The Korean War: Causes and Aftermath

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The Korean War explicitly portrayed the atrocious battle between both the North and South side which gave the United Nations its military role for the first time, thus expanding the war from a domestic to an international scale. Sometimes called “The Forgotten War”, the Korean War was mainly overshadowed in historical terms by the conflicts that occurred before and after it, World War II and the Vietnam War. The Korean War had raged for years without a true resolution and after years of battles, even the compromise that was made was not a complete one. The current situation regarding North and South Korea is quite volatile. In order to apprehend the Korean War, one has to look at events that took place before the war, how the war was conducted and the aftermath of the War. Events that took before the war were what had initially sparked the rancor between both nations of Korea. Despite the fact that World War 2 just ended, tension between North and South Korea remained heated. Causes of the Korean War can mainly be broken down into two different categories; ideological and political reasoning. The Soviet Union, China and North Korea, the communist side, ideologically wanted to secure the Korean peninsula and incorporate it in a communist bloc. This “domino effect” feared individuals such as Harriet Truman due to the fact that the potential danger of other countries such as Japan and Korea becoming a communist bloc was definitely not something Truman had hoped for. Politically, the Soviet Union considered the Korean peninsula as a springboard to attack Russia and asserted that the Korean government should be “loyal” to the Soviet Union, this was where the United States stepped in, realizing that they were in a competition for world... ... middle of paper ... ...h Korea, was a battle that had no real outcome. Lives were lost and buildings were destroyed but there was no resolution that had settled the ongoing tension between both nations. The Battle of Incheon and the Battle of the Kapyong were two significant battles that turned the tide of the war towards one direction, through strategic fighting and with the help of allied countries that involved the United Nations, China and the Soviet Union. Many lives were affected as a result of this battle and it also was a vital advancement for the United Nations as the War allowed them to prosper. Despite the fact that the pressure between South and North Korea had not yet settled, both nations had learnt a great dealt from the War. Coming to understand the war fully, it is vital that we view the events both prior and after the war so that the War itself can be viewed as a whole.

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