 The United States Army presents the Big Picture, an official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. Could there be a decisive winner? Would the instrument of nuclear war serve any nation's policy? Yet to deter, to survive, and to win such an unthinkable war is not our only problem. During the highly compressed years since the end of World War II, an old-fashioned pattern emerged under the glare of thermonuclear firepower and missile delivery, a pattern which poses no less a threat than the all-out holocaust. Let history be its own commentator. Some of the events may sound familiar, but their lessons have grown in importance. We invite you to examine them closely and seek out the pattern for yourself. Shortly after V.J. Day in the fall of 1945, British administration returned to Melea and found strong sentiment for self-rule. In the ensuing three years, the Melean people saw rapid progress in preparation for their independence. The dissolution of the former straight settlements colony, the formation of the Melean Union in 1946, and the establishment of the Federation of Melea in 1948. In the meantime, government forces began to face the armed struggle called by the Melean Communist Party. Emergency measures forced the communist terrorists to the jungle and protracted guerrilla warfare following. In 1949, government security forces started offensive campaigns against the communists and in September issued surrender terms to induce the rebels to desert their fanatic leaders. By 1950, the resettlement of the rural population in new and protected villages struck at the rebels' weakest point, their supply system. Now villagers could keep their foodstuffs from being extorted by raiders. October 1951 marked the turning point in the emergency. These self-sufficient and well-protected settlements, together with food controls, gradually starved out the terrorists in the jungle. The villagers now returned to a measure of normal and peaceful living. In 1952, the government revitalized and reorganized its security forces, improved intelligence and information services, and pressed air and ground attacks including the use of paratroops. August 1957, the Federation of Melea achieved independence. This new nation offered amnesty to communist insurgents, shattering the last vestige of communist design. Later, hundreds of rebels surrendered, providing the new government with hope for its own future. On July 31, 1960, the end of the emergency was declared after 12 years of bloodshed and destruction. However, the government warned against the long-term threat of communist strategy. Terrorism is giving way to the far more subtle activities of subversion. The death of Melea lies in another troubled area, Vietnam, the eastern part of Indochina. Before its return to French control after the defeat of Japan, many northern areas of Vietnam had already been occupied by the Viet Minh insurgents who received material and leadership from Red China. French troops came to defend the Bao Dai government of Vietnam. For seven years prior to 1954, France committed 22% of the officers of her regular army and spent more than $1 billion annually in this struggle. During 1950 and in the years following, the contribution of the United States in military assistance rose steadily to about one-third of the total cost of the war. But Sino-Russian help to the Viet Minh also increased. With last-minute reinforcement by air, Dien Bien Phu, a key point in North Vietnam, fell on May 7, 1954. This led to the loss of the northern area and induced France to sign armistice agreements with the Viet Minh on July 21, 1954, dividing Vietnam into two parts at the 17th parallel. The British-supported Greek government regained control of Greece from communist-led resistance forces in 1945. After a majority of the Greek people voted for the return of the king, resistance was again felt in 1946. And forces were constantly harassed by communist guerrilla bands, which operated from their mountain strongholds in the north. Government troops were engaged in bitter fighting over large areas, for the rebels received continuous help from their Soviet block neighbors. This struggle strained the economy and financial resources of the Greek government, impoverished and uprooted thousands of its people. On March 12, 1947, President Truman addressed the Congress. The United States has received from the Greek government an urgent appeal for financial and economic assistance. The British government, which has been helping Greece, can give no further financial or economic aid after March 31. He proclaimed the historical Truman Doctrine stemming the tide of this aggression. I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far-reaching to the west as well as to the east. We must take immediate and resolute action. The United States thereafter assumed the responsibility for protecting the eastern Mediterranean. With the Greek National Army retrained by U.S. military advisors to fight a mobile offensive war instead of just garrisoning key towns and communication routes. And with Tito stopping all aid to the pro-communiform Greek guerrillas, the Greek government was able to conclude its campaign successfully by the fall of 1949. In Korea, the post-World War II Division IX at the 38th parallel was violated by North Korean forces on June 25, 1950. The South Korean soldiers defending the only lawful government of Korea found their military situation desperate. Two days after the war broke, the United Nations called upon its members to support the Republic of Korea. For the first time in history, a world organization enforced its decrees by military force. This historic assemblage of military and non-combat units from 20 nations under the command of General Douglas MacArthur rested the initiative from the invaders and cut behind their lines at Incheon. This is Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea. Three months after its fall to the North Korean Communist Army, this embattled city saw the triumphant unfurling of the UN flag. By the end of October, the UN forces and South Korean troops crushed the North Korean army and halted below the Manchurian border, achieving almost complete victory. For 5th, 1950, Red China poured its legions across the border and hurled the UN forces back. The withdrawal to the South, however, was followed by successful United Nations counterattacks. Years following the spring of 1951 saw bitter but inconclusive action in a war of attrition with the UN forces in control of air and sea, but facing large numbers of enemy troops utilizing the mountainous terrain of Korea. After two years of on and off talks while fighting went on, the troops proposed by the communists to end the war they started resulted in the Korean armistice on July 27, 1953, leaving the country still roughly divided along the 38 parallel. The Jacob R. Benz regime became increasingly communistic after its inauguration in 1951. Communists in the Congress and high governmental positions controlled major committees, labor and farm groups, and propaganda facilities. They agitated and led in demonstrations against neighboring countries and the United States. In 1953, Guatemala withdrew from the Organization of American States and confiscated foreign property, openly defying the community of Western hemispheric nations. Alarms spread through Central America when the R. Benz regime received a 2,000 ton shipment of arms from communist Poland in May of 1954. In the meantime, the liberation movement gained momentum under the direction of exiled Colonel Castillo Armus. In 1954, Colonel Armus launched military operations including bombing and strafing raids. With support from the people and the army, he overthrew the R. Benz regime within the month. Colonel Castillo Armus swiftly formed an anti-communist government in July of 1954, and his presidency was overwhelmingly approved by a plebiscite in October of the same year. The nationalistic opposition groups in Lebanon called a general strike and set off demonstrations against pro-Western President Kamil Shamun, civil war loomed. The government charged massive interference by outside forces. On July 14, 1958, a military coup overturned the pro-Western government of neighboring Iraq. On that same day, President Shamun appealed for United States intervention, acting on the urgent request of the legally constituted government of a friendly nation, President Eisenhower took action. United States troops immediately landed near Beirut. They took positions in and around the city but without involvement in the civil war. By early August, there were about 14,000 American Marines and soldiers in Lebanon, while Great Britain had sent forces to Jordan in support of King Hussein. The stabilization of the Middle East situation provided time for the United Nations to search for effective steps to safeguard the independence of Lebanon and Jordan. While American forces stood ready for any emergency, the nations involved engaged in lengthy debate. Finally, on August 21, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution sponsored by all the Arab countries, including Lebanon and the United Arab Republic. It affirmed the principles of mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty and requested the Secretary-General to arrange the withdrawal of Western troops from Lebanon and Jordan. With a new government formed in Lebanon and order gradually restored, the United States began to withdraw its troops on August 13, completing the operation by October 25. Rows in the Far East, just as the Middle East crisis was subsiding. On August 23, 1958, Red China opened its savage shelling of the Kimoes with 50,000 shells and a two-hour bombardment. The garrisons on the Kimoes, Matsu, and other nationalist-held offshore islands were under a naval and artillery blockade imposed by Communist China, which proclaimed the extension of territorial waters to 12 nautical miles from the shores of the mainland. As stabilizing measures, the United States warned against armed aggression and provided naval escort to nationalist convoys supplying the Kimoes garrisons. The strengthening of nationalist defenses drew charges from Chinese Communists and the Soviet Union. Khrushchev accused the United States of interference in Beiping's liberation of the offshore islands and Taiwan and threatened to support Red China in expelling U.S. forces from the Taiwan Strait. But the United States continued to support President Chung Kai-shek of the Republic of China in defending these island outposts. The United States sought peaceful settlements by resuming talks with the Communist representatives in Warsaw and urging Chung Kai-shek to renounce the use of force as the principal means of regaining the mainland. On October 6, 1958, calm was restored to the besieged islands as temporary suspension of shelling was ordered by Red China. Later, artillery bombardment became an on-and-off affair. The crisis finally subsided toward the end of the year. In Cuba, during the summer of 1958, unrest and ferment gripped the nation. The government survived the rebels' threat of total war and revolutionary strike. But the dictatorship of General Fulgencio Batista leaned heavily on combat-ready guards and armed forces. In July, opposition groups organized outside Cuba to overthrow the government by force. President Batista could no longer ignore the rebels led by Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of Oriente Province. His elusive forces harassed the government troops and engaged them in heavy fighting during August. These men threatened to kill all candidates in the presidential elections to be held on November 3 and refused to recognize the new president after the election. Cuba fled the country on January 1, 1959, a day after Castro's forces captured Santa Clara and bisected the island. Havana was plunged into several days of wild demonstrating, rioting and plundering. The 26th of July movement now came into power. On January 9, 1959, after a week-long victory march from Santiago, Cuban revolutionary troops made a triumphant entry into Havana with Fidel Castro established as Cuba's new strongman. This marked the beginning of a regime which has become the first communist foothold in Latin America. The world was to witness his application of revolutionary justice by ordering hundreds of trials and executions and thousands of arrests and long imprisonment. Castro's Cuba moved swiftly into the Soviet orbit. In February 1960, Soviet First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan visited Cuba with Russian credit and other economic agreements. In September 1960, Cuba formally recognized communist China and North Korea. On January 3, 1961, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba. On January 31, 1962, the Organization of American States excluded Cuba from participation in OAS affairs declaring the concept of Marxist-Leninism incompatible with the inter-American system. The count is far from complete. We have not mentioned other serious conflicts such as the crisis in Tibet, Laos, and the Congo. And yet, the pattern is obvious. There's not been a single year since World War II that we have not seen some war somewhere. These wars had one thing in common. They were limited. Limited in area, in the weapons used, in the number of belligerents, and most importantly in their immediate objectives. And another common factor, they involve both the communists and the free world. This post-war era has actually been a period of almost continuous, limited war. For we have been living under two basic, historically unique conditions, a deep conflict of aims and interests between communism and the free world, and a terrifying capability of the two main antagonists to destroy each other. And these two conditions breed limited war, piecemeal aggression clashing with local defenses. Challenged by the worldwide offensive of the communists, we have built up collective security, strengthening the United Nations, joining other free nations to develop the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, the Organization of American States, and other mutual security agreements. And we have steadily improved our military posture. In the words of President Kennedy, a global nuclear war poses the gravest threat to our survival. It is not the most probable form of conflict as long as we maintain the forces needed to make a nuclear war disastrous to any fall. Military aggression on a lesser scale is far more likely. We intend to have at all times the capacity to resist non-nuclear or limited attacks as a complement to our nuclear capacity, not as a substitute. We have rejected any all-or-nothing posture, which would leave no choice, but in glorious retreat, our unlimited retaliation. President Kennedy proposed to further strengthen our conventional forces when he said, These forces must be equipped and provisioned so they are ready to fight a limited war for a protracted period of time anywhere in the world. The pattern of history clearly reveals that from the flexibility of strength comes the freedom of choice. And the deterrence of war is the preservation of peace. The big picture is an official report for the armed forces and the American people, produced by the Army Pictorial Center, presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this station.