DBQ Sources: The Cold War and Decolonization
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON 8.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATIONUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “DBQ Sources:The Cold War and Decolonization”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeUse a variety of primary and secondary sources to deepen your understanding of theimpacts of Cold War and decolonization.ProcessAnalyze the following sources. If you are using these sources to respond to an essay prompt, you should underlineor highlightany evidence that will support your claim. You can also use theQuick Sourcing Tool.Document 1Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) served as the first Prime Minister of India. In this 1947 speech, he addressed the Constituent Assembly in New Delhi.We have sought to avoid foreign entanglements by not joining one bloc or the other. The natural result has been that neither of these big blocs looks on us with favor. They think we are undependable. ... Last year when our delegation went to the United Nations, it was the first time a more or less independent delegation went from India. It was looked at a little askance. They did not know what it was going to do. When they found we acted according to our own will, they did not like it. ... There was a suspicionin the minds of the first group that we were really allied to the other group in secret ... and the other group thought that we were allied to the first group. ...This year there was a slight change in this attitude. We did many things that both groups dislike, but the comprehension came to them that we were not really allied to either group. ... They did not like that, of course ... but they respected us much more, because they realized that we had an independent policy. ... They understood we stood for something. ...We propose to keep on the closest terms with other countries unless they themselves create difficulties. ... We intend to cooperate with the United States of America, and we intend cooperating fully with the Soviet Union. ...Source: Nehru, Jawaharlal. “Indian Foreign Policy (Selected Statements).” India Quarterly 41, no.1 (1985): 74–100.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 8.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATION2Document 2The text of this North Korean poster reads, “Soldiers of People’s Army please rescue us!”, c. 1950–1953.Source: “Soldiers of People’s Army please rescue us!” North Korean Propaganda Posters and Tabloids Captured During the Korean War, 1950–1953. National Archives and Records Administration. https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2019/07/09/spotlight-propoganda/#jp-carousel-22136
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 8.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATION3Document 3Zhou Enlai (1898–1976) was the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China and an important communist leader under Mao Zedong. Below is part of a speech Enlai gave at the Bandung Conference in 1955, a meeting of newly independent Asian and African nations.We must first of all thank the five sponsoring countries, Burma, Ceylon, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, whose initiative and efforts have made it possible for us to meet here. ...The peoples of Asia and Africa created brilliant ancient civilizations and made tremendous contributions to mankind. But, ever since modern times most of the countries of Asia and Africa in varying degrees have been subjected to colonial plunder and oppression, and have thus been forced to remain in a stagnant state of poverty and backwardness. ... we have no choice but to rise against colonialism. Suffering from the same cause and struggling for the same aim, we the Asian and African peoples have found it easier to understand each other and have long had deep sympathy and concern for one another. Now the face of the Asian-African region has undergone a radical change. More and more countries have cast off or are casting off the shackles of colonialism. ...Both in the East and in the West the danger of war is increasing. ... Countries outside of Asia and Africa are establishing more and more military bases in the Asian and African countries. They are clamoring openly that atomic weapons are conventional arms and are making preparations for an atomic war. The people of Asia shall never forget that the first atomic bomb exploded on Asian soil and that the first man to die from the experimental explosion of the hydrogen bomb was an Asian. The peoples of Asia and Africa, like those in other parts of the world, cannot be indifferent to the ever-increasing threat of war.Source: Zhou, Enlai. “Main Speech by Premier Zhou Enlai, Head of the Delegation of the People’s Republic of China, Distributed at the Plenary Session of the Asian-African Conference.” Bandung, Indonesia, April 19, 1955. History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Translation from China and the Asian-African Conference. Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1955. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/121623
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 8.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATION4Document 4Source:President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (from left) greet South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington National Airport on May 8, 1957. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/eisenhower-ngo-dinh-diem
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 8.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATION5Document 5South African revolutionary leader Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) wrote this 1958 article for Liberation magazine.Whilst the influence of the old European powers has sharply declined and whilst the anti-imperialist forces are winning striking victories all over the world, a new danger has arisen and threatens to destroy the newly won independence of the people of Asiaand Africa. It is American imperialism, which must be fought and decisively beaten down if the people of Asia and Africa are to preserve the vital gains they have won in their struggle against subjugation. ...American interest in Africa has in recent years grown rapidly. This continent is rich in raw minerals ... It is regarded by the U.S.A. as one of the most important fields of investment. ... the American government has mounted a terrific diplomatic and economicoffensive in almost every part of Africa. ...... having witnessed the resurgence of the people of Asia and Africa against imperialism and having seen the decline and fall of once powerful empires, it comes to Africa elaborately disguised. It has discarded most of the conventional weapons of the old type of imperialism. It does not openly advocate armed invasion and conquest. It purports to repudiate force and violence. It masquerades as the leader of the so-called free world in the campaign against communism. It claims ... to assist other countries in resisting domination by others. ...The American brand of imperialism is imperialism all the same in spite of the modern clothing in which it is dressed and in spite of the sweet language spoken by its advocates and agents. ... It has established a network of military bases all over the continent for armed intervention in the domestic affairs of independent states should the people in these states elect to replace American satellite regimes with those who are against American imperialism.Source: Mandela, Nelson. “A New Menace in Africa.” Liberation no. 30 (March 1958): 22–26. https://disa.ukzn.ac.za/Lin30581729455X000030Mar1958
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 8.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATION6Document 6This excerpt is from a draft speech by Mao Zedong, President of the People’s Republic of China, written in December 1959.The basic interests of China and the Soviet Union have determined that after all these two great powers should unite. Where they don’t unite, it is only a temporary phenomenon, only one finger in ten. ...In 1945, they did not permit [us to make] revolution, but afterwards they consented. From 1949 until 1951, they doubted that [ours was] a real revolution and begin by being unwilling to conclude a mutual-aid alliance treaty, but changed their mind. In the last ten years, they have helped us build many factories. ...In 1958, China formulated the general line for the period of socialist construction, started the Great Leap and the People’s Communes. ...Also in 1959, since March, our friends [the Soviets] have been organizing a big anti-Chinese chorus together with the imperialists and reactionary nationalists, and the Tito revisionists.In the long term, China will, on the one hand, be isolated, but on the other, gain the support of many Communist parties, many countries, and many peoples. In these difficult conditions, China will become a very strong country in 8 years. ...Marxism and Leninism will get the greatest development in China. There is no doubt of this.Khrushchev and his group are very naïve. He does not understand Marxism-Leninism and is easily fooled by imperialism.Source: Mao, Zedong. “Mao Zedong, Outline for a Speech on the International Situation.” Beijing, December 1959. History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive. Translated by David Wolff. In Mao Zedong’s Manuscripts since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, vol. 8. Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1993. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/118893
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 8.5ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATION7Document 7This excerpt is from a February 1961 memorandum written by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and Special Assistant to US President John F. Kennedy about Cuba.It may be that on balance the drastic decision may have to be made. If so, every care must be taken to protect ourselves against the inevitable political and diplomatic fall out. ...Should you not consider at some point addressing a speech to the whole hemisphere setting forth in eloquent terms your own conception of inter-American progress toward individual freedom and social justice? Such a speech would identify our Latin American policy with the aspirations of the plain people of the hemisphere. As part of this speech, you could point out the threats raised against the inter-American system by dictatorial states, and especially by dictatorial states under the control of non-hemisphere governments or ideologies. If this were done properly, action against Castro could be seen as in the interests of the hemisphere and not just of American corporations.Source: Schlesinger, Arthur. Memorandum for President John F. Kennedy, February 11, 1961. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKPOF/115/JFKPOF-115-003?image_identifier=JFKPOF-115-003-p0005