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.
- At first the war was a defensive strategy to get communists out of South Korea, The underestimation of the North Korean troops led to a bad start of
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”.
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 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
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
90,000 communist troops of North Korea invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel on January 12, 1950. South Korean forces were caught completely off guard and were forced to
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 (1950-1953) began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. As Kim Il-sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea, the United States came to South Korea's aid. The war involved America, the Soviets (Russia), China, South Korea and North Korea.
North Korea first invaded South Korea in June 25, 1950. Soviets where supporting South Korea, and the United States where supporting South Korea. This battle was a fair fight with South Korea winning but something happened. According to document C, “In November of 1950, communist China enters the war and pushes the United States forces back into South Korea.” China only entered the war because they were communist, and wanted to turn South Korea communist.
June 25th, 1950 was the first military action taken during the Cold War. This was the start of the Korean War when close to 750,000 North Korean soldiers crossed the 38th parallel and entered South Korea. North Korea had been Communist and ruled by Ho Chi Minh while South Korea was not communist and were being ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem, who was a very harsh, cruel leader who killed many of his own people. However, the United States supported South Korea because they were against communist and was trying to practice their policy of containment. Americans were scared that the Korean War would begin to spread communism due to the Soviet Union’s involvement. A goal of this war for the United States was to keep the communists from North Korea north
The Korean War would be a radical step in fighting wars, as well as the feelings people had toward the war. All wars in American History fought before the Korean War were based on either national survival or the gain of territory. A strong conflict was created between the Soviet Union and the United States. From this conflict, tension was so strong that wars were fougt in the midst of this Cold War. The Korean War was the first America ever waged that was not fought for national survival, for territory, for manifest destiny or for hegemony. Korea was the first ideological war;" (Coppel, 505).
The Korean War is a forgotten conflict in American history in which this conflict was followed by World War II in 1950. The United States didn’t enter World War II until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. World War II has ended resulting in the United States defeating Nazi Germany, in support of allies of the United States in coordination with the United Nations. The citizens of America have peace and prosperity now that their G.I.s are home. However, there is still tension between the United States and the communist Soviet Union. During the mid 1940s countries that had conflicts with each other have now been resolved. North and South Korea, one country, only divided by its regions, do not like
The United States geared up for a war against communism. Not more than a day after Seoul fell, the US had officially entered the war and had ground troops committed, an action backed by the U.N. At the beginning of the war the U.S. soldiers had little combat experience and they were in a foreign land. This was the reason for the mass casualties sustained by the U.S. “US Army casualties from June 25 through July 31, 1950 totaled 6,003: 1,884 Killed In Action, 2,695 Wounded In Action, 523 Missing In Action and 901 reported captured. Of these more than half were from the 24th Infantry Division- 3,610.”( Evanhoe, Ed. "The Korean War." The Korean War. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.korean-war.com>.)
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.
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
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.