During the Cold War era, land reform initiatives were implemented in various countries as part of efforts to address poverty, inequality, and political instability. These initiatives aimed to redistribute land from large landowners to small farmers or landless peasants, with varying degrees of success. We’ll examine the effectiveness of land redistribution plans during the Cold War period. Documents 2 and 4 reveal the challenges and consequences associated with land redistribution efforts during the Cold War era, highlighting the human rights abuses and socioeconomic upheaval experienced by some populations. In Document 2, former Vietnamese Communist Government Official Nguyen Minh Can denounces the land reform in North Vietnam as a massacre and genocide driven by class discrimination, citing the wrongful trial and suicide of thousands. Document 4 features testimonies from peasants in Guatemala expressing …show more content…
Document 1, a scholarly analysis by Edwin E. Moise, discusses the land reform in North Vietnam, highlighting its effects on agricultural productivity and economic development. Document 3, a US Department of State intelligence report on agrarian reform in Guatemala, discusses the potential economic repercussions of land redistribution and the resistance faced by powerful entities like the United Fruit Company. These documents offer contrasting perspectives on the economic outcomes of land redistribution. Document 1 suggests positive impacts on productivity and development, while Document 3 underscores concerns about economic instability and opposition from vested interests. Document 1 provides a scholarly analysis of land reform in North Vietnam, offering an objective assessment of its economic effects. Document 3 represents the viewpoint of the US government, reflecting geopolitical interests and concerns during the Cold War
The Vietnam War, which lasted for two decades (1955-1975), was probably the most problematic of all American wars. US involvement in Vietnam occurred within the larger context of the Cold War between the US and the USSR. It was, and remains, morally ambiguous and controversial. The Vietnam War was slated as both a war against Communism and a war aimed at suppressing dangerous nationalist self-determination. Christian G. Appy's book, Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam, is a graphic and perceptive portrayal of soldiers' experiences and the lasting effects the Vietnam War has had on the American culture and people. Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam, is an analytical work that has three major purposes: 1. to show that those who fought in Vietnam were predominantly from the working class 2. to convey the experiences of the soldiers who served in Vietnam and 3. to offer his own scathing commentary of American actions in Vietnam.
This essay is about the land rights of of Australia and how Eddie Marbo was not happy about his land been taken away from him. In May 1982 Eddie Marbo and four other people of the Murray Islands began to take action in the high court of Australia and confirming their land rights. Eddie Marbo was a torres islander who thought that the Australian laws were wrong and who went to fight and try and change them. He was born in 1936 on Mer which is known as Murray Island. The British Crown in the form of the colony of Queensland became of the sovereign of the islands when they were annexed in1978. They claimed continued enjoyment of there land rights and that had not been validly extinguished by the sovereign. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012)
The first five-year plan, approved in 1929, proposed that state and collective farms provide 15 percent of agriculture output. The predominance of private farming seemed assured, as many farmers resisted collectivization. By late 1929, Stalin moved abruptly to break peasant resistance and secure the resources required for industrialization. He saw that voluntary collectivism had failed, and many “Soviet economists doubted that the first plan could even be implimented.”1 Stalin may have viewed collectivization as a means to win support from younger party leaders, rather than from the peasants and Lenin’s men. “Privately he advocated, industrializing the country with the help of internal accumulation” 2 Once the peasantry had been split, Stalin believed that the rural proletarians would embrace collectivization . Before this idea had a chance to work, a grain shortage induced the Politburo to support Stalin’s sudden decision for immediate, massive collectivization.
During the second half of the twentieth century, when the Cold War was on its midst, the United States played an important role in world affairs. The increasing military power that the United States had during the Cold War, allowed it to influence the political decisions that many countries had during this time. The United States directly opposed the idea of communism, which the Soviet Union promoted. This conflict between this two great powers, lasted for five decades, and it tremendously affected the political ideologies of the world. Both countries tried to push their political and economic interest to as many nations as they could, especially those close to their borders. During this time, Guatemala was undergoing a social revolution with communist ideas. The revolution happened as a response to the social injustice committed by the United Fruit Company. The United Fruit Company started to lose land, due to a land reform passed b...
After the Civil War, the United States was torn on how to provide services to freed slaves, or freedmen. Eventually the Freedmen's Bureau emerged from the confusion. This bureau gave food, shelter, and education to freedmen, but also did one more very important service. The Freedmen's Bureau helped to get the emancipated slaves on their feet by providing land to each of them. "Forty acres and a mule"(Abbot, 52) was the amount of land and property that each family or single man in South Carolina was to get. To freedmen, freedom was only achieved when they were in control of some type of property. Unfortunately, three problem arose; the government needed to attain a sufficient amount of land to provide the expected forty acres, distribute that land properly, and later fight the original owners for that land.
Most people in the world have not heard of the genocide going on in Laos today. Most people have not taken notice, read about it, or bother to spend more than thirty seconds of their lives learning about it. The world has managed to almost entirely ignore the genocide of the Hmong people in Laos for over 30 years and still allow this crime against humanity to continue. Since the 1970s, the ethnic Hmong people in the Southeast Asian country of Laos have been persecuted by the Laotian government (Malakunas, 2000). This harassment is a direct result of the Hmong’s link to the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States in what has become known as the Secret War (Malakunas, 2000).
These documents detailed a series of counterinsurgency sweeps through Guatemalan regions to kill the enemy guerillas and destroy their bases with extreme force. The prosecution proved with evidence that General Rios Montt was guilty of 1,771 indigenous people, forced displacement of 29,000 people, at least nine cases of sexual violence and various cases of torture (Burt 2). The violence was overwhelming when described in court and included powerful testimonies that showed indiscriminate massacres, rape, infanticide, destruction of crops to induce starvation, and abduction of children (Burt 2). The use of defense patrols was also produced as evidence against the General, citing that these where used as methods to undermine local populations and instill fear amongst the citizens of these villages.
However, this does not necessarily mean colonizing Latin America, but rather having it allied and influenced by the United States' mentality and agenda. The book describes the tactics used by the United States to align these countries' policies and politics with its own. The book effectively portrays the role of the United States in the political affairs of Latin American countries. Higgins examines the Eisenhower administration's invasion of Guatemala, which resulted in a revolt to remove the leftist President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. The Arbenz administration posed a threat to the dominance of American companies in Guatemala, particularly the United Fruit Company.
In response to the unjust warfare committed in Vietnam, many activists rose to the challenge to oppose what they believed was wrong. Their activism has slowly changed the way the United States conducts foreign policy. Many forms of weaponry such as herbicides and napalm have been removed from use due to the outcry of their inhumane methods. The sacrifices that these activists made should serve as an example for modern and future American citizens to oppose unjust conflicts and war crimes regardless of the nation they are committed by.
In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico in an attempt to acquire the disputed Rio Grande. It was after the US annexation coupled with failed efforts to purchase the territory from Mexico. The war went on for close to two years. By the end of this period, the US was divided on whether or not the merits exceeded the demerits. The Congress, for example, debated about how much was enough territory for the US to acquire when the war ended. Eventually, the US and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty provided an understanding between the two governments. This paper will analyze the effects of the agreement about the welfare of the Mexican people.
Throughout the nation’s 2000-year history, Cambodia, a developing Southeast Asian country located on the Indochina Peninsula, has experienced a number of glories and tragedies; as a matter of fact, it was until 1993 that the democratic election, supported by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), were conducted to restore peace in Cambodia under a coalition government (CIA World Factbook, 2013). In order to transform from the negative peace which is just the absent of direct violence to the positive peace meaning the absent of cultural and structural violence, Cambodia, the younger member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has been trying as hard as possible to address the problem of inequality with the obvious hope that if inequality is not natural, according to Hobbes, but rather constructed, there are probably chances to level down its impacts or even demolish its existence.
The famine in Russia alone led the peasants to become angry and fed up with the Russian government, suggesting a future revolution. Because of the peasants’ unrest, they began to break the law by as stealing food for their families and shouting in the streets. Russia had attempted revolution before, and a fear of an uprising was feared again. Their everyday routi...
The Cambodian Genocide took place from 1975 to 1979 in the Southeastern Asian country of Cambodia. The genocide was a brutal massacre that killed 1.4 to 2.2 million people, about 21% of Cambodia’s population. This essay, will discuss the history of the Cambodian genocide, specifically, what happened, the victims and the perpetrators, and the world’s response to the genocide. The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War.
Throughout the past 60 to 70 years there has been speculation as to the involvement of the United States in the overthrowing of Jacobo Arbenz’ regime. The United States, through the CIA, although not officially confirmed, did participate in overthrowing Arbenz and his government. It was because of Arbenz’ land reforms, including that of United Fruit Co., that the CIA decided to invade Guatemala. They intervened to prevent Guatemala from falling to Communism by invading her to overthrow Arbenz’ government, which they believed was already following Communistic ideals. The main reason the intervention has been criticized is because it makes it confusing for people to know whether the CIA’s intervention actually helped Guatemala. The CIA’s intervention
Before the industrial revolution, villagers practiced communal farming, in which residents worked together to farm on a large lot of land. Part of the land was divided up into three different crop fields. One for wheat or rye, one for oats or beans, and one for fallow. The fourth section of land was left to give livestock a place to graze, plant wild plants, and store firewood for the winter. The Enclosure Movement helped propel the shift from agriculture to industry. With this movement, agriculture was used for commercial practices and not so much as a way to feed single families. Before the start the Enclosure Movement, villages practiced communal farming in which the land and what was grown and raised on it was shared between the residents. However, this way of farming changed as effects of the Enclosure Movement made their way into the villages. Communal farms were divided up into single-family farms, with each family receiving and equal share of land. The owners of the land were rich families. These owners lease the land to farmers. During the enclosure movement, the land owners wrote new leases to individual families. These leases usually lasted 19 years and every family that lived in the village had the right to get a lease. People who got very small farms could not survive on their own without the right to use the common land, of which there was little to no land because it had been divided up. Therefo...