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.

Canada supported the principle of rescuing South Korea, but at first was reluctant to participate. Canada’s decision to become involved in the Korean War was the right decision.
Canada’s decision to be involved in the Korean War was substantial because it was one of the United Nation’s early conflicts, and involvement helped test the United Nation’s ability to intervene militarily .

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

world.
Canada’s involvement in Korean War was beneficial because if now it kept peace in the world as well helped spread Canada’s reputation as a peacekeeping nation. South Korea was under a surprise attack from the North, and also drastically outnumbered the South with more than 135,000 equipped North Korean military troops marched across the 38th parallel heading for Seoul(capital of South Korea) on Sunday, June 25th, 1950. Many civilians including women and children were killed or captured during the invasion. The United Nation responded to North Korea’s aggressive military actions by requesting 21 members of the UN (Canada being one of them) to put a stop to their aggression. Canada responded to the UN’s request by sending more than 26,000 soldiers, under UN’s request in hope for peace and protecting civilians. 516 brave Canadian soldiers’ lost their lives during services in South Korea, their names are engraved in the book of remembrance located inside the peace tower in Ottawa. Since the end of the war, Canada has contributed to many peacekeeping missions around the world in an effort to promote international freedom and maintain world peace and stop the spread of communism.
North Korea’s main objective of the invasion was to unite the Koreans under a single flag and a single communist government. To spread communism to the south. The Korean War wa