Causes and Effects of the Korean

War
What was the Korean War?
Started on 25 June 1950

- 50,000 North Korean troops launched an invasion on South Korea

- Occurred during a time of debate over the future course of US foreign policy
- Many in Washington advocated a massive rearmament programme to confront Communism
globally (NSC-68)

- President Truman realised that a failure to take action would undermine the credibility of the
US policy of containment

- USA immediately sent help to South Korea and called on the United Nations to sanction military
action against North Korea.

- 27 June: Resolution sanctioning a UN-mission against North Korea was passed

- Rare occasion: Security Council voted unanimously
- USSR boycotted the Security Council over USAs refusal to recognise Communist China
therefore did not have a vote

- 1 July: Troops from the USA and 15 other nations arrived in Korea
- Led by a UN commander American General Douglas MacArthur
- America found itself at war again persuaded the US government to accept the
recommendations to raise the military budget significantly of NSC-68

- Cold War had now become a global war USA sought to confront Communism in Asia as
well as in Europe

- Started as a war of movement

- Dramatic changes in its first year; followed by a stalemate that lasted until its end in 1953
Stage 1: North Korean invasion
- An initial push by the North Koreans resulted in them capturing almost the entire Korean
peninsula apart from a small pocket of land in the South-East around the city of Pusan
Stage 2: UN counter-attack
- MacArthur led UN forces in a daring amphibious assault on Inchon, hoping to split North Korea
in half
- Within in a month he had recaptured Seoul; driven back past the 38th parallel
- US then decided on a policy of rollback - crossing into North Korean territory and reunite
Korea
- Pyongyang recaptured in October
Stage 3: Chinese counter-attack
- Despite warnings from the Chinese, MacArthur pushed onto the border with China at the Yalu
river
- 27 November: over 200,000 Chinese troops and 150,000 troops counter-attacked, forcing UN
forces into retreat
- December: Pyongyang and all of North Korea was recaptured
- UN troops suffered heavy casualties
Stage 4: Stalemate
- War quickly descended into stalemate along the 38th parallel
- Truman decided to revert to a policy of containment
- MacArthur disagreed and even threatened the use of atomic bombs against China
- Was then fired by Truman
- Peace talks then began in 1951
- War continued until 1953 when an armistice was signed at Panmunjom in July

Causes of the Korean War

1. Failure to unite Korea after WWII
- 1945: agreed by the Superpowers to temporarily separate Korea; to take joint responsibility for
repatriating Japanese forces there
- 38th parallel taken as the dividing line: USSR occupying the north, USA in the south
- December 1945: Council of Foreign Ministers Moscow Conference
- USSR and USA agreed to create a provisional government in Korea; leading eventually to
independence
- Independence was never achieved
- As the Cold War developed the superpowers became less willing to cooperate with each other
- Despite the Moscow Agreement, separate governments emerged on each side
- South: USA appointed Syngman Rhee; anti-Communist
- North: USSR supported a communist faction led by Kim Il Sung
- Both had fought the Japanese and wanted to end the division of Korea; had very different
ideologies
- Due to Cold War tensions, both sides agreed to divide Korea in 1947
- The Americans persuaded the UN to establish a commission to supervise Korean elections
- Refused entry into the north but observed a separate election in 1948
- Republic of Korea (ROK) was set-up in the south by Syngman Rhee
- Undemocratic and anti-communist but was recognised as being legitimate by the UN
- In response, September 1948: the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) was
founded by Kim Il Sung
- Failure of the superpowers to create a unified Korean government thus led to the permanent
division of Korea into two hostile states
- Each claimed to represent all of Korea and each leader wanted to unify Korea
2. The role of USA
- Having divided the Korean peninsula both superpowers began to withdraw their troops
- Soviet troops left in 1948; US left by mid-1949
- Dean Achesons perimeter speech (January 1950): US declared that they would not
commit troops in mainland Asia
- Withdrawal of troops left a power vacuum in Asia hostilities between the two Koreas
could develop
- Withdrawal of US troops presented Kim Il Sung with an opportunity
3. The role of Kim Il Sung
- Both leaders of North and South Korea wanted to unify Korea; neither side could unify Korea on
their own
- Kim Il Sung persistently tried to persuade Stalin to support the attack on the South, in which
Stalin eventually agreed to
- Stalin wasnt to blame for the war; his support for Kim Il Sung was significant in the Norths
decision making
4. The role of Stalin
- Eventually became supporting Kim Il Sung for plans for a war in 1950; more than hopeful of
winning
- Victory of the Communist Party in China and the development of the USSRs first atomic
bomb may have persuaded Stalin to act
- Development of an anti-Communist Japan by the USA threatened Stalins control of Asia
- Successful invasion of Korea: tempting opportunity to expand his own influence
5. The role of Mao Zedong
- Supported Kim Il Sung but was sceptical about the success
- Kim persuaded Mao to think that Stalin was more enthusiastic about the war than he was
- Mao wanted to gain the favour of Stalin for his planned attack on Taiwan
- Mao therefore gave his approval to Kim for an attempted invasion of the South

Effects of the Korean War

Effects on the USA

- Korean War heightened US fears of further Soviet aggression elsewhere

- NSC-68 recommendation to triple the defence budget became approved
- US land forces in Europe were strengthened with NATO: Greece, Turkey, eventually West
Germany as members

- Many of these plans were discussed before the war, but the Korean War served as a catalyst for
these policies.
- Treaty of San Francisco (1952) with Japan: allowed the US to build military bases in Japan;
US began to rapidly rebuild Japanese economy
- US also thought about increasing its support for Chiang Kaishek in Taiwan; continued to
isolate China
- South-East Asian Treaty Organisation (1954) created as an anti-Communist containment bloc
- Included Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, the USA, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand
Effects on Korea
- Cost over 300,000 civilian deaths; property damage was huge
- Peninsula became permanently divided - no hope of reunification
- 38th Parallel became a new very heavily guarded frontier in the Cold War that even exists today
- North Korea remained under Communist Rule while South Korea became an economically
developed capitalist nation
Effects on China
- Chinas reputation grew after the war - successfully pushed back US forces
- Increased Maos reputation; helped consolidate the Communist revolution in China
- Stalins reluctance to contribute during the war would lead to the eventual division of the two
powers China taking a more independence stance from Moscow
- Maos aim of uniting Taiwan became harder as the US was more committed to defending Taiwan
Effects on the USSR
- USSR not directly involved in the war - gave tacit consent to North Korea
- Long term: damaged Soviet interests
- USAs decision to triple its military spending, rearm West Germany, maintain troops in Europe
and contain Communism in Asia drew the USSR into a wider, global conflict
- Would stretch Soviet commitments around the world; harming the Soviet economy
Effects on South-East Asia
- Korean War: attempt by the USA to contain Communism in Asia
- Asia was now a new battleground for the Cold War
- Many nationalist groups in South-East Asia (e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines)
started to seek independence from colonial powers
- Some of these movements were Communist and increasingly relied on China for support
- US policies continuously confused these nationalist communist groups as being allied with
Moscow eventually led to USs involvement with Vietnam
Effects on the Cold War
- Korean War: effectively globalised the Cold War
- No longer just a European conflict, but a global one that would also affect countries around
the world
- Increased militarisation
- Both sides increased their military budgets
- USA: 10% of their GNP
- USSR increased the size of the Red Army from 2.8 million troops to 5.6 million.