ared Tibet as a sovereign independent country that it had officially broken ties to China; however, only two years later the Dalai Lama signed a treaty that gave China political leadership over some of the country and left "Outer Tibet" to be the only independent part of Tibet. With the rise of the Chinese Communist Party so rose the issue of Tibet. (1)
             The new strong government saw Tibet as vital to China and began to establish an iron fist rule over "Inner Tibet." This was met by civil disobedience amongst the Tibetans and by 1956 a formal rebellion was in effect with the assistance of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency. The US support was a product of Cold War tactics as they attempted to destabilize the Communist government. (1) Tibet was just a pawn and the US only offered fleeting assistance to the under manned, non-trained, and under equipped Tibetan resistance. In response to the up-rising China answered back with brutal force and in 1959 the Dalai Lama and nearly one hundred thousand Tibetans began a trek across the Himalayas to seek refuge in India. (106) From India the exiled government of Tibet continued its resistance to the Chinese through gorilla warfare sponsored and encouraged by the US; conversely, the Dalai Lama took an official stance of non-violence. (1)
             Inside Tibet in anti-religion efforts the Chinese destroyed thousands of Buddhist monasteries as they tried to strip the Tibetans of their identity. (1) They banned all pictures of the Dalai Lama and spread negative rhetoric about His Holiness. In 1971 the United States discontinued its support of the Tibetans because the US was trying to normalize relations with China through diplomatic meetings between top government officials. In the fifteen years of US/CI
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