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Do not fill this in! ===Competition in the Third World=== {{Main|Decolonization#After 1945|Wars of national liberation|1953 Iranian coup d'état|1954 Guatemalan coup d'état|Congo Crisis|1954 Geneva Conference|Bandung Conference}} [[File:Colonization 1945.png|thumb|upright=2.0|European [[colonial empire]]s in Asia and Africa all collapsed in the years after 1945.]] Nationalist movements in some countries and regions, notably [[Guatemala]], Indonesia and [[Mainland Southeast Asia|Indochina]], were often allied with communist groups or otherwise perceived to be unfriendly to Western interests.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} In this context, the United States and the Soviet Union increasingly competed for influence by proxy in the Third World as [[decolonization]] gained momentum in the 1950s and early 1960s.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=121–124}} Both sides were selling armaments to gain influence.{{sfn|Towle|2000|p=160}} The Kremlin saw continuing territorial losses by imperial powers as presaging the eventual victory of their ideology.{{sfn|Tucker|2010|p=1566}} The United States used the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) to undermine neutral or hostile Third World governments and to support allied ones.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|pp=64, 916}} In 1953, President Eisenhower implemented [[1953 Iranian coup d'état#Execution of Operation Ajax|Operation Ajax]], a covert coup operation to overthrow the Iranian prime minister, [[Mohammad Mosaddegh]]. The popularly elected Mosaddegh had been a Middle Eastern nemesis of Britain since nationalizing the British-owned [[Anglo-Persian Oil Company|Anglo-Iranian Oil Company]] in 1951. [[Winston Churchill]] told the United States that Mosaddegh was "increasingly turning towards Communist influence."{{sfn|Gasiorowski|Byrne|2004|p=125}}{{sfn|Smith|1953}}{{sfn|George Washington University|1953}} The pro-Western [[shah]], [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], assumed control as an [[Autocracy|autocratic]] monarch.{{sfn|Watson|2002|p=118}} The shah's policies included banning the communist [[Tudeh Party of Iran]], and general suppression of political dissent by [[SAVAK]], the shah's domestic security and intelligence agency. In Guatemala, a [[banana republic]], the [[1954 Guatemalan coup d'état]] ousted the left-wing President [[Jacobo Árbenz]] with material CIA support.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=199, 256}} The post-Arbenz government—a [[Military dictatorship|military junta]] headed by [[Carlos Castillo Armas]]—repealed a [[Decree 900|progressive land reform law]], returned nationalized property belonging to the [[United Fruit Company]], set up a [[National Committee of Defense Against Communism]], and decreed a [[Preventive Penal Law Against Communism]] at the request of the United States.{{sfn|Bulmer-Thomas|1987|p=142}} The non-aligned Indonesian government of [[Sukarno]] was faced with a major threat to its legitimacy beginning in 1956 when several regional commanders began to demand autonomy from [[Jakarta]]. After mediation failed, Sukarno took action to remove the dissident commanders. In February 1958, dissident military commanders in Central Sumatra (Colonel [[Ahmad Husein]]) and North Sulawesi (Colonel Ventje Sumual) declared the [[Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia]]-[[Permesta]] Movement aimed at overthrowing the Sukarno regime. They were joined by many civilian politicians from the [[Masyumi Party]], such as [[Sjafruddin Prawiranegara]], who were opposed to the growing influence of the communist [[Communist Party of Indonesia|Partai Komunis Indonesia]]. Due to their anti-communist rhetoric, the rebels received arms, funding, and other covert aid from the CIA until [[Allen Lawrence Pope]], an American pilot, was shot down after a bombing raid on government-held [[Ambon, Maluku|Ambon]] in April 1958. The central government responded by launching airborne and seaborne military invasions of rebel strongholds at [[Padang]] and [[Manado]]. By the end of 1958, the rebels were militarily defeated, and the last remaining rebel guerilla bands surrendered by August 1961.{{sfn|Roadnight|2002}} [[File:The Soviet Union 1961 CPA 2576 stamp (The Struggle for the Liberation of Africa. Lumumba ( 1925-1961 ), premier of Congo).jpg|thumb|upright|1961 Russian stamp commemorating [[Patrice Lumumba]], assassinated prime minister of the [[Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)|Republic of the Congo]]]] In the [[Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)|Republic of the Congo]], also known as Congo-Léopoldville, newly independent from [[Belgium]] since June 1960, the [[Congo Crisis]] erupted on 5 July leading to the secession of the regions [[State of Katanga|Katanga]] and [[South Kasai]]. CIA-backed President [[Joseph Kasa-Vubu]] ordered the dismissal of the democratically elected Prime Minister [[Patrice Lumumba]] and the Lumumba cabinet in September over massacres by the armed forces during the [[invasion of South Kasai]] and for involving Soviets in the country.{{sfn|Nzongola-Ntalaja|2011|p=108}}{{sfn|Schraeder|1994|p=57}} Later the CIA-backed Colonel [[Mobutu Sese Seko]] quickly mobilized his forces to seize power through a military coup d'état, {{sfn|Schraeder|1994|p=57}} and worked with Western intelligence agencies to imprison Lumumba and hand him over to Katangan authorities who executed him by firing squad.{{sfn|Nzongola-Ntalaja|2011}}{{sfn|Gerard|2015|pp=216–218}} In [[British Guiana]], the leftist [[People's Progressive Party/Civic|People's Progressive Party]] (PPP) candidate [[Cheddi Jagan]] won the position of chief minister in a colonially administered election in 1953 but was quickly forced to resign from power after Britain's suspension of the still-dependent nation's constitution.{{sfn|Rose|2002|p=57}} Embarrassed by the landslide electoral victory of Jagan's allegedly Marxist party, the British imprisoned the PPP's leadership and maneuvered the organization into a divisive rupture in 1955, engineering a split between Jagan and his PPP colleagues.{{sfn|Mars|Young|2004|p=xviii}} Jagan again won the colonial elections in 1957 and 1961, despite Britain's shift to a reconsideration of its view of the left-wing Jagan as a Soviet-style communist at this time. The United States pressured the British to withhold [[Guyana]]'s independence until an alternative to Jagan could be identified, supported, and brought into office.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=247–248}} Worn down by the [[First Indochina War|communist guerrilla war for Vietnamese independence]] and handed a watershed defeat by communist [[Viet Minh]] rebels at the 1954 [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], the French accepted a negotiated abandonment of their colonial stake in [[Vietnam]]. In the [[1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva Conference]], peace accords were signed, leaving Vietnam divided between a pro-Soviet administration in [[North Vietnam]] and a pro-Western administration in [[South Vietnam]] at the [[17th parallel north]]. Between 1954 and 1961, Eisenhower's United States sent economic aid and military advisers to strengthen South Vietnam's pro-Western government against communist efforts to destabilize it.{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} Many emerging nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America rejected the pressure to choose sides in the East–West competition. In 1955, at the [[Bandung Conference]] in Indonesia, dozens of Third World governments resolved to stay out of the Cold War.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=126}} The consensus reached at Bandung culminated with the creation of the [[Belgrade]]-headquartered [[Non-Aligned Movement]] in 1961.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} Meanwhile, Khrushchev broadened Moscow's policy to establish ties with [[India]] and other key neutral states. Independence movements in the Third World transformed the post-war order into a more pluralistic world of decolonized African and Middle Eastern nations and of rising nationalism in Asia and Latin America.{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page