World History

Teachers: Lamb, Thigpen, Seipel, and Williamson

Week 5: May 4- May 8

Due Date: Friday, May 8th at 3pm

Assignments will be submitted by the following:

Lamb- Turn-it-in, Thigpen- Turn-it-in, Seipel- Turn-it-in, Williamson- Turn-it-in

Assignments:

1. Get registered for your history turn-it-in: (Seipel, Thigpen, Williamson, and Lamb)

a. turnitin.com i. Class ID’s and Enrollment Key’s

Seipel Class ID Enrollment Key Period 4 24434868 LHSLions Period 5 24446653 LHSLions Period 6 24446663 LHSLions Period 7 24446670 LHSLions

Williamson Class ID Enrollment Key Period 1 24444230 World1 Period 3 24444247 World3 Period 4 24444267 World4 Period 5 24444317 World5 Period 7 24444329 World7 Period 8 24444336 World8

Thigpen Class ID Enrollment Key Period 1 24449376 world1 Period 2 24449384 world2

Lamb Class ID Enrollment Key World History P2 24530379 WorldH2 World History P3 24530386 WorldH3 World History P8 24530398 WorldH8

Please answer each of the following questions in 1 -2 well thought out paragraphs. Refer to the readings to support your answers.

1. Refer back to the article on China under Mao Zadong. In 1966 Mao Zadong turned to the “young people” to support him. Why do you believe Mao Zadong turned to young people to support his “new” ideas? Do you think this was a good idea? Why or why not? Was this movement successful? Why or why not?

2. Refer to the reading on the Korean War. In your opinion was General MacArthur a good leader? Explain your answer. Did President Truman do the right thing, not dropping atomic bombs on China? Why or why not? Explain.

3. Refer to the reading on The Vietnam War and reread the letter from Stan, an American solider fighting in The Vietnam War. How would you describe the mood of Stan’s letter to his wife? (Make sure use quotes from the letter to support your answer) Compare Stan’s letter with the speech given by President Johnson. What is President Johnson attitude towards The Vietnam War? How are these two documents different? How are they similar?

China Under Mao Zedong Reading

THE KOREAN WAR Reading

As the Allied Powers pushed the Japanese Army back toward Japan during the last year of WWII, one of the nations they freed was Korea. However, the U.S. freed the southern part of Korea, and the Soviet Union freed the northern part. Neither side trusted the other enough to give them complete control over rebuilding Korea. As a result, they split Korea into 2 occupation zones, similar to Germany. The dividing line would be at the 38th parallel (line of latitude ) on the world map. North Korea quickly became a Communist dictatorship, while South Korea became a democracy. North and South Koreans both wanted their nation reunited. However, neither wanted to be forced to accept the other’s new way of life.

As the South Korean economy improved, the U.S. withdrew their occupying soldiers. The Soviet Union had different plans. Stalin provided the North Korean Army with guns, tanks, airplanes, and cash, and encouraged them to reunite Korea by invading South Korea. On June 25th, 1950, the North Korean Army raced across the 38th parallel and violently invaded South Korea, beginning The Korean War.

Americans were shocked at this violent attempt to spread Communism. However, they also were not in the mood for another World War just 5 years after the end of WWII. President Truman was unwilling to allow Communism to spread to South Korea. Citing his “Truman Doctrine” of containing Communism to avoid a dangerous “domino effect”, Truman asked the newly created United Nations (U.N.) for help. The U.N. agreed to help, but the U.S. ended up supplying most of the soldiers and supplies for the Korean War.

At first, the North Korean Army crushed the South Korean Army and the newly arriving U.S. forces, driving them back to Pusan, on the very southern tip of South Korea. Just as it appeared that South Korea and the U.S. may have to surrender, U.S. General Douglass MacArthur stepped forward with a bold plan. MacArthur was already famous for his leadership during WWII and for writing Japan’s new Constitution. He suggested that instead of only trying to push back against the invading North Korean Army, the U.S. should also sail around them and launch a sneak attack from behind. He suggested a secret water landing at Inchon.

The risky plan worked. U.S. troops shocked the North Koreans as they stormed in from the North after secretly sailing around them. Half of the North Korean soldiers surrendered, while the other half fled for their lives. MacArthur led the charge to follow the fleeing North Korean Army back toward the 38th parallel. It appeared that MacArthur’s bold plan would save South Korea.

However, MacArthur made a huge mistake. Excited by the chase and overconfident in his own leadership, he did not listen to President Truman’s orders to stop at the 38th parallel boundary between North and South Korea. Instead, he disobeyed the President and plowed right across the 38th parallel into North Korea. He pushed north until the North Korean Army was backed up against their border with China. China, the world’s newest Communist nation, felt threatened by the U.S. advance toward their border. They sent 300,000 soldiers into North Korea to attack the oncoming U.S. Army. Suddenly, it was the U.S. and South Korean Armies fleeing back to the 38th parallel. Here they were able to finally dig in and stand their ground against the Chinese/North Korean Armies. The Korean War became an ugly stalemate (tie). One of the coldest winters on record caused thousands of soldiers to freeze to death as they fought over a few miles of land at the 38th parallel.

Stuck in a deadly stand-off, General MacArthur called for President Truman to use atomic bombs against China. Truman refused, unwilling to make using atomic bombs a common part of war, and fearful of the Soviet Union’s response if the U.S. used atomic bombs against a Communist nation. MacArthur began to deliver speeches questioning Truman’s toughness, and speaking poorly about Truman behind his back. At the time, MacArthur was wildly popular for his previous military success, and Truman was unpopular due to frustration over his “losing China” to Communism and the Korean War. Truman did not care. He fired MacArthur for disloyalty. Americans were furious, and some called for his impeachment. Years later, they would realize that Truman did the right thing.

In 1953, after 3 years of fighting, North and South Korea agreed to place a border between them at the 38th parallel – right where it had been before the Korean War. In fact, both sides agreed only to a temporary truce rather than a permanent peace treaty, meaning that technically the Korean War is still ongoing. Americans were frustrated and embarrassed that 54,000 American lives and $67 billion had been lost fighting a war that accomplished nothing new. As a result, returning soldiers found none of the glory or attention that WWII soldiers did. The Korean War became a “forgotten war” - a war that Americans rarely mentioned. Today, the Korean War Memorial ( pictured) in Washington D.C. is one of the few tributes to this deadly war.

Today, North and South Korea are still bitterly divided at the 38th parallel. North Korea is controlled by an unstable totalitarian dictator, Kim Jong-Un, who like his grandfather and father before him, rules through fear, sends entire families to prison camps for disloyalty, brainwashes his people with anti-South Korean and U.S. propaganda, outlaws foreign trade or even making phone calls outside of North Korea, and threatens to use atomic bombs. Meanwhile, South Korea believes in democracy and capitalism, and has one of the world’s best economies. Despite being the same ethnicity, South Koreans on average now grow 2 inches taller and live several years longer than the oppressed, isolated, and starving North Koreans. Both nations believe that they will be reunited one day, but neither is willing to live like the other. Their split is just one of the many painful legacies of the Cold War struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The Vietnam War

In 1954, the country of Vietnam was divided into the North and South. However, fighting soon began in South Vietnam due to South Vietnam wanting to remain non-Communist. North Vietnam fought to take over South Vietnam to create one Communist nation.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail -named after the leader of North Vietnam- ran through neighboring countries. The United States feared that Communism might spread thought Southeast Asia and began sending money, supplies, and advisors to South Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson sent American soldiers to fight there. As the war went on, many American soldiers were killed while fighting in Vietnam and the anti-war movement in the United States grew. People held marches, sang anti-war songs, and wrote letters against the war to politicians.

In 1973, President Nixon finally withdrew the last of the U.S. troops from the area. The North Vietnamese won the war and Vietnam became a country under Communist rule. In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built in Washington D.C. to honor American soldiers who fought in the war.

Images #1& 2

Letter from an American soldier fighting in Vietnam to his wife and answering a few questions.

Dear Roberta, May 25, 1968

Today is probably one of the worst days I have ever lived in my entire, short life. Once again we are in contact with the North Vietnamese, and once again many soldiers were killed. The losses have totally hit home, as my best friend, in this horrible miserable place was shot and killed. He was only 22 years old and was going home on June 1st to meet his wife in Hawaii. I feel that if I were only a half a second sooner pulling the trigger, he would still be alive.

Strange how short of a time a half a second is; the difference between life and death. This morning we were talking about how we were only 2 years apart in age, and how we both had gotten married before coming to this place. You know, I can still feel his presence as I write this letter and hope that I am able to survive and leave this horrible place behind.

If there is a place called Hell, I am sure this is it, we must be the Devil’s workers doing his dirty work. I just keep asking myself how so many people with so much to live for keep dying. I just hope their death is for a reason.

I look forward to the day when my duty is done. I should be able to make it home in time for our anniversary. I have spent enough time in this place, where I should be able to pick when I get to come home. I promise I will do everything necessary to make sure that I make that date, and I hope tomorrow is quite. We will be going to a 30-day base camp, so I will hope to write you a letter then. Please do not worry about me, I will take care of myself and look forward to the day I am able to be with you again.

Love, Stan

From President Lyndon Johnson’s Speech at Johns Hopkins University (1965):

We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954 every American president has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. We have helped to build, and we have helped to defend. Thus, over many years we have made a national pledge to help South Vietnam obtain its independence. And I intend to keep that promise.

We are also there to strengthen world order. Around the globe from Berlin to Thailand, are people whose well-being rests, in part, on the belief that they can count on us if they are attacked. To leave Vietnam to its fate would shake the confidence of all these people in the value of an American commitment and in the value of America’s word. The result would be increased unrest and instability, and even wider war.

Our objective is in the independence of South Vietnam and its freedom from attack. We want nothing for ourselves only that the people of South Vietnam be allowed to guide their own country in their own way. We will do everything necessary to read that objective.