The Korean war is a conflict that emerged in June 1950 and ended in July 1953 during which the United States were directly fighting Korean and Chinese communist forces for the first time. It can be considered as a clear illustration of the tensions present during the Cold War. The ideological division, between communism and capitalism, that dictated the international events since the end of the Second World War was clearly part of the outbreak of the conflict. To what extent was the outbreak of the Korean War the Soviet Union’s responsibility? In order to answer this question, this paper shall in first assess the evidence that argues in favor of the important impact of Soviet influence on the outbreak of the Korean crisis, and secondly argue that other factors contributed importantly to the origins of the war between North and South Korea.
It is a common assumption today that the outbreak of the Korean war was tied to the actions of the Soviet Union. Firstly, it is necessary to clarify the nature of Korea as a vital strategic area for the Soviet Union for more than one reason. Indeed, the peninsula provided a perfect shield for Soviet concessions in Manchuria, a strategic area to influence events in China and prevent Japan from resurging. Moreover, it was crucial for the Soviets to exerce control on the area in order to avoid it becoming a base for attack against them. It is clear that it was beneficial for the Soviets to exerce an influence over Korea, and more particularly over the Korean Communist Party. Indeed, when the Soviet troops entered the northern part of the peninsula on the 12th of August 1945 they made sure to place Korean Communists in power and established a government under their control. This provides evide...
... middle of paper ...
... Soviet Union during the Cold War. We have seen that Moscow played an important role in the process leading up to the start of the war, although it cannot be the only blamed, as other considerations come into the picture, such as internal factors but more importantly the impact of the United States. It is clear that neither Moscow neither Washington were willing to compromise in order to guarantee a unified political situation in Korea. Indeed, the country could have been unified many times between 1945 and 1948 but the end of it’s division would have resulted in the ennemy dominating it. Furthermore, the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union each provided the means to fight the war proves that the conflict between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic Republic of Korea was in fact the representation of the conflict between the two antagonist powers.
The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a...
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had started since the early conference in World War Two and increased further at the War’s conclusion. These tensions developed further during the Berlin Blockade and Airlift during 1948 and 1949, China becoming communist in 1949, and the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. The events, have been labelled as the early crisis of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and greatly increased tensions between the two superpowers and further led the countries into a Cold War.
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.
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...
The tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were always slightly apparent, but they drastically worsened in 1950 when Stalin gave permission to Kim Il Sung to invade South Korea. The United States had been backing South Korea and the USSR were backing North Korea. This caused the outburst of the Korean War, a war that continues on to this
Tucker, Spencer C., Jinwung Kim, Michael R, Nichols, Paul G. Pierpaoli, Priscilla Roberst, and Norman R. Zehr, eds. Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Vol. I. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Print. 89-90.
The political ideologies of the USA and of the Soviet Union were of profound significance in the development of the Cold War. Problems between the two power nations arose when America refused to accept the Soviet Union in the international community. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was filled with mutual distrust and hostility. Many historians believe the cold war was “inevitable” between a democratic, capitalist nation and a communist Union. Winston Churchill called the cold war “The balance of terror” (1). Cold war anxieties began to build up with America and the Soviet Union advancing in the arms race for world dominance and supremacy. America feared the spread of Communism
During the late 1940's and the 1950's, the Cold War became increasingly tense. Each side accused the other of wanting to rule the world (Walker 388). Each side believed its political and economic systems were better than the other's. Each strengthened its armed forces. Both sides viewed the Cold War as a dispute between right and wron...
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.
War. Humans have thrived from war for as long as we can remember. The United States has been fighting wars ever since we found the new country in North America that we now call the United States. We fought against our selves for the freedom of others. We fought in several world wars. We have always fought. But in the late 1940's “war” changed forever. This was well known as the Cold War. Why was this so different? “ The world had never experienced anything like it. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was a half century of military build-up, political maneuvering for international support (Hanes, Sharon M., and Richard C. Hanes).” This means that the world has always seen war as either hand to hand combat or gun to gun combat. With soldiers and foot patrols, but this was basically an arms race. Who was to blame for this struggle? I believe that the Cold War was caused by both nations.
The United States reached the verdict of intervening with Korea from the uprising and constant tension of Cold War politics. The US joined on behalf of South Korea with fearful President Truman warning that if they did not help Korea, other nations would be captured by communist rule (he noted the Soviet Union) and the world would ultimately be threatened by a communist takeover. Communism was the main issue and cause of the international conflict, known as a “limited war”, fighting for limited objectives. North Korea’s communist troops invaded South Korea which was considered the first military action to initiate the Cold War. However the conflict between the nations was not necessarily that of what one land had, it was focused more on being able to call it territory under a certain ruling. The overwhelming risk of communism conquering countries sent nations to help each other, showing the strength and trust in allied nations and what they can achieve with each other’s help.
Earlier, the Japanese annexed Korea as a protectorate but they invaded the land more than they protected it. Japanese rule was so harsh which made the Koreans wish that the Japanese would be defeated in World War 2 so that their nation could be back to normal. Also during this time, the 38th parallel was a temporary dividing line in Korea that would later become permanent. Then, the soviet soldiers accepted the surrender of the Japanese troops north of the 38th parallel and the Americans did the same for the south of th...
This book is pieced together in two different efforts, one which is to understand the latter history of the post-1945 era with its political liberalization and rapid industrialization period, while at the same time centering its entire text on the question of Korean nationalism and the struggle against the countless foreign invasions Korea had to face. The purpose of this book was composed to provide detailed treatment of how modern Korea has developed with the converged efforts of top eastern and western scholars who wanted to construct a fair overview of Korea's complicated history. Also, the writers wanted to create an updated version of Korea's history by covering the contemporary arena up to the 1990's. The ...
North and South Korea were not very different politically or culturally from one another before mid 1940’s (White, Bradshaw, Dymond, Chacko, Scheidt, 2014, p. 125). However, North Korea started the Korean War when they invaded South Korea in 1950. These two countries, which were once the same, are vastly different in the areas of politics and culture The Koreas’ continue to disagree and not be at peace with each other since the Korean War despite small steps toward progress over the
Politically, the Soviet Union considered the Korean peninsula as a springboard to attack Russia and asserted that the Korean government should be “loyal” to the Soviet Union, this was where the United States stepped in, realizing that they were in a competition for world domination with the USSR and the Korean War was just simply an excuse to trigger this race.... ... middle of paper ... ... The current situation regarding both nations remains under pressure; however, no major threats have been made by the North that would be of great peril to the South. The Korean War, initiated by the heated tension between the ideological and political differences of North and South Korea, was a battle that had no real outcome.