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American Involvement In The Korean War

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Sinai Trejo
At the end of World War II, the Korean peninsula was divided into two separate countries along the 38th parallel, Russia occupied the north and the United States occupied the south. (Korean War) Five years after the end of the Second World War, after multiple border skirmishes that left about 10,000 Koreans dead, a new war begins on an East Asian peninsula. (Korean War) The Korean War illustrates the idea of Western power or democracy, versus communism in a war that was fought in a country that was struggling to obtain peace in government that they could trust and help its people prosper.
Before the war began, there were multiple border battles fought by the army of both sides and the people that was simply a result of political …show more content…

(Korean War) Yet as the Americans were trying to push the North Koreans out of the south altogether, “American troops crossed the boundary and headed north toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Communist China, the Chinese started to worry about protecting themselves from what they called “armed aggression against Chinese territory”. Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) sent troops to North Korea and warned the United States to keep away from the Yalu boundary unless it wanted full-scale war” (Korean War). During this time the Allies decided that the Korean War was about “liberating” South Korea from communism, and Truman and General MacArthur followed this successful strategy. (Korean …show more content…

(Hickey) “In mid-1951, with the land in stalemate, both sides agreed to go to the conference table and armistice talks began. They dragged on for two year. The main point was the future of the tens of thousands communist prisoners held in the camps on Koje Island off the coast of South Korea” (Hickey). Many of the prisoners didn’t want to be repatriated to their countries and didn’t settle down until it was decided that asylum would be granted to those who wished for it and the others could go home. (Hickey) While President Truman and his military commanders had peace talks at Panmunjom, fighting along the parallel continued as negotiations stalled. (Korean War) During that time, “the allies achieved total naval supremacy when the North Korean navy’s torpedo boats were blown out of the water by UN firepower.” (Hickey) Operation Big Switch occurred in July 1953, when thousands of former prisoners were returned and a Demilitarised Zone was established on the border. (Hickey) As both sides withdrew from fighting, an armistice was set up and supervised by a UN commission. (Hickey) The end of the Korean War came on July 1953. (Korean

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