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THE OUTBREAK OF THE KOREANWAR: THEN AND NOW
05/11/04Research AssignmentChris Haynes0029115
 
Introduction
On June 25, 1950, the army of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)crossed the 38
th
parallel to invade South Korea. While there had been sporadic fightingalong the ceasefire line between North and South Korean forces, this move by the DPRK was the casus belli for the Korean War.The war lasted from 1950 to 1953 and over one million Koreans, Chinese, Americans,Canadians and Europeans were killed in the fighting. The line that had been drawn by theAllies of World War Two marked both a separation of the people of the Korean peninsula but also of ideologies. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) took into its aegisthe northern half, and the Americans the southern half; and both were quick to apply their ideologies, of communism and capitalism respectively, to their protectorates.Upon the war’s outbreak, a national Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail, voiced theapparent element of surprise in the West that accompanied the invasion. Muchspeculation was made about Soviet involvement. Since 1950, however, other evidencehas come to light. The newspaper articles from June 26, 1950 prompt my asking severalquestions. This paper attempts to answer two of these questions. What was Russia’s rolein the invasion of South Korea? And what was China’s role? As can be expected, thereare to this day competing theories about the extent of both Soviet and Chineseinvolvement and I could not profess to be in a position to ascertain these facts. This paper also aims to discover the changes in perspective since the termination of the war on thecauses of the war and the actions and reactions to it from some of the parties with a stake
 
in the war’s outcome. These parties include Mr Stalin, Chairman Mao, Mr Kim, PresidentTruman and General MacArthur. This paper’s objectives are fulfilled in three sections:the historical backdrop, or context in which the outbreak of the Korean War took place;the newspapers and their reactions to the incursion, the actions taken within two days of itand the biases and speculation surrounding it; and the section on history unearthed, as Ishow some of the previously available and more recent evidence not addressed by thenews articles that has lent itself to modern theories explaining the causes and levels of involvement of different actors in the war.
The historical backdrop
The height of the Korean War is considered by many to be the height of the Cold War.The McCarthy Trials had begun in February of 1950 to root out subversive communistelements from all walks of American life. Coupled with the North Korean invasion, thiswitchhunt sent anti Communist hysteria in the US to boiling point. The previousSeptember, the USSR had tested their first atomic bomb. Iosef Stalin had tested theWest’s commitment to West Berlin by instituting the Berlin Blockade. With Americanforeign policy playing defence, the Communist world was rapidly expanding acrossEurope and Asia.
The Soviet Union had made satellites of Poland, Bulgaria and Rumania, andwas working on Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Greece…. Yugoslavia…. Thefire of communism seemed to be rising everywhere…. A Communist rebellionflourished in the Philippines. The British were fighting in Malaya to put downCommunists; in Indochina the Vietminh revolution was led by Ho Chi
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