Revolution, Counterrevolution and Assassination After World War II

In response to the upheavals engendered by World War II, revolutions broke out or loomed throughout the world. Nationalist aspirations proved global in nature, ironically empowered by the Cold War. In Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, revolutions and counterrevolutions proliferated, and similar disruptions threatened to unfold in Europe and North America. Social upheavals began to occur in Vietnam, Mandatory Palestine, China, Algeria, Ghana and Cuba. Conservative and reactionary forces frequently pushed back, quashing hopeful developments like the Guatemalan Spring, the Hungarian Revolution, and the Prague Spring, while also readily resorting to the murder of leading progressive figures from Gandhi to Navalny.
The second volume of this detailed history explores the rippling effects of World War II across the globe, including countries experiencing colonial or neocolonial relationships. This book examines the interplay between modern revolutionary movements and campaigns seeking to prevent such movements or to reestablish a history and time that never really existed. It also traces the deadly resort to politically motivated killings, which cut short the lives of so many distinguished, sometimes beloved figures whose loss is still felt decades later.

A professor emeritus of history and American studies at California State University, Chico, Robert C. Cottrell is the author of more than twenty books, including studies of the counterculture, the year 1968, American radicalism, black baseball and the World War II smokejumpers.

Robert C. Cottrell
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 251
Bibliographic Info: 37 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9641-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5430-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi

Preface 1

 1. Imperialism Crumbles in the Face of Asian Nationalism 3

 2. The Fight for National Autonomy Continues Around the Globe 12

 3. The Algerian War 23

 4. Poking the Russian Bear 35

 5. De–Stalinization and the Soviet Counterrevolution 47

 6. The Maoist Nightmare 60

 7. Challenges to Soviet Hegemony 81

 8. Coups, Guerrillas, the Chilean Way and the Disappeared 92

 9. The Killing Fields 107

10. In the Heart of Africa 119

11. The Middle Eastern and Central Asian Cauldron 132

12. Leading Up to 1968 and Beyond 145

13. The Slaying of America’s Best, Terror on the Left and the Right 156

14. From the Fall of the Wall to Genocidal Wars and People’s Protests 172

15. September 11, Global Insurgencies and the Unholy Trinity Continues 183

Chapter Notes 199

Selective Bibliography 233

Index 241