If the total loss of soldiers to the Korean War was over one million, why would it be known as a war that didn’t solve anything? According to “The Cause and Effects of the Korean War”, the useless war all began at the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific, the defeated empire was required to give up the Korean peninsula. As an unstable area, the United States and the Soviet Union decided to split the peninsula at 38° North until it could become a stable nation. After the division, the USSR began to pursue Communism but the US saw pursuing Communism as a problem because of the unstable and unhealthy spreading of the idea. What really is Communism though? Communism “demands the elimination of economic inequality,” Dolan explains, “To this day, the border between North and South Korea remains one of the most heavily militarized in the war.” (104) He also explains that the war was known as the “Never Ending War” because the armistice didn’t solve any problems and conflicts still existed between Communist allies of North Korea and allies of South Korea and the United States. This proved that the US was trying to end the spread of Communism in Asia, yet its effort was not very successful. He concludes his thoughts by explaining that today, South Korea is an ally of the US because it came to the Korean’s defense when it needed support. This is comforting for the US because it realized that it might not have blocked the spread of Communism throughout the war, but knew that Korea, at least, won’t change social views because of the closeness of North Korea. In the article, “Korean War”, Genovese concludes his research by stating, “The war ended, a draw, in 1953. More than 150,000 Americans were killed or wounded.” This explains that the war did not do much for the US and the world to help block the spread of Communism because nothing was gained. The United States hoped it would end the spread of Communism, yet nothing major changed because of this
The Korean War changed the face of American Cold War diplomacy forever. In the midst of all the political conflict and speculation worldwide, the nation had to choose between two proposed solutions, each one hoping to ensure that communism didn?t sweep across the globe and destroy American ideals of capitalism and democracy. General Douglas MacArthur takes the pro-active stance and says that, assuming it has the capability, the U.S. should attack communism everywhere. President Harry Truman, on the other hand, believed that containing the Soviet communists from Western Europe was the best and most important course of action, and that eliminating communism in Asia was not a priority.
The United States vows to protect the democratic South Korea. American forces defend South Korea but are almost pushed on the peninsula . Douglas Mccarthur is in charge of the American forces. He stages an impressive counter attack that pushes the North Koreans all the way back to China. This is when China enters the warand pushes American forces back to the 38Th parallel. In 1953 , the war ended In a stalemate. (document C)
Since the end of World War II until the mid- eighties , most Americans could agree that communism was the enemy. Communism wanted to destroy our way of life and corrupt the freest country in the world. Communism is an economic system in which a person or group of persons who are in control. The main purpose of communism is to make social and economic status of all individuals of the same . Deletes inequalities in property ownership and wealth distributed equally to everyone . The main problem with this is that a person who is rich can be stripped of most of his fortune to someone else can have more material goods and be his equal .
During 1950 there was much opposition to the thought of ending the Korean War. While the United States of America and the United Nations Command sought out to peacefully end the war, both North Korea and South Korea were hell-bent towards unifying the Korean peninsula in their own image. While at this time South Korea, was an ally of
U.S. participation was centered on America’s foreign policies at the time. Although the War did not break out until June of 1950, several conflicts brewed over the attempt to take over the entire nation under one rule for several years after World War II. The majority of these conflicts took place at the 38th parallel where Korea was split. Decisions influenced by President Harry S. Truman and his doctrine, which was essentially the policy to contain the spread of communism, gave the United Nations an opportunity to prevent global domination through communism (“Teaching with Documents”). The fear of international communism from the powers of The Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China was the main reason that caused the United States to intervene.
The Korean War was a tragic event that started on July 25, 1950 and ended with a truce on July 27, 1953. America had feared the Soviet Union would bring communism to other countries especially in Asia. Korea had split after World War II. The Soviet Union had backed the government in the north and America backed the government in the south. They both agreed that the 38th parallel would split North from South Korea. However, o July 25, 1950, North Korean troops passed through the 38th parallel and captured Seoul. This would forever be known as the First Battle of Seoul. The United Nations responded by creating a resolution that labels the attack a “breach of the peace.” The United State decided to intervene in Korea just because they couldn’t
The Korean War was a battle of whose government would come out on top. After the annexation of Japan, Korea was split into two areas. North Korea was under the influence of China with the help of Russia. North Korea was involved with two Communist nations and as a result they were devoted to having a Communist government. On the other hand, South Korea was under the influence of the United States. At this time Communism and the United States with the help of the UN did not mesh well together, especially in one country. The war was mostly a standstill with nothing much happening on either side with pushing back and forth across the 38th parallel where many of the battles took place and casualties as well. “In the North the estimated killed, wounded, and missing totaled 15 million…In the South the toll was estimated at 1.3 million (East Asia, pg.375).” When the war ended, South Korea especially hit a bottom with their economy and it was not until the Vietnam War where the U.S. helped out again. “But in the end, economic isolation became an obstacle and to industrial growth as the country (the North) was closed to more highly developed economies (The U.S.) (East Asia, pg.381).” This showed that South Korea was still able to grow because of their connections with the United States compared to that of North Korea. Then, during the Vietnam War, the United States deployed Korean troops and gave South Korea money which finally allowed for the South Korean government to modernize and industrialize. This was the biggest jump for Korea in becoming a modern nation and was assisted by the United States and the Vietnam
Before when I said that this war took place without any fighting between the sides, I wasn’t lying. However, instead of directly fighting each other, they supported different sides during other wars that had the same ideals as them. Two examples of this would be the Vietnam War and the Korean War. The Vietnam War was the classic North versus South. North Vietnam was communist and it didn’t agree with the beliefs of South Vietnam who was somewhat capitalistic and had a democracy. Well, eventually, the two clashed and both the US and the USSR saw this as an opportunity to “fight” each other, at least when it came to their ways of government. The story of the Korean War was the same. Two different groups with two different ideologies went to war with each other and again the US and USSR saw it fit to get involved to prove a point to each other and the world. Still today we can see remnants of outcomes from both of these wars. In Korea we can see the south part flourishing while the north part is still seething over the division 50 years ago. In Vietnam we saw resentment as we merged the two into one country. So even though the Cold War has ...
Communism is a system of government, a political ideology that rejects private ownership and promotes a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of all property and the means of production, where all work is shared and all proceeds are commonly owned. Communism is practised in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba. However, most of the world’s communist governments have been disbanded since the end of World War II. Soon after the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II, Communist forces began a war against the Kuomintang in China. The Communists gradually gained control of the country and on the 1st October, 1949, Mao Zedong announced the victory of the Communist party and the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
When you hear the word communism, what’s the first image that comes to mind? It’s safe to assume one might have envisioned Vietnam, China or perhaps Germany during World War II. However, I was talking about Karl Marx, the individual responsible for Marxism, which has evolved into communism. Communism can be defined as a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production. Marx’s ideologies from the Communist Manifesto have been reviewed throughout world. His ideas can be found throughout various literature, even Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss. Karl Marx believed the nature of humanity should be relationships and opportunities that reflect fair treatment of human beings. In any society,
To begin with, the foreign policies that affected the United States during the 1950s and 1960s include: “containment,” “brinkmanship,” and “domino theory.” The concept of “containment” involved utilizing “firm” military, economic, and diplomatic tactics to halt the proliferation of communism, improve United States’ national security, and augment worldwide influence. In supplement of “containment,” U.S. involvement in Korea provided an example of how “containment” influenced the decision to enter the country. With China falling to communism at the hands of Mao Zedong, Korea was the next to become “infected.” Subsequently, Korea underwent a physical division, which resulted in the communist state of North Korea and the now vulnerable South Korea. Urgent to unify Korea as a communist nation, North Korea invaded South Korea and war broke out. In the midst of this, the United States had seen China fall to communism and now h...
Throughout history the United States has fought in many wars. Whether the fighting took place in Europe such as WWI or in our own land like the civil war. The one war many people seem to forget is the Korean War. The Korean War also known as the “forgotten war” was a war between North Korea, South Korea and the US together with the South Koreans to help. The Korean War was fought on sea, land, and in the air over and near the Korean peninsula (Brown, p.2). On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans rumbled across the thirty-eighth parallel. The invasion was successful because the south was not expecting or even prepare for a war. The invasion was so successful that they pushed the south to a tiny defensive area around Pusan. That’s when President Truman steps in real quick to halt the invasion of the North Koreans. Truman ordered American armed forces under General Douglas MacArthur to support South Korea. The Korean War was a clash between Communist forces and Free World (Brown, p.2).
The Korean War was a significant event in the cold war, it is also known as the ‘forgotten war” because it has been overshadowed by a much larger communist war in Vietnam. The main cause of this war was the constant spread of communism, As communism swept through taking over countries including china, the United States became terrified of it spreading, they quickly made a plan to stop it, and it is known as the Truman doctrine which states that the U.s will help any country that is being threatened by communism. However in 1950 South Korea which was under U.s control was invaded by North Korea. Now it was time for the United States to take action. At the end of the Second World War, the north was taken over by the Soviet Union, and the south was taken over by the Americans. At the Potsdam conference the United States and USSR agreed on a line which dived the north and south known as the 38th parallel line. There had always been tight relationships between the North’s leader Kim sung and Syngman Rhee the ruler of South Korea. North Korea had a much larger and powerful army than South Korea which made most of South Koreas population communist. In order for the south to win, they would need the help of United States troops. United States president Truman and General Douglas MacArthur worked together to save South Korea but, there goal was to take over Korea and get rid of communism.
The Causes of the Korean War Korea had been under Japanese control since 1895, and in 1910 Korea was annexed by Japan. The Koreans were assimilated into Japanese mainstream culture: Newspapers were suspended the right of assembly was banned and political organizations were disbanded. Hostility and resentment increased, discrimination against Koreans (schools for example) and Re-structuring of land are other examples of what Korea had to go through. The Japanese control of Korea made Korea suffer and was one of the first factors which caused the Korean War. The march called “the First Movement” was the first big demonstration against the Japanese.
Historically, the Korean War played a tremendous role in both North and South Korean societies. The Korean War was simply a victim of the rivalry between the Communism and the Capitalism. North Korea followed the communist beliefs, while the South Korea was backed up by the United States and its allies. The result of this war was deleterious, over 5 million people were killed from both sides. (Stueck, 1997). After experiencing a huge amount of loss both economically and socially, the Korean peninsula still remains divided. In other words, Korean people have experienced extreme tragedy for nothing in return. Visibly, the two Korean states have now a miniature intention to get into Militarized Interstate Disputes (MID). Accordingly, a realist