Chapter 14 2. Two giants face off

Boss stand firm One of the characteristics of the pattern of international relations after World War II is the pattern of bipolarity.The bipolar structure is also called the Yalta system.Under this Yalta system, the situation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was formed.Under the Cold War, the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony began. This bipolar pattern actually started in 1945, and then the Cold War started in 1947.The US-Soviet struggle for hegemony began in the mid-1950s, and ended in 1991 with the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, or the disintegration of the Soviet Union.The first point of the Yalta system is the changes in the strength of various countries after the war.After the war, Western European countries generally declined, and only the United States followed suit.

Politically, Western Europe obeys the orders of the United States, or the United States dominates Europe, militarily, the United States monopolizes nuclear weapons, and economically, the Bretton Woods system.The Bretton Woods system is the US dollar linked to gold. Although the Bretton Woods system has disintegrated in 1973, as the three pillars of the Bretton Woods system-the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, It is here today, that is, today's WTO. So, in this sense, the post-war world economic system still has the shadow of the Bretton Woods system.

Under such circumstances, the United States has become the number one power in the world, and the only one that can compete with it is the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union can only compete with the United States politically and militarily, not economically.Therefore, it is doomed that the future confrontation will not be successful. Let’s talk about the Yalta system itself, which has three characteristics. First, the strength of the United States and the Soviet Union is balanced.Look at the U.S. military. In 1945, the number of U.S. troops was 12 million. In 1947, it was 1.4 million. The number dropped suddenly, because all the soldiers were demobilized and they stopped fighting. There was no need for the country to maintain such a large army.The Soviet army cannot be demobilized. After demobilization, there is nothing to do. The country has no factories, and they are all blown up. Why are you demobilized?Therefore, the Soviet Union maintains a terrorist army of more than 5 million people all year round.Therefore, the military strength of the Soviet Union is strong, and the economic strength of the United States is strong. If a war breaks out, the Soviet Union will definitely attack Europe.

This Europe, today, is actually a more developed country, the more afraid of war, the easier it is to win.The Europeans said that if Moscow decides to attack on Sunday night, it can occupy Munich on Monday morning, Paris on Wednesday, and Athens and Madrid on Saturday. All of Europe fell.Because the Soviet Union is all armored forces, advancing quickly.European roads are very good for armored units.If you go to Afghanistan, it’s better than riding a donkey, but you can’t ride the Taliban; you said that my armored vehicle is coming, sorry, there is no way; my helicopter wants to airborne, there is no place to stop, it is full of big rocks; I will destroy your war resources, You don’t have war resources at all; I blow up your economic center, but you don’t have an economic center, so please bomb it as you like.You said that if you blow up Shougang with a bomb, you will make a lot of money. How much is Shougang?How much is a bomb?You blow up a Taliban tent, ten dollars, is it worth it?You don’t even have ten cents to fry Vietnamese bamboo houses, they are all things cut down and built by yourself.Therefore, backwardness is invincible, and advancedness is bound to be beaten.

Second, divide the world into two.The United States and the Soviet Union divided their spheres of influence from the Elbe River to the 38th parallel according to their own strategic intentions. Third, great powers.Whoever is the boss has the final say, you are younger than me, you are my second child, listen to me, I point east, you can't point west. Salute to the victims Another aspect of international relations after World War II is the handling of Germany and Japan.I have seen two photos. One is that West German Prime Minister Brandt visited Poland in 1970 and knelt down at the Holocaust Memorial. In the drizzle, he knelt there without an umbrella for him.The person on this monument was not killed by Brandt, he was a staunch anti-Nazi fighter.However, he said that I feel remorse for the crimes committed by the German nation. Although I did not kill these people, they were killed by my compatriots, so I want to repent.The other one is a photo of the Japanese prime minister worshiping ghosts at that time. Takeo Miki, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Ryutaro Hashimoto, and Koizumi all went to worship.Why did the Chancellor of West Germany kneel to the victims?Japan's prime minister salutes the murderer?In addition to the differences in genes and national concepts between the two countries, an important reason is that the two countries are treated differently.

First look at Germany. One is the divisional occupation of Germany by the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France, and the other is that German war criminals have been severely punished.The Nuremberg International Military Tribunal in Europe tried Nazi war criminals. Why should we use this place to try Nazi war criminals?Because the previous Congresses of the Nazi Party were held in Nuremberg, the Nazi Party was sentenced to death in this place. The Nazi Party SS and the Stormtroopers were all declared criminal organizations.If you joined the Nazi Party, or joined the SS, you belonged to a criminal organization, and you said that you have quit now, and you used to be a member of a criminal organization, and you are the same in nature as those gangster groups such as the Green Gang and the Red Gang of. 12 class-A war criminals were hanged. When these class-A war criminals went to the gallows, no one shouted "Heil Hitler."When a Nazi war criminal Hans Frank was on the gallows, he said that a thousand years would be easy, but Germany’s sins would never be erased.Most of these Nazi war criminals have realized their mistakes.You see, when the Japanese war criminals went to the gallows, they shouted "Long live the Great Japanese Empire" and "Long live His Majesty the Emperor."That is to say, even the German Nazi war criminals made a confession when they were dying, "When a person is about to die, his words are good and powerful."

As you all know, the Soviet-occupied area later became the Democratic Germany, and the British, French and American-occupied areas later became the Federal Republic of Germany.Mr. Adenauer, the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, was released from a concentration camp by the Allied forces. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was a German politician during the Weimar Republic era.He was anti-Nazi, so as soon as the Nazi Party came to power, he went to a concentration camp.This old man is really hardworking, he has not been tortured to death for so many years.So after he was released, he hated the Nazis more than the Soviets.How far was Germany de-Nazified?Buying and selling souvenirs from the Third Reich era is illegal in Germany.You bought a German medal from a German veteran, and you wear the Iron Cross. You either admire the Nazis, or you think this medal is very beautiful. You took it out of the customs. You are lucky, and you will be found out. You bear the responsibility Responsibility, can't handle sentence.If a national public official wants to spread remarks related to the Nazis, he must be sentenced. For example, if a national civil servant or police raises his hand in front of the Nazis, he will be sentenced. .

It can be seen that the degree of repentance of the Germans is very obvious. Look at Brandt, he can kneel down to the Holocaust monument.Moreover, the world newspaper commented at the time that when Brandt knelt down, the Germans stood up.Every May 8th is the day when Nazi Germany announced its surrender. In Germany, it is Liberation Day, and the Germans should solemnly commemorate it.Therefore, Germany's reflection is very thorough and remarkable. who is still rampant Why can't Japan do it?Why are Japan's anti-fascist measures not in place? First, who contributed the most to the victory over Japan?China and the United States.China held back the main force of the Japanese army, but Japan's technological weapons and advanced military services—the navy and air force—were wiped out by the United States.Therefore, China and the United States contributed the most. Therefore, at the beginning, the United States imagined that China, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom would occupy Japan. The Soviet Union occupied Hokkaido, the United States occupied Honshu, the United Kingdom occupied Kyushu, and China occupied Shikoku Island.These four countries divided Japan into sub-occupied countries. As a result, Britain said that I would not go. I was very difficult because I was unable to occupy Germany.Then you point to Australia, New Zealand, India, and the Philippines to occupy Japan in these countries, that is definitely impossible.It is said that New Zealand sent more than a dozen people there, and sent a platoon, and it was over when I went there to direct the traffic.So the United States pinned its hopes on China, because the United States least wanted the Soviet Union to occupy Japan, so it gave the Soviet Union the most backward Hokkaido.

At that time, Admiral Shang Zhen of the Republic of China had already set off with the members of the contingent, and the headquarters was set up in Sendai, where all the signs were posted, the headquarters of the occupation forces of the Republic of China in Japan.The United States asked Chiang Kai-shek to go to an army with more than 30,000 people. Chiang Kai-shek said to go to a brigade with a few thousand people. After bargaining, he planned to go to a division, which was the 206th Division of the Kuomintang Youth Army.Because the Kuomintang youth army is composed of intellectuals among the Kuomintang troops, and most of the soldiers have a junior high school education or above, and they went to Japan to occupy it.They were given new military uniforms and new weapons. After boarding the ship, the ship did not sail east, but sailed north, occupying Shenyang, and robbing the northeast.Therefore, it means that China's occupation of Japan ended up blowing up and it became the monopoly of the United States.If China does not come, the United Kingdom does not come, and the Soviet Union wants to come, but the United States refuses to let it, and the United States monopolizes Japan with carelessness.

General MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the US troops stationed in Japan, became the overlord of Japan, and he reformed Japan according to his own intentions.Therefore, many Japanese war criminals were pardoned. An important reason for the pardon is the biggest difference between the laws of the British and American countries and China - the presumption of innocence.Chinese law used to be a presumption of guilt. If I arrest you, I have determined that you are a criminal.In the past, there were often such reports in the news that in the process of fighting criminals, so-and-so died heroically.Now we suddenly understand that the judge has the final say on whether he is a criminal, not the police, let alone the city management.So if you want to prove him guilty, you have to produce evidence.However, in China’s eight-year war of resistance, the government was torn apart, and the evidence collected was not enough. The Japanese learned the lessons from Germany, and the Germans were rigorous in their work. He recorded how many people I burned to death in the concentration camp today. Trial charges.So, once Germany surrendered, in the month before Little Japan surrendered, every office in all the offices was on fire, why?Busy burning archives.When you interrogate him, if you can't produce evidence, then there is nothing you can do.The American trial of Japanese war criminals is based on their own interests. Anyone who has anything to do with Hideki Tojo (one of the main criminals of Japanese fascism in World War II and a representative of Japanese militarism) is definitely a war criminal, and has nothing to do with him. Much better.Hideki Tojo was the Prime Minister of Japan when he attacked Pearl Harbor. The Americans hated Tojo so much, so Tojo was the first war criminal to be arrested.As a result, Tojo attempted suicide with a shotgun, and his heart was missed, and the spirit of bushido did not come out. Why didn't you dare to have a laparotomy?In the end, Tojo was hanged by the Americans.

The most interesting thing is that Japan has a staff officer of Tojo, called Sato, a major general. Under the Japanese military rank system, major generals are very worthless, and there are thousands of them.Just such a person, because of his close relationship with Tojo, he was given a Class A war criminal. As a result, this buddy was very proud when he went to court, saying that I, a small major general, actually made a mess like the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. Class A war criminals, I feel like being promoted, it's great to stand with the generals. The three culprits who launched the "September 18th Incident": Itagaki Seishiro and Doihara Kenji were Class A war criminals who were later hanged, and the other Ishihara Kanji was fine.He was the number one person who launched the "September 18th Incident" and attempted to annex China. He made a plan and the other two carried it out.But Ishihara Waner disagreed with that boy Tojo. He said that Tojo's brains were only good enough to be a senior soldier, not a general at all, and he opposed war with Britain and the United States. He advocated using China as a base to attack the Soviet Union and take the Soviet Union's The Far East part is fully occupied.Because there are too many Japanese people, they have to immigrate there. He mainly does this and opposes war with Britain and the United States.Therefore, in 1941, he retired from active service. When the International Military Tribunal for the Far East opened, Ishihara surrendered himself, but was rejected twice. He said you are not arresting war criminals?I'm here, why don't you get me a Class A war criminal?As a result, the court refused. You are not a war criminal. Go home.The second time he came again, he was driven home again.Shi Yuan was in a hurry, how could someone like me not be a war criminal?It's too embarrassing for me. Anyway, I'm a famous figure in the Japanese military circle. In the end, I didn't even get involved with a war criminal. It's too shameful. I can't get along. Will you let me live?I will still hang out in this area in the future, don't let me be a war criminal.So, when those two people went to the gallows, Ishihara Wanji was on the witness stand.Why are those two on the gallows?When Japan surrendered, one was the commander stationed in Singapore and the other was stationed in India, and they tortured and killed Western prisoners of war.This stone reason is against going to war with Britain and the United States, and he has nothing to do.There is another person, Shigeru Yoshida, the first prime minister of Japan after the war, and the Consul General in Fengtian in 1928. He participated in the Huanggutun Incident and killed Zhang Zuolin. He was responsible for many things.When Hideki Tojo was in the cabinet, he was the Minister of Industry and Commerce and the Minister of Colonial Affairs. He resigned because he opposed war with Britain and the United States. It is said that this person was a heinous crime to China, but because he opposed war with Britain and the United States, nothing happened. Served as prime minister for a long time. How unreasonable, Germany is an anti-Nazi fighter as the prime minister, but you can imagine Japan.In addition, the emperor was retained. The Americans saw the great power of the emperor. When the emperor gave an order, all the little Japan put down their weapons and surrendered obediently. Therefore, the emperor must not be killed, otherwise it would hurt the feelings of the Japanese people too much. But what's wrong with keeping the emperor?Japanese soldiers believe that I fought for the emperor, we are not guilty, and we do not reflect.Therefore, the lingering poison of Japanese militarism has not been eliminated. scramble for protracted war The pattern of international relations after World War II also has a Cold War policy. The Truman Doctrine marks the launch of the Cold War politically. The so-called Cold War refers to all means other than war, namely economics and culture.If everyone is full, won't they stop rebelling?The possibility of revolution is low.For the Marshall Plan, the United States provided 13 billion U.S. dollars to Europe. The 13 billion U.S. dollars, converted into today’s U.S. dollars, is about 200 billion, 90% of which are free gifts. The largest share is given to the United Kingdom, followed by West Germany, including Turkey. .Therefore, the economies of European countries recovered quickly and the danger of revolution was avoided. When NATO was organized militarily, the Soviet Union relatively organized the Warsaw Pact.Two PKs, Warsaw Pact disintegrated in April 1991, NATO still exists today, and is still growing.Then there was the division of Germany and the Korean War.The United States and the Soviet Union were both responsible for Germany's split. It split into two countries, and Germany was reunified in 1990.Then the Korean War broke out in Asia, and the Korean War was a hot war. No matter for the Soviet Union or for the United States, Europe is the core interest.So Europe can't be broken.On the contrary, like Asia and Africa, in the words of the United States, they are the fringes of communism. These places can break out hot wars and can be fought. Anyway, as long as Europe is not smashed, it doesn't matter.You see, the three large-scale hot wars of the United States after the end of World War II: the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the US-Iran War in 2003 were all in Asia, and large-scale troop dispatches were all in Asia. Further down is the U.S.-Soviet struggle for hegemony. The U.S.-Soviet hegemony is divided into several periods. The first period is from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, especially the mid-1950s. It did not start from the Stalin era, because the Stalin era It does not have economic strength, so Stalin did not dare to mess with the United States. If you look at the Korean War, it is most obvious that China helped North Korea.At that time, it was the Soviet Union that should have helped North Korea the most.The United States has sent troops, and you, the Soviet Union, should also send troops.But he didn't dare to provoke us. He asked us to go to China. At first he promised to send us an air force, but later he changed his mind and asked us to go in and be bombed.So he dare not provoke the United States, who dares to provoke the United States?In the era of Khrushchev, because the industry of the Soviet Union was gradually recovering during the Khrushchev era, the gap with the United States was narrowing.So the leader of the United States and the Soviet Union at this time, the United States is President Kennedy, a legendary figure, and until today, no one has broken his record.He is the youngest among the presidents of the United States to this day. He was 41 years old when he became the president of the United States, Clinton was 46 years old, and Obama is 48 years old today.No one broke his record, and he was assassinated before finishing his term. First Truman in the 1950s, then Eisenhower, then Kennedy.The leaders of the Soviet Union usually work until they die. At this time, they are the famous "IBM"-Khrushchev. There are several major events at this time. The first major event is to end the occupation of Austria. As we mentioned earlier, Austria was not a victim of the Nazis after the war, but an accomplice of the Nazis. Therefore, he was also occupied by the divisions of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France.For example, Germany was divided and occupied, and later formed East and West Germany. It was equivalent to the Soviet Union grabbing a piece of land in Germany, but the Soviet Union voluntarily gave up its occupation of Austria. Of course, he also had conditions, Austria could not join NATO.Austria is a neutral country. Otherwise, he could cut away a piece of Austria and form an Eastern Austria, a Western Austria, and a socialist Austria.After Austria became independent, it became a capitalist country. The second major event was the recognition of the West German government by the Soviet Union.West Germany was supported by the United States, Britain and France.The Soviet Union recognized West Germany, which also expressed its desire to have good relations with the West. The third major event was Khrushchev's visit to the United States.As the leader of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev visited the United States for the first time and had a famous "kitchen debate" with the then US Vice President Nixon.The two visited American kitchen supplies, sparked a topic, and debated whose lifestyle is better. dug free These three things are more moderate, and there are two tense things.One is the Berlin Wall and the other is the Cuban Missile Crisis.This is the case with the Berlin Wall. Germany was divided into divisions by the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France, and the capital of Germany, Berlin, was also divided into divisions, forming East Berlin and West Berlin, but these two Berlins are completely located in the Soviet-occupied area, or in the GDR.East Berlin is the capital of the GDR, and West Berlin is a free city under the occupation of Britain, France and the United States. That is to say, East Berlin is socialism, and West Berlin is capitalism, one city, two systems.The Soviet Union created a Berlin crisis in 1948, cutting off the water and land transportation in West Berlin, trying to trap and starve West Berlin alive and make the allies submit.As a result, the strength of the United States was fully demonstrated in the Berlin crisis.The United States maintained the survival of 2 million citizens in West Berlin by air within a year. 3,000 planes landed in West Berlin a day. We know that a day is 1440 minutes, and 3,000 planes landed in half a minute. Moreover, it is said that among the hundreds of thousands of planes taking off and landing in this year, only 22 crashed, which is an astonishingly low accident rate.There are three floors of American planes in the sky, 9,000 meters are circling, 6,000 meters are preparing to approach, and 3,000 meters are preparing to land.Get up quickly after landing, vacate the runway, 6000 meters to come down. During this year, 2 million West Berliners not only got food, coal, and even birthday cakes, so you think how proud West Berliners are, look at our powerful allies. The people of East Berlin also saw this, look at their powerful allies.So 1.6 million East Germans fled from East Berlin to West Berlin, accounting for 1/10 of the population of East Germany at that time, and they were mainly intellectuals.Therefore, the East German authorities, at the behest of the Soviet Union, built the Berlin Wall to completely block the traffic between East and West Berlin. The 130-kilometer-long reinforced concrete wall and the more than 30-kilometer-long power grid.Some places are boundary rivers, you see no one is in charge of the river, if you want to swim across, you will float up.And the more unpatrolled the area, the more dangerous it is, either with landmines or automatic shooting devices.As soon as the probe sees you, a machine gun will rise from the ground, and you will become a sieve.You may not be able to go to freedom just by climbing over the Berlin Wall, because the Berlin Wall is built 150 meters on the side of East Berlin. Even if you climb over this wall, you have to run 150 meters to enter West Berlin.Therefore, this wall abruptly blocked the connection of countless families.In the 28 years since the Berlin Wall was built, more than 5,000 people died because of climbing the Berlin Wall. Those who later presided over the construction of the Berlin Wall were severely punished by law after the reunification of Germany and Germany.However, more than 5,000 people managed to cross the Berlin Wall. There was a civil servant of the communist government of East Germany. He dug tunnels for 19 years, interpreted the story of the mole, and dug there.The place where he lives is very close to the Berlin Wall. Every night he digs the tunnel, digging with the spoon for eating. As long as the soil dug out every day can fill the trunk of his car, he dare not dig.He can't get a drill to get it out, saying that there is a big pile of dirt in front of the house the next day, and you think the police will know what they are doing as soon as they arrive.Driving out early every morning, pouring soil into the river, and then returning to dig again, Yu Gong moved mountains, which shows how attractive freedom is to him.After 19 years of digging, the wall existed for a total of 28 years. He dug another 9 years, and the wall collapsed by itself. There is also a buddy who is also very amazing. There is a road at the junction of East and West Berlin. The Berlin Wall is built in the middle of the road. The East German authorities have bricked all the windows facing the street. People are not allowed to live in this building, and there are police patrols. It becomes a waste building.This buddy didn’t know how to climb to the top of the building at night, tied two big kites, and jumped to West Berlin. He broke both legs, but he was healed immediately, and he went to freedom.There is a photo that won the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism, which is the construction of the Berlin Wall. The moment the wall is about to close, the East German police on guard threw their guns and ran to West Berlin.West Berlin is ready to welcome him with open arms, because he still has to run 150 meters, which is faster than Liu Xiang.Seeing that he was hugged with a West Berliner, at this time he was hit by a criminal bullet in East Berlin, and this person leaned back. Although he couldn't see his expression, but the regret of the West Berliner, that kind of Surprised, that angry expression was particularly obvious.So, this photo won an award. Sausages as Missiles Another one is the Cuban Missile Crisis.Let's talk about the kitchen debate between Nixon and Khrushchev, whose political system is superior, and Khrushchev, when Nixon returned to visit, took him to visit the Soviet Union's sausage production workshop.Didn't you say that the economy of our Soviet Union is backward?You see we eat well here too.As a result, when he visited the sausage production workshop, his "IBM" nature broke out. He pointed to the sausage production workshop and told Nixon that we are producing intercontinental missiles at this speed, which frightened Nixon. Nixon I have never dealt with this passer-by, so I don’t know that this passer-by came here just by opening his mouth. When he returned to the US Congress, he said that Khrushchev told me that they were producing intercontinental missiles at the speed of producing sausages.Then, the United States was terrified when they heard it, and we can produce at this speed.The problem is that the United States took it seriously. They didn't know that the Soviet Union was joking. Now the gap between the strategic nuclear weapons of the United States and the Soviet Union is getting wider and wider.By the early 1960s, the number of nuclear missiles that the United States could throw at the Soviet Union was 200 intercontinental missiles, while the Soviet Union had only 3.During the military parade, the car pulled the three missiles around and around.Later, American diplomats saw a flaw. Why did you see the number of this car just now, and why did it come again?It’s not too late for you to change the license plate and turn around again and again. Later, the Soviet Union transported its missiles into Cuba. Cuba is 90 nautical miles away from the United States. Your missile with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers went in. At that time, World War III was about to break out.The 250,000 US Army soldiers and 90,000 Marines are ready to land in Cuba. With 6 aircraft carriers as the core and 200 warships forming a huge fleet, the island of Cuba is surrounded by iron barrels.Then the American bombers carry hydrogen bombs and fly in the sky without landing for 24 hours. If they don’t land, they can fly to the Soviet Union as soon as they receive an order.In the words of the United States, within two hours, the Soviet Union will be turned into a pile of smoking ruins, and the Soviet Union will be completely wiped off the map.Its plane carried four hydrogen bombs, each with a yield of 5 million tons, equivalent to 250 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.Come to Moscow, come to Leningrad, and the Soviet Union will be gone. What is the use of your remaining forests?It's gone.Therefore, when World War III was about to break out, the Soviet Union backed down, proving that the strategic advantage lies with the United States.At this time, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was hostile to China, and China and the Soviet Union broke up. friends take turns In the early 1970s, the president of the United States was Nixon, and the Soviet Union was Brezhnev. During this period, the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony was the period when the Soviet Union attacked and the US defended, and the Soviet Union dominated.An important reason for the Soviet Union's dominance is that, as we mentioned earlier, Brezhnev's reforms mainly focused on heavy industry, and he increased military investment regardless of the reality that the country was not as powerful as the United States.It doesn't matter what the common people don't eat, I have to build an atomic bomb, I have to put a satellite, the military comes first, there are more tanks than bread, more rockets than sausages, this is such a strategy. At this time, the U.S. economy was in crisis first, then stagflation, and then the Bretton Woods system collapsed, falling into the quagmire of a war of aggression, so the U.S. is on the defensive at this time.The Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 can be best reflected at this time. The performance of US defense is the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam.The United States won every battle in the Vietnam War, and the Vietnam People's Army never won a single battle.The war lasted for 14 years, and 58,000 people were killed in battle. The loss of the Vietnamese army was 1.6 million, and the loss of ordinary people was more than 10 million.But in the end the U.S. had to pull out of Vietnam, you won every battle, lost the whole war, and there was no point in fighting any more.A backward country is invincible, and it will be boring to fight any longer. He has no targets worth destroying. If you want to cause him a loss of one dollar, you may throw bombs worth tens of dollars.If the United States wants to withdraw from Vietnam, who is the boss of Vietnam?Who is covering Vietnam?Well, China, we are the big donors in Vietnam, and we gave the money for the war in Vietnam. Therefore, this is related to the content of our Chinese history, which is the normalization of Sino-US relations.There are three times here: Kissinger’s secret visit to China in 1971, Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States in 1979. The deceit must end During the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony in the 1980s, the US leader at this time was President Reagan, who was a film actor, and he was the oldest among the US presidents elected. He was 69 years old when he became president.On the Soviet side was the young Gorbachev, who became the leader of the Soviet Union at that time.At this time, the United States regained its advantage because its economy recovered, while the Soviet Union, after Brezhnev's heyday, went militaristic, and its heyday turned into decline. At this time, there are mainly a few major events.The first major event is the United States' Star Wars program and small-scale local wars.The Americans want to place satellites outside the earth, and the satellites carry laser particle beam weapons. As soon as Soviet missiles fly into outer space, they will be destroyed by laser particle beams. In this way, Soviet missiles cannot reach the United States, and American missiles can still reach the Soviet Union. , do you think this is possible?This is a myth and legend, which is impossible today, let alone at that time.In the national missile defense plan launched by President Bush, the interceptor missiles were also launched from the ground, from warships, and not from outer space. It was even more impossible at that time.The purpose of the United States to do this is to bring down the economically backward Soviet Union. The United States said that I spent one trillion dollars to do this, and the Soviet Union was fooled. I also spent one trillion dollars to do this.The United States took one trillion and another one trillion. Of the one trillion you took, 400 billion was borrowed from others, so if you engage in an arms race with the United States, you will definitely be dragged down by him in the end.In addition, it is to fight small-scale wars.The Soviet Union had many troops and many tanks, but the United States attacked the pro-Soviet regimes in Latin America and Africa, and Soviet tanks could not swim across the Atlantic to provide reinforcements.Therefore, this kind of face in the world has been dropped.Look at the fate of being pro-Soviet, let the United States beat you, the Soviet Union can't control you, no matter how many troops you have, it is useless, and your strategic projection ability is too poor.Looking at the wars fought by the United States, there are only 10 divisions. The United States has 10 divisions when fighting Iraq, and 10 divisions when fighting Afghanistan. These 10 divisions are enough everywhere.The United States has a strong strategic projection capability. Aircraft and warships can transport troops to any corner of the world.So the Soviet Union was forced to abandon Eastern Europe. The other is the relationship with China. Gorbachev visited China in 1989, and the Sino-Soviet relationship was normalized. So the relationship with China at this time is that the Sino-Soviet normalization and the Sino-US twists and turns.China and the United States came together because of a common enemy - the Soviet Union.As a result, in the past few years since President Reagan came to power, the Soviet Union was basically brought down. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, the common enemy of China and the United States disappeared. It will worsen like the Korean War.Moreover, President Reagan is actually a representative of the right wing of the Republican Party in the United States. When he was governor, he visited Taiwan four times and had a very good personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek.So after he came up, ideologically, it should be said that he was anti-communist, so he had a common enemy with China at that time. After he came to power, the Soviet Union was collapsed, and Sino-US relations developed more tortuously. From Chinese history to world history, in a blink of an eye, it is time to say goodbye.I am very grateful to the readers and friends who have always supported what history is, and when I say goodbye to you.I would like to say two points in particular: first, I mentioned in the preface of this book that "theory comes from history", which I think is a basic standpoint for doing historical research. Mr. Huang Renyu mentioned However, to engage in history we must pay attention to "numbers".This is also a basic point of view in the field of western historiography. The so-called "numbers" means that historical research cannot simply say "what happened to the 800,000 Cao Jun". How many men are in the middle, how many people are leading horses, and how many archers are there. Only by clarifying these numbers can we draw correct conclusions based on them.Only historical research based on "numbers" can get closer to the original appearance of history.Why it looks good, I think this "number" has played some role. With the history of "number", it is naturally vivid and vivid.Of course, I know that readers and experts have helped me pick out many places where I said wrong, and I accept them all, and I would like to express my gratitude here, and I have also benefited a lot from them.However, I would like to reiterate what I have said many times before, that is, I am just a middle school history teacher. I think my greatest role for everyone is to make everyone feel that history can be read and watched, and arouse everyone's interest in history. Interests, at least go out to play in the future, and you can say something about the historical sites you see, so that you will have face, and friends around you will also benefit, and save money for hiring a tour guide, how good it is.Really do what the ancients said, "read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles with swords". Moreover, I am also very happy to reduce the number of teenagers who are addicted to the Internet and the number of students who are addicted to online games.I am indeed not engaged in historical research, let alone textual research, but a person whose only hobby is to read history books. Of course, I respect people who do textual research very much, and I also hope that in China, among people who study history, especially We need more textual research and more research on "numbers". Only in this way can our historical research truly progress.Well, I have said a bit too much, and these can be regarded as self-defense.Of course, even if I tell history to the general public, I also hope that I can be more accurate and make fewer mistakes in the future. This is what it should be, and there is no end to learning. The second point is to explain the title of the book "What's History?" This title was chosen by the planning editor. His original intention was to express it in a more intimate way. It comes from the Beijing dialect, which is very earthy and has a sense of kinship with the common people, and the so-called "stuff" in Beijing dialect was not a derogatory term at first, but a pet name for really good things, such as people who collect antiques They all call the good things in their collections "things", so I use this word to express my sincere heart for history, and I definitely don't mean to disrespect history. The mighty millennium will eventually turn into ashes! But in this dust, I think our future may largely depend on what we can dig out from it, what kind of stuff can we dig out.As I quoted a passage from Mr. Qian Mu's "Outline of National History" in the preface: "It is believed that citizens of any country, especially those who claim to have knowledge above the level, should know a little about the past history of their country." There are two kinds of knowledge, one is full of knowledge of emperors, generals, talents and beauties, and you see what others want you to see.One is to restore the truth and learn from history.On this point, I think readers and friends will have their own choices. Well, without further ado, I will become Tang Seng in "A Chinese Journey to the West". A seat with you, there will be a farewell, everyone, take care, thank you again for your preference for me. (complete book)