Cold War Analysis

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Recommended: Chinese influence on Korea

Robert Jervis’s article The Impact of the Korean War on the Cold War asserts that the Korean war resolved the incoherence that characterized U.S. foreign policy and its defense efforts between 1946-1950. This established important new lines of policy. In addition, if the Korean War did not happen, then other events could not have happened. Moreover, the author analyzes these theories to outline the cold war and its deeply rooted factors that contribute to a bipolar American economic system (563-564). Jervis analyses U.S. policy during the cold war that included conflict with the USSR, a perceived threat of war, high defense budgets, large armies in Europe, perceptions of the Sino-Soviet bloc, perceptions that limited wars that could serve as a danger, and anti-communist commitments globally (564). According to Jervis, the elements that were associated with the cold war were high defense budgets, a militarized NATO, the perceptions of a Sino-Soviet bloc, and perceptions that the world as interconnected and Communist victories that would threaten American interests (584).

Bruce Cummings article called Japan and the Asian Periphery states that the development of the cold war involves reconstruction and integration of Japan into an American left orbit and rapid economic growth in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore (216). The author studies these developments through a historical and geographical context. The author states that East Asia is the center of world economic dynamism (216). Cummings also mentions that the concept of a product cycle helps historians understand changes and mobility among the nations (218). Cummings concludes that a hegemonic system is essential for the functioning of this regional economy ...

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...so, he believes that the syngman Rhee and Kim II Sung used the circumstances of war to help strengthen their own power (6). CHEN, Gardner, and Weathersby believe that the conflicts that existed among the Korean’s before Japan’s defeat were influenced by the decisions of the great powers (5). Weatherby and CHEN demonstrate the limits of Kim’s influences with his patron (6). In Weatherby’s article, The Soviet Role in the Korean War, he discusses Stalin’s decision in regards to invading South Korea. The key to this decision was whether it would prompt Americans to intervene in the war (68). CHEN’s article, In the Name of Revolution, discusses Beijing’s decision on intervening, which resulted in a response to the threat to China’s security interests that were caused by the U.S. /U.N. forces aggressive advance toward the Yalu River in the wake of Indochon landing (93).

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