CIA Archives: Anti-Communism Efforts in Southeast Asia (1954)
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Southeast Asia,
South-East Asia,
South East Asia or
Southeastern Asia is a subregion of
Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of
China, east of
India, west of
New Guinea and north of
Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions:
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as Indochina, comprises
Cambodia,
Laos,
Burma (
Myanmar),
Thailand,
Vietnam and
Peninsular Malaysia, and
Maritime Southeast Asia, which is analogous to the
Malay Archipelago, comprises
Brunei,
East Malaysia,
East Timor,
Indonesia, the
Philippines,
Christmas Island and
Singapore.
Geographically
Hong Kong,
Macau, and
Taiwan are sometimes grouped in the Southeast Asia subregion, although such grouping is rare politically, since in political usage the definition of Southeast Asia is overshadowed by
ASEAN memberships. The same is true for the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India, and occasionally regions of the
Seven Sister States such as
Manipur.
Austronesian peoples predominate in this region. The major religions are
Buddhism and Islam, followed by
Christianity. However, a wide variety of religions are found throughout the region, including many
Hindu and animist-influenced practices.
By virtue of the
Soviet Union's victory in the
Second World War in
1945, the
Red Army occupied nations not only in
Central and Eastern Europe, but also in
East Asia; consequently, communism as
a movement spread to many new countries. This expansion of communism both in
Europe and Asia gave rise to a few different branches of its own, such as Maoism.
Communism had been vastly strengthened by the winning of many new nations into the sphere of
Soviet influence and strength in Central and Eastern Europe. Governments modelled on
Soviet Communism took power with Soviet assistance in
Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia,
East Germany,
Poland,
Hungary and
Romania. A
Communist government was also created under
Marshal Tito in
Yugoslavia, but
Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform, which had replaced the
Comintern. Titoism, a new branch in the world
Communist movement, was labelled "deviationist".
Albania also became an independent
Communist nation after
World War II.
By
1950, the
Chinese Communists held all of
Mainland China, thus controlling the most populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked dissension and in some cases led to actual fighting through conventional and guerrilla warfare include the
Korean War, Laos, many nations of the
Middle East and
Africa, and notably succeeded in the case of the
Vietnam War against the military power of the
United States and its allies. With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite with nationalist and socialist forces against what they saw as
Western imperialism in these poor countries.
With the exception of the contribution in World War II by the Soviet Union, China, and the
Italian resistance movement, communism was seen as a rival, and a threat to western democracies and capitalism for most of the
20th century. This rivalry peaked during the
Cold War, as the world's two remaining superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, polarized most of the world into two camps of nations. This was characterized in the
West as
The Free World vs.
Behind the Iron Curtain. It supported the spread of their respective economic and political systems (capitalism and communism) and strengthened their military powers. As a result, the camps developed new weapon systems, stockpiled nuclear weapons, and competed in space exploration.
Near the beginning of the Cold War, on
February 9, 1950,
Senator Joseph McCarthy from
Wisconsin accused 205
Americans working in the
State Department of being "card-carrying communists." The fear of communism in the
U.S. spurred McCarthyism, aggressive investigations and the red-baiting, blacklisting, jailing and deportation of persons suspected of following communist or other left-wing ideologies. Many famous actors and writers were placed on a blacklist from 1950 to
1954, which meant they would not be hired and would be subject to public disdain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_asia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism