The Peace on The Horizen - 70 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (17)

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)



Chapter 2 Global wave – The end of colonial era and the emerging two super powers



2-3(17)　Clash of the East and the West



The industrial revolution which started from the 18th century teared the old society into two classes; capitalists and workers. In the 19th century, Karl Marx said in his book “Das Kapital” that production means monopolized by a small number of capitalists while workers had no means except offering their own workforce. Marx called such production system as capitalism.



Marx advocated "Communism" aiming at an equality of the society by joint ownership of production means. In the beginning of the 20th century, communism was coupled with socialist ideology to counteract individualism and liberalism. Socialism and Communism penetrated as a new idea to overwhelm capitalism. The idea was realized when the Russian Revolution took place in 1917. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was born. It was the first socialist-communist state in the world.



The USSR accumulated its power steadily after the World War I. The USSR became one of the driving force to beat the totalitarian states Germany and Japan as a member of the Allies in the World War II. During the World War II US and USSR cooperated each other. But it was “Bitter enemies in the same boat” or “Cohabiting but living in different worlds”. Oil and water could not mix at all. After the war the confrontation came to surface. The confrontation between West and East blocks had begun. The former was led by the United States and the latter was led by the USSR. Though the face-to-face collision was avoided, hot wars took place worldwide. It was called as "Cold War".




In China, Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party took place. In Vietnam, Indochina War between Viet Cong (National Liberation National Front, NLF) and France was broken out in 1954. Initially it was the resistance campaign of the Vietnamese people against colonial ruler, France (First Indochina War). When France was defeated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the US got into the front in Vietnam on behalf of France. Viet Cong continues to resist the United States under the military aid of the USSR (Second Indochina War). It was the confrontation of two blocks as proxy war. In addition, the Korean War broke out in 1950, the front line stuck at the 38th north latitudes and two blocks ceased the fire in 1953. The Korean Peninsula was divided into two regions until now.



On the European Continent, tension between Western and Eastern Europe rose across the border. In 1949 East Germany built a wall surrounding the West Berlin District, and the blockade of Berlin eventually continued until 1990 when the USSR collapsed.



Eastern and Western blocks confronted fiercely in the Cold War, and strengthened military and economic alliance. In 1949, the Western block formed the military alliance called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and took embargo on military technology and strategic supplies to the communist countries along with COCOM (Cooperating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls). Against these movements, the USSR launched a military alliance "Warsaw Treaty Organization" in 1955 involving eight Eastern European countries such as Poland, East Germany and so on. The United States, furthermore, formed a military alliance SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) in Asia similar to NATO to make up the absence of France in Southeast Asia after Indochina War.



In 1958, METO (Middle East Treaty Organization) was born in the Middle East. METO was referred to as the Baghdad Convention where headquarters were located in the capital of Iraq. Three anti-communism military alliances of NATO, METO and SEATO encircled the USSR. Initially Egypt did not participate in METO. When a socialist revolution was broken out in Iraq, METO moved its headquarter to Ankara in Turkey, and changed the name to CENTO (Central Treaty Organization).

 Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt who advocated Pan-Arabism or Arab Nationalism did not only join the anti-communist alliance of the United States, but also not descend under the umbrella of the USSR. He deemed that both the US and the USSR were the new type of imperialists. Chinese Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai, Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlar Nehru, Yugoslavian President, Josip Bros Tito, and Indonesian President, Sukarno also shared the same opinion with Nasser. In 1954 Nehru and Zhou presented the Five Principals of Peaceful Coexistence. The Asian - African Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955, and declared ten principles on promotion of world peace and cooperation.



The ten principles of peace adopted at the Bandung Conference urged the Non-alliance Movements belonging to neither the US nor the USSR under the spirit of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism and ethnic self-determination. Third World which belonged neither West block nor East block was born. Nasser aimed at making off with the profits between the eastern and western blocks. Third World certified Nasser as a leader of Arab countries. It was the heyday of Nasser. His heyday continued till the Suez war (the second Middle East War) and the formation of the Arab Union with Syria.



(To be continued ----)

By Areha Kazuya

E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp

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