The Methods of the Chinese Revolution

From reading the excerpts on pages 766 and 769 of the textbook, I get the impression that both situations are reflections of a greater theme of the Cultural Revolution- that of the tearing down of the old order (social hierarchy and history) in order to give the new order a place to grow and room to flourish. Although the situations (one about peasants overthrowing their leaders; the other about students destroying artifacts) appear on the surface to be distinctly unrelated, they share the same undercurrent mentioned above.

Indeed, it makes sense that the old order must go in order for the new to live. The old order of China was highly hierarchical in nature- a stark contrast from the one-for-all-and-all-for-one ideal of the Communism that was to take its place. In order for everyone to be equal, the leaders, the gentry, and the rest of the priveledged members of the old society would have to relinquish their advantages and step down to the level of everyone else.

Not only were the two situations about physically destroying the old order (peasants slapping the leaders, and the Red Guard smashing artifacts), but they were about changing the mental state of the people as well. As the textbook said in the first excerpt, "The blow jarred the ragged crowd. It was as if an electric spark had tensed every muscle. Not in living memory had any peasant ever struck an official.". The day after, the peasants were ready to go "press charges" and beat the official to a pulp. As they say, to win people, you have to win mind, body, and soul- all three of them.

The Cold War

I chose to interview my mom about her impressions of the Cold War. To summarize: She was pretty young (born in 1967) during the Cold War, and therefore had little impression of it. She did say that she believed Nixon's 1972 visit to China greatly helped ease relations between China and the US at the time, and helped pave the way for China to become what it is today. Because there was so much internal turmoil occuring in China as my mom was growing up, she said people of her age paid relatively little attention to the Cold War, preferring to turn their concentration on events such as the Tiananmen Square protests. One of her most vivid memories during that time was of my uncle- her younger brother by about 5 years. He was a college student at the time, and had gone to protest in the Square (although a few months before the famed "Massacre"), and she could remember worrying the entire day about him.

My mom's memories of the Cold War probably weren't helped by the fact that she emigrated to Canada around 1990.

The predominant tone of the conversation was one of detachment or confused sentimentality (if that makes sense).

Reflecting on Cold Wars

I talked to my mom about the cold war.  From what she said it seems like she had an interesting view of it because she was a child while it was going on, and got to watch it resolve itself.  It seems like the things that she remembers from her childhood is basically the epitome of the cold war.  As a child she had a very simplistic view of the russians and thought of them as evil and threatening.  Overall she saw them as bad people, but once they became a capitalist country under Gorbachev, people began to see them in an unbiased light and realized that they weren't terrible people at all.  My mom also remembers the whole race to space and to the moon as a big part of the cold war.  This is probably because its one of the few things, that weren't political, where Russia and America seemed like direct enemies.  Also my dad when he butted in towards the end of my interview, said that he felt Regan took credit for "tearing down the wall" even though it was Gorbachev who was the one who was trying to turn russia into a capitalist country, and as a result, there wouldnt need to be a divide in germany.

An Oil Rush?

I think that it is very interesting to note that the book and a lot of people said that it wasn't necessarily a good thing for there to not be a huge population around the oil because of course that means that only a few people get all of the money, had there been a lot of people around the oil areas in the different valleys that it appears in, then  I think that almost a Gold Rush would have happened because a lot of people would all be digging around different spots, looking for the prized oil.  There would certainly be repercussions from this causing the price to shoot up as more people have less oil each, and then down as they tried to outbid each other.  There would also be problems over who owns what oil, the quality of land because of all of the collecting, as well as some oil probably being wasted (and being used up) as someone finds it unexpectedly and it spouts u  p on them unexpectedly.  One good thing that would have happened though was that it might have boosted the economy a little in the area, as all of the people need food, shelter, and supplies. 

 (Yes I finally caught up! (and sorry for not writing a lot on the map, being probably the last one to write on this didn't leave me a lot of options))

Ends to a Mean

I may be completely wrong here, and you can call me on it if I am, but to me it seems as if there are different "ends" in relation to the same goal (if that makes any sense) that are being met in these two instances.  Yes, they are both coming in a time when China is being reformed; out with the old and in with the new, seems to be a consistent theme for both of these cases but the different instances seem to be different ways of getting rid of the old and in with the new.

In the first excerpt, changes had already been made in terms of land distribution, and it seemed that the people were being turned against the old powers/older landlords.  These people had been an important official for some time, and as you could see, nobody wanted to strike the person at first.  With more prodding though, one after another rose up to be able to take down the official thus thrusting the area into a new age, with new different powers.

In the second example, the Red Guards are revolting against the old, by also destroying everything old, but this time, more in the form of things, and laws that were being held in the house.  To me it seemed as if they seemed to have the air of "Oh of course we can do this," as they made it clear that they were revolting.  

In both cases, there didn't seem to be any opposing force to these two groups destroying the old order. What little resistance for the second example was in the example of saying that it was against the Constitution, but that was quickly put down by saying that there was no Constitution anymore, as the person should be able to see from the revolt.  

I say ends to a mean because it seems like there is already an, at least partially, reformed China, and that these two events happened because there was a change going on.  So even though these were helping the change along, there was already a change in the making, which was probably what caused these events in the first place.

Memories of the Witch-Hunts

Me: What is your first memory of the Cold War? When did it intrude upon your life?

Dad: My first memory of the Cold War was when hearing about the Communist witch-hunts sponsored by senator Joseph McCarthy. He would bring people in front of the House UN-American Activities Committee and grill them to find Russian sympathizers in the US, and discover people in the US who had communist ideals. I saw newsreels of the hearings. It was frightening. Investigating threats of subversion or propaganda

Me: Did they torture them?

Dad: No, just investigations in a courtroom.

Me: Did they condemn any of the people you saw on the tapes?

Dad: Some of the people lost their jobs, and were publicly humiliated. Some people were black listed even though many of them were not communists. To me it was a form of domestic terrorism. He accused people of pro-soviet subversion and propaganda.

Me: Any racial profiling involved?

Dad: I was too young to understand it. Those hearings were in front of the press and the whole world was watching people being accused of being anti-American.

Me: What kind of emotions were involved?

Dad: Constant rivalry. Everyone was afraid they were going to bomb us, or that we would bomb them. It got so bad that anyone who believed in liberal politics could be accused of being a soviet communist. We were basically at war with another country even though we weren’t at war, or at least trying to avert a war.

Note: After talking to my dad, I did a little research of my own, and discovered that Joseph McCarthy had no direct involvement with the anti-communist investigations. It was actually chaired by John W. McCormack, Samuel Dickstein, and Martin Dies Jr.

Cold War....BRRRRR

When I interviewed my mom, she did not know exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned the Cold War. On the other hand, my dad said he knew what it was and that it was going on, but he didn't really care so much at the time since he was a teenager. He said that Romania wasn't part of the Cold War but since the Romanian government was communist, the government sided with Russia. My father, however,  said that he  liked American government and despised  communism. An interesting thing he told me was that he remembered there being a radio station that was called "The Voice of America" and that it  was illegal  to listen to this station and those that did listen to it, were sent to jail (If someone told the cops) since it completely talked smack about communism. 

Cold War

When I talk to my parents, it seemed that the cold war had no effect on them whatsoever. When I asked my mom about the cold war she said "the cold war"? "Was I alive during that"? "Yes, mom Mama pugs told us that you should remember it". "Sorry honey, I really don't think I was alive during it." "God Dammit". But, at least my dad knew something about the what the cold war was like, he said that he remembered the Olympics and Ronald Regan's speeches on television about the Russians. After briefly talking to them, it seemed that the Cold War did not have much effect on them.

My parents thoughts on the cold war

When I asked my mom about the cold war, barely remembered anything. She only remembered that the Russians would dominate in the Olympics and that everyone was trying to beat them. The other thing she said was a bad joke about the cold war saying that she was freezing during it. Luckily, my dad was a little bit better, but not by much. He couldn't get over the fact that the United States was ripped of in the 1972 olympic basketball game between the US and the Russians. He claimed that the referees rigged the end so that the Russians would win. He didn't remember much about the nuclear situation besides that everyone was afraid of them bombing us, and he luckily didn't try to make any jokes. 

Cold War

I asked my mom about her experience with the Cold War, specifically as a young adult in the early 80's. She remembers mostly the media attention that spotlighted Ronald Reagan's full fledged attempt to bolster the military at the expense of the American people's tax dollars. He received great criticism at the time until  the Russian government was pushed into an immense economic downfall as they were forced to match our expansive nuclear weapons program. My Mom said that there was certainly and overtone of urgency and panic in the media's coverage, but it wasn't enough of a threat to dominate the everyday routine of her life. The focus seemed to be directed towards the strategy Reagan was implementing and how it was unfairly drawing from the pockets of Americans.

My dads experience with the Cold War was light. The only thing that he could remember was that when he lived in Chicago, one of the kids in his neighborhood had a bomb shelter in his backyard, in case of a nuclear war. He also remembered doing bomb drills in school, in which they would "duck and cover" underneath their desks. He also said that he was afraid of the Russians, as were the rest of his friends.

The missile crisis

When my father was a young boy, he was sitting in his kitchen one day after school. All of a sudden he heard President Kennedy come on the radio. This was a time during the Cold War when the missile crisis was happening.President Kennedy addressed the Russians on the radio, and ordered Russia to stop making missiles and taking them to cuba. President Kennedy threatened the Russians. My father told me that this announcement scared all of the people, because they thought that their was a nuclear war in the midst. My father remembers his being scared of what was to come, even though he was a young boy. The people were also frightened because they were unsure of what the United States was going to decide to do, if the Russians continued to take missiles into Cuba.

Cold War - Cuban Missile Crisis

My grandmother was a mother of four in '62  with a nervous feeling about what may happen next. Walter Cronkite from CBS had informed all of his listeners that Russian boats were bringing missiles to Cuba and that the US had to force Russia to turn their boats around. My grandmother remembers a specific picture that was taken above Cuba, from U-2 spy planes from the US that showed Russian missiles being deployed in Cuba. This picture made her feel threatened because of how close Cuba was and how there was no plan of escape for the people of the US. She remembers President Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara frequently appearing on TV saying that the situation was very tense and they were trying to talk to Russia. Finally, the US Navy instituted a blockade against the Russian boats with fear Russia may shoot at the US Navy. They Russians then agreed to turn there ships away, and my grandmother felt a sign of relief that she wasn't going to die, and her children were going to be okay. She had said that she always wondered where she should go, and no one would say would ever mention the well-being of the US. She said she could barely sleep because she was so afraid of what may happen next. 

On a lighter note, a story she is telling me right at this moment is that she remembers when she was in Elementary School she would have air raid drills and people would yell, "duck and cover" in case of a nuclear attack on Russia. She remembers her father saying, "A lot of good that would do you to hide under a desk in a nuclear attack, we're not building a bomb shelter - I am building a tennis court." That took place in the '50s from her optimistic father before the Cuban Missile Crisis, and he wasn't aware of the severity of the situation. 

Bomb Drills

My mom was in elementary school during the Cold War. She remembered her school going through bomb drills every few months: her class would have to hide underneath their desks whenever a drill occurred, which seems silly to her now (hiding under desks would not provide much protection from any nuclear bombs). America was afraid Russians would them with missiles that were located in Cuba. My mother's third grade teacher would have the class pray that the Russians would not bomb America.

Parents: Cold What?

So I asked both my parents about the Cold War and what they knew about it and I got blank stares from both of them. They knew about it but their knowledge was very limited. My parents lived in Mexico up until the early '00, and after a bit of research, I learned that Mexico was a U.S. ally, and just that. It wasn't very involved in the war.
As for my parents, they say that they knew that a war existed, but weren't very interested in what was happening.

My Dad's Story

My dad remebered very little from this time seeing that he was only seven when the majority of the Cold War happened. One thing that I found interesting was when I asked him when it ended he said that it still hasn't. And this reminded me of our talk with Ms. Pugliese's friend Em. Another event he clearly remebered was Bay of Pigs. He said that he remebered the day that it began and said it felt like weeks until the Russian boats finally turned around. Another thing he remebered was building a bomb shelter below his house with his grandfather. He vividly remebers taking bags of cement, bricks, canned foods, and cupboards into the basement of his house. Later he built the bomb shelter with his grandfather which still exists today. Truthfully, both my father and mother remebered very little and never truly were scared for their lives during the Cold War.

Cold War History

One of the main things that was talked about regarding the cold war's effect in America, was the bomb shelters that were created by the Americans.  My mom said that most of her neighbors in Georgia had them in their backyards but she personally didn't have them.  

As a college student at Stanford, one of the international campuses that she went to was in Germany.  While in Germany she saw the Berlin wall, so she said that it was really weird when it came down.  Although it didn't have as much of an affect on my sister and me, I think that she felt very similar after 9/11, because we, as a family, had been in a taxi driving right past the Twin Towers just a few weeks before the tragedy.  The feeling that "we have just seen that and now it is gone," is a very weird one, and a lot of the Germans probably felt the same way when the wall went down.

Riots and Revolutions in China

In the 1950's, China underwent a series of land reforms to increase productivity, and quicken the process of industrialization in China. However, this process caused the peasants to feel like the state was robbing them of their goods, and this led to rioting and revolts in villages throughout China.

Later on, in the 1960's, Chairman Mao instated a process known as The Great Leap Forward. This included a cultural revolution, and the destruction of the remnants of 'old China' to make room for new, socialist and communist, ideas. High school students often took part in the Great Leap Forward by raiding and vandalizing homes and businesses in China.

Both the land reforms and the Great Leap Forward involved change, but in different directions. The land reforms were launched by the government in order to advance China on an international scale; the riots that were against it aimed to return China to how it was before the reforms. The Great Leap Forward, however, consisted of a domestic initiative which had a main goal of motivating Chinese youth to conform to Communist ideals. The riots that stemmed off of it, then, were in support of the government and not against it.

Clearly, then, the turmoil that took place in China in the '50's and the '60's was varied; early on, it was against the government, and later on, it supported the government. However, both cases can be considered similar because they both fought for change, and it was this fighting that made China as unstable, and constantly changing, as it was.

The Role of Youth in Revolution

The measures documented in these excerpts appear to have very similar goals. Land reforms and the implementation of the Red Guards both sought to create a new system for China. The land reform program resulted in the distribution of farmland to almost two thirds of the rural population, and consequently it was greeted with much excitement. The Red Guards were unleashed in 1966, rampaging through China in search of anti-Maoist elements of societies and those who identified with the previous ruling class. Both the changes of land reforms and the Red Guards were dependent on young people, but more importantly on young people leading the way away from tradition and into a bright future of revolution. Young people were the ones expected to not only conform to but support the new system of land distribution, and the Red Guards were made up the rebellious youth of China. However, while land reforms were straightforward changes to old ways, implementing the Red Guards was a more violent path towards the ideal of a new socialist culture. Ironically, China took an oppresive and dividing path towards this socialist ideal.

The Creation of a New China

During the 1950's and 1960's, there were several measures implemented by Chairman Mao. All of these measures had the same goal - to create a new egalitarian society in China. He wanted to revolutionize China, and he utilized the rural and common people, who always are willing to support change. In the excerpts we read, we see two of these measures that were implemented: the land reforms and the Red Guards. The both worked towards the end result of creating a new society, but in different ways. The land reforms worked towards the economic reform he sought. He wanted everyone to collectively farm the land so that all of the products were owned by the group rather than by one person. The Red Guard worked towards creating the ideal culture - one where people were only allowed to have opinions that supported the communist cause. By putting these economic reforms and cultural reforms together, he reached the same end result of shaping China into a communist society in all of its aspects.
And, not only did they have the same results, but they also both used the same means - propaganda and revolt. I found this very interesting because it seems that for drastic changes to occur, there always has to be a revolt, and it always seems to be the common people that are backing the revolt. Whether the reason for this is because common and especially young people are more susceptible to propaganda or more open to change is debatable, but the way by which they achieved this end is ironic. Since in trying to make everyone equal, they had to persecute the people that they did not agree with, which is making certain people unequal.

Cold War

My mom grew up in Russia during the Cold War. The impacts on her weren't that big, but they were still present. During the beginning of the Cold War, life for her family wasn't that bad: they went on fishing trips, had a color television (which was rare at the time) and traveled around the country. Even the poorest people in the country could afford to eat at posh restaurants and go see foreign movies. My grandpa was a high up military commander, which made things easier for the family due to the government giving the military a lot of the resources. This fact made lives of the family of a military officer easier. If you served in the military, you were given housing and a high salary. However, toward the end of the cold war, there was a big depression, during which things, such as food and clothing, were hard to get. My grandma and mom had to knit a lot of things in order to have new clothing. By the end of the depression, the Cold War ended and my family moved to the U.S.

Life in France during the Cold War

For this blog post, I decided to interview my dad to find out what life in Europe was like during the Cold War. I asked him what the single event in the Cold War that he most remembered, and why. His answer was the Six-day War between Israel and Egypt that in fact was one of the "hot wars" that were the products of the Cold War.

He said that the war seemed to be a localized conflict in the Middle East, but was in fact a manifestation of the Cold War that was going on between the USA and the USSR. In the Six Day War, the USA sided with Israel, and the USSR, with Egypt. During the entirety of the war, my dad's parents wouldn't speak to him at all, not even at family meals, because they were constantly listening to the radio, trying to find out the latest news regarding the conflict.

One reason for this may be the fact that people in France were very paranoid about a Communist invasion, not such much in the government, like the USA, but in a military sense. There was a widespread and widely believed rumor that it would only take East German tanks a total of 24 hours to drive from the Berlin Wall to Paris. Coupled to this was the fact that my dad grew up in the French region of Alsace-Lorraine, a region that had been invaded half a dozen times in the last century.

In conclusion, the main emotion of the Six Days' War, and the Cold War in general, was a sense of paranoia, and imminent crisis, because of Western Europe's proximity to the USSR. This feeling was probably even worse than that in the USA because the USA at least was isolated from the rest of the world by the oceans.

Cold War Oral History

So despite what mama Pugs told us, neither of my parents thought that they grew up during the cold war, so I had to do a rushed interview with my grandmother instead.

She was living in Southern California from the mid-50s on through the end of the war, and she said that the West Coast just seemed much less worried about impending doom than the East Coast.  I have never seen her worried about anything, and I could definitely see her shrugging off an alleged threat from halfway around the world.  The only way in which it affected her life was that when voting, her primary concern was attaining a lasting peace with the USSR.

Desperate to find something about Cold War paranoia, I asked about the weird cement foundation on their house in Portola Valley.  She told me that the people who had lived there before them had been insane about the war, and they had built a bomb shelter into the house.  They had a full food supply and independent gas lines and a generator, fearing the nuclear apocalypse.  But in general, the war didn't seem to worry her that much, and the only emotion I could get in the conversation was internally laughing at the crazy people who used to own their house.