The Forgotten War: Korea

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Korea. A mass of bad feelings and good intentions. All the ideas that were generated with the Cold War were thrust upon Korea. Some were good, and some were not so good. People had hoped to influence Korea to accept their views. The USSR wanted an unyielding communist Korea. America had other ideas. When communism came to blows with capitalism, the bloody mess of Korea was the result.

Korea was in a state of disarray. Not in the way that you may be confused about what happened, but where political alliances and the division of Korea upset many people. The division of Korea was decided at the Potsdam Conference, without the consent of the Korean people (Korean War, Wikipedia). When Japan was defeated, they lost all of the land they had gained including Korea. With the land being split between the 38th parallel, North Korea was weak with a bad leader, looking for more power. Russia and China were willing to help. US saw South Korea as a victim to the Cold War and was trying to help South Korea (Schnabel 6). Both the United States and the Soviet Union occupied the Korean peninsula in hopes of turning them to their beliefs in government. The United States went to the United Nations to determine the issue of a divided Korea. The United Nations Commission determined they needed to hold elections in Korea. The communists in North Korea refused to allow the election because the did not want to be threatened by democracy. The communists in South Korea did not like the thought and boycotted it. The regime in South Korea was shaped by the anti-communist Syngman Rhee. The Soviet Union put Kim ll-Sung as head of North Korea, who was very, very weak. The North Korean Army invaded South Korea on June 25 1950 with varying reasons. The Chinese ...

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