Unit Readings
Yugoslavia → Case Study Materials
Love Hate & Propaganda: The Cold War Interactive Website
Berlin Wall Graffiti of East German President Erich Honecker and Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev.
My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love has become one of the best known works of graffiti art on the Berlin Wall.
My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love has become one of the best known works of graffiti art on the Berlin Wall.
Virtual Historian October Crisis File
Unit 5 → 1945 to 1990
The Korean War
The Korean War
ACTION
→ 9 months after the Communist victory in China in October 1949 and the successful test of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union, the armed forces of Communist North Korea launched a full-scale attack on South Korea.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
→ Korea became the first real battleground of the Cold War and the first major threat of an all-out war between the East and the West.
→ The Korean War was a product of the Cold War and had profound effects on its continuation.
→ From the U.S. (and its allies) perspective, the war was a success as it stood firm against Communist aggression, brought greater security to Japan, and helped strengthen NATO. The Chinese claimed victory as it stood up to a militarily superior Western army in a way that no Chinese army ever had.
→ For North and South Koreans the war was a brutal one where many atrocities were committed by both sides, millions of refugees were created, several hundred thousand Korean families remained separated, and the division of their country was made permanent.
THE ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT
→ At the end of WW2, the U.S. and the Soviet Union temporarily divided the Korean peninsula at the 38th parallel to receive the surrender of Japanese military forces. In the North, Korean Communists established a Soviet-styled government that carried out extensive land reform. In the South, an authoritarian and staunchly anti-Communist regime was established by Korean nationalists.
→ Under these circumstances, unification of the north and the south proved impossible. Both governments proclaimed to be the rightful and only legitimate government of all of Korea.
→ U.S. military involvement was authorized by the United Nations (although, the Soviets were boycotting the U.N. for refusing to recognize the new Communist People's Republic of China at the U.N. Security Council) as a U.N. "action".
→ LESSON OF MUNICH plays large in the U.S. rationale to get involved → appeasement of an aggressor does not bring peace but only more serious aggression.
→ The use of military force to achieve the unification of Korea and eliminate the Communist government in the north was not authorized by the U.N. Security Council, only to protect the territorial integrity of South Korea. Pushing the North Korean military toward the Chinese border provoked the Chinese and Soviets to enter the war.
→ Eventually the war came to a stalemate and after long peace talks the truce line was established. This line was later widened to become a two-and-a-half mile wide demilitarized zone (DMZ).
THE FALLOUT
→ Officially the state of war has continued ever since, and the truce line between North and South Korea remains the most militarized border anywhere in the world. For over 40 years it remained a potential flash point in the Cold War.
→ 9 months after the Communist victory in China in October 1949 and the successful test of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union, the armed forces of Communist North Korea launched a full-scale attack on South Korea.
REACTION
→ The U.S. (and its major allies) responded swiftly and decisively to halt what they perceived to be the forceful expansion of international Communism and a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter.HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
→ Korea became the first real battleground of the Cold War and the first major threat of an all-out war between the East and the West.
→ The Korean War was a product of the Cold War and had profound effects on its continuation.
→ From the U.S. (and its allies) perspective, the war was a success as it stood firm against Communist aggression, brought greater security to Japan, and helped strengthen NATO. The Chinese claimed victory as it stood up to a militarily superior Western army in a way that no Chinese army ever had.
→ For North and South Koreans the war was a brutal one where many atrocities were committed by both sides, millions of refugees were created, several hundred thousand Korean families remained separated, and the division of their country was made permanent.
THE ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT
→ At the end of WW2, the U.S. and the Soviet Union temporarily divided the Korean peninsula at the 38th parallel to receive the surrender of Japanese military forces. In the North, Korean Communists established a Soviet-styled government that carried out extensive land reform. In the South, an authoritarian and staunchly anti-Communist regime was established by Korean nationalists.
→ Under these circumstances, unification of the north and the south proved impossible. Both governments proclaimed to be the rightful and only legitimate government of all of Korea.
→ U.S. military involvement was authorized by the United Nations (although, the Soviets were boycotting the U.N. for refusing to recognize the new Communist People's Republic of China at the U.N. Security Council) as a U.N. "action".
→ LESSON OF MUNICH plays large in the U.S. rationale to get involved → appeasement of an aggressor does not bring peace but only more serious aggression.
→ The use of military force to achieve the unification of Korea and eliminate the Communist government in the north was not authorized by the U.N. Security Council, only to protect the territorial integrity of South Korea. Pushing the North Korean military toward the Chinese border provoked the Chinese and Soviets to enter the war.
→ Eventually the war came to a stalemate and after long peace talks the truce line was established. This line was later widened to become a two-and-a-half mile wide demilitarized zone (DMZ).
THE FALLOUT
→ Officially the state of war has continued ever since, and the truce line between North and South Korea remains the most militarized border anywhere in the world. For over 40 years it remained a potential flash point in the Cold War.
Syria & Cold War Tensions
Syria & Cold War Tensions
The Cold War
The Cold War
Key Cold War Events, Concepts & Ideas
TASK → Students Define & Describe All 14 Terms Independently
Small Group Themes For 14 Terms
Map Study of Proxy Wars & the Arms Race
The Cold War & Game Theory → WMD Strategy Against a Ruthless Enemy
The Berlin Wall & The 6 Sides of History
The Berlin Wall & The 6 Sides of History
Love, Hate & Propaganda → The Cold War Episode 4 War of Words
The October Crisis
The October Crisis
Issue Backgrounder
The October Crisis
A radical Quebec group raises the stakes on separation and Ottawa invokes the War Measures Act
A radical Quebec group raises the stakes on separation and Ottawa invokes the War Measures Act
In the fall of 1970, Canada was plunged into its worst crisis since the Second World War when a radical Quebec group raised the stakes on separatism.
In October 1970, the Quebec government requested the assistance of the Canadian Armed Forces to help protect politicians and important buildings during the October Crisis. Pictured here, children watching soldiers (The Gazette and National Archives of Can
In October 1970, the Quebec government requested the assistance of the Canadian Armed Forces to help protect politicians and important buildings during the October Crisis. Pictured here, children watching soldiers (The Gazette and National Archives of Canada, PA-129833)
On the morning of October 5, 1970, four men posing as deliverymen kidnapped British trade commissioner James Richard Cross from his plush Montreal residence.
Cross was in the hands of Quebec's most radical separatist group, the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ). Since 1963, the FLQ had been involved in over 200 bombings in Quebec. Now the self-described revolutionary movement was changing tactics.
The kidnappers threatened to kill Cross unless the government released 23 prison inmates charged with crimes committed in the name of the Front. The FLQ insisted these people were political prisoners. They also wanted their manifesto to be read on national television.
At first, both the federal and provincial governments - led by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Premier Robert Bourassa - downplayed the kidnapping. The Quebec government said it was open to negotiate with the FLQ and even allowed the group's staunchly separatist manifesto to be read on Radio-Canada.
"We have had enough of promises of work and prosperity," the manifesto read. "When in fact we will always be the diligent servants and bootlickers of the big shots ... we will be slaves until Quebecers, all of us, have used every means, including dynamite and guns, to drive out these big bosses of the economy and of politics, who will stoop to any action, however base, the better to screw us ..."
Despite some government concessions, the crisis escalated. Five days after the Cross kidnapping, the FLQ struck again kidnapping Pierre Laporte, the Quebec minister of labour and the government's senior Cabinet minister.
The news sent ripples of panic through the public and gave the impression that the FLQ was a large, powerful organization. The kidnapping put tremendous pressure on the young premier who turned to Ottawa for help.
The federal government sent in the army to protect politicians and important buildings. For Pierre Trudeau, a lifelong champion of individual rights, it was a defining moment. In one exchange with CBC reporter Tim Rafe, Trudeau displayed an iron resolve.
Reporter: "Sir what is it with all these men with guns around here?"
Trudeau: " There's a lot of bleeding hearts around who don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is 'go ahead and bleed' but it's more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of..."
Reporter: "At what cost? How far would you go? To what extent?"
Trudeau: "Well, just watch me."
As the country watched, events continued to unfold in Quebec. On October 15, three thousand people gathered at Paul Sauvé Arena to show support for the FLQ's separatist ideas. The FLQ's lawyer, Robert Lemieux, fired them up.
"We're going to organize, choose our ground, and WE WILL VANQUISH."
All signs indicated that the FLQ was a powerful force in Quebec. Bourassa and Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau urged Ottawa to invoke the War Measures Act.
"What else can I do?" Bourassa reportedly told a colleague. "I personally know a great number of the people who will be arrested ... I know that my political career is over. The economic recovery, the foreign investment, the 100,000 new jobs, all that has just gone up in smoke."
On October 16, Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, which suspended basic civil rights and liberties. It allowed police searches and arrests without warrants, and prolonged detentions without charges and without the right to see a lawyer. It was the first time in Canadian history the Act was used during peacetime.
That morning the police arrested 405 people including Quebec singer Pauline Julien.
"They didn't ask us anything," Julien remembered. "I refused to stay in the living-room during their search. I told them: You are in my house, I'm going with you everywhere. They didn't behave that badly, they weren't as brutal as I have head they were elsewhere."
Julien's partner, leftist journalist Gérald Godin, was also arrested.
"Why was I in jail?," said Godin. "If only they had questioned me, I might have had an inkling. What had I said? What had I written or published?"
Some of those arrested under the War Measures Act were kept behind bars for 21 days - the full period allowed under the Act - but most were released after a few hours without being charged. Julien and Godin were detained for eight days, then released without charges.
The day after the first arrests, the tide turned for the FLQ. On the night of October 17, an FLQ communiqué led police to a car parked near St. Hubert airport. In the trunk was the body of Pierre Laporte. He had been strangled to death.
It was the first political assassination in Canada since the murder of Thomas d'Arcy McGee 102 years earlier. Laporte's death would mark the beginning of the end of the FLQ as sympathy abruptly shifted away from the group.
On November 6, Bernard Lortie was arrested when the police raided the hiding place of the Laporte kidnappers. Three members escaped the raid but were captured in late December. Paul Rose and Francis Simard received life sentences for murder. Bernard Lortie was sentenced to 20 years in jail for kidnapping. Jacques Rose was convicted of being an accessory after the fact and sentenced to eight years in jail.
After two months of captivity, James Cross was released as part of a deal, which allowed five kidnappers to leave Canada. Over the years, all of the exiled FLQ members returned to Canada to face trial. They were all convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to jail terms. A sixth Cross kidnapper remained in Montreal and was arrested in July 1980 and convicted of kidnapping.
Several years later, after extensive investigation, it became apparent that the FLQ was not the major paramilitary organization many had believed. It was an informal group, organized in small, autonomous cells, whose members dreamed of a separate and socialist Quebec. At the time of the October Crisis, the group had no more than thirty-five members.
The FLQ ceased activities in 1971.
