The Cost of Power

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes the political structure, power struggles and the historical conditions that let to violent confrontations in China and Guatemala during the Cold War. The paper poses the following questions -Why did violent conflicts take place in these countries and what led to the formation of centralized power in both states? The paper further questions why participants followed some of the obviously unjust and harmful state policies. The paper concludes with an analysis of how the Cold War shaped people's lives and beliefs in these two countries.

Outline:
Introduction
Questions
Thesis
Internal
External
Political Strategies
Violent Confrontation
Conclusion
Works Cited

From the Paper:

"Given their long history of military rule, the Cold War provided another perfect justification for Guatemalan authorities to continue their brutalization of the population, and their abuse of power. Ambitious politicians had powerful incentives to use ethnicity as a way to justify their own power-seeking plans and legitimize their rule. When power struggles were fierce, authorities portrayed other ethnicities as a threatening force in order to boost their in-group solidarity and further consolidate their own political positions. These leaders did not hesitate to do whatever was necessary to get and to keep power."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brown Michael E, Cote Owen R Jr, Lynn-Jones Sean M, and Miller Steven E. National and Ethnic Conflict-Revised Edition. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2001.
• Dulles, John Foster. "Guatemalan Crisis." Essential Documents in American History. Great Neck Publishing, 1492-Present.
• "Episode 15: China 1949-1972." Episode-by-Episode Cold War. 2005. CNN Cold War. 1 December 2005 <http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/>.
• Hernandez, Romel. "Central America: The Cost of War and Poverty." Immigration from Central America. Mason Crest Publishers, 2004.
• Landau, Saul. The Guerrilla Wars of Central America: Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.

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