(i) The United States had its satellite states in Central America (Honduras, EI Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Guatemala), the Caribbean (Cuba, the Dominion Republic and Haiti) and East Asia (the Philippines, South Korea, South Vietnam and Thailand).
(ii) These states were governed by ruling groups made up of military personnel, Landed gentry and occasionally of local capitalists.
Castro comes to power:
(i) After Castro took power, the US-owned oil refineries on the island refused to process Russian oil.
(ii) Castro nationalized them. The US retaliated by ending the arrangement by which it bought the bulk of Cuba's sugar.
(iii) Castro nationalized the US-owned sugar companies and ended the US monopolies in electricity and telephones.
(iv) All these gravely threatened American economic interests.

(i) By the end of Second World War Viet Minh controlled the northern half of Vietnam. Viet Minh formed a government led by Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi.
(ii) This Viet Minh government quickly occupied the southern half of Vietnam. However, the Allied Powers decided at Potsdam that the British in the south and the Chinese in the north should defend Indo-China from the Japanese.
(iii) In March the two governments (French and Viet Minh) reached an agreement by which North Vietnam was to be a free state, within an Indo-Chinese Federation. But the new French constitution included all overseas colonies in a French Union.
(iv) In 1949 the French attempted to secure the support of the population by declaring Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia independent within the French Union, retaining only foreign affairs and defense under French control. However, the problem of Indo- China soon became involved in the Cold War.
(v) While the French were receiving considerable financial aid from America, the Viet Minh were helped by the new Chinese communist government. The French troops were eventually defeated.
(vi) South Vietnam, approximately of the same size and population, was ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem.
(vii) Diem refused to hold the elections to decide on a united Vietnam.
(viii) However, by 1962, it was clear that Diem was incapable of controlling the situation. This led to the posting of more US armed forces in the area.
(ix) The US bombed both North and South in the hope that it could force the liberation forces to abandon the struggle.
(x) The fighters of North Vietnam, trained in guerilla warfare, had grown out of spontaneous struggles against a repressive regime.
(xi) The American troops also used bacteriological weapons.
(xii) Incendiary bombs such as napalm and Agent Orange (to defoliate the forest cover) were used.
(xiii) Escalation of the total military outlay caused the US big business to protest. The youths rebelled against the conscription and the horrors of war.
(xiv) Anti-Vietnam War protests rocked universities and colleges across the US and in Europe and became part of the 1960s counterculture.
(xv) No other single issue united millions of people all over the world as the war of Vietnam.

Communist Victory:
(i) With the surrender of the Japanese (1945), both the Kuomintang and the communists sought to occupy the Japanese areas.
(ii) In this race the Kuomintang was successful. The cities and railways soon fell into their hands.
(iii) Even the area around Peking was soon controlled by Chiang Kai-shek's forces, largely because of the military aid given by the USA.
(iv) With the massive support provided by the USA, Kuomintang government controlled the administration, ports and communication system.
(v) But the soldiers, mainly drawn from the peasants, were disillusioned and discontented.
(vi) Mao was keen on obtaining the support of the middle class.
(vii) Mao continued the use of guerrilla tactics but also ordered large-scale military movements.
(viii) Cities fell one by one and Chiang Kai-shek's army began to disintegrate quickly.
(ix) In the summer of 1948, Communist control had been established over most parts of China.

Arab-Israeli War 1967:
i) Ever since the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Israel came to be attacked frequently by Palestinian guerrilla groups based in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan
ii) Israeli also resorted to violent reprisals.
iii) In November 1966 an Israeli strike on the village of Al-Samu in the Jordanian West Bank, left 18 dead and 54 wounded
iv) Israeli's air battle with Syria in April 1967 ended in the shooting down six Syrian MIG fighter jets.
v) Nasser mobilised Egyptian forces in the Sinai in support of Syria.
vi) On May 22 he closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping.
vii) King Hussein of Jordan signed a mutual defence pact with Egypt.
viii) Accordingly, it was decided to place Jordanian forces under Egyptian command. Soon, Iraq too joined the alliance. 
Arab-Israeli War 1973:
i) Egypt and Syria under Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hafez al-Assad respectively concluded a secret agreement in January 1973 to bring their armies under one command.
ii) Sadat offered the Israelis a peace deal, if they withdrew from Sinai.
iii) The Israel rejected the offer. Egypt and Syria launched a sudden and surprise attack on the Yom Kippur religious holiday (6 October 1973).
iv) Though Israel suffered heavy casualties it could finally pushed back the Arab forces.
vi) Arabs gained nothing out of this war too.
vii) By way of mediation, the US succeeded in asserting its hegemony over the region and its oil.