The Korean War

1949 - 1953

June 1950 = North Korea suddenly cross the 38th parallel into South Korea. North Korea continue to invade until they have all of South Korea

July 1950 = A UN security council resolution (resolution 84) agreed that a UN army (led by General MacArthur) would help South Korea.

November 1950 = General MacArthur and his army had freed most of South Korea

November 1950 = General MacArthur’s counter-attack goes too far. South Korea take over most of North Korea, and reach the Chinese border. 200,000 Chinese troops (People’s volunteers) join the North Koreans to drive the UN forces back into South Korea. The battle line is established just south of Seoul.

March 1951 = General MacArthur ignores the instructions given to him from the UN and openly threatens nuclear attack on China.

April 1951 = President Truman fires General MacArthur

July 1951 = Fighting has amounted to nothing. Peace talks begin.

July 1953 = An armistice is finally signed. The border between North and South Korea is essentially the same.

The UN army was really an American army, and was just a cover to justify their actions. They could get away with intervention from the UN for ‘world peace’ but not as the US trying to destroy communism.

Overall, the Korean War was a failure for the US. North Korea was still communist, and the UN were viewed as an All-American anti-communist tool. Lives were lost pointlessly. There were disagreements between the capitalists - General MacArthur wanted to go further than containments (proven in March 1951 with is open threat on nuclear attack in China).

There were some successes: South Korea hadn’t fallen to communism and neither did its neighbouring countries. Military sanctions had been partially successful in halting aggression from the USSR and China (better than the LON)

What were the outcomes for the United Nations?

  1. proven that the UN was far more powerful than the LON. The military sanctions had actually worked against North Korea and China

  2. the whole point of the war was to end up with a ‘unified democratic government’ (capitalist North Korea)

  3. UN made 2 major misjudgements = 1. MacArthur assured Truman that North Korea would not cross the 38th Parallel again + there was substantial damages to both property and life. 4 million Koreans died as a result of the war and countless were made homeless and destitute.

  4. the UN had only been able to take action because of America’s refusal to let China join the US. The UN relied heavily on the US

  5. Military action had only been available because Japan put a lot of their troops in Japan in 1945.

  6. The Soviets claimed that the UN had become an anti-communist tool - pushed right up to Chinese border - only done because of MacArthur and the US