Korean and Vietnam Wars Notes

Korean War

  • Division of Korea:

    • Following World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel. (38oN)(\text{38}^{\text{o}}\text{N})
    • North of the parallel, Japanese troops surrendered to Soviet forces, leading to a Communist industrial north.
    • South of the parallel, Japanese troops surrendered to American forces, resulting in a non-Communist rural south.

  • Outbreak of War (1950):

    • North Korea, supplied by the Soviet Union, launched a surprise attack on South Korea on June 25, 1950.
    • The North Korean forces quickly penetrated deep into the south.
    • President Truman, viewing this as a repeat of Axis aggression in the 1930s, committed to helping South Korea resist communism, following his policy of containment.

  • UN Intervention:

    • The United Nations Security Council voted to send an international force to Korea, as the Soviet Union was absent due to a protest over the non-admission of Nationalist China (Taiwan).
    • A total of 15 nations, including the U.S. and Britain, participated under the command of General Douglas MacArthur.

  • Course of the War:

    • By September 1950, North Koreans controlled most of the Korean peninsula, except for a small area around Pusan.
    • MacArthur launched a surprise amphibious landing at Inchon, leading to a “pincer action” that forced many North Koreans to surrender or retreat.
    • UN troops pursued the retreating North Koreans across the 38th parallel, almost reaching the Yalu River at the Chinese border.

  • Chinese Intervention:

    • In October 1950, China sent 300,000 troops into North Korea, feeling threatened by the UN forces and the American fleet.
    • By January 1951, Chinese forces pushed UN and South Korean troops out of North Korea and captured Seoul.
    • MacArthur called for a nuclear attack against China but was removed by Truman for insubordination and for wanting to start a world war.

  • Cease-fire and Aftermath:

    • In July 1953, the UN forces and North Korea signed a cease-fire agreement, setting the border near the 38th parallel.
    • The war resulted in 4 million soldier and civilian deaths.
    • Korea remained divided, with a demilitarized zone separating the two countries.

  • Post-War Korea:

    • In North Korea, Kim Il Sung established collective farms, developed heavy industry, and built up the military. After his death in 1994, his son Kim Jong Il took power and developed nuclear weapons amid economic problems.
    • South Korea prospered with aid from the U.S. and other countries and focused on developing its industry and expanding foreign trade. It transitioned to a democratic constitution in 1987 and experienced high economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s.
    • Political differences and North Korea’s nuclear weapons have prevented reunification, and the U.S. maintains troops in South Korea.

Vietnam War

  • Background:

    • U.S. involvement in Vietnam stemmed from the Cold War containment policy to stop the spread of communism.
    • France controlled most of Southeast Asia (French Indochina, including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) in the early 1900s.
    • Vietnamese nationalist independence movements, led by Ho Chi Minh, sought communist support.

  • Ho Chi Minh:

    • Ho Chi Minh's Indochinese Communist Party led revolts and strikes against the French in the 1930s.
    • He founded the Vietminh (Independence) League after the Japanese seized control of Vietnam during World War II.
    • After the Japanese defeat in 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence, but France intended to regain its colony.

  • First Indochina War:

    • Vietnamese Nationalists and Communists fought the French armies.
    • The Vietminh used hit-and-run tactics, confining the French to major cities.
    • In 1954, the French suffered a major military defeat at Dien Bien Phu and surrendered to Ho Chi Minh.
    • The U.S. supported France in Vietnam and, after the French defeat, feared the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.
    • President Eisenhower articulated the domino theory, suggesting that the fall of one Southeast Asian nation to communism would lead to the fall of its neighbors. This theory became a major justification for U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War.

  • Division of Vietnam:

    • After France’s defeat, Vietnam was divided at 17o17^\text{o} north latitude at the Geneva peace conference.
    • North of the line, Ho Chi Minh’s Communist forces governed.
    • South of the line, the U.S. and France set up an anti-Communist government under Ngo Dinh Diem.

  • Escalation of Conflict:

    • Diem ruled South Vietnam as a dictator, leading to growing opposition.
    • Communist guerrillas, called Vietcong, gained strength in the south; most were South Vietnamese who hated Diem.
    • In 1963, Diem was assassinated by a group of South Vietnamese generals.
    • The U.S. decided to increase its involvement to prevent a Communist victory.

  • U.S. Involvement:

    • U.S. troops had been serving as advisors to the South Vietnamese since the late 1950s.
    • In August 1964, President Lyndon Johnson reported that North Vietnamese patrol boats had attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin and Congress authorized the president to send U.S. troops to fight in Vietnam.
    • By 1968, more than half a million U.S. soldiers were in combat.
    • The U.S. faced difficulties fighting a guerrilla war in unfamiliar jungle terrain and defending an unpopular South Vietnamese government.
    • The United States turned to air power to destroy enemy hideouts, bombing farmland and forest, which strengthened peasant opposition to the South Vietnamese government.

  • U.S. Withdrawal:

    • The war became increasingly unpopular in the U.S., leading to protests.
    • In 1969, President Richard Nixon began withdrawing U.S. troops under a plan called Vietnamization, which aimed to increase the South Vietnamese combat role.
    • Nixon authorized a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnamese bases and supply routes, including bombings in Laos and Cambodia.
    • The last U.S. troops left in 1973. In 1975, the North Vietnamese overran South Vietnam, resulting more than 1.5 million Vietnamese and 58,000 American lost their lives.

  • Post-War Southeast Asia:

    • Cambodia was under siege by Communist rebels.
    • In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, set up a brutal Communist government in Cambodia and slaughtered two million people in an attempt to transform the country into a rural Communist society.
    • The Vietnamese invaded in 1978, overthrew the Khmer Rouge, and installed a less repressive government. The Vietnamese withdrew in 1989.

  • Vietnam after the War:

    • After 1975, North Vietnam imposed tight controls over the South, sending people to “reeducation camps,” nationalizing industries, and renaming Saigon as Ho Chi Minh City.
    • Communist oppression caused 1.5 million people to flee Vietnam; many became “boat people” and died at sea.
    • Although Communists still govern Vietnam, the country welcomes foreign investment. The U.S. normalized relations with Vietnam in 1995.