Korean War Analysis

One such ‘democracy’ in need to protection was found in Korea. Prior to the detonation of atomic bombs over Japan, a meeting of allied command planned a land war against Japan. Russia, it was agreed, within three months of Victory in Europe day would move into Korea and prepare for attack. Russian forces would advance to north of the 38th parallel. American forces would meet them south of the 38th . From here the forces would coordinate an attack on Japan, however before this plan could be enacted America dropped the bomb bringing an end to the war. Korea, however remained divided between the two occupying forces. On each side of the parallel the USSR and the US created governments embodying their respective political ambitions and ideologies.

On 25 June 1950 one hundred and thirty five thousand North Korean soldiers crossed the 38th parallel and quickly advanced passed the poorly armed Southern forces . From the wests perspective this was a direct provocation by Communists, the rhetoric espoused by American repeated many of the messages in the Truman Doctrine. America was needed to protect democracy against the tyranny of communism.

What this binary ignored was the political oppression of South Korean communist sympathisers with full support of the American government. The American history of the Korean War is largely whitewashed, ignoring instances of mass executions ordered by the South Korean leader. Rhee was classified by the CIA as a “demagogue bent on autocratic rule whose support was maintained in the relatively small class who monopolized the wealth,”. Worried about the spread of the northern influence the American government allowed intense political repression to occur in order to supress political dissent. These tactics were referred to in CIA documents as “ruthlessly brutal” . Their

Under Article one, North Koreas advance was illegal under international law, as it was an act of aggression on another state. But the UN entirely ignored the political climate south of the 38th Parallel, however they failed to “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character”, and they failed to foster respect “for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion” . It is important to note that the UN charter does not define political repression as a fundamental human right. However the convention on Genocide defines genocide as killing members of a group, causing bodily or mental harm to members of a group, or deliberately inflicting on a group conditions calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part . The definition of a genocide is less specific to the groups that can be prosecuted, and the mass execution of over one hundred thousand people due to their political beliefs is a genocide. What this suggested was the US was able