explorehistory.app

Conflict in Asia 1950–1975

Conflict in Asia 1950-1975 is the AQA GCSE wider world depth study on how the Cold War turned hot. It follows the Korean War from the invasion of the South to the armistice, then the long escalation in Vietnam: the fall of Diem, Rolling Thunder, the Tet Offensive, Vietnamisation, the peace talks and the fall of Saigon. Each conflict is studied through causes, tactics, the involvement of the great powers and consequences.

Conflict in Asia is a depth study, so the exam rewards precise knowledge and tight explanation of how events connect. The course is organised around the four headings the questions draw on (causes, tactics, involvement of powers and consequences), so you learn to see which one a question is really asking about.

A question you will meetExplain why the USA became involved in the war in Vietnam between 1954 and 1965.

Start learning ->

What was the Cold War?

1945-1950

Why did a divided world drag the USA into Asia?

The Cold War in 1950: Why the USA Cared

• Capitalism vs Communism: Two Worlds Apart
• Containment in Practice: Truman, Marshall, NATO and Asia

Conflict in Korea

1950-1953

How did the Cold War turn hot in Asia?

Korea After 1945

• Korea at the End of WWII: Yalta, Potsdam and the 38th Parallel

The Two Koreas

• Kim Il Sung's North Korea
• Syngman Rhee's South Korea

The North Korean Invasion and the UN Response

• The North Korean Invasion (June 1950)
• The UN Response and the USSR's Absence
• Inchon and the Advance North

Chinese Intervention and Stalemate

• China Enters the War (October 1950)
• MacArthur, Truman and the Dismissal
• Stalemate Along the 38th Parallel

The Armistice and Its Consequences

• The Panmunjom Armistice (July 1953)
• Consequences for Korea, the UN, the USA and China

Escalation of Conflict in Vietnam

1954-1968

How did the USA become trapped in a war it could not win?

Vietnam Before the French Defeat

• Vietnam Under French Colonial Rule
• Ho Chi Minh and the Rise of the Vietminh
• WWII, the August Revolution and the First Indochina War

The End of French Rule

• Dien Bien Phu (1954)
• The Geneva Accords and Division at the 17th Parallel

US Involvement Under Eisenhower and Kennedy

• Domino Theory and Eisenhower's Commitment
• Diem's South Vietnam: Corruption and Repression
• Strategic Hamlets and the Birth of the Vietcong

Gulf of Tonkin and Johnson's War

• The Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)
• Operation Rolling Thunder and Ground Troops

US Tactics in Vietnam

• Search and Destroy
• Agent Orange, Napalm and the Air War
• My Lai (1968) and the Cost of US Tactics

Vietcong Tactics

• Guerrilla Warfare and the Ho Chi Minh Trail
• Tunnels, Booby Traps and Village Networks
• The Tet Offensive (1968)

The Ending of Conflict in Vietnam

1968-1979

How did the war end - and what came after?

Opposition to the War

• Origins of Opposition: The Draft, Campus and Civil Rights
• Television, Photography and the War Americans Saw
• Kent State, Veterans and Changing Public Opinion

Nixon and Vietnamisation

• Vietnamisation: Bringing the Troops Home
• The Bombing of Cambodia and Laos
• Detente: Nixon, China and the USSR

Paris Peace and the Fall of Saigon

• The Paris Peace Accords (1973)
• The Fall of Saigon (1975) and the Cost of the War

Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge

• Pol Pot and the Rise of the Khmer Rouge
• The Cambodian Genocide and the Vietnamese Invasion

Start learning ->