America’s Assistance to the Tibetans Essay -- Argumentative History Ti

America’s Assistance to the Tibetans Starting in the late 1940s, with Cold War tensions running high and the subsequent Communist takeover of China as well as the outbreak of the Korean War, there was a growing fear in the United States of the possibility of a global conflict between the Communist bloc and the West. Thus, the US government adopted a policy of doing its best to contain Communism around the world, especially in Asia after the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). When the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invaded Tibet in 1950, the US considered it possible or even probable that the PRC would use Tibet as a launching pad to expand Communism into the rest of South and Southeast Asia, an early appearance of what was later famously called the â€Å"domino theory† during the Vietnam War. In line with our newly stated and evolving policy committing the United States to a â€Å"global containment† of Communism short of actual war, when a spontaneous Tibetan resistance mo vement arose in Tibet, we decided it to be in our national interest to covertly aid this movement through the training of Tibetan fighters and airdrops of arms and supplies to them. Although the US did provide direct and extensive assistance to the Tibetans for several years we eventually ended the program. I believe that if we truly had wanted to follow through on our application of the containment policy, we would have done more to aid the Tibetan resistance. Ultimately, the US looked to what it deemed to be its own self-interest in forging ahead with a plan of rapprochement with the PRC and abandoned the Tibetan resistance fighters when they most needed our help. I will elucidate how our policy regarding the resistance movement evolved from th... ... Department, the CIA, and the Tibetan Resistance.† Ebsco, 2003.: 54-79 Knaus, John Kenneth. Orphans of the Cold War: American and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival. New York: Public Affairs, 1999. Liu, Melinda, Tony Clifton, Patricia Roberts, and Thomas Laird. Newsweek 134.7 (1999): 2 p Norbu, Dawa. China’s Tibet Policy. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Curzon, 2001. Shakya, Tsering. The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Tibetan Young Buddhist Association. Tibet: The Facts. Dharamsala: Tibetan Young Buddhist Association, 1990. Roberts, John B. II. â€Å"The Secret War Over Tibet.† American Spectator 30.12 (1997): 7p Xu, Guangqiu. â€Å"The United States and the Tibet Issue.† Asian Survey 37.11 (1997): 1062-1077.