the Korean War ( June 25 1950)

although the Cold War was a lot of threats and propaganda, at this time there was a lot of hot war (real war) like Korea and Vietnam war.

prior to the war

1. Russia had also developed her own atom bomb placing both her and America on equal playing ground

2. chairman Moa had become the leader of communist china

3. the dynamic of the east west situation took a big tun around onto a new level. in the 1950s the Cold War spread out of Europe the first country being Korea

what was kore like before the war

1. Korea wanted to be ruled by its own people as Japan had prior control over her between 1910-1945, so the UN thought it would be a great idea to divide Korea into to

2. North Korea would be under the soviet rule, and South Korea would be under the American democratic rule

3. the dividing line would b on the 38th parallel ( the circle of latitude in the northern hemisphere that separates north and South Korea)

4. in 1948 elections where held In the south under UN supervision the republic of Korea would be set up under the leadership of Syngman Rhee with its capital being Seoul

5. the soviets established the democratic peoples republic of Korea under the leadership of Kim il-sung with its capital being Pyongyang

the invasion of north into the south

1. Kim il-sung had good support of both Mao and Stalin. the army was was supplied with tanks, heavy artillery and planes by the soviets and became much stronger than the army of south Korea

2. Kim thought the Americans wouldn’t take action as china was also communist and Russia had the atom bomb. and leading politicians had made public statements that seemed to suggest that Korea wasn’t a major American defence priority

3. so the troops had mashed through the boarder and had pushed the south back all the way to Pusan.

how did the UN get involved?

1. the un had held a conference on the 25 June with the soviet rep as at the time he couldn't get to the meeting due to the fact that Stalin wanted to boycott the un because of the USA refusing to let china into the un.

2. when it became clear that the troops wernt’t bidding another meeting was held ad 10 days later it it was decided that American troops from Japan with the help of other countries troops would assist the South Koreans.

how did the American public react to North Koreans invasion of South Korea??

1. the use had been very involved and cold with the establishment of South Korea

2. and the use wanted to stop the spread of communism as per the containment doctrine

3. the public associated this attack to be soviet intention and doing

4. the shift in power due to the loss of Japan, formosa and Korea would cause a huge imbalance in the communist and capital world. and to stop this meant a forceful confrontation or even a full scale attack on North Korea

5. if the un had failed to act on this issue then there I son doubt that the Americans would have acted on their own

6. the forces sent over where very American. led by general MacArthur ½ of the ground force was American. more than 90% of the air forces were American and 85% of the naval forces were too

phase 1

1. the North Korean forces where successfully overran most of the South Korean capital Seoul. South Korean and un forces were confided to territory around Pusan in the south -east of the peninsula, Pusan perimeter

phase 2

1. the un marine forces had opened a two pronged attack, then the un forces broke through th perimeter and headed northwards and macArthur led an attack on the west coast of Inchon some 200 miles behind the communist lines.

2. Seoul was retried and the North Korean troops were driven back across the boarder

phase 3

1. the un forces kept on pressing onwards in peruse of a long standing un objective of unifying and independent and democratic government for the whole of Korea

   1. with little North Korean resistance the capital Pyongyang was captured on the 19 October

   2. and just over a month later some American units reached the Yalu river on the boarder with china

phase 4

1. china launched a missive counterforce attack in later November in fear of being invaded

2. the un were driven southwards back across the boarder and once again Seoul was captured by communists in early 1951

3. the un lines were eventually stabilised along the 37th parallel in mid January

phase 5

1. the un counter attacked the Chinese and the North Koreans back to the boarder and Seoul had changed for the last time when it was retrieved in march.

2. general MacArthur had argued to Kennedy requesting for the use of nuclear weapons against china

3. after disobeying orders he was then dismissed by Kennedy

phase 6

1. negotiations at Panmunjom and lasted for 2 years

2. meanwhile the fighting still continued across the frontier lines and little territory of strategic value was lost or gained and these fights were mainly along ridges or hill tops.

3. these were extremely costing in terms of lives and suffering

results of the Korean War

1. north Korea was unable to make South Korea communist and still to this day haven’t united

2. the use claimed victory as the south had remained democratic, however the use lost military prestige {high standing} as they had failed to defeat china

3. the Chinese gained a lot of respect from the rest of the world because of their military performance. they had not been defeated and the war ended in an armistice {agreement}

4. the war resulted in 4 million north and south Koreans killed including sevilians, and approximately 55000 American casualties

5. it also mad America seem less invincible to all the other countries as this was the first war that the Americans hadn’t won