Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0388/03887.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 39KB | 639 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03887}
$Pretitle{444}
$Title{United States of America
Chapter 8B.   Developments In Asia}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{United States Information Service}
$Affiliation{United States Government}
$Subject{president
states
united
soviet
american
government
new
kennedy
nations
war}
$Date{1991}
$Log{}
Country:     United States of America
Book:        An Outline of American History
Author:      United States Information Service
Affiliation: United States Government
Date:        1991

Chapter 8B.   Developments In Asia

     President Eisenhower's first administration opened on a hopeful note. In
July 1953, North Korea, faced with a military stalemate, signed an armistice
with the U.N. Command agreeing formally to recognize the division of Korea and
providing for an exchange of prisoners. Some 20,000 North Korean and Chinese
prisoners of war, in the presence of Indian observers, chose not to return to
their homelands.

     The Korean armistice did not end the troubles in Asia. By the spring of
1954 a coalition of Vietnamese Communists and nationalists clearly was winning
its eight-year war against France's attempt to maintain its colonial rule over
Indochina. From May to July representatives of France, the Soviet Union, Great
Britain, the United States, and several Asian nations met at Geneva to discuss
ending the fighting. The conferees divided what had been called French
Indochina into three nations: Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam-with Vietnam
temporarily divided at the 17th parallel into northern and southern
administrative districts pending unification elections scheduled for July
1956. In its final declaration the conference recognized the sovereignty,
independence, and territorial integrity of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The
election mandated by this Geneva conference was never held, in part because it
was feared the nationalist-Communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, would come to power
through subversion of an electoral process he did not support.

     Against this background of conflict, in September 1954, the United States
joined with Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, Great Britain, France,
Australia and New Zealand to establish the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
SEATO, as this mutual-assistance pact was called, provided for economic
cooperation, technical assistance, and collective action against aggression or
subversion. An attached clause extended the original treaty provisions for
protection and economic aid to Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam.

     In addition, the United States expanded its technical assistance program
for Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. By 1958, following
$1,000 million spent for relief and reconstruction from the U.S., South Korea
surpassed its prewar production and consumption levels. Equally effective was
the massive assistance given the Philippine Republic to help rebuild after the
ravages of war and to support its fight against guerrillas. Altogether,
between 1950 and 1960, the U.S. provided more than 60 nations with machinery,
medicines, loans, and technicians.

Efforts Toward Peaceful Cooperation

     In 1955, the U.S. Government consolidated its various foreign-aid
programs, including what remained of the Marshall Plan for Europe, into a
permanent International Cooperation Administration. Two years later, the U.S.
created the Development Loan Fund to help provide developing areas with the
capital needed to finance transportation, power, industry, river-valley
development, irrigation, and other foundations for economic growth. By the end
of 1960, the Fund had made some 183 loans to 49 countries totalling nearly
$2,000 million. In addition, between 1954 and 1960, the U.S. distributed food
worth more than $10,000 million to needy countries. About half this food was
an outright gift to avert famine in such countries as Pakistan, Nepal, Jordan,
Haiti, and Ghana. The other half was sold for foreign currencies, which could
then be lent back to the recipient countries at low or no interest for their
economic development projects.

     Hopes for peaceful cooperation between the Communist and non-Communist
powers were raised by the 1955 Geneva "summit conference," but the American,
Soviet, British, and French heads of state failed to agree on methods of
achieving either disarmament or the reunification of Germany. To minimize the
dangers of surprise attack and to halt arms development, President Eisenhower
proposed that the Soviet Union and the United States exchange blueprints of
their military establishments and permit mutual aerial observation of military
installations. The Soviet leaders rejected this plan as an invasion
of national sovereignty. Nevertheless, the Geneva meeting did produce
agreements providing that Soviet technicians, intellectuals, and performing
artists would tour the U.S. while their American counterparts visited the
Soviet Union.

Crises Over Hungary and Suez

     In 1956, there was a series of explosive international developments.
Early that year Soviet party leader Nikita Khrushchev suddenly denounced the
dead dictator Josef Stalin as a cruel tyrant, a denunciation that led people
in the Soviet-dominated countries of eastern Europe to demand greater freedom
in managing their own internal affairs.

     In Poland, Wladyslaw Gomulka, a nationalist Communist leader who had
been jailed under Stalin, became head of the Polish Communist Party and
promised the people greater freedom of speech, press, and religion. In October
1956, the Hungarian people revolted, installed a liberal government, and
demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Instead of withdrawing, the Soviet
army launched an attack on the Hungarians and crushed the rebellion. The
American people joined the worldwide protest against the Soviet Union's action
and welcomed thousands of Hungarian refugees to the United States.

     Simultaneously with the Hungarian uprising, a serious world crisis
developed over control of the Suez Canal. Since its completion on Egyptian
territory in 1869, the Canal had been operated by an international company,
mainly British and French in composition. In July 1956, when Egypt's President
Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalization of the canal, the Western
powers tried in vain to reach an agreement with Egypt on a new form of
international control by the 18 nations that regularly used the Canal. Then
in October, against a background of increasing border clashes, Israel accused
Egypt of planning an attack against her and sent the Israeli army across the
Sinai Peninsula toward Suez.

     Viewing this development as a threat to shipping on the Canal, the
British and French landed troops in the Canal zone. The United States opposed
this action of its NATO allies as a violation of the principle of
self-determination. The American delegation at the United Nations voted in
favor of a General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and
withdrawal of the invading troops. Great Britain, France, and Israel accepted
these terms. In March 1957, under the supervision of a U.N. police force, the
Suez Canal was cleared of wreckage and opened to shipping.

     The Suez crisis, which prompted the Soviet Union to threaten to use force
in Egypt, revealed growing Soviet efforts to gain a foothold in the Middle
East. To counter this threat and to encourage stability and independence in
the area, the United States adopted what came to be known as the Eisenhower
Doctrine. In January 1957, President Eisenhower asked Congress, first, for
authorization to use military force if requested by any Middle Eastern nation
to check aggression; and, second, to set aside a sum of $200 million to help
those Middle Eastern countries that desired aid from the United States.
Congress granted both requests.

     A year and a half later, President Eisenhower sent Marines to Lebanon at
the latter's request. The action came after Lebanon accused the United Arab
Republic (a union of Syria and Egypt) of provoking and arming a rebellion in
Lebanon. Afte