Essay on The Causes of the Korean War

The Korean War was fought between North Korea (aid of China and the Soviet Union) and South Korea (aid of the United States). The Korean War started June 25, 1950 when North Korean forces invaded South Korea. The Korean War ended on July 27, 1953 with the Korean War armistice.

Before 1945 Korea was controlled by Japan. After the second World War, USA and Soviet Union split Korea in t two. This cause the divide in the country and another divide in the ideals. USA was preaching capitalism and democracy. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, was looking to spread communism. North Korea invaded South Korea to try to form a stable, united Korea as it was before the end of the Second World War. USA acted decisively to defend the South to stop the threat of communism and to continue their policy of containment. They did not want communism to spread.

The Korean War was a defining part of the United States foreign policy in the Cold War Era and was a response to threats from the Soviet Union. The Korean War was a culmination of tensions between North and South Korea that had resulted from the influences the United States and the Soviet Union inculcated into the countries during their occupation. When the Korean War was initiated, by the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, the United States and their allies in the United Nations perceived the invasion as a bold communistic expansion effort that occurred without provocation. (Document A). Further validating this idea was the fact that the attack was endorsed by the USSR, and partially lead by Red China, both of which were communist countries

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 Soviets and Americans were unable to decide on who got the control over what part of the joint trusteeship over Korea, thus leading to the start of the Korean War (Source C.) From 1910 to the end of WWII Korea was being ruled by the Japanese and were ready to have control over themselves. The Korean War was fought from 1950 to 1953, where the North was being occupied by the Soviets and the South by the Americans. Kim thought that the only way to reunify Korea was with the use of military forces. In 1945 Korea was divided on the 38th parallel which was the main cause for going to war. In June of 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, which was considered the first act of the “Cold War”.

The war began on June 25, 1950, with communist North Korea’s invasion of South Korea. (Document C) With support from the Soviet Union, North Korea attacked democratic South Korea without warning. Since, South Korea was US supported, president Truman vowed to help defend it along with the United Nations. On September 14, 1950, America sent its forces in Japan to defend South Korea, though this resulted in the forces nearly being pushed off the Korean peninsula. The commander of the American forces at the time was General Douglas Macarthur, who planned a counterattack of the port of Inchon, on November 25, 1950. The attack was successful, it pushed back the North Korean forces to its border between it and China; the Yalu River. In November of 1950, China decided to enter the war to support North Korea's spread of communism. Chinese forces are able to push the UN and the US back into South Korea. This resulted in the border between North and South Korea to move back to where it was originally. The war finally ended three years later on July 27, 1953. The Korean War is a good example of containment because the United States was successful in preventing North Korea from expanding communism into South

1949 had been a bad year for the United States. In August 1949 the Soviet Union had successfully detonated its first atomic bomb, effectively destroying the State's monopoly on the atomic bomb (“Politics in the Korean War”). This was years earlier than American scientists had predicted, and the American public was thrown into fear at facing the possibility of atomic annihilation for the first time. Even still the public had no interest in the higher taxes that would come with the militarization of American Society. That is, until North Korea launched its first attack on South Korea. This was thought of by the West as communist aggression with no provocation from South Korea. President Truman earned a substantial increase in public support from his immediate sending of American forces to battle in Korea, and with multiple victories soon following, his approval ratings went up 40%. As said by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, “Korea, came along and saved us” (“Politics in the Korean

According to Document C, on June 25, 1950, North Korea suddenly invaded South Korea. North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union, while South Korea was being supported by the U.S. president, Harry Truman, and the United Nations promised to defend South Korea. After World War 2, on September 14, 1950, the U.S. and the U.N. were officially sent to protect South Korea, but the U.S. and the United Nation’s forces were almost pushed off the Korean peninsula. The leader of the Americans, was General Douglass MacArthur. On November 25, 1950, General MacArthur organized a dangerous, yet victorious retaliation at the port of Inchon. The Americans pushed the North Korean forces all the way back to the border of North Korea and communist China, but this battle got difficult again because China got involved and pushed the Americans back to South Korea. Over two million people died in this war as well as more than fifty thousand American soldiers. This act of containment in a way made the U.S. look kind of weak, because there were a lot of deaths and suffering before it ended therefore making their system look

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.

Efforts to unify Korea resulted in more than 100,000 deaths due to guerilla warfare. In April 1950, North Korean leader Kim II Sung persuaded Joseph Stalin to back an invasion of South Korea, convincing Stalin that the United States would not intervene. Stalin agreed to provide arms, equipment, and advisors to the North Koreans (“Korean War”). Kim II Sung did not stop there as he also persuaded the newly communist Chinese to aid the North Koreans. The Korean War, (June 25,1950 – July 27, 1953), occurred when over 75,000 North Korean Army invaded the land across of the 38th parallel. American president Harry Truman was feeling heat after “letting China fall”, so Truman ordered American troops into action on South July, the United Sates entered the conflict on South Korea’s behalf. The next three years would be the darkest and most horrific in Korean history. As seen in American reporter Bill Shinn’s account, “the North Koreans were gruesome…during the occupation of South Korea, they killed over 165,000 civilians. Also, I witnessed a South Korean mass execution of civilians suspected of having helped the communists. Korea was a mess” (“The Forgotten War Remembered: Korea, 1950-1953). This shows the depths of the horror that was perpetrated in Korea for three years.

This was known as the Truman Doctrine. This meant that if a Capitalist country (South Korea) was being attacked, it was America's duty to give military and economic aid. In addition, the United States would fear the “domino effect” this was where communism/USSR would take over one country after another. Also Mao had won the Chinese Civil War by 1949 and China had become communism. This led the people to believe that America was weak and could stop communism. This would of lead to America having to prove themselves by not only pushing back communism, but getting close to

The Korea War was a civil war fought between North and South Korea over political views and the type of government that would run the country. North Korea, who was an ally of the Soviets wanted a communist government whereas South Korea, an ally of the U.S., wanted a democratic, capitalist government. These different ideals started the Korean war, although the start of the war is highly controversial among the two side. However when looking at other country’s involvement, it can definitely be seen that some were not justified. The U.N.’s involvement of the Korean War was justified however the U.S.’s involvement was not because the objective of U.N. fit, their involvement escalated the Cold War, and it was unnecessary in terms of force and overpowerment.

In March 2014, the Chinese government announced that it would receive and identify over 300 remains of Chinese soldiers who were killed in South Korea in the 1950s, adding another similarity between the two major belligerents of the Korean War---China and United States---in recovering their dead soldiers from hostile lands. The similarity deserves a comparison between these two countries’ practices in searching for and repatriating killed servicemen in the last several decades, which will be a section of my dissertation. The project for this semester would focus on the comparison in the first decade after the Korean War.

The Korean War took place between North and South Korea from 1950- 1955. Before the war the Korean peninsula was divided between the North who was under the control of the Soviet Union and South who was under control of the United States. North Korea had a communist government with the dictator Kim II Sung and South Korea had a capitalist government under the rule of Syngman Rhee. The 38th parallel was the boundary between the North and South states. North Korea’s government promoted insurgency in South Korea after the Soviet Union installed a communist government there.

The Second World War was coming to an end with the surrender of Germany in May 1945. At the Potsdam Conference, the leaders of the Allied states came together to determine the postwar order of Europe and took decisions on the strategies of the ongoing war in the Pacific. Despite the repeated Allies demand for the surrender of its forces, Japan maintained fighting against the Allies. This situation left no more choice to the United States other than using atomic bomb to break the Japanese resistance and provide its surrender. The destruction caused by the bombing led Japan to surrender and obey the Allies terms. The next Allied move was to discuss and make decisions about the future of the Japanese colonies in the East Asia. Korea was