International Relations

In 1949, the popular communist armies under the leadership of Mao Zedong captured the Chinese capital of Peking (Beijing), defeating the Nationalist leader Jiang Jieshi. Jiang Jieshi and his followers set up a provisional government in exile on the island of Taiwan. The United States was shocked by the fall of China to communism, and this furthered the government’s resolve to prevent the further spread of communism in Asia. This resolve was illustrated by the efforts to defeat the communist leader Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. Beginning in 1954, the United States began providing assistance to the anticom- munist government in Vietnam, and after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1963, the United States began the long-term military escalation that became the Vietnam War. Deng Xiaop-ing came into power in China in 1981. He adopted some progressive reforms for China, highlighted by the Four Modernizations, which focused on agriculture, industry, science, and defense, and allowed for limited ownership of private property and some free market policies. Kim Il Sung was the leader of North Korea through much of the Cold War. He forged alliances with both the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. In the 1950s, his military invaded the democratic South Korea, sparking the Korean War.