The Korean War: A Government Statement Analysis

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.

The Korean War (1950-1953) emerged after World War II where the world powers at the time, the United States and Allies-UN Forces and the Soviet Union had conflicting visions for what the postwar world should look like. The shaping of the Korean Peninsula was first on their agendas. The Soviet Union vision was to unify Korea through the expansion of Communism, which made sense strategically with Communist China and the Soviet Union in Korea’s backyard. However, the unification of Korea would only happen via civil war. North Korea would have to invade South Korea and inflict their will by means of armed force. Conversely, as one can imagine the UN-Forces vision was to prevent the expansion of Communism and unify North and South Korea in a single country protected by the United States. (Alexander, 2013) Over a period of three years, the conflicting world powers would duke it out. North Korea would strike first by engaging in civil war and South Korea with UN Forces assistance would help stop their onslaught. Next, uninformed the UN Forces would head into North Korea on the offensive, only to be met by prepared communist forces, which leads to retreat of the UN Forces and ultimately a stalemate. (Hammel, 1981)

Korea is separated into two different countries, North and South Korea. The United States was allied with South Korea or the Republic of South Korea. United States officials believed the war was against communism, which is what the North Koreans believed in. Because of this, China became allies with North Korea, the People’s Republic of Korea, and the U.S.S.R. North Korea was led by Kim II-Sung. The Chinese and U.S.S.R. sent supplies to North Korea as the invaded South Korea at the 38th Parallel. There was a United Nations meeting held to decided if the army of the United Nations should get involved. The U.S.S.R. boycotted the meeting.General Douglas MacArthur had his greatest tactical maneuver, the Inchon Landing, in South Korea on September 15, 1950. From there American troops pushed toward North Korea. When they reached the Yalu River China warned the troops to stop the advance. As the troops reached the Fusan and Chosin reservoirs they were met by 300,000 Chinese troops. MacArthur wanted to invade China after this. He called for blockades on Chinese ports, an expansion of war against China due to communism, use of Chiang Kai-Shek’s nationalist forces, and selective atomic bomb strikes against China. President Truman disagreed and fired Douglas MacArthur after this. The war never came to an official end. There was an Armistice which ended the fighting. North and South Korea are still separate countries and the 38th Parallel is a heavily guarded area called the DMZ. (World War II

The United States military involvement significantly affected the conflict between North and South Korea during the Korean War and is still affecting this conflict today by means of overall war efforts and nuclear weapons. During the events leading towards the Korean War, the United States had one of the strongest armed forces. The most positive and significant result of the United States military involvement was the signing of the 1953 armistice that ended the

In terms of America’s opinions at the time of the conflict between the United States and North Korea, historians such as Bruce Cumings found the conflict tiresome and pointless. According to his article, “Time to End the Korean War,” published in 1997, Cumings asks, “Why are we still in Korea, and still subject to the possibility of a war that could kill tens of thousands of Americans and perhaps millions of Koreans? (78, para. 1.).” His frustration is understandable. The United States and North Korea have been in conflict for over ten years at the time the article was published. According to Cumings, he believes that North Korea is none of our business. He says, “If North Korea is the worst place in the world, as some think, what difference

KOREA – on June 25,1950 the Korean war began when 75,000 north Korean soldiers crossed the 38th parallel. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July American troops entered the war on Koreas behalf. This was not a war on North Korea for the US, rather a war on international communism. The North Korean invasion was a surprise to most officials, they feared this wasn’t a small border skirmish but actually the baby step to a communist campaign to take over the world. This reason in itself was a deciding factory of why Americans thought nonintervention was not an option.

Korean War – 35th June 1950 – 27th July 1953. A war between North and South Korea and the communist and anti-communist forces. The war caused a lot of casualties, and eventually reached a stalemate, followed by an armistice. This war resulted in the rapid economic and industrial development of South Korea, while North Korea suffered under harsh communist rule (And still does to this day.) The United States had a lot of casualties, but racial integration efforts had also begun in the

didn’t want communism to spread through Korea so they had to do something about it. They got involved in the war and sacrificed many americans in order to stop the spread of communism. Some people thought it would’ve been best to just leave it that way and that the U.S. minds their own business. The reason it was such a big problem it was because communism was going to and meant to take over the world, it was also said that communism would be the world’s system and at the very last be the one to lead to the world’s extinction. So this wasn’t just one ineffective system, it was the living embodiment of the perversion and destruction of all that was America. So it meant no more USA forever. Well the good reason the U.S. got involved was because North Korea was full of communists and that attracted them to get involve in the war and fight along the south with the UN. They would obviously not let communism to diffuse through Korea and the whole world. The war was started after WW2 when the U.S. threw a bomb to Japan and was the main cause of that war, then after that in 1950 The Korean Cold War took place and ended in 1953. In 1953 and the same day the war ended they signed the Armistice treaty that provoked the war to officially end and the end of suffering from the poor suffering Koreans that died and killed in action. Also there was suppose to be a reconciliation for the two countries to

The 1945 allied victory in World War II resulted in the division of Korea, leaving a Communist North, and an Anti-Communist South. On June 25, 1950, South Korea was unexpectedly invaded by communist North Korea in an attempt to unify their country known as the start of the Korean War. After only a short amount of two days, America took matters into their own hands and took to South Korea’s forces defense Although many still debate the ultimate causes of the Korean War, America’s different beliefs and fear of communism greatly contributed to this horrific War.

The Korean War went through some tough times. There was a total of 5 million dead, wounded, or missing, and over half of them civilians. There were over six million soldiers, sailors and airmen fought on both sides in the Korean War, and more than three million of these were communists from North Korea, China, and Russia. Opposing them were almost three million from South Korea and from twenty-one United Nations (UN) countries including Australia. The Korean War was a conflict between Communist and Noncommunist forces in Korea from June twenty-fifth, nineteen-fifty, to July twenty-seventh, nineteen-fifty-three. The Korean War began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the thirty-eighth Parallel to invade the non-Communist South

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel which is the boundary between the Soviet Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans.

Korean war affected almost millions of people in Korea. Other people’s inhumane actions due to their greed and manipulating their power caused unjustified deaths. Those deaths odes not worth any a penny they gained after the war. A person’s life cannot be paid with money. Those people are willing to kill because of land and resources. The Korean War not only affected both South and North Korea but it also affected many countries all over the world, especially, America. Since America played a big role in Korean War because they are supporting South Korea from the invasion of USSR with North Korea. america is affected economically, agriculturally and some government policies are changed after the war. The changes America changed after the war still left a footprint on America today. The policies affects America’s relationship with South and North Korea. In order to understand the true significance of the Korean War played in American history, one must explore the cause that leads up to the Korean War and what is the war about , the effect of Korean War in 1950s, and how it affects America today.

The Korean War began on 25 June 1950 and ceased fire after the truce between North and South Korea in 27 July 1953. Since the truce was the momentary cease-fire, the war is actually on-going status between the North Korea and the South Korea. This war certainly became a tragic to both Korean people and other people who were involved. A lot of people were dead, wounded, missing and captured, and some other social and political issues were raised. Various conflicting interests were prevalent in the international relations and no one had the same thoughts with others. For example, United States participated to protect the democracy in the eastern Asia and to protect the American soil from possible threats, the communism.

Over 55,000 American troops were killed in the conflict. Korea was the first limited war, one in which the U.S.A aim was not the complete and total defeat of the enemy, but rather the goal of protecting South Korea. For the U.S. government, such an approach was the only option in order to avoid a third world war and to keep from stretching finite American resources too thinly around the globe. It proved to be a frustrating and hard experience for the American people, who were used to the kind of total victory that had been achieved in World War II. The public found the concept of limited war difficult to understand or support and the Korean War never really gained popular

The Korean war started on June 21, 1950. When 75,000 North Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th Parallel, which is the border between the People’s Army to the north and the Pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. The war prior to the Korean War, World War 2, in which the Japanese Empire had control over all Korea. ¨China treated the Kingdom of Korea as a tributary state for centuries and fought Japan for influence on the Korean Peninsula in 1894–95¨ ("The Korean War, 1950–1953 - 1945–1952 - Milestones - Office of the Historian." The Korean War, 1950–1953 - 1945–1952 - Milestones - Office of the Historian. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.) When World War 2 ended the Japanese Empire fell and lost control of Korea. TheKorea had no native government to fall back on, so the country fell into war dragging many more countries into it.