How Did Canada's Involvement In The Korean War

For nearly a century before World War II, Korea had been ruled by the Japanese or the Chinese. When Japan’s empire has fallen after the war, the Soviet Union and the United States occupied Korea, The Soviet Union occupied the northern half of Korea and installed a communist government. Meanwhile the United States occupied the southern part of 38th parallel (an invisible line that divides Korea into almost equal halves). While the Soviet Union wanted all Korean to be united under single communist government, the Americans wanted free election for the south. By 1950, Kim IL Sung, leader of North Korean, had laid claim to the entire country and desired to invade South Korea. However The Soviet Union did not want to clash directly with the United States. Instead they supported and supplied North Korea with weapons and armories to have them fight for the Union in a “proxy war”. The United Nations decided to respond to the North Korean invasion. Led by the United States, the UN Security Council invited 21 UN members to send troops to Korea under the command of General Douglas MacArthur to restore the southern part of Korea.

Not only did Canada participate, but so did 19 other countries, such as Thailand, United states and Australia to name a few, from the United Nations , showing that it was a worthwhile venture, Due to Canada’s participation in Korean war in the past (and many other conflicts) such as the United Nations in Sudan 2005-2009; the UN is now the world’s largest peacekeeping organization with over 16 current peacekeeping operations around the world such as: restoring a secure and stabilize environment in Haiti, helping to stabilize the middle east etc. Not only did it help test UN’s ability to intervene militarily but also kept peace in the