Tyranny In The Cold War

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny;when the government fears the people,there is liberty” -Thomas Jefferson. The reason why I chose this quote is that the Northern Korean and South Korean civilians were afraid of the government so there was tyranny. Tyranny is cruel and oppressive government or rule.

Most people know that the Korean War was started when, in 1950, the North Koreans (N.K) crossed over the 38th parallel and opened fire on the South Koreans (S.K). North Koreans wanted the land,,because of the resources on the land. What most people don't understand are the other hidden conflicts that contributed to the tension.The Cold War was going strong between the Soviet Union /China and the United States.

In 1949 when China became a communist country, Harry Truman, the U.S President at the time, was worried that other countries in the same area like Korea would become Communist too, especially Japan. Japan was important to U.S trade. “Truman Doctrine” was what they called Truman’s worry that communism was going to take over everything. (stop it!) Truman was competing for world domination with USSR, now Russia. By supporting South Korea, the United States could fight Communism without fighting USSR itself.

I believe that communism was the most important factor of the Korean war. N.K & S.K fought because North Korea wanted the land. The trouble later came after a year of fighting when U.S came in and said they wanted to get rid of communism in North Korea. If the U.S hadn't brought Political views of training communism into the war the war maybe it may have ended much sooner.

North Korea were traning years before the war was even started. South Korea was owned by Japan.The reason why we were so worried about Communism was that we needed Japan to trade and we took advantage of Japan with the trade. “ First, the combination of the opening of Chinese ports to regular trade and the annexation of California, creating an American port on the Pacific, ensured that there would be a steady stream of maritime traffic between North America and Asia. Then, as American traders in the Pacific replaced sailing ships with steam ships, they needed to secure coaling stations, where they could stop to take on provisions and fuel while making the long trip from the United States to China.”