Policing Communism Across the ‘White Man's World’: Anti-Communist Co-operation between Australia, South Africa and Britain in the Early Cold War

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-196
Author(s):  
Evan Smith
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Close Monitoring ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
Second World

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the British Commonwealth faced the twin ‘threats’ of decolonisation and communism, with many across the Commonwealth seeing decolonisation as the first step towards communist dictatorship. Recent scholarship has shown that the British attempted to ‘manage’ the decolonisation process to prevent socialist movements or national liberation movements sympathetic to the Soviet Bloc from coming to power. Therefore Britain, along with the Dominions, co-ordinated their intelligence services to combat the communist threat across the Commonwealth. This paper explores how this co-ordination of anti-communist efforts was implemented in Britain, Australia and South Africa in the early Cold War era, which involved the breaking of strikes using the armed forces, the close monitoring of ‘persons of interest’ and the (attempted) banning of the Communist Party. It also seeks to demonstrate that the history of anti-communism, similar to communism, has an international dimension that is only starting to be investigated by historians.

In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Second World War ◽  
New Order ◽  
Japanese Empire ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World

The destruction of Japan’s empire in August 1945 under the military onslaught of the Allied Powers produced a powerful rupture in the histories of modern East Asia. Everywhere imperial ruins from Manchuria to Taiwan bore memoires of a great run of upheavals and wars which in turn produced revolutionary uprisings and civil wars from China to Korea. The end of global Second World War did not bring peace and stability to East Asia. Power did not simply change hands swiftly and smoothly. Rather the disintegration of Japan’s imperium inaugurated a era of unprecedented bloodletting, state destruction, state creation, and reinvention of international order. In the ruins of Japan’s New Order, legal anarchy, personal revenge, ethnic displacement, and nationalist resentments were the crucible for decades of violence. As the circuits of empire went into meltdown in 1945, questions over the continuity of state and law, ideologies and the troubled inheritance of the Japanese empire could no longer be suppressed. In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire takes a transnational lens to this period, concluding that we need to write the violence of empire’s end – and empire itself - back into the global history of East Asia’s Cold War.

5. From the End of the War to the Schuman Plan (the late 1940s to the early 1950s)

2014 ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Ian Bache ◽  
Simon Bulmer ◽  
Stephen George ◽  
Owen Parker
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Practical Reasons ◽  
European Unity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Schuman Plan ◽  
Second World

This chapter charts the long history of plans for European unity, from the end of the Second World War to the Hague Congress, the Cold War, the Schuman Plan, and the Treaty of Paris. It also considers European federalism and the practical reasons why some moves to European unity found favour with the new governments of the post-war period: the threat of communism and the emergence of the Cold War; the so-called German Problem; and the need to ensure adequate supplies of coal for the post-war economic reconstruction. As a solution to these intersecting problems, Jean Monnet, came up with a proposal that paved the way for the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. The chapter examines Monnet’s proposal, national reactions to it, and the negotiations that led to the creation of the first of the European communities.

Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War: Some Reflections on the 1945–8 Conjuncture

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Bethell ◽  
Ian Roxborough
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

The importance of the years of political and social upheaval immediately following the end of the Second World War and coinciding with the beginnings of the Cold War, that is to say, the period from 1944 or 1945 to 1948 or 1949, for the history of Europe (East and West), the Near and Middle East, Asia (Japan, China, South and East Asia), even Africa (certainly South Africa) in the second half of the twentieth century has long been generally recognised. In recent years historians of the United States, which had not, of course, been a theatre of war and which alone among the major belligerents emerged from the Second World War stronger and more prosperous, have begun to focus attention on the political, social and ideological conflict there in the postwar period – and the long term significance for the United States of the basis on which it was resolved. In contrast, except for Argentina, where Perón's rise to power has always attracted the interest of historians, the immediate postwar years in Latin America, which had been relatively untouched by, and had played a relatively minor role in, the Second World War, remain to a large extent neglected. It is our view that these years constituted a critical conjuncture in the political and social history of Latin America just as they did for much of the rest of the world. In a forthcoming collection of case studies, which we are currently editing, the main features of the immediate postwar period in Latin America, and especially the role played by labour and the Left, will be explored in some detail, country by country.1In this article, somewhat speculative and intentionally polemical, we present the broad outlines of our thesis.

«Premature Resisters». Spanish Contribution to the French National Defence Campaignin 1939/1940

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Gaspar Celaya
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Internment Camps ◽  
Spanish History ◽  
Military Contractors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World ◽  
National Defence

«Premature Resisters». Spanish Contribution to the French National Defence Campaign in 1939/1940 Thousands of Spaniards actively contributed to the defence of France in 1939/1940, whether as military contractors, legionnaires or soldiers of the Regiment de Marche de Volontaires Étrangers (RMVE). This paper focuses on three elements of their contributions. First, it investigates the importance of French internment camps for Spanish refugees’ that became key recruitment grounds for soldiers and labourers. Secondly, it will analyse the importance of the French General Staff's decision to veto the creation of Spanish autonomous units within the regular French armed forces, and how this compared to the situation of Polish and Czechoslovakian volunteers. Thirdly, the declaration of war on 3 September 1939 will be highlighted as a crucial turning point for French attitudes towards the recruitment of Spanish contractors and soldiers. Despite those changes in attitude, the Spanish contribution to France's defence in 1939/1940 – and to the French resistance – was never recognised by politicians in the post-war era. This is a fourth aspect of the entangled Franco-Spanish history of the Second World War that will be analysed in this paper, thereby highlighting how the memory battles between French Gaullists and Communists, reinforced by the context of the Cold War, left little space for the commemorative inclusion of «outsiders».

scholarly journals War stories: Invited commentary on… Documented combat exposure of US veterans seeking treatment for combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder

2005 ◽  
Vol 186 (6) ◽  
pp. 473-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Wessely
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
King's College ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
War Stories ◽  
Second World

In 2005 King's College London and the Oral History Society are hosting a conference on the oral history of the Second World War (http://www.oralhistory.org.uk). The conference will bring together research that starts with the verbal testimonies of both combatants and civilians involved in the conflict. But note that I write ‘starts with’ those oral testimonies. I doubt that any of the presenters will argue that these testimonies are the only source of information we have on what happened during the war. All will agree on the importance of listening carefully to the stories told, but also of interpreting, analysing and supplementing them with information from other sources. Many of the papers to be presented also look at how narratives have changed over time. Testimonies of the war from the former East Germany, for example, have changed dramatically since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a process that has happened in all of the countries of the former Soviet bloc, albeit in different ways. War stories change according to who is doing the telling, who is doing the listening, and why the story is being told now.

Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healingby Jo-Ann EpiskenewThe Cambridge History of Canadian Literature, edited by Coral Ann Howells and Eva-Marie KröllerRené Lévesque: Mythes et réalités, edited by Alexandre StefanescuHabiter la distance: Études en marge de La distance habitée, edited by Lucie Hotte and Guy PoirierCanadians Under Fire: Infantry Effectiveness in the Second World War, by Robert EngenWarming Up to the Cold War: Canada and the United States’ Coalition of the Willing, from Hiroshima to Korea, by Robert TeigrobSecond Promised Land: Migration to Alberta and the Transformation of Canadian Society, by Harry H. HillerWho Do We Think We Are? Canada's Reasonable (and Less Reasonable) Accommodation Debates, by Robin HighamComment Comparer le Canada avec Les États-Unis Aujourd'hui: Enjeux et pratiques, edited by Hélène Quanquin, Christine Lorre-Johnston and Sandrine Ferré-RodeOur Place in the Sun: Canada and Cuba in the Castro Era, edited by Robert Wright and Lana WylieOn Roosevelt's Bright Shadow: Presidential Addresses About Canada from Taft to Obama in Honourof FDR's 1938 Speech at Queen's University, edited by Arthur MilnesScience Fiction from Québec: A Postcolonial Study, by Amy J. RansomThe War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon, by Jeremy BlackTechnology and Nationalism, by Marco Adria

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-566
Author(s):  
Eileen M. Angelini ◽  
Albert Braz ◽  
Kevin J. Christiano ◽  
Patrick Coleman ◽  
Clifford Egan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Indigenous Literature ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World ◽  
Le Canada

scholarly journals Friends – of a Kind: America and its Allies in the Second World War Mary E. Glantz, FDR and the Soviet Union: The President's Battles Over Foreign Policy (Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 2005, $34.95). Pp. 253. ISBN 0 7006 1365 X. Steven Merritt Miner, Stalin's Holy War: Religion, Nationalism and Alliance Politics, 1941–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, $55.00). Pp. 407. ISBN 0 8078 2736 3. Mark A. Stoler, Allies in War: Britain and American Against the Axis Powers 1940–1945 (London and New York: Hodder Arnold, 2005, £25.00). Pp. 291. ISBN 0 340 72026 3. David Stone, War Summits: The Meetings that Shaped World War II and the Postwar World (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005, $29.95). Pp. 304. ISBN 1 57488 901 X.

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-644
Author(s):  
MARTIN H. FOLLY
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Second World

The Second World War continues to be an attractive subject for scholars and even more so for those writing for a general readership. One of the more traditional areas of focus has been the ‘Big Three’ – the alliance of the United States with Britain and the Soviet Union. Public interest in the three leaders – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin – remains high, and their decisions continue to resonate in the post-Cold War era, as demonstrated by continued (and often ahistorical) references to the decisions made at the Yalta Conference. Consequently, while other aspects of Second World War historiography have pushed into new avenues of exploration, that which has looked at the Grand Alliance has followed fairly conventional lines – the new Soviet bloc materials have been trawled to answer old questions and using the frames of reference that developed during the Cold War. This has left much to be said about the nature of the relationship of the United States with its great allies and the dynamics and processes of that alliance, and overlooked full and rounded analysis of the role of that alliance as the instrument of Axis defeat.

scholarly journals Pan Africanist Letters: the historical development of political thought in the PAC of Azania, 1959 to 1993

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Khangela Hlongwane
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
Global Connections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Freedom Struggles ◽  
Second World

<p>This paper maps some of the notable influences on the evolution of Pan Africanism in South Africa with reference to the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC). It does so by exploring the history of the ideas of the PAC founded on the 6<sup>th</sup> of April in 1959. The interrelated questions explored are: Is there a tradition of Africanist thought intrinsically linked to the birth of the PAC as a liberation movement in South Africa? What are the lineages of the PAC’s intellectual traditions? Given the PAC’s short history as a legal political formation before it was banned in 1960, is there a tradition of ideas to reflect upon? What are the roots of these ideas, firstly, as manifest in there framing by liberation movements of the wars of resistance against colonial conquestas intrinsically linked to new 20<sup>th</sup> century struggles for national liberation? Secondly, how did these ideas manifest in the anti-colonial struggle’s further development or transmutation into early freedom struggles as articulated by the emergent African intelligentsia particularly after the Second World War? Thirdly, what was the influence on the PAC by other African independence struggles, particularly the independence of Ghana in 1957. And fourthly, is there a tradition of Africanist thought in the anti-colonial struggle’s global connections and the intricacies and challenges posed by the exile experiences of the PAC from 1960 to 1993.</p>

Armed Forces as a Geopolitics Instrument from a Historical and Contemporary Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (34) ◽  
pp. 145-156
Author(s):  
Mateusz Ziętarski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
World War ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World ◽  
Contemporary Context

Geography can restrain states, or create possibilities to the political activity that states carry out. Following Carl von Clausewitz, one can point to the relation between politics and war. The famous Prussian general claimed that war is an extension of politics made by means of the armed forces. Questions should therefore be posed how geography restrains or stregthens the activity of the armed forces, and how geopolitics determines the functioning of the military. The following article shows the abovementioned imperative in the historical as well as contemporary context. The aim of the study is to place the armed forces in the geopolitical framework and to show the cause-and-effect relationship between the operations of the armed forces and geopolitics. The research is carried out on the time axis: the time analysis is divided into the period of the Second World War, the Cold War and the post-Cold War period.

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