The Korean Armistice, which was signed by U.S., China, and North Korea to end the Korean War, was an agreement to cease any hostilities and acts of the armed forces in the Korean Peninsula until a final peace treaty is achieved. Even though South Korea did not agree, the armistice was achieved and Korea was divided along the 38th parallel line, also called the DMZ. This armistice has been carried out between the two Koreas (even though there were some missile tests in North Korea) since the end of the Korean War. However, in the beginning of the 21st century, this armistice is on the verge of being violated. In 2006, North Korea first attempted its nuclear test which was resulted as a frizzle. The nuclear weapon became one of the detrimental factors that could endanger the armistice between the two Koreas.
Professor Bruce Cumings, an American historian of East Asia, is an advocate of a revisionist interpretation of the origin of the Korean War. He believes that America should be blamed for the division and the war in Korea. He argues that America’s deployment of nuclear weapons in South Korea threatened North Korea and forced them to develop their own nuclear weapons. Cumings contends that because of America’s deployment of nuclear weapons in South Korea, these destructive weapons were introduced in the Korean peninsula, which became a significant factor that can endanger the Korean Armistice. He criticizes America for deploying nuclear weapons in South Korea to intimidate and suppress North Korea. He blames America for concluding North Korea as their enemy just because they promoted Soviet Union’s communist politics. As a strong anti-communist country, America wanted to use Korean War as an epitome to convey that democracy triu...
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...the countries had stood up and stopped the war, and had convinced others to resolve the crisis through communication, then we would have prevented further death and might have achieved peace. Moreover, America would have never deployed nuclear weapons in South Korea and introduced nuclear threats in the Korean peninsula. If both North Korea and South Korea showed more consideration and understanding to each other, the two Koreas would enjoy a cordial and peaceful relationship.
Professor Cuming’s argument is right that America’s lack of understanding in North Korea and its deployment of nuclear weapon endangered the armistice. But, America does not hold full responsibility to the Korean crisis. Both the North Korea and South Korea should show more respect and understanding, and should work together to design a reconciliation policy to bring peaceful relationship.
The Korean War changed the face of American Cold War diplomacy forever. In the midst of all the political conflict and speculation worldwide, the nation had to choose between two proposed solutions, each one hoping to ensure that communism didn?t sweep across the globe and destroy American ideals of capitalism and democracy. General Douglas MacArthur takes the pro-active stance and says that, assuming it has the capability, the U.S. should attack communism everywhere. President Harry Truman, on the other hand, believed that containing the Soviet communists from Western Europe was the best and most important course of action, and that eliminating communism in Asia was not a priority.
A. No. After WW II, the US was responsible for South Korea and we owed it to the South Korean people to protect them. Further, if we had not protected South Korea, the Communist would have taken another step toward world domination.
The Korean War , although successful in preventing the spread of communism, was one of the first tests of communism in Asia. North Korea was strictly communist while South Korea was democratic. As usual, the United States supported democratic South Korea and the Truman Doctrine was applied to the Korean situation. The North Korean forces crossed the dividing line (38th parallel) and invaded South Korea. Thus, they provoked a war over communism. With the possibility of democratic South Korea falling to the communistic North, the U.S. stepped in and supplied aid mostly through troops. The U.S. then urged the United Nations to support South Korea and fight against the communist North. Once the North Korean forces were defeated at Inchon, they eventually got pushed back to the 38th parallel. However, against President Truman’s word, American General MacArthur decided to keep pushing back the North Korean forces by crossing the dividing line. This caused more trouble because the People’s Republic of China (Communist China) now sent troops to aid the communists against the pro...
President Truman strategy was a “negotiated settlement” “This would end the war, unfortunately North Korea would remain independent.” His tactics were diplomatic, whenever there would be a dispute he would talk it out not causing any trouble or alarming other countries there is a collision of interests.
Throughout the early 1950’s the Korean Peninsula was a location with much civil unrest and violence. For this reason, it is a miracle that the Korean Armistice Agreement was actually mutually agreed upon by North and South Korea. Even with the constant complications, and early opposition surrounding the Korean Armistice Agreement, the aid of Dwight D Eisenhower made this unrealistic attempt of peace a reality.
LeCain, Timothy J. "Lecture 4: Cold War Through Korea", Montana State University, Bozeman, 19 and 21 September 2006.
方玥雯[Fang Yue Wen] (2009). 北韓核武研發與東北亞安全：2002-2007. [The North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons and the Security in Northeast Asia: 2002-2007] in台灣[Taiwan]: 國立政治大學[National Cheungchi University] Retrieved 18 July, 2013 from http://nccuir.lib.nccu.edu.tw/handle/140.119/37029
It can be traced back that Thomas Hobbes first formulated the idea of deterrence. Advocates of deterrence theory “believe that people choose to obey or violate the law after calculating the gains and consequences of their actions” (Onwudiwe, Odo, Onyeozili). Essentially, as stated above, individuals will engage in crime when the benefit of the crime outweighs the cost of committing the crime (punishment). Personally, I believe that individuals that are part of the Operation Ceasefire end their “street days” because they are mostly scared of the harsh consequences that will follow if they continue to engage in a life of crime. Operation Ceasefire may align well with theories such as deterrence theory, but maybe not so much with others. When
Since the end of the Korean War, the United States has enacted policies to isolate and undermine the Kim Dynasty in North Korea. A key development took place in the past several decades where North Korea broke away from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop their own nuclear weapons and while lacking launch capabilities, they have been successful in their development. During this process, the United States took active policies to deter the North Koreans in pursuit of their goals. It is easy to assume that the United States took this stance in order to maintain a military edge in the region. But under closer examination, this neo-realist perspective does not explain why the United States pursued this policy. In reality, North Korea to this day does not pose a significant military threat, even with limited nuclear capabilities. A constructivist perspective is more able to explain US policy in this instance because it does not focus on sheer militaristic power. It takes into consideration the state's identities which drives their interests. The identities of the US and North Korea and the interactions between them drove both nations to the point of acquiring and deterring nuclear use.
...The only way for the U.S to get any type of peaceful outcome from North Korea is to push for a regime change. However, these tactics would definitely lead to war and in this case I believe that the cost of war definitely outweigh the benefits. Also you have to be mindful of the other actors involved who would have something to lose besides the two involved in war, such as China and South Korea. China would lose a trade partner and would have a large flow of refugees trying to enter their country (as well as the neighboring countries) and South Korea (a U.S ally) would lose lives (soldier and possibly civilians) and as well as the damage to property. The best choice the U.S has at the moment to avoid total destruction, losing lives, and the monetary cost would be to continue to peacefully bargain with North Korea and use as little force as possible to achieve peace.
The book addresses how the United States intervened around the world against communism. The United States focused closer to home, particularly in Latin America. This points to the imperialistic mentality of the United States during that era which I believe it continues today.
.... The two countries are reconnecting rail lines and sent a combined team to the Olympics. Even the United States is providing $500 million dollars a year in food to the starving North Koreans. The new South Korean President, Roh-Moo-hyun was elected on a peace platform and suggested US troops may be gone within ten years. Works Cited North Korean military and nuclear proliferation threat: evaluation of the U.S.-DPRK agreed framework: joint hearing before the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade and Asia and the Pacific of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, first session, February 23, 1995, Publisher: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs, Congressional Sales Office; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2340405.stm http://www.iht.com/articles/95391.html
Throughout history the United States has fought in many wars. Whether the fighting took place in Europe such as WWI or in our own land like the civil war. The one war many people seem to forget is the Korean War. The Korean War also known as the “forgotten war” was a war between North Korea, South Korea and the US together with the South Koreans to help. The Korean War was fought on sea, land, and in the air over and near the Korean peninsula (Brown, p.2). On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans rumbled across the thirty-eighth parallel. The invasion was successful because the south was not expecting or even prepare for a war. The invasion was so successful that they pushed the south to a tiny defensive area around Pusan. That’s when President Truman steps in real quick to halt the invasion of the North Koreans. Truman ordered American armed forces under General Douglas MacArthur to support South Korea. The Korean War was a clash between Communist forces and Free World (Brown, p.2).
The Korean War explicitly portrayed the atrocious battle between both the North and South side which gave the United Nations its military role for the first time, thus expanding the war from a domestic to an international scale. Sometimes called “The Forgotten War”, the Korean War was mainly overshadowed in historical terms by the conflicts that occurred before and after it, World War II and the Vietnam War. The Korean War had raged for years without a true resolution and after years of battles, even the compromise that was made was not a complete one. The current situation in North and South Korea is quite volatile. In order to apprehend the Korean War, one has to look at events that took place before the war, how the war was conducted and the aftermath of the War.
Moreover, according to the same theory, relations among states are derived primarily by their level of power, which constitutes basically their military and economic capability, and in pursuit of the national security states strive to attain as many resources as possible. The theoretical model explains thus why the nuclear issue has eventually resulted in identifying with a security one, meaning that North Korea main concern is to assure its survivor, its efforts are in the first place finalized at meeting that target and its only means of pursuing it consists of the posing of the nuclear threat. North Korea finds itself stuck in an economic and, to some extent, diplomatic isolation; even though the financial sanctions leading to the just mentioned critical conditions have been caused by the government inflexible, aggressive and anti-democratic behavior, the regime has no other choice than restate and strengthen its strict and, apparently, definitive positions to ensure its survivor, since at the moment any concession or move toward a more liberal approach breaking the countrys isolation could easily cause a collapse of the whole system.... ... middle of paper ...