Editing History of Zamastan (section)

===Marvin Gaviria and the Cold War===

===="Relative Neutrality"====
As the US's prowess under the use of two nuclear weapons at the end of the second world war resulted in a sudden revelation that Russia was also creating weapons of epic mass destruction, Marvin Gaviria carefully made certain to not take either side in this new world reality. This, where other countries had become the feeding ground for USSR or US invasion, resulted in both superpowers vying for Zamastan's interests. On one hand, the United States had been a staunch ally of Zamastan's since the Parabocan War and helped assist in protecting the nation from the Japanese during the Pacific theater. On the other, the USSR was willing to provide billions of dollars into infrastructure costs, whereas the USA was more interested in military assistance. Gaviria denied both nations from taking a major role in their foreign affairs. Instead, the Gaviria government decided to take a route similar to that of the Netherlands, who was beginning to make expedition projects where they outsourced construction and trade to newly developed or freed nations. In 1948, in the wake of America's own Marshall Plan, Zamastan started reaching out to Eastern Africa with the [[Parrish Plan]] (named after Secretary of Infrastructure, [[Stephan Parrish]]). This created an influx of trade routes and projects that funneled massive sums of money to Zamastan. As the Parrish Plan created Zamastan’s own economic rise prompted a rise in capitalism and a renewal of big business, small businesses grew profoundly as well. Family owned business became a dream for many, and to current day, one of the most popular activities for tourists is visiting local family owned cafes and shops. This was the beginning of a near undisrupted economic build upwards for the next 70 years.

====[[The Tariel War]]====
On September 24th, 1970, Zamastan was faced with invasion from a massive and successful [[Gladysynthia]] crossing of the Danaska River in Northern Zamastan. Gladysynthian forces crossed the cease-fire lines, then advanced virtually unopposed into the Sinai Peninsula. After three days, Zamastan had mobilized most of its forces and halted the Gladysynthian offensive, resulting in a military stalemate. The Gladysynthians coordinated their attack on the Tariel Heights to coincide with the earlier offensive and initially made threatening gains into Zamastan-held territory. Within three days, however, Zamastanian forces had pushed the Gladysynthains back to the pre-war ceasefire lines. The Zamastan Defense Forces then launched a four-day counter-offensive deep into Gladysynthia. Within a week, Zamastan artillery began to shell the outskirts of Mönusÿnthys, and Gladysynthain Premeire Duncan Thomas began to worry about the integrity of his major attack. He believed that capturing two strategic passes located deeper in the Tariel Heights would make his position stronger during post-war negotiations; he therefore ordered the Gladysynthians to go back on the offensive, but their attack was quickly repulsed. The Zamastanians then counter-attacked at the seam between the two Gladysynthian armies, crossed the Danaska River into Gladysynthia, and began slowly advancing southward and westward towards the city of Danaska in over a week of heavy fighting that resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.

On October 22, a United Nations–brokered ceasefire unraveled, with each side blaming the other for the breach. By October 24, the Zamastanians had improved their positions considerably and completed their encirclement of Gladysynthian Third Army and the city of Danaska. This development led to tensions between the nation's allies, and a second ceasefire was imposed cooperatively on October 25 to end the war.

====UN, Proxy Wars, and The [[The Pahlan Insurgencies|Pahlan Insurgencies]]====
A common trend of military proxy wars across the world ensued quietly in the forms of regime changes in Central America and around Asia, and sometimes loudly in the chaos of Korea and Vietnam. Zamastan never participated in any U.N. supported wars, although being an active member, several hundred Zamastan citizens served as U.N. peacekeeper troops from 1947-1990 in activities in Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Laos. During the 1950’s, a small insurgency of communists sponsored by various socialist governments across the world tried to break away from Zamastan in the form of the FPF, or the [[Free Pahlan Front]]. The two major insurgencies never gained major traction, however the separatists did kill several hundred civilians in bombings directed towards the centralized Pahlan state government and military positions. Throughout the rest of the century, FPF sympathizers continuously held rallies that often attracted thousands of people, but their cause never elevated to the status of a political party or separate government.

[[File:Marvingaviriaspeech.jpg|thumb|right|Marvin Gaviria moments before his assassination]]

====Assassination====
On September 29th, 1972, amid a rising capitalist economy and flourishing republican styled government, and in the wake of President Marvin Gaviria’s 23rd term reelection to office, he stood in front of a crowd on the stairs of [[Congressional Hall (Zamastan)|Congressional Hall]] in Tofino. His approval was sitting at 94%, the highest of any president in Zamastanian history. As he addressed the crowd nearly three minutes into his speech, he grabbed his chest, buckled forward to the podium, and collapsed to the stage. Seconds later, the bang of a sniper rifle bore through the air and the crowd scattered. Around an hour later, authorities found the sniper’s nest on the forty-third floor of an under-construction skyscraper two miles away. Security footage captured someone leaving the scene with the gun, but the perpetrator was never identified, the rifle was never recovered, and the case was never solved. It remains the greatest mystery of Zamastan history. Spawning countless conspiracy theories, the [[Assassination of Marvin Gaviria]] rivals even that of the JFK assassination.