Why Did the Us Become Militarily Involved in Korea?

A year prior before the Battle of Osan in 1949 the leader of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, promised the “War of Liberation” would be welcomed by South Koreans. In addition, tensions were already boiling as the cold war was beginning. It should have come to no surprise that the

In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak. Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had acted ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores. (Truman, 1955)

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

On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea (doc c). Communist North Korea wants to reunify with South Korea. The United States pledged to help them because they didn’t want communism to spread. General Douglas MacArthur staged a risky yet successful counter-attack at the port of Inchon. North Korean forces are routed and pushed back all the way to the Yalu River, the border of North Korea and China communist. (Doc C). Communist China than enters the war and in November of 1950. The war lasts many years and at the end of the war, there were more than 2 million deaths. This is an example of containment because Soviet power and communism were kept from

On June 25th, 1950, the crossing of some seventy-five thousand soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army of Korea infiltrated the borders of the 38th parallel. This invasion of the 38th parallel boundary that separated the Soviet backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Pro-Western Republic of Korea was the first military invasion of the Cold War. Many feared that this was the first step in spreading communism throughout the globe. This reason alone, nonintervention was not considered an option in fighting to contain communist expansion. This fear was made apparent as American

After the climatic end of WWII, countries across the world were at each other throats, the main two standouts being the Soviet Union in Russia, and the United States. Onsetting the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had negotiations about unifying Korea, which ultimately failed leading to North Korea being controlled by the communist Soviet Union, and South Korea being a democratic republic being formed by United Nations’ (UN) supervised elections. Years after the division of Korea, North Korea had begun to made advances on South Korea’s border which was seen as a North Korean invasion by the UN, which had the UN and the US being a main force to stop the impending invasion, later having 16 other nations come into the Korean War,

One could argue that Truman's decision to enter the Korean war was simply a way to appease his political opponents who accused him of being 'weak on communism', but this of course is a very limited reason since it does not account for various other events and possible reasons. 6The historian Stephen Hugh Lee argues that the 'war was not about two Koreas but about the US power and prestige'; this could be a possible reason, rather than America's desire to defend democracy. 1949 saw the Soviet Union test its first atomic bomb which brought the US atomic monopoly to an end and proved the USSR were becoming almost technologically superior to the US which perhaps made them feel threatened that their position as the world's leading superpower was under attack. This feeling may have meant there was a deep animosity within the US towards the Soviet Union, thus they may have felt if they intervened in the Korean War, and successfully won their image as a successful unbeatable superpower would be enhanced. One could argue this is a more worthy argument since Korea was not of a critical interest to them.

America's Involvement in the Korean War The USA emerged from WWII as the dominant Western, democratic superpower. She quickly established for herself a role as world policeman, and defender of the "free world". When, on June 25th 1950, Communist North Korean forces invaded the South of the country, the USAwas quick to step in, and with UN support and approval, sent in military forces to restore the balance. However, it is questionable whether moral principles were the only reason for America's involvement in the Korean War, or whether perhaps the Truman administration had other validation for such a huge scale military campaign.

Soviet troops made their way into the depths of South Korea, nearly making it to their southern coast. Around that time, President Truman adopted a foreign policy called ‘containment’. It’s main goal was to support and help weak countries fight off communism, especially against the Soviet Union. Truman assumed that the Soviet Union would be similar to their communistic territorial aspirations like Mussolini, Hitler, and the Japanese. South Korea came to the United States for aid in their fight against the Soviets. Not only did they ask the United States for a helping hand, but they also asked the United Nations, totaling their supporting countries to 15. With 15 nations behind them and willing to fight against the most deadly enemy, communism, South Korea became unimaginably stronger and larger than North Korea. The leader once the South was on the offensive was the United States’ Pacific War hero General Douglas MacArthur. Although they had thousands and quite possibly millions of soldiers behind them, MacArthur waited. After North Korea controlled nearly all of South Korea, MacArthur activated a surprise attack. The UN (the 15 countries) kept pushing the Soviets back with no pause and nearly to the Chinese border. Although the UN had made a huge advancement, they would soon be pushed right back to where they started when Chinese forces felt threatened by their troops close to their border in 1950. The Chinese ordered a fleet to attack and drive out the UN forces. After two years of fighting back and trying to attack the Soviet troops, or communism, and the Chinese soon ended. The UN had taken South Korea back and the Soviets still had the North. If not for the containment policy, the Korean War would have never taken place, letting 4,000,000 people live, but more could have died if Soviet Forces stayed in South Korea and would have forced them

It all started with a split on the Korean Peninsula. Southern Korea was about to be woken up for a crude awakening. June 25, 1950 is the start of it all, Korea was about to go under a civil war. The 38th Parallel was the division line because it was the 38th degree north line of latitude. As soon as the United States of America had been helpful in wars in the past, in many other wars so they helped the Southern part of Korea become free of the communism that the North was pushing towards them. Many Americans have never heard of the Korean War or briefly know of it, why is that? Well that is because many Americans have forgotten about this war because this was not one that the United States was fighting for ourselves and instead for the South Koreans. The Forgotten War is the nickname for the Korean War, but here is where the importance of the United States that helped in the Korean War is going to shine through. The veterans that had fought in this war had fought for South Korea’s need to not be controlled by communism and be controlled by Dictator Kim Il-sung. The involvement in the Korean War was to helped protect South Korea because the United States helped South Korea gain their own independence from North Korea, to have South Korea not be controlled by communism like how North Korea wanted them to be ruled with, and the United States helped in the after war era with the tensions high between both North and South Korea.

The war began on June 25th, 1950 and ended on July 27th 1953. The USA went to war in Korea for three main reasons, the first being the Domino theory, second reason was to demoralize communism and lastly was because Truman realised the USA was in a competition for world domination with the USSR and by supporting South Korea, America was able to fight communism without directly attacking Russia (Johndclare). The main reason Russia went to war was because Stalin wanted communism to grow without having to create a ‘hot war’. In 1949, Kim II Sung visited Stalin and convinced him that he could conquer South Korea; he then went to Mao Tse Tung (leader of China) to get support of the invasion on South Korea. In 1950, Syngman Rhee (leader of South Korea) boasted about attacking North Korea (was the trigger), so with the support of the Soviets and china, North Korea launched an invasion in the South to remove those who supported Rhee’s views of democracy, which is when the war officially began. President Truman feared that the North Korean strike was the first step in an ’international communist takeover’ led by the Soviet Union so he called for military force to contain communism (study.com 2003-2015). Therefore, with the help from the United Nations, the Americans moved to start peace and remove the communist

This paper will examine the leadership of North Korea during the Korean War and the reasons why for the invasion of South Korea by North Korea in 1950s. The sources presented in this paper show that North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung invaded South Korea because he envisioned himself as a leader who would unify the Korean people and his distrust in American imperialism. This is not the only theory that explains why North Korean leaders invaded the South, many scholars like Geoffrey Warner, believe the invasion was an attempt just to spread communism with Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin and Chinese leader Mao Zedong as a post-Cold War act . Although Warner maybe right, his argument is incomplete because he lacks to identify the importance

The United Nations was founded upon the basic principles philosophy of collective security—the concept that any attack against any other country is equivalent to an attack on all other countries, whose task is to defend that country. Prior to the years following World War II, Korea and Vietnam were controlled by foreign powers, Japan in Korea and France in Vietnam; and once these major powers withdrew both Korea and Vietnam faced the involvement of an impending and neighboring Soviet Union. These two major international conflicts during the twentieth century can be compared and contrasted on four points: the background of the wars, the situation of United States in each war, and the situation during and results each war. Though separated by a decade and located in different areas, the Korean and Vietnam Wars were similar in that they were both embodiments of the crisis in which Free World nations acted on their beliefs of collective security against the Communist nations. (Source 1)

However, things didn’t go as the Koreans hoped. The United States and the Soviet Union had other plans for Korea. The Soviets wanted to make Korea into a communist country; the United States however wouldn’t allow it seeing as they wanted to enforce the establishment of democracy. This is because the united states believed in “containment,” “a foreign policy used to prevent the spread of communism”.

When North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, a young UN was faced with the first real test of its commitment to collective security. An emergency session of the Security Council sans the Soviet Union passed a resolution drafted by the American delegation, which asserted that North Korea has violated the United Nations charter by invading South Korea and authorized the use of force. A coalition force under American leadership and the banner of the United Nations was mobilized. It successively repelled the assault, which had nearly destroyed the fledgling South Korean republic and pushed back North Korean forces to their original borders. The American-dominated force continued its advance in attempt to destroy the North Korean state (Stoessinger, 69-85). This new chapter of the war was in violation of the UN charter. Article 2 of the United Nations charter prohibits both it and its member states from the “use of force