Korean War After The Cold War

The Korean War was an influential event that started in 1950 and caused a lot of controversy among Americans and Koreans. The war was caused by the US trying to preserve the Democratic side of Korea, the south side. The Koreans were not happy, however, and the Viet Kong and North Korean soldiers fought tooth and nail to get the Americans out of the country. There was eventually an end to the war of course but not without lots of casualties on both sides and a hostile environment around the border of the two countries.

"To what extent can the Korean War be regarded as a Cold War proxy war?"

While World War II ended all worries and hardships Americans faced, events gradually initiated signs of the Cold War which created an increased state of tension that swept all of America and Korea. During the 1940s, the potential Communist invasion of nations worldwide began to create a frightening reality to the people of the United States. The Soviet Union’s exportation of Communism greatly worried America as they wanted to contain Communism from all nations, especially nations in Asia. The Korean peninsula divided into two territories: a north, Soviet supported government, and a south, American supported government, a separation as a result of World War II. The Soviet Union invaded Korea, which had been under Japanese control since 1900; fearing the Soviet’s intention to seize the entire peninsula, the United States responded by quickly sending in their troops to South Korea. Truman’s decision to become involved in conflicts in Korea grew out of the Soviet Union’s radical actions, events in Asia, and internal criticism in the Truman Administration in America, providing him with an opportunity to defend a nation from a communist invasion.

The Korean War begun far before North Korea had launched their first assault upon South Korea. Nearing of the end of the Second World War, the Korean Peninsula had been under Japanese control. Soon enough it was liberated by both American and Soviet forces, the Soviets occupying the country north of the 38th Parallel, and the Americans south of it. After the war, neither the Koreans, Soviets, nor the Americans could agree on the country's government. This resulted in the foundation of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north (Ohn Chang-Il, 23). The fact that neither the States nor the Soviets were willing to compromise on anything was a prime factor in the separation of the Korean Peninsula.

Communism has been a global problem for decades, and has caused a wide array of issues. The Soviet Union and China were the main Communist threats post-World War II. The Soviets were the biggest threat, without their influence, China would not have become a Communist nation. North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union after the Japanese lost World War II. They adopted a Communist government called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and was ruled under Kim Il-sung. North Korea invaded South Korea, an authoritarian country, which drew involvement from the United States, and in general, the United Nations. US involvement in Korea is debatebly because of the rising threat of global Communism and the attempt of North Korea taking South Korea.

The Korean War was part of the U.S. system of containment. The Korean War began in 1950 and ended around 1953, it was a case of the US Cold war approach of control. The policy of containment was a foreign policy plan of preventing other countries from becoming Communist-controlled. In other words, it was a policy for containing the spread of Communism. America had one noteworthy objective all through the Cold War which was to stop the spread of socialism. A noteworthy outside strategy that the US advanced all through the twentieth century named it Containment. The Containment Policy expressed that the US would bolster any country that is mistreated by socialism and would not be able to shield themselves from it. This turned into America's real motivation to intercede in the Korean War.

One Million deaths, 36,516 American casualties and 8,00 captured by Korean soldiers. Ironically named nicknamed "the Forgotten War", the Korean war is engraved in memories of those who lived through it and forever leaving its mark in history. Thus, Veterans Roger Hill, Paul Wurzer, Francis Stefano, Richard Kenn, John Noto and Frank Nicalazzo are a few of the many soldiers that live to tell and share the virtuousness and debauchedness of the war.

“The Coldest Winter: America and The Korean War,” written by journalist and historian David Halberstam, sheds light on the Korean War, which has been referred to as The “back hole of modern American history” (Halberstam, D). Halberstam, a graduate from Harvard University and Pulitzer Prize winner for his coverage on the Vietnam War, wrote “The Coldest Winter,” due to his desire “to resurrect a war ‘orphaned by history,’ a war that was cruel and inconclusive and claimed the lives of 33,000 American soldiers, 415,000 South Koreans, and about 1.5 million North Korean and Chinese troops’ ”(Frankel, 2007).

The U.S. response to the devastation of Western Europe can be considered a part of the U.S. policy of containment. The Korean War took place in 1950 – 1953 and was an example of the US cold war policy of containment its basic effort was to minimize the spread and continuation of communism. The Korean War show how far the U.S. would have gone to prevent communism from growing larger. The U.S. got further involved in Korea when china became communist in 1949 when just before the U.S. spent just over 2 million dollars to just prevent this from occurring.

In contrast to the Korean War, the Vietnam War occurred in a time when the anti-communist movement was not as large. While the Vietnam War started in November 1, 1955, when the anti-communist movement was around its peak, it lasted until April 30, 1975, when the anti-communist movement had greatly decreased. One of the major events during this time that showed the decrease in the movement was the end of HUAC. HUAC stood for House of Un-American Committee; the organization was a committee, in the House of Representatives, that investigated communist activity during the Cold War. HUAC ended in 1975 which makes it apparent that the anti-communist movement had greatly decreased from its peak in the 1950s. There was also a lack of communist accusations

The Korean War begun on the arrival of the North Korean Army troops consisted of 750.000 soldiers at the 38th parallel- the imaginary boundary between South Korea- on une 25, 1950 (History.com Staff,2009). According to (PBS, N.D.), Korean War was the first war to provide the confrontation of nuclear powers and the war also showed how hard was the difficulty of both sides to create the right decision on when to attack using the bomb at the right time. Although it might seemed to be difficult, the attacks from Soviet Union and China on behalf of North Korea was hard to repel so that United Nation was asked to help South Korea repelled those attacks (PBS, n.d.). By the end of the brutal war that lasted 60 years there were two millions victim

I would like to talk about the Korean War next, because the Korean War was probably one of the most useless wars the United States was ever a part of or even the most useless war to ever occur. On June 25,1950 the Korean War began, when 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean army crossed over the 38th parallel, the invasion was the first act of the Cold War.(ww2db.com) Tensions were already already high between the U.S, and Russia and with North Korea invading South Korea which South Korea was not prepared for and being allies with the U.S. South Korea naturally called upon the U.S. for backup, At first the U.S. was skeptical of joining this war because they feared that Russia would enter the war on North Korea’s side and cause World War 3 to take

We humans forget tons of things but at what point does information become ingrained into our memory. We see everything and forget almost everything, one thing that had not been forgotten was the Korean war in which the United states was trying to stop the advancement of the communist party. This development was leading factor to what we call north and south Korea, which the northern part is made up of communist China and Soviet Union and South Korea made with U.S. troops. But before the separation of Korea came to be we had an all out war with the communist Soviet Union. The responses by the government to the growing communist party show how their actions and responses were totally unnecessary and inappropriate with our affairs and somewhat

Russia and the United States began their relationship as allies when Russia disregarded the non aggression pact they signed with Germany in 1939, effectively sealing Germany’s fate in World War II.

“Men joined the Marine Corps for many reasons . . . I’d joined up to dodge the draft and ended up being sent to war” (Brady 8-9). This brief yet poignant statement begins the story of how James Brady ended up serving in the Korean War. As a young adult the draft was being reinstated and Brady did not feel the desire to fight in a war. He and a few of his friends decided instead to join the Platoon Leaders Class with the Marines, which had students spend two summers at the marine Corps Schools in Quantico, Virginia. After these two summers, graduates would become Lieutenants, but they could not be drafted. Shortly after Brady graduated, the war began in Korea and his class learned they