V o L u m e I : a d

Honduras threatened to plunge the nation into a civil conflict. By the mid-

1980s, Honduras was struck by an economic depression, with some observers

fearing that Hondurans were being pushed toward leftist radicalization, sim-

ilar to what had transpired in neighboring El Salvador.

Nevertheless, Hondurans were compelled to stay loyal to the United

States because of its overwhelming dependence on American aid. Through-

out the 1980s, the American military presence in Honduras grew exponen-

tially, as Honduras had become a key component in Washington’s efforts to

overthrow the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. By the early 1990s and the end of the

Cold War, with the Sandinista regime gone, U.S. aid to Honduras dropped

dramatically, leaving the nation again in precarious economic straits.

Bevan Sewell

See also

Alliance for Progress; Americas; Contras; El Salvador; Guatemalan Intervention;

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald; Nicaragua; Reagan, Ronald Wilson; Sandinistas

References

Acker, Alison. Honduras: The Making of a Banana Republic. Boston: South End Press,

1989.

Anderson, Thomas P. Politics in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras,

and Nicaragua. New York: Praeger, 1988.

Lafeber, Walter. Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. New York:

Norton, 1993.

Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic (GDR,

East Germany) during 1976–1989. Born in Neunkirchen, Saar, on 25 August

1912, Erich Honecker was exposed to socialist politics at an early age. He

joined the youth section of the German Communist Party (DKP) in 1926

and became a full-fledged party member in 1929. He studied in Moscow for

two years and returned to Germany in 1931. He was arrested by the Nazi

regime in 1935 and held for two years before being tried and convicted of

communist activities.

Released in 1945, Honecker immediately resumed his communist polit-

ical activity. He was one of the initial members of the Socialist Unity Party

(SED) of Germany and established a working relationship with Walter

Ulbricht, the Moscow-trained leader of the communists in eastern Germany.

Honecker had charge of the Freie Deutsche Jugend, the youth section of the

SED, and became a candidate member of the party’s secretariat in 1950. Ele-

vated to full-member status in 1958, he was charged with the construction of

the Berlin Wall in August 1961 and established himself firmly as a rising star

of the communist elite.

Honecker traded on his support in hard-line circles to organize the

ouster of Ulbricht in 1971. Willi Stoph became the titular leader of the East

Honecker, Erich

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Honecker, Erich

(1912–1994)

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Germany, but Honecker was the real power behind the

scenes. He successfully led a drive to win international

diplomatic recognition for the East German state and

established East Germany as an Olympics powerhouse.

Honecker emerged in 1976 to assume Stoph’s title as

chairman of the Council of State, which he would hold

until October 1989.

The East German economy stagnated under Honecker,

but he remained committed to hard-line, inflexible commu-

nist policies even when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

pressed for reforms in the mid-1980s. The withdrawal of

Soviet support, however, proved fatal to Honecker’s regime.

When public protests emerged in East Germany during

1988 and 1989, Honecker was unwilling to suppress them

by force without the support of Soviet forces, and he was

forced to resign his offices on 18 October 1989. His succes-

sors, Egon Krenz and Hans Modrow, were unable to sus-

tain East Germany as a viable independent state.

With German authorities trying to prosecute him for

crimes committed during his reign—charges mainly related

to the deaths of persons trying to escape over the Berlin

Wall—Honecker sought refuge first in a Soviet military

hospital and then in Moscow. He returned to Berlin in 1992

after the collapse of the Soviet Union and was arrested. Ill

health led to his release before he could be tried in 1993,

however, and he moved to Chile. Honecker died there on

29 May 1994.

Timothy C. Dowling

See also

Berlin Wall; German Democratic Republic; Gorbachev, Mikhail; Krenz, Egon; Mod-

row, Hans; Ulbricht, Walter

References

Childs, David, ed. Honecker’s Germany. Boston: Allen and Unwin, 1985.

Honecker, Erich. From My Life. New York: Pergamon, 1981.

Lorenzen, Jan N. Erich Honecker: Eine biographie. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt

Taschenbuch Verlag, 2001.

Pötzl, Norbert F. Erich Honecker: Eine deutsche biographie. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-

Anstalt, 2002.

British colonial port city that functioned as a key strategic Cold War outpost

as well as an ideological battleground between Western-style capitalism and

communism. Bordering southeastern China and the South China Sea, Hong

922

Hong Kong

Erich Honecker, the leader of the German Democratic

Republic (GDR, East Germany) and a staunch Stalinist,

pursued hard-line communist policies during the years he

was in power (1976–1989). (Peter Turnley/Corbis)

Hong Kong

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Kong is roughly six times the size of Washington, D.C., and was acquired by

the British in 1841. The British long considered Hong Kong a logical step-

ping stone in developing Chinese trade ties and as an entrée to markets

throughout Southeast Asia. After World War II, Britain recovered control of

Hong Kong from the Japanese and was determined to retain it for commer-

cial as well as strategic reasons. Its population at the time was about 600,000

people.

The establishment of the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC)

in October 1949, which extended Cold War rivalries in Asia, hardened

British intentions to retain the colony. Hong Kong’s value to Britain’s Asian

policies was twofold. First, it was the starting point in an effort to contain

communism and protect British interests, which ran from Hong Kong through

Indochina, Thailand, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, India, and Sri Lanka. Sec-

ond, the British hoped that retaining Hong Kong would perhaps facilitate

Anglo-Chinese trade.

From a broader point of view, Britain entertained the idea that a pros-

perous and stable Hong Kong might dissuade the PRC from leaning toward

the Soviet Union or promoting an Asian-style Titoism. To accomplish this,

Britain took great efforts to develop Hong Kong.

The PRC also seemed to realize that a foreign-run Hong Kong would

best serve their interests. Despite their one-nation cause, the Chinese com-

munists had no plans to retake Hong Kong. Their policy was summarized as

“long-term planning, full exploitation,” meaning that there was no urgency

to retake Hong Kong, whose colonial status should be utilized to maximize

national interests. By 1997, when the British returned the colony to the PRC,

Hong Kong had been transformed into an ultramodern city, an international

financial center, and a vital seaport.

Hong Kong’s value to the PRC was multifaceted. Economically, Hong

Kong served as one of the few trading channels for the PRC to buy Western

materials and earn coveted Western currencies. This thinking was soon jus-

tified when both the United States and the United Nations (UN) imposed

sanctions on China during the Korean War and when the Soviet Union

stopped assisting the PRC in the late 1950s. Diplomatically, Hong Kong

helped the PRC gain diplomatic recognition from Britain, the first Western

country to do so. From a strategic vantage point, by tolerating British control

of Hong Kong the PRC hoped to drive a wedge in the Anglo-American

alliance, which was at least partially achieved when Britain demonstrated

reservations and sometimes opposition to U.S. efforts to place embargoes on

Hong Kong and the PRC during the Taiwan Strait crises of the 1950s. As the

only port along the Chinese coast remaining in foreign hands, Hong Kong

also became a vital window and observation post for the PRC, allowing it

to contact overseas Chinese, promote the PRC’s cause, continue the civil war

against the Republic of China (Taiwan), and counter American containment

efforts.

The United States also found Hong Kong strategically useful. Given

the absence of a diplomatic relationship with the PRC, Hong Kong served

as the Americans’ primary contact point with Mainland China, from which

Hong Kong

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