Korean

War
 Events
September 1950- the UN force advances

October 1950- UN presses on

November 1950- UN retreats

April 1951- MacArthur is sacked

June 1951- Peace talks begin

July 1953- Armistice

 Background information

Until 1945 Korea was ruled by Japan.

However when the World War two ended North Korea remained
communist.

South Korea was anticommunist which won USA’s support.

Soviet troops were helping liberate Korea from Japan. US didn’t have
military near that area due to the miscalculation that Japan would surrender.

US officials made a proposal of dividing Korea temporarily at the 38th

parallel. They also proposed that USSR would occupy North Korea. US
would occupy South. Soviet Union agreed to this.
 Causes of the Korean War

Domino Theory: The Communists were gaining

power not only Europe but the far east too

Truman believed that if one country fell to

communism others would too

He was concerned about the fall of Korea as

then Communists would capture Japan
 Undermine Communism

In April 1950, the American National

Security Council issued a report which
recommended that America should stop
‘containment’ and instead focus on
‘rolling back’ Communism.
 COLD WAR

USA and USSR were two superpowers

USA realized they were in competition for world

domination

Korean war was a proxy war which allowed

them to battle Communism without direct attack
on the Soviet Union
 Syngman Rhee

In 1950 he boasted that he would attack North

Korea. The North used this as an excuse and
attacked the South
 Kim Il Sung

In 1949 he convinced Stalin that he was capable

of conquering South Korea.

Stalin did not count on American involvement

and therefore agreed.

He also went to see China’s leader Mao to obtain

his agreement
 Hostility
Kim Il Sung was North Korea’s leader and Syngman Rhee
was South Korea’s president. North and South Korea had
contrasting ideologies therefore reunification was not
plausible at the time.

The influence of the Superpowers- USSR in the North and

US in the South led to increased hostility.

Hostility turned into warfare-a civil war.

THe South’s forces were overpowered by the North’s

By september 1950 most of Korea was under communist

control.
 Containment of Communism

This is where the US stepped in. President Harry

Truman was anti-communist and would go to
any lenghts to prevent the spread of
communism.

He viewed Korea as the model example for how

communism would spread without US
intervention.
US Intervention

Truman delivered supplies, warships and

advisors to South Korea to aid it and to stop the
spread of communism.

However he knew that a UN intervention would

be more ideal than an American one and he
sought out to get their support.
United Nations Resolution 84
Pressure on UN Absence of Soviet
security council Union
Truman put a lot of
USSR was unable to use
pressure on the security
their veto as they were
council to ask North
boycotting UN. Truman
Koreans to withdraw
took advantage of this and
troops
claimed this operation was
sponsored by UN.
Resolution 84 stated: The UN will render such assistance to the republic of
Korea as may be necessary to restore international peace and security to the
area.

Under this UN used member armies to disperse North Korean troops away
from the South.

The support of 18 states was used. The most major one was America,
 ADVANCEMENT OF THE UN FORCE

In September 1950 UN forces stormed the Inchon harbour. They

moved inland and Seoul was liberated.

Simultaneously South Korean troops and other UN forces advanced to

Pusan, forcing North Koreans to retreat back to the 38th parallel .
 UN force advances
further
General Macarthur accomplished UN’s goal of
removing North Korean troops from the South.
America did not stop at this though.
China’s leader Mao Tse-tung warned that if they
continued then China would join the war
However, US still persisted and planned to advance into
North Korea. This plan was approved by the UN
Overambition

● In October 1950 the SOuth Korean

Army along with the UN forces
captured Pyongyang which was the
capital. Then they reached the Yalu
river.
● They reached the border of China
which illustrated Macarthur and
Truman didn’t want to just contain
communism but rather eradicate it
completely from Korea
● Mao’s warnings were futile and were
disregarded by them
 UN retreats

In October 1950 200,00 Chinese troops aided the North Koreans.

Macarthur had underestimated the Chinese

They launched an impactful attack

Soviet Union provided them with planes and tanks.

The UN forces had to go back to South Korea.

 Macarthur Sacked

MAcarthur still wanted to continue with the war

but Truman disagreed,

He was willing to invade China and use nuclear

weapons.

Attacking China would be unwise and was ruled

out.

In march 1951 Macarthur threatened an attack

on China, ignoring UN orders.

In April Macarthur was sacked from the position

of commander
 Peace talks

In June 1951 peace talks began as there was

some stability around the 38th parallel

Despite the beginning of peace talks fighting

persevered for 2 more years

After 2 years of negotiations a truce was signed

at Panmunjom on July 27 1973
 Armistice

In July 1952 President Eisenhower replaced

Truman

He wanted the war to end

Stalin died in March 1953

An armistice was signed in July 1953

However the border remained the same

The war is still ongoing officially as there was

no official treaty to end the war
Consequences of the Korean War

Deaths:

30,000 American soldiers

70,000 South Korean Soldiers
780,000 North Korean and Chinese Soldiers and civilians
There was a total of 1 .4 million deaths
 Was the war a success for USA?
South Korea was still anti-communist and communism wasnt able to spread
there which could be counted as a success for USA.

Russia was forced into an arms race which they could not afford

However North Korea was still communist and USA had to accept that.

Furthermore tensions among American leaders were brought to light. Some

thought Truman was weak.

Others disagreed and stated it was too big of a gamble.

These tensions affected the US policy in the next few decades.

 Containment

American leaders believed communism had to be resisted.

The Korean War made them reflect on their intervention and made them see
that they could not send in troops to fight whenever a problem arised.

This was rather expensive and other methods which were effective could be
used instead

These methods were building alliances and improving weapons

 Alliances

USA created:

SEATO in South East Asia

CENTO in Central Asia and the Middle East

 USSR threatened

USSR thought these alliances were aggressive

and accused USA of surrounding the
communists

In 1955 the Warsaw Pact was created by the

USSR

It comprised of USSR and all east European

counties excluding Yugoslavia.
Weapons
The Americans had developed their first atomic
bomb in 1945

In August 1945 bombs were dropped on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 70,000 people

Japan surrendered within a week

This made USA confident that these bombs were

the answer to containing communism- their
threat alone was powerful

USSR thought of the same thing and this led to

an arms race