Please put this definition on Page 16 in your notebook:

Proxy Wars (AKA Surrogate War)-a war started by a major power that does not itself participate directly.

The super power does not send its own troops, but may supply support

in terms of weapons, money, training and intelligence

Think of two Mafia bosses...

Don CorleoneTony Soprano

They want to fight each other to see who it the Top Gangster of the USA! However, an all out war between two such powerful men might destroy both of them, and a large number of innocent bystanders as well. The police and the Government would get involved. No one would win.

They both have top supporters...But these bosses don't want to send their top people to do the dirty work. They are too Valuable. They might get killed. Then everyone, the police, the media, and so on, would know the Bosses were involved. The Bosses would have to commit totally to the war, and they would have to fight it publicly. That limits what they can do.

So, they both hire Hit-men instead...These Mafia Bosses don't know these men. They don't care what happens to them. Sure, they give them weapons, ammunition, money for expenses, maybe even let them practice on their shooting range, but at the end of the day, these men are expendable. If they succeed, great. If they die trying, its not a big deal. Plus, since no one knows the Bosses know these men, the Bosses stay out of it. There is no Media frenzy, no news supports to link them to assassinations. They can do sneakier things.

So, what is in it for the Hit-men?

Well, they get Money, Weapons, Information, Training, and they can use all of those things for themselves, and their own interests after or while doing the work of the Bosses. They are independent contractors. They do their job and then they do what they want.

The Proxy Wars of the Cold War are like this example:

The USA and the USSR are the Mafia Bosses. They can't fight each other directly without blowing up the world.

Their top supporters are their allies, NATO, and the Warsaw Pact Countries. These groups can't get involved without turning the fight into a well publicized World War III (Also a no win situation)

The Hit men are the groups fighting in the politically unstable countries of the world, like the North and South Koreans in Korea, the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese in Vietnam and Sandinistas and the Contras in Nicaragua.

These groups get money, information, weapons, training and support from the USA or the USSR.

In exchange they promote Capitalism or Communism in their countries.

But they also use the resources they get to fight for what they want, revolution, independence, and so on....

It is important to note...

The USSR and the USA do give Weapons, Money, Training, Information, and so on...

But they don't give:• The BEST Weapons (no one was handing out Nukes!)• A Lot of Money (just enough to keep things going...)• The Best Training (We don't want these people to beat us at our own game later...)• ALL the Information (We leave a lot out. We don't want our secrets to become public)