Le système et la vie politique en Tchécoslovaquie de 1945 au coup de Prague en 1948

1982 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-501
Author(s):  
John F. N. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Political Model ◽  
The Government ◽  
British Foreign Office ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

This article deals with the political development in Czechoslovakia 1945–1948, a crucial period in Eastern Europe for a liberal democratic system in that country. In 1945 the Soviet leader, Stalin, gave his personal approval for this experiment to go on and the Czechoslovak communist party followed his instruction, participating fully in the government. As in international affairs Czechoslovakia was to act as a bridge between the West and East; internally it was to serve as a model of peaceful transition from “bourgeois” democracy to “people's” democracy. The model is examined in some detail. Since attempts were made in 1968 to re-establish it in the new conditions of the 1960s, it was accepted as a political model for the Euro-communists. After 1947, with the onset of the cold war the Czechoslovak communists changed their minds (Stalin probably also) and began to plot to seize power, which they easily achieved in February 1948. The article is based on published communist sources, especially those during the period of the Prague spring, and diplomatic reports from Czechoslovakia deposited at the British Foreign Office.

Sweden, Europe, and the Cold War: A Reappraisal

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aryo Makko
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Third World ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Democratic Socialism ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

Traditionally, Sweden has been portrayed as an active bridge-builder in international politics in the 1960s and 1970s. The country advocated a “third way” toward democratic socialism and greater “justice” in international affairs, but these foreign policy prescriptions were never applied to European affairs. This article examines Sweden's relations with Europe by contrasting European integration with the Cold War. Negotiations on Swedish membership in the European Communities and Swedish policy at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe were influenced by a general Berührungsangst toward Europe, which persisted during the years of détente. Because Swedish decision-makers believed that heavy involvement in European affairs would constrict Sweden's freedom of action, Swedish leaders' moral proclamations were applied exclusively to distant Third World countries rather than the egregious abuses of human rights in the Soviet bloc.

The Movement for Japanese American Redress

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Asaka
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Japanese Americans ◽  
Japanese American ◽  
World War ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Redress Movement

The Japanese American Redress Movement refers to the various efforts of Japanese Americans from the 1940s to the 1980s to obtain restitution for their removal and confinement during World War II. This included judicial and legislative campaigns at local, state, and federal levels for recognition of government wrongdoing and compensation for losses, both material and immaterial. The push for redress originated in the late 1940s as the Cold War opened up opportunities for Japanese Americans to demand concessions from the government. During the 1960s and 1970s, Japanese Americans began to connect the struggle for redress with anti-racist and anti-imperialist movements of the time. Despite their growing political divisions, Japanese Americans came together to launch several successful campaigns that laid the groundwork for redress. During the early 1980s, the government increased its involvement in redress by forming a congressional commission to conduct an official review of the World War II incarceration. The commission’s recommendations of monetary payments and an official apology paved the way for the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and other redress actions. Beyond its legislative and judicial victories, the redress movement also created a space for collective healing and generated new forms of activism that continue into the present.

Leading the Way: The United Kingdom's financial and trade relations with Socialist China, 1949–1966

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERTO PERUZZI
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractThis article aims to deepen scholarly understanding of the special political and economic connection between Britain and Socialist China during the 1950s and the 1960s. After 1949, the British government had substantive reasons to preserve a link with Beijing, despite the unfolding of the Cold War. First, British assets in China were numerous. Second, the Crown colony of Hong Kong was an indispensable strategic enclave, although militarily indefensible. Third, the Foreign Office considered that Asia should represent an exception to unquestioned British loyalty to the Atlantic alliance, since the United Kingdom needed to prove that it was able to represent and preserve Commonwealth interests in the area. The article will point out that the United Kingdom maintained a privileged role as the main trading partner of the People's Republic of China (PRC) outside the Socialist bloc, thanks to the financial and commercial role played by Hong Kong. This is proved through an analysis of the fate of British financial institutions in China, which represented a favourable exception in the bleak scenario of the PRC nationalization process, as well as of the industrial development of the British colony, which was based on importing food and labour from the mainland, while serving as a financial hub in support of the PRC economy.

Conclusion

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Loss
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The State ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Personal Politics ◽  
The Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter offers an overview of the state of higher education in an age of diversity. Without the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War to thicken the relationship between the state and higher education, a rightward political shift commenced during the economic downturn of the 1970s. Ideological differences dating back to the campus turmoil of the 1960s, combined with real financial concerns, helped to drive a wedge between the government and higher education. Ultimately, the drift toward “privatization” in the final two decades of the twentieth century readjusted higher education's role as a mediator between citizens and the state once again—changing how students paid for college and moving students closer to a privatized conception of democratic citizenship inextricably tied to the “personal politics” of identity.

The Origins of U.S. Support for an Autocratic Iran

1983 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habib Ladjevardi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
State Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
British Foreign Office ◽  
The U.S

At a time when the history of relations between the United States and the former Iranian regime (as well as other autocratic states) is being reconsidered, it is important to recognize that U.S. support for one-man rule in Iran did not commence in 1953 subsequent to the fall of the government of Dr. Mossadegh. A study of the diplomatic records of the U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Office indicates an earlier beginning.

Global Violence and Nationalizing Wars in Eurasia and America: The Geopolitics of War in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

1996 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Geyer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
Political Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Programs ◽  
The Cold War

The histories of Germany and the United States became deeply entangled in the century of total war. After (re)unification on the battlefield in the midnineteenth century, both countries underwent rapid transformations through national programs of industrialization based on new products and technologies and emerged as great powers with global pretensions at the beginning of the twentieth century. An initial, and somewhat hesitant, confrontation in World War I was followed by a period of oscillation and confusion during the 1920s and 1930s, as leading elements in the two economies sought grounds for collaboration even as the political development of the two nations diverged, one moving toward fascism, the other toward a liberal democratic renewal. This produced the deeply ideological collision of the Second World War, which resulted in an equally dramatic turnabout, as the Germans endured what Americans then most feared, a grim (albeit partial) communist takeover, and the United States became the staunch ally of the German west in its faceoff with the east. Recently this close partnership has turned into a more perplexed and occasionally suspicious friendship, as the familiar terrain of the cold war is ploughed up. This is a history of extreme reversals is tied inextricably to war and preparations for war.

The Austrian State Treaty and the International Decision Making Process in 1955

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Gerald Stourzh
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The State ◽  
World War ◽  
Allied Occupation ◽  
Military Planning ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
British Foreign Office ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West ◽  
Strategy I

In January 1954, the French embassy in Vienna reported to Paris a conversation between Chancellor Julius Raab and a politician from western Austria concerning the State Treaty. Raab is reported to have said: “I'll swallow everything.”—“Ich fresse alles.”Two questions arise immediately. First: Why was Raab ready to “swallow everything” in order to get the State Treaty? Second: What was this “everything” that Raab was ready to swallow?To the fi rst question. Th e principal aim of Austria's eff orts to obtain the State Treaty was the termination of four-power control and the withdrawal of the occupation troops from Austria— especially, it needs to be stressed, the withdrawal of Soviet forces. We are used to referring to the “allied” occupation of Austria, yet the “Allies” of World War II had not been allies for some time, at least since 1947–48, and certainly not in 1954 or 1955—even if they cooperated correctly in the “Allied Council.” In terms of military strategy, I deem it useful to speak of the “East-West occupation” of Austria because, de facto, the occupation forces had become part of the two military power agglomerations that had come into being in the course of the Cold War. A secret instruction from the British Foreign Office in 1951 noted that, in peace time, the forces of the Western allies in Austria were not under NATO command; in case of war, however, they would be part of the NATO forces. Since military planning in times of peace obviously prepares for the case of war, it is easy to see that the independence from NATO of the Western occupation forces in Austria has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Masculinity and Modernization in Democratic Party Politics during the 1950s

2019 ◽  
pp. 58-81
Author(s):  
Sean J. McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Public Support ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Liberal Democrats ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

This chapter addresses the impact on Democrats of a dominant postwar political framework that demanded a certain ideal of robust manhood in response to international and domestic circumstances. This rediscovered emphasis on toughness had its roots in the upheaval of World War II and the rise of totalitarian ideologies, leading liberal Democrats to revamp the entire way they viewed the world in the early Cold War years. During the same period France was led by a series of seemingly weak, unstable Fourth Republic coalition governments. This fed American perceptions of French decadence and irrationality to the point that they grew into fears that France was undermining Washington’s efforts to win the Cold War. Liberal Democrats were on the defensive, attacked for their privilege and softness by McCarthyites and right-wing conservatives. McCarthyism had strong lingering effects on Democrats into the 1960s, prompting party leaders to adopt an exaggeratedly tough approach just as Kennedy was beginning to make his mark in American politics. Kennedy had already concluded that France was an obstacle to American defense of the “free world,” while many of his fellow Democrats concluded that offering strong public support for any French position in international affairs was political suicide.

Post-war Violence in Italy: A Struggle for Memory

Modern Italy ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Storchi
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Editorial Strategies

The Resistance at the root of Italian democracy is still the object of political and often controversial debate, 60 years on. This is related to the various phases of political development in Italy: from the early post-war years, characterized by the conflict associated with the ideological clashes of the Cold War, to the 1960s and 1970s, afflicted by terrorism, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and then to the collapse of the party system. Diverse, sometimes conflicting memories of the Resistance have emerged, linked not only to the numerous forms characterizing the struggle against Nazi–Fascism, but also to the varying motives, ideals and politics which animated fighters on both sides. With the new bipolar political system and the rise of the Right, the Resistance has returned to being one of the most prominent features of political controversy. This manifests itself in editorial strategies and extensive media operations in which memories representing those people who are opposed to the ideals of the Resistance seem to have the upper hand.

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