlin Crisis (1947): In 1945, the Allies decided to split Germany into four zones of occupation. The capital, Berlin, was also split into four zones. The USSR took huge reparations from its zone in eastern Germany, but Britain, France and America tried to improve conditions in their zones. In June 1948, Britain, France and America united their zones into a new country, West Germany. On 23 June 1948, they introduced a new currency, which they said would help trade. The next day, Stalin cut off all rail and road links to west Berlin - the Berlin Blockade. The west saw this as an attempt to starve Berlin into surrender, so they decided to supply west Berlin by air. The Berlin Blockade lasted 318 days. During this time, 275,000 planes transported 1.5 million tons of supplies and a plane landed every three minutes at Berlin's Templehof airport. On 12 May 1949, Stalin abandoned the blockade.

-       The Korean War (1950-1953): The Korean War began as a civil conflict between communist North Korea and the Republic of Korea to the south. After failed attempts to create insurgencies in South Korea, North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel, the border between the two nations, in the early hours of June 25, 1950 and invaded South Korea. Shortly after this event, U.S. President Harry Truman, with the support of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, ordered General of the Army Douglas McArthur to use whatever force was necessary to aid the South Koreans. This resolution marked the first time in the UN's short history that the use of force in answer to another's country's aggression was authorized. Ultimately, the U.S. would send over five million soldiers to the Korean theatre before the conflict ended three years later, but the war also involved service members from a large number of other nations, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, India, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg, Colombia, Greece, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey. The UN and South Korean forces suffered a final casualty toll of 200,000 people, including 37,000 U.S. servicemen, before the independence of South Korea was restored. Although an armistice was signed in 1953 between the U.S., China and North Korea, South Korea refused to sign it, leaving the two Koreas separate to this day. Currently the U.S. still maintains a military force in South Korea.

2nd phase: Peaceful Coexistence.

In this phase:

US loses nuclear monopoly.

Stalin dies and Eisenhower arrives to power.

Negotiations are possible, but conflicts appear:

-      The Missile Crisis of Cuba (1962): In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles. He met in secret with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem. After many long and difficult meetings, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. The aim of this "quarantine," as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address. No one was sure how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond to the naval blockade and U.S. demands. But the leaders of both superpowers recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba. In a separate deal, which remained secret for more than twenty-five years, the United States also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal; the missile crisis was over, the arms race was not.

-      The Vietnam War (1968-1975): Between 1945 and 1954, the Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France, which received $2.6 billion in financial support from the United States. The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed by a peace conference in Geneva. As a result of the conference, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam received their independence, and Vietnam was temporarily divided between an anti-Communist South and a Communist North. In 1956, South Vietnam, with American backing, refused to hold unification elections. By 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, had begun to battle the South Vietnamese government. To support the South's government, the United States sent in 2,000 military advisors--a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. The military condition deteriorated, and by 1963, South Vietnam had lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Viet Cong. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground forces--which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The 1968 Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese turned many Americans against the war. The next president, Richard Nixon, advocated Vietnamization, withdrawing American troops and giving South Vietnam greater responsibility for fighting the war. In 1970, Nixon attempted to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy Communist supply bases in Cambodia. This act violated Cambodian neutrality and provoked antiwar protests on the nation's college campuses. From 1968 to 1973, efforts were made to end the conflict through diplomacy. In January 1973, an agreement was reached; U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam, and U.S. prisoners of war were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North, and Vietnam was reunited.

3rd phase: new outbreak of the Cold War.

-       Following the victory of Reagan: During his first term (1980-1984), Reagan launched the largest program of rearmament in a peace period in US history. He called the USSR as the "evil empire" in 1983 and it started what was called as the ”Reagan Doctrine”: a policy of military intervention to overthrow Marxist regimes in the Third World. Examples of this doctrine were the invasion of Granada in 1983 and the military and economic support for the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Islamic guerrillas.

END OF WAR:

It occurs when Gorbachev access power in the USSR in 1985.

The Socialist bloc is dissolved in 1990.

Personal comment:

Personally we thought the Cold War made little sense, except from the perspective of geopolitic. We say that it made little sense because both the USSR and the United States had fought together in World War II with fascism. It did not be in the United States interests that there was a so strong communist country  in a destroyed Europe after the war because it was a danger to the future of the capitalist system. In our opinion, the victory of the Cuban Revolution was a key factor in the evolution of events, both for good and for evil, since the US would not dare launch an attack if there was an ally of the USSR a few kilometers from their costs. But perhaps this also lengthened the war, considering that the Soviet Union found an ally in a strategic position.

Our sources:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=18

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir2/berlinblockaderev1.shtml

http://www.military.com/Resources/HistorySubmittedFileView?file=history_koreanwar.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/what%20was%20the%20cold%20war.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/what%20was%20the%20cold%20war.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Ford Island shortly after the beginning of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. The single vote against Congress's declaration of war against Japan came from Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Rankin was a pacifist who had also voted against the American entrance into World War I. "As a woman," she said, "I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else." Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II. 

Why Attack?

The Japanese were tired of negotiations with the United States. They wanted to continue their expansion within Asia but the United States had placed an extremely restrictive embargo on Japan in the hopes of curbing Japan's aggression. Negotiations to solve their differences hadn't been going well.

Rather than giving in to U.S. demands, the Japanese decided to launch a surprise attack against the United States in an attempt to destroy the United States' naval power even before an official announcement of war was given.

PEARL HARBOR AND THE ROAD TO WAR

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades. The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; to this end, Japan had declared war on China in 1937. American officials responded to this aggression with a battery of economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They reasoned that without access to money and goods, and especially essential supplies like oil, Japan would have to rein in its expansionism. Instead, the sanctions made the Japanese more determined to stand their ground. During months of negotiations between Tokyo and Washington, D.C., neither side would budge. It seemed that war was inevitable. 

Route followed by the Japanese fleet to Pearl Harbor and back.

But no one believed that the Japanese would start that war with an attack on American territory. For one thing, it would be terribly inconvenient: Hawaii and Japan were about 4,000 miles apart. For another, American intelligence officials were confident that any Japanese attack would take place in one of the (relatively) nearby European colonies in the South Pacific: the Dutch East Indies, for instance, or Singapore or Indochina. Because American military leaders were not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were relatively undefended. Almost the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island in the harbor, and hundreds of airplanes were squeezed onto adjacent airfields. To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an irresistible target.

The attack

The Japanese plan was simple: Destroy the Pacific Fleet. That way, the Americans would not be able to fight back as Japan’s armed forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack.

USS Arizona (BB-39) during the attack.

At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained onto the vessels moored below. At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona and landed in her forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside. Next, torpedoes pierced the shell of the battleship USS Oklahoma. With 400 sailors aboard, the Oklahoma lost her balance, rolled onto her side and slipped underwater. By the time the attack was over, every battleship in Pearl Harbor–USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee and USS Nevada–had sustained significant damage. (All but USS Arizona and USS Utah were eventually salvaged and repaired.)

In all, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed 18 American ships and nearly 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were likewise destroyed. Most important, almost 2,500 men were killed and another 1,000 were wounded.

"Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Pearl Harbor appeared to be a huge success for Japan. It was followed by rapid Japanese conquests in Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, the Philippines, Malaya and New Guinea. Yet in the long term, the attack was strategically catastrophic. The ‘sleeping giant’ had been awoken, and in America, a sense of fury now accompanied the mobilisation for war of the world’s most powerful economy. The losses at Pearl Harbor would soon be more than made good, and used to take a terrible vengeance on Japan.

Here an extract of the movie "Pearl Harbor", where you can watch the bombing:

Bibliography:

http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/pearl-harbor

http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/Attack-Pearl-Harbor.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pearl.htm

Hollywood vs Bollywood

Bollywood and Hollywood are both popular cinemas and their names resonate their success around the world. Hollywood is worldwide known, whereas Bollywood is rather popular in the eastern countries but also has been gaining popularity in many western countries including the US. Hollywood is a term that has become synonymous with the American cinema, while Bollywood is highly affiliated to the Indian Cinema. Hollywood and Bollywood are two completely different cinemas that cater to different audiences.

The following will state the major contrasts between Hollywood and Bollywood cinema:

Origin:

The first Hollywood film occurred in 1878 by Eadweard Muybridge, a British photographer who did continuous shooting of the human and animalistic motion sequence.

Regarding Bollywood it was not till 1913 when the first Indian movie was created. It was called Raja Harishchandra

The first Hollywood movie was shot in Palo Alto, California. Nowadays, Hollywood is located in Los Angeles. In contrast, Bollywood does not exist in a “physical place”.

Name:

The name itself suggests that Bollywood has its origin in Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) which is the first city where Indian cinema was introduced in. So it is basically a combination of  the “B” from Bombay and the word Hollywood.

Productions:

Hollywood shoots less movies per year (610 in 2011) than Bollywood (~1000). So Bollywood does make more films, but Hollywood has larger movie earnings and spends more on movie production.

Another interesting fact is that Hollywood records on-set whereas Bollywood has playback recordings. Hollywood movies containing singing are called musicals while Bollywood 99% of all movies contain music and dance (~ 5-6 songs per movie)

Cast:

What is also interesting to know is that in Hollywood movies the casting is done first and then decided whether he/she should act in the planned movie or not.

Famous actors are e.g. Angelina Jolie, Leonardo Di Caprio, Scarlett Johanson, Natalie Portman, Daniel Craig, Keanu Reeves…
In Bollywood movies the actors are obtained and then the movie is made without even actually casting them. 
Directors would decide to make a movie with e.g. Salman Khan and think about the movie itself afterwards.

Famous actors are e.g. Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Hritik Roshan, Salman Khan and Kajol – just to name a view.

Contents and audience:

Bollywood productions are often more emotional and deeper in content than many Hollywood productions because men are also supposed to show their feelings here. Usually Bollywood films are supposed to entertain the whole family and that is why there are often included songs and dancing. Because of this Bollywood films often have a pointless bad reputation among people. Contrary, Hollywood productions back on action, greed, sex and violence.

To sum it up, there are major differences between movies from Hollywood and them from Bollywood, but one can agree that both have their charms that attract millions of people to watch them. If not, they would not be that successful.

Sources:

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-major-differences-between-Hollywood-and-Bollywood

http://www.bolly-wood.de/unterschiede-zwischen-bollywood-und-hollywood-produktionen/

http://www.3sat.de/page/?source=/kulturzeit/tips/145036/index.html

http://www.arte.tv/de/filmemacher/778120.html