anti-Communist Regime Research Articles

Arquitetura moderna para a ditadura brasileira: Ambivalência no Quartel Militar de São Paulo, Parque do Ibirapuera (1965)

This article examines the relationship between modern architecture and the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) in the case of the military headquarters designed by communist architects for a violently anti-communist regime: the Second Army Headquarters in Ibirapuera, a project by a team led by the architect Paulo Bastos, a case with strong symbolic entanglements in the heart of São Paulo. Although the architects were against the regime and were the target of the dictatorship’s repression, a close look at this case reveals nuances in the actors' reactions to that context, as well as a more complex relationship between architecture and authoritarianism, which goes beyond the binary lenses of resistance or collaboration. This case is an important node to reflect on the complex relationships between architecture and politics, especially under authoritarian regimes. It also helps to reflect on modern architecture itself, the immanent contradictions of its objects, and the ambivalences of the epistemological investments that underpin it.

The Cold War History of Wheat Flour in South Korea, 1945–1960: the Discourse of Corruption and the April Revolution of 1960

ABSTRACT One way that the United States conducted the Cold War was through its surplus food programmes (Public Law 480), which fed the hungry and supported anticommunist regimes. Consequently, South Koreans consumed over fourteen times more wheat flour by 1960 than during the preceding Japanese colonial period. This study presents a nuanced exploration of 1950s South Korea, using wheat flour — a central commodity in US aid — as a focal point to unravel complex political dynamics. It challenges the traditional binary narrative of authoritarianism versus liberalism, demonstrating how the Rhee regime’s promotion of wheat flour consumption reflected multifaceted strategies of corruption. This article underscores the unintended consequences of US aid, highlighting the intricate interactions between foreign assistance and local political, economic and social forces. By analysing the local responses to wheat flour distribution, it reveals how US aid, while aimed at bolstering anticommunism, inadvertently facilitated corruption and influenced public sentiment.

The National Typography ́s books: violence and imaginaries of a Guatemalan anti-communist regime (1954-1957)

Este trabajo analizará tres libros impresos publicados por la Tipografía Nacional entre 1954 y 1956. El corpus seleccionado puede considerarse como parte de un serial de escritos que exponían la conformación de los grupos comunistas en Guatemala, y las trasgresiones y vejaciones que ejercían sobre el poder político. La estructura de este artículo está centrada en 3 objetivos. El primero es presentar las portadas de estos libros para analizar su composición y elementos. El segundo expondrá su discurso iconotextual, profundizando en el uso de las imágenes fotográficas como sustento de una política de crítica y condena al comunismo y sus actores. La circulación de estas fotografías y su uso en otros impresos son de sumo interés para esta investigación, ya que su análisis explica la articulación de la política interna y externa del país. Finalmente, el tercero abordará de manera tangencial la producción editorial en Guatemala durante esos años.

1950년대 후반 냉전의 균열과 한국·터키의 문화외교

The aim of this thesis is to examine the cultural exchanges between postcolonial, ‘underdeveloped’ countries, in contrast to the existing historiography of the Cultural Cold War which has mainly focused on the U.S. or individual intellectuals. There had been extensive cultural exchanges between the two anticommunist regimes of South Korea and Turkey in the late 1950s when the rise of the Neutralism and postcolonial crises had led to the rifts of the Cold War. This development is significant as although they called for the solidarity of the “Free World” by criticizing the Neutralism, at the same time they weakened the said solidarity by condemning Japan and Greece, who were not only the old imperial powers but also now regional competitor for US foreign aid. Ultimately, the two countries aspired for greater aid from the U.S. through activities such as founding of the Northeast Asia Treaty Organization. As both not only professed strong anticommunist sentiments but also shared postcolonial, ‘underdeveloped’ reality, experience of the Korean War and existence of the Turkish Brigade, they deemed each other best suited for such exchanges. The U.S. also hoped for propagation of the Anti-Communism and Anti-Neutralism and the mitigation of imperialistic image of the “Free World” through these cultural exchanges of their own initiatives. As South Korea and Turkey refrained from carelessly intervening in each other’s regional conflicts, however, neither succeeded in gaining support from the other for their respective Anti-Japanese and Anti-Greek policies. While the initial purpose of the cultural exchanges between two anticommunist regimes was failed, these exchanges’ ripple effect was not small, so the ‘revolutions’ of the two countries developed in the early 1960s, consciously cared about each other

Reactions of Discontent Towards the Romanian Communist Political Regime in the Early 1970s in Timis County / Reactions of Discontent Towards the Romanian Communist Political Regime in the Early 1970s in Timis County

Despite a relative liberalization of the political regime in Romania after 1964, the process of surveillance over the population by the Securitate continued. One may notice in the reports made by the Timiș county Securitate Department that there were persons identified adressing memoires to Europa Liberă Radio station, to ONU, Bucharest embassies or even the party and political leadership considered as dictatorial. Several intellectuals were placed under surveillance for having philosophical preocupations (teosophical, in that respect) in total contradiction with the Marxist doctrine. Ex Legionaries were also subject of the surveillance activity of the Securitate, though they suffered a political condemnation in the 50s, intellectuals, workers, peasants, clerks who stood as fervent critics of the social-economical situation ( with supply difficulties, prevaillance of the exports, excessive ideologisation, low wadges) and political of Romania, or had connections with citizens of the occidental states.The neoprotestant cults were also subject of the Securitate surveillance.The documents analised depict the general unsatisfaction of those forced to welcome the Yugoslavian leaders who came to Timișoara. They objected having to stand in cold weather conditions waiting for the official group to pass, stating that in the neigbouring country liberty had other values, asking for liberalization of the visa regime. Those found under Securitate surveillance were summoned (one of the most commonly used methods used by the political police of Romania in the 1965s), most of them recognising their actions. We must underline the fact that the Securitate oficers used a cruel method during the surveillance period, members of the suspects families (wifes and sons ) being called to assist, despite the ferm engagements of the invicted not to repeat their actions, with no trust whatsoever from the Securitate, pursuing the surveillance. A special case is that of the author of an anonimous letter ,, offensive towards the party and poitical state, who suffered and was commited to a neuropsichiatric hospital of the Timiș county. These were some of the Timiș county anticommunist regime forms of rezistence, the economical policy promoted by Ceaușescu’ s regime, the lack of fundamental human rights, which led to a situation that was enhanced in the 80’ s, as the Romanian communist regime crisis enhanced.

The Circuits of Anti-Communist Repression between Asia and Latin America during the Second Cold War: Paraguay and the World Anti-Communist League

This article studies the relationships established between the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) and South-American and Asian anti-Communist organizations and military dictatorships in the 1970s. The proposed hypothesis is that these anti-Communist regimes intensified the ties between them to obtain legitimacy since they faced increasing allegations of human rights violations and reduced international diplomatic recognition. This Asian-Latin American alliance was established and strengthened when the US government began to oppose to these anti-Communist regimes. The Twelfth WACL Congress, held in Asuncion in 1979, is offered as a case study.

Drums of War, Drums of Development: The Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945–1980 by Jim Glassman

Reviewed by: Drums of War, Drums of Development: The Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945–1980 by Jim Glassman Jerome Patrick Cruz JIM GLASSMAN Drums of War, Drums of Development: The Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945–1980 Leiden: Brill, 2018. 699 pages. With the contretemps of the US–China trade war still fresh in memory at the time of writing and trade tensions among other countries waiting in the wings, protectionist dynamics appear to have made their most dramatic resurgence at the world stage since the end of the Cold War and the advent of neoliberal globalization. Unsurprisingly, in recent years, allusions to the return of "geoeconomics" have grown commonplace, even as discussions over the rise of contending models of capitalism have intensified among the global punditry. Although immediately focused on developments in East and Southeast Asia during the Cold War, Jim Glassman's Drums of War, Drums of Development offers a maverick theorization of the dynamics between geopolitical currents and processes of capitalist development that is equally applicable to the critical analysis of these contemporary trends in the global political economy. Deploying a "Gramscian geo-political economy" approach, Glassman, professor of geography at the University of British Columbia, effectively reframes much of the conventional wisdom on the underlying drivers of the much-ballyhooed Asian Miracle as well as its unparalleled record [End Page 269] of industrial transformation. Although paradigmatic accounts have underscored the role of global market forces or of "developmental states" in the rapid industrialization of East and Southeast Asia, Glassman argues that the transformations experienced by the Asian tiger economies were indissociable from the broader geopolitics of the Cold War in the region—particularly from the efforts of the United States to consolidate anticommunist regimes among its regional allies. Commanding extensive archival material as well as secondary data on US military contracts and procurement activity, Glassman meticulously traces how the geopolitical maneuverings of American strategists—as well as those of political, economic, and military elites in countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore—coalesced over time to produce a counterrevolutionary "Pacific ruling class" (502) united by commitments toward anticommunism, military–industrial developmentalism, and, in most cases, authoritarianism. Through this process of class formation, he contends, the emergence of the region's showcases of industrial capitalism has been dialectically intertwined with American military spending practices (e.g., through offshore procurement), support provided by US advisers and operatives for conservative elites, the repression of subaltern populations as well as the occurrence of "East Asian massacres" (610) like the Korean and Vietnam wars. Across 629 pages and eight chapters, Drums of War, Drums of Development furnishes theoretical discussion on Glassman's Gramscian "geo-political economy" framework and the relationships among war, violence, and capitalist class transformation (chapters 1 and 2) as well as empirical accounts of the development of the Pacific ruling class within specific countries and across the region (chapters 3 to 6). Whether in the case of postwar Japan (chapter 3), South Korea (chapter 4), or Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore (chapter 5), security imperatives come to the fore as the binding force for the domestic and transnational class coalitions that presided over the region's economic miracle. In a context riven by insurgencies and radical formations born out of nationalist anticolonial struggles, and given American commitments toward rolling back the global advance of communism, leading political, military, and economic figures among US allies were progressively integrated into the ambit of the US military–industrial complex and its gargantuan mass of resources. Most notably, this process of incorporation was facilitated through [End Page 270] offshore procurement opportunities and also through militarization support, nonmilitary aid, domestic infrastructure and construction contracting as well as strategic direct investments by foreign firms and the US military. The historical contribution of these dynamics to jump-starting industrial development in the region is amply suggested by statistics compiled by Glassman. At its peak during the Korean War, offshore procurement and spending by the American military accounted for over one-third of Japanese foreign currency earnings; similarly, the total procurement...

Transitions without Transitional Justice in Asia

This article addresses the underexplored question of why some state violence cases in Asia are not followed by transitional justice even during a democratic transition. It explicates the two factors that obstruct or delay seeking truth and accountability and thus bring impunity for perpetrators. One is the context in which the violence took place, and the other is longevity of the violent regime. If the violence occurs during a period of conflation of state construction and regime building, and if the perpetrators’ power persists long enough to be institutionalized, transitional justice is least likely to take place. Five cases of violence violence which were committed by anticommunist regimes during the Cold War in four Asian countries are explored.

Transitions without Transitional Justice in Asia

This article addresses the underexplored question of why some state violence cases in Asia are not followed by transitional justice even during a democratic transition. It explicates the two factors that obstruct or delay seeking truth and accountability and thus bring impunity for perpetrators. One is the context in which the violence took place, and the other is longevity of the violent regime. If the violence occurs during a period of conflation of state construction and regime building, and if the perpetrators’ power persists long enough to be institutionalized, transitional justice is least likely to take place. Five cases of violence violence which were committed by anticommunist regimes during the Cold War in four Asian countries are explored.

Cold War, Press Freedom and Journalism Education: Paradoxes of the Untypical 1968 IAMCR Conference in Pamplona

In the context of the Cold War that affected the first steps of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), journalism education was the topic dealt by attendees from West and East Europe during the 1968 conference in Pamplona, Spain. Paradoxically professors from communist countries spoke openly in an event partly sponsored by Spain's anti-communist regime. Indirectly, the lack of press freedom in the late dictatorship caused some incidents due to some Spanish professors’ critical speeches. Beyond these controversies related to domestic issues, depoliticisation—in accordance with the original spirit of IAMCR—became a key strategy for the conference success as a whole. The election of Pamplona, located in a non-aligned country, as the conference's venue meant a break in the struggle to gain power and influence within the organisation. This story, based on unpublished documents from the University of Navarra's School of Communication, sheds light on several intertwined issues such as international academic cooperation beyond the post World War II East–West confrontation, and press liberalisation in authoritarian regimes through journalism education. It is also a contribution for a more accurate knowledge of the life of IAMCR as a worldwide organisation in the field of communication research.

Distrustful Neighborhood : Yugoslavia and Greek Colonels, 1967-1974

The article deals with a specific segment of the history of the Cold War in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. The coup, organized in 1967 by rightwing officers, introduced Greece to the seven-year period of military dictatorship. The relations of the rigid, anti-Communist regime of Greek colonels with Yugoslavia and other Balkan communist neighbors were marked by the freezing down of political relations, by interrupting or by its deterioration in many areas. New situation caused in relations between Athens and Belgrade Yugoslavia, among other problems, the radicalization of the differences connected with the Macedonian issue. By 1974, the government in Belgrade had distanced itself from direct political relations on the highest level, supporting the Greek opposition in the country and abroad. On the other hand, Yugoslav authorities firmly refused any support for direct violent and propaganda action against Greece from Yugoslav territory. Support to the government of the Cypriot archbishop Makarios was also one of the points of sharp disagreement with the regime in Athens. Overthrowing of the colonel‘s regime after the protests of students and workers and the loss of support in the military circles was welcomed in Yugoslavia with enthusiasm and relief as an announcement of a normalization of relations.

Making Circles of Steel and Castles of Vanity Possible: The Cold War in theLongue Duréeof “Modernity”

Alfred McCoy's paper offers a masterful analysis of the way in which the Philippines, and more generally Southeast Asia, were used as base and laboratory for extending US dominance—its hegemony—in the twentieth century, and in particular the Cold War era and its aftermath. He offers a succinct summary of the way in which US organs of global domination—the National Security Council, the CIA, the Defense Department—worked throughout the developing world and in Europe to ensure compliant, anti-communist regimes during the Cold War period, which also meant that more than once the United States was thwarting democracy in a number of locales and thus casting its own ideology of democratic progress and prosperity into doubt.

The War on "Red Drugs": Anticommunism and Drug Policy in Republic of Korea, 1945-1960

This paper investigates the discourses and policies on narcotics in Republic of Korea from 1945 to 1960. Since the Liberation the narcotic problem was regarded as the vestige of Japanese imperialism. which was expected to be cleaned up. The image of narcotic crimes as the legacy of the colonial past was turned into as the result of the Red Army's tactics to attack on the liberalist camp around the Korean war. The government of ROK represented the source of the illegal drugs as the Red army and the spy from North Korea. The anticommunist discourse about narcotics described the spies, who introduced the enormous amount of poppies into ROK and brought about the addicts, as the social evil. Through this discourse on poppies from North Korea, the government of ROK emphasized the immorality of the communists reinforcing the anticommunist regime, which was inevitable for the government of ROK to legitimize the division of Korea and the establishment of the government alone. This paper examines how the discourses and policies on narcotics in ROK was shaped and transformed from 1945 to 1960 focusing the relationship between the them and the political context such as anticommunism, Korean war, the division of Korea, and etc. This approach would be helpful to reveal the effect of the ROK's own political situation to the public health system involving the management for drugs.

The views of Franco’s regime on the ‘children’s issue’ during the Greek civil war

The suggestion is made here that, as part of its effort to identify the Spanish civil war with that of Greece, Madrid adopted the view that the two cases were similar in order to identify Franco’s regime with the other anti-communist regimes of Western Europe at the beginning of Cold War. During the civil wars in both Spain (1936–9) and Greece (1946–9), the ‘children’s issue’ became an important factor for humanitarian as well as for propaganda reasons. Indeed, the correspondence between the measures taken for the care of children by the two conflicting sides in both countries is impressive, in spite of the structural differences between the two civil conflicts.

Confronting Vietnam: Soviet policy toward the Indochina Conflict, 1954-1963

Based on extensive research in the Russian archives, this book examines the Soviet approach to the Vietnam conflict between the 1954 Geneva conference on Indochina and late 1963, when the overthrow of the South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and the assassination of John F. Kennedy radically transformed the conflict. The author finds that the USSR attributed no geostrategic importance to Indochina and did not want the crisis there to disrupt detente. The Russians had high hopes that the Geneva accords would bring years of peace in the region. Gradually disillusioned, they tried to strengthen North Vietnam, but would not support unification of North and South. By the early 1960s, however, they felt obliged to counter the American embrace of an aggressively anti-Communist regime in South Vietnam and the hostility of its former ally, the People's Republic of China. Finally, Moscow decided to disengage from Vietnam, disappointed that its efforts to avert an international crisis there had failed.

Ambassadorial Roles and Foreign Policy: Elbridge Durbrow, Frederick Nolting, and the U.S. Commitment to Diem's Vietnam, 1957-61

Soon after assuming the presidency, John F. Kennedy adopted a program to achieve a in South Vietnam even as he harbored doubts about the ability of the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem to defeat the growing communist insurgency. As part of this effort, Kennedy replaced Elbridge Durbrow, the U.S. ambassador in Saigon from early 1957, with Frederick Nolting. Durbrow had spent the better part of three years pressing Diem to adopt political and economic reforms, primarily to broaden his government's base of support. Durbrow's approach included threats to withhold U.S. foreign aid if Diem did not adopt the reforms that the embassy recommended. Consistent with the approach adopted by the Kennedy administration, Nolting abandoned Durbrow's tactics, backing Diem unconditionally regardless of the latter's behavior. Durbrow, an ardent cold warrior, was sent to Saigon to manage the U.S. relationship with the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in the interest of building South Vietnam into a bulwark against the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Durbrow fully accepted the premises of containment and the domino theory on which the Eisenhower administration based its foreign policy. He soon learned, however, that Diem's regime was failing to provide the bulwark (or even the anticommunist regime) in which the Eisenhower administration was interested (Kaiser 2000, 58-59). Durbrow and other embassy officials in Saigon saw serious flaws in the Diem regime, and their convictions increased with time. With the Eisenhower White House exerting little control over affairs in Saigon at a time when Vietnam was a less important issue than it would become a few years later, Durbrow and the embassy pressured Diem to reform. Ultimately, they needed Washington's support to achieve their goals, the timing was such that the Eisenhower administration did not have to make critical decisions regarding the U.S. commitment to Diem and was able to hand off Vietnam to the Kennedy administration. The institutional record compiled by the embassy raised doubts among key officials of the incoming Kennedy administration, including the president himself, regarding the extent to which U.S. aid was achieving the goal of a stable, anticommunist government in South Vietnam. Nonetheless, for reasons of domestic and international politics, officials in the Kennedy White House and in the Pentagon did not act on the basis of Durbrow's views either. Rather, they pushed forward, adhering to the strategic policy of the Eisenhower (and Truman) administration, but with new vigor added at the tactical level, as Nolting (1966, 2) recalled, in order to buy time for Diem. The appointment of Nolting was one element of the new approach. The administration sent Nolting to Vietnam under the assumption that gaining Diem's confidence was the key to the breakthrough it sought. Given a narrower and more explicit brief than Durbrow, Nolting discarded the latter's carrot-and-stick approach, opting for carrots alone. He believed that a winning spirit among U.S. officials in Washington and Saigon was the best way to help Diem battle the growing communist insurgency. Backing Diem unconditionally and providing sufficient military and security personnel, Nolting surmised, would enable the Saigon regime to gain broad political support and increase its effectiveness. In the process, Washington would also increase its ability to reform Diem, in his view. In carrying out his instructions, however, Nolting conceded much of the leverage that the Kennedy administration hoped to assert over Diem. This study shows how successive presidential administrations redefined ambassadorial roles and how two ambassadors responded, given their instructions. It pays close attention to actions of Durbrow and Nolting at a pivotal moment when Washington opted not to exercise some of the leverage it might have wielded over Diem. …

Indo-American Relations, 1947?50: A Missed Opportunity in Asia

The late 1940s mark a turning point in the history of U.S. diplomacy in Asia. During the second half of that eventful decade, revolutionary change swept across much of the Asian continent. From British India to French Indochina nationalist movements, some with a Marxist orientation, pressed their European colonial rulers for freedom. In China, Asia's largest and most populous country, Communist forces emerged triumphant in late 1949 after years of bloody civil war. Viewing these developments within the context of the Cold War, President Harry S. Truman implemented a strategy of anti-Communist containment in Asia. In late 1949 and early 1950, U.S. policymakers withheld diplomatic recognition from the People's Republic of China, strengthened American defense capabilities in Japan and the Pacific, and extended military assistance to anti-Communist regimes in Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, and French Indochina. These bold initiatives helped to shape the course of U.S. policy toward Asia for the next quarter of a century.

Indonesia in 1983: Plus Ça Change...

Research Article| February 01 1984 Indonesia in 1983: Plus Ça Change... Donald K. Emmerson Donald K. Emmerson Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1955) 24 (2): 135–148. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644432 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Donald K. Emmerson; Indonesia in 1983: Plus Ça Change.... Far Eastern Survey 1 February 1955; 24 (2): 135–148. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2644432 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAsian Survey Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1984 The Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Japanese-South Korean Relations in the Post-Vietnam Era

Research Article| October 01 1976 Japanese-South Korean Relations in the Post-Vietnam Era Hong N. Kim Hong N. Kim Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1947) 16 (10): 981–995. https://doi.org/10.2307/2643537 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Hong N. Kim; Japanese-South Korean Relations in the Post-Vietnam Era. Far Eastern Survey 21 May 1947; 16 (10): 981–995. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2643537 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAsian Survey Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1976 Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.