Introduction
A war started on the Korean Peninsula when the North Koreans crossed south of the 38th Parallel border. The Republic of Korea, with the help of the United Nations and the United States of America, fought in a bloody war against the North Koreans and the Chinese Communist Forces. The war raged on for almost three years, June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. During the Korean War, there were many meetings between the two fighting forces to talk about a cease-fire. The talks started in the city of Kaesong but moved to the neutral village of Panmunjom. Today Panmunjom is home to the neutral area inside the Demilitarized Zone called the Joint Security Area where the Armistice was signed. The Korean War ended in an Armistice on July 23, 1953 at 10:00 am inside the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom, by the United Nations Command and representatives of the communist forces. The Korean Peninsula today is still technically at war but because of the Armistice signed on that day it stopped a bloody war and death of many civilians and soldiers.
History
After the end of World War II against the Imperial Japanese Forces, Korea separated at the 38th Parallel between Russians and American, into two different governments. North of the 38th Parallel was given to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the South of the 38th Parallel was given to the Democratic Americans to spread their ideology of government. Of course, after World War II, it was the start of the Cold War and Korea was an example. Two of the world’s new super powers separated the country of Korea. The North named its country the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and its first premier was Kim Il Sung. The South named its portion of the country the Republic of Korea an...
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... end of the war, there were 33,739 United States of American troop deaths. South Korea had 217,000 military troops and 1,000,000 civilians dead. [5]
The lessoned learned from this all these deaths are that the war could have ended earlier if we did not ignore the warnings from China there would be less death and suffering. With China, entering the fight with the North Korean changed the war to more of a challenge. The war would have ended sooner and the dead could be alive today to see another day
Works Cited
Alexander, Bevin, Korea The First War We Lost, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1986.
Cowley, Robert, The Cold War, New York, Random House. 2005.
Fehrenbach, T.R, This Kind Of War, Washington D.C., Brassey’s, 1963.
Hastings, Max, The Korean War, New York, Touchstone, 1987.
Leckie, Robert, Conflict The History Of The Korea War, New York, G.P. Putmam’s Sons, 1962.
The Korean War began when the North Koreans invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950. The North Korean forces fought their way to Pusan at the southern edge of the Korean peninsula. With the North Koreans controlling most of the peninsula, General Douglas MacArthur landed an amphibious assault at Inchon on September 15, 1950 and wrested control of South Korea from North Korean forces. After MacArthur’s forces marched to the northern border of Korea, China entered the war. After a major Chinese attack and a major American counter attack, the front of the war had a new stage, the Chosin Reservoir (Henretta, Edwards & Self 768).
Pearson, Lester B. "Documents on the Korean Crisis." University of Manitoba. January 24, 1951. http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/korea/Documents_on_the_Korean_Crisis1.shtml (accessed December 18, 2011).
Korea had been united as one country for many years. Japan took control of Korea and made it part of its empire. After World War II, Japan was defeated and its empire fell. Korea was left without a leader or a system of government. This provoked the United States troops to occupy the southern half and Soviet troops to occupy the northern half. The United States and its allies favored democratic government, while the Soviet Union and China favored a communist system of government.
For nearly a century before World War II, Korea had been ruled by the Japanese or the Chinese. When Japan’s empire has fallen after the war, the Soviet Union and the United States occupied Korea, The Soviet Union occupied the northern half of Korea and installed a communist government. Meanwhile the United States occupied the southern part of 38th parallel (an invisible line that divides Korea into almost equal halves). While the Soviet Union wanted all Korean to be united under single communist government, the Americans wanted free election for the south. By 1950, Kim IL Sung, leader of North Korean, had laid claim to the entire country and desired to invade South Korea. However The Soviet Union did not want to clash directly with the United States. Instead they supported and supplied North Korea with weapons and armories to have them fight for the Union in a “proxy war”. The United Nations decided to respond to the North Korean invasion. Led by the United States, the UN Security Council invited 21 UN members to send troops to Korea under the command of General Douglas MacArthur to restore the southern part of Korea.
China became involved in the fight and pushed the UN troops to where they started. The war was a back and forth battle. The UN troops counterattacked and pushed the Chinese troops to the 38th parallel, where the war originally started. The last 18 months of the war was spent unsettled. There were random attacks against each other. After about three years, a truce was created by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Even though this war happened across the world, we were majorly impacted by it. The Korean War cost America approximately fifty billion dollars, thirty-three thousand American lives, and one hundred thousand soldiers permanently wounded and thousands of people missing in action. The amount of American deaths can only be estimated still today. All those lives are irreplaceable. People came back as war heroes and remained that way. Also, America had another ally we knew we could count on: South Korea. America now was involved in South Korean politics. They aided the country in voting for their military and government until the 1980s. Americans believed it was their job to “Americanize” Koreans. American companies started to build factories in Korea and paid the workers lower wages. America was no longer viewed as soft on
The Korean War proved to be fairly heated for numerous reasons, including the firing of General Douglas MacArthur. When President Truman fired the general because he defied the President’s orders to make no public statements, the White House was flooded with calls and letters in support of General MacArthur. The Korean War was also highly debated and unpopular because of the way it ended. The war itself had been brutal, with thousands losing their lives, and when it ended, things pretty much stayed the same as Korea remained divided and communism had yet to invade South Korea. The Korean War reshaped the Cold War period, transformed the foreign policy of the government, and militarized a war that had no actual fighting
The Korean War was a turning point in history. Sandwiched between the global scale of World War 2 and the nightmare of Vietnam, Korea is sometimes referred to as the “Forgotten War”. Korea might not be in the forefront of the public’s psyche, but it set in motion events that changed the world. Without Korea, history would have been very different. Korea forced the United States to develop coherent policy to deal with the perceived communist threat. The new policy established shaped the course of the Cold War, international politics, and the world today.
The Korean War was a difficult time for many people. Americans were worried that the soldiers wouldn't come back, and some of them never did. Even though it was called the Korean War, North and South Korea were not the only countries involved in the war. Countries from all over the world either sent troops or supplies to both North and South Korea. Although the Korean war only lasted three years, its four stages of the war were harsh and took many lives, and is now often called the Forgotten War.
The war was well fought by both the North and South, and ended in 1865, with the
The war left marks on the Korean peninsula and the world around it. Even though the Korean War was fairly short, no one knows the exact numbers of deaths. According to the history channel website, “nearly 5 million people died and almost 40,000 Americans died in action along with more than 100,000 wounded.” (Korean War, p.1) Every war is going to have its cost. The total approximation fot the United States involvement in Korea was about 67 billion (Calore, p.2).
Korea ended its isolation in the mid-nineteenth-century age of imperialism, in 1882, as a defensive measure against its neighbors, signing “Treaty of Amity and Commerce” with the United States to provide “good offices if there is an external threat”. As a result of the rising Soviet-American rivalry at the end of World War II, the Korean peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel. The divide ran along the 38th parallel which is part of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) separating North and South Korea . The Soviet Union supported North Korea with Communist-control and the United States supported South Korea in democracy. In 1953 the Armistice Agreement ended three years of fighting (starting June 25, 1950) that killed over a milli...
John F. Kennedy once noted: “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” Rising tensions between two opposing forces can lead to intense conflict. Provided that China and Japan have struggles of their own, North and South Korea have had struggles since 1950 (“Korean War”, 1) and continue to hold their conflicts, which seem to be increasing. South Korea, a democratic nation, is the exact opposite of North Korea; a hyper-nationalist nation - seemingly creating a “personality clash” between the two. Much like World War I, there may be, sometime in the future, a full blown war because of North Korea’s hyper-nationalist secretive rule. North Korea’s isolation, internal struggles, and Kim Jong-un’s intention of proving leadership will increase tensions between North and South Korea and may result in an outbreak of war in the near future.
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 regarding 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.
...hey agreed to make a demilitarized zone on the 38th parallel line or between north and South Korea. The United States promised to restore south Korea and help build up a larger military force. The United States and china try working together to solve the Korea issue, leaders from china, North Korea and the United States meet at Panmunjom, it is known as the peace village and is located on the 38th parallel, no decisions are made because of anger and accusations from both sides. A new conference is made, this time it is meant to be kept peaceful. The Geneva conference began between just the United States and china to unify Korea, however no agreement was made so Korea remains divided today. Truman’s goal of making Korea entirely communist free was never reached. The Korean War was significant in the cold war, because it led to an even larger communist war in Vietnam.
For over a hundred years, Korea has always been invaded, influenced and fought over by its large neighbors, but Korea fought back as one united nation. It can be dated back to 1904, when Japan and Russia, the two large powers in East Asia at that time, fought for control of the country. Russia was defeated and Japan used its victory to annex Korea in 1910. Then, World War Two came about, dismantling the power of the Japanese Empire and Korea became a victim of the Cold War. Korea was divided into two spheres of influence, along the 38th parallel. While Japan surrendered, the United States and the Soviet Union swooped in to claim the Korean peninsula. The United States claimed the South of the divided land, while the Soviet Union claimed the