How did Sino-American tension prior to 1951 trigger Chinese intervention during the Korean War?

United States considered Communist's expansion more threatening in 1949, when Mao communists took control of China. Truman and Acheson inaugurated a plan called "Containment". Through this plan United States sent a message to all the newly liberated Nations and Europe that it will deploy all its resources in defending these Nations against expansionist Communist bloc. Its all-economic, Technical, Military assistances to such countries would be meant to block Communism. It considered Soviet expansion a fear for itself and its Allies.

The USSR believed in a state controlled economy which discouraged free enterprise, antithesis of America's economic system; the encouragement of free enterprise and the privatization of industry. Thus, the divergent economic structures of the superpowers painted different perspectives, which inevitably sowed the seeds for further conflict between the USA and USSR. The conferences between the USA and USSR up until 1945 showed the various disagreements between the USA and USSR. These conferences were held in Tehran in December 1945, Yalta in February 1945 and Potsdam in July 1945. The main source of conflict between USA and USSR was the future status of Europe.

United States involvement during the Cold War began with the Korean War. The War started on June 25, 1950 when troops from North Korea entered the 38th parallel, which was the boundary established after World War II between North Korea and South Korea. The North was supported by the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China while the South was later supported by the U.S and its allies. Their attack was one of the first military measures of the Cold War (“Korean War”). Once North Korea invaded South Korea, U.S. involvement took place to prevent further communist regime and their involvement aided in several military developments and also left lasting political and diplomatic affects during the Cold War.

With the Allies achieving victory in Europe and Japan, Korea, which had been occupied by Japan since 1910, would be placed under the temporary control of Russia and the United States. Korea was divided into two separate states at the thirty-eighth parallel with Russia holding the North and America holding the South (Uschan 36). As the relationship between Russia and America turned for the worse, leading to the Cold war, both attempted to gain as many allies as possible to support them (Bachrach 11). The American government felt it was their duty to stop the Soviet Union and issued the Truman Doctrine, which was a policy to fight Communism around the world (Uschan 27). Therefore the U.S involvement in the Korean War was justified as a way to prove that the U.S would not allow the Soviet Union to spread Communism without a fight.

Those countries that sided with the United States, which were mostly Western European nations, were known as the free world. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, occupied the Eastern European nations which came to be known as the Communist Bloc (Barrons). During this time, President Harry S. Truman wanted to contain Communism before it spread world-wide. He felt that this was the crucial point and Truman responded by issuing the Truman Doctrine in 1947. Truman feared that third world countries would accept Communism.

The alliance between the two leading communist powers devolved into public denunciations, accusations of ideological impurity, and ultimately military conflict (Tudda 30). After the death of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev began the process of Destalinization. This action aroused the suspicion of Mao Zedong, who questions the Soviet's ideological purity. The Soviet, similarly, questioned the PRC's government, "heral... ... middle of paper ... ...e of these three things could result from the US withdrawal: Japan could re-arm, Japan could come into the Chinese orbit, or Japan could be under the Soviet orbit (MacMillan 233). Chou backed down.

In January of 1950, the Viet Minh gained recognition by the governments of the USSR and China, who supplied weapons and places to train (Chant 25). Because the two Communist superpowers recognized the Viet Minh, the Vietnam war became to the U.S. a struggle between capitalism and communism, especially since the Viet Minh were openly communist themselves. By aiding the French, the U.S. thought they were helping their free-trade ally France fight communism, the Communist Party was very strong in France (Goldstein 3). The U.S. feared that Vietnam would fall to communism, and set-off the “domino effect'; for other communist satellites in Indochina (McNamara 76). With weapons and training from Russia and China, the Viet Minh forced France to request help from the U.S.

The Soviet Union took advantage of Eastern Europe's situation in the aftermath of World War II. It began to take control of many of these countries and install Communist governments. The Soviet Union wanted to use these countries as buffer zones to protect their sovereignty in the future. Two of the countries that they were attempting to take over were Turkey and Greece. Early in 1947 the British said they could no longer support the Greek government.

I intent to outline the causes and contributing factors that eventually led to the Korean War. An underlying factor in this conflict is the two very contrasting political systems in North Korea, The communist North led by Kim Il sung had links with fellow Communist nations such as China and the USSR, In April 1950, Kim Il Sung actually visited Moscow and by May and June Military supplies were being sent to north Korea including 150 T-34 Tanks. Similarly China did not want to have an American influenced democratic country bordering its frontiers so they too were always likely to support Kim Il Sung and the North Koreans. In The South Syngman Rhee's supposedly democratic government was likely to gain American support due to the fear of the spread of communism sometimes referred to as the "Domino Theory" However just ... ... middle of paper ... ... to include Korea as an area that would have US influence in the event of an invasion. Stalin and the USSR were absent from the UN Security Council in an act of protest against the refusal to allow Communist China into the UN.

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