The Making of the Korean War and Its End - Term Paper Example

?Reading Header: The Korean War The making of the Korean War and its end Insert Insert Grade Insert 09 March The start of the civil war The Korean War initially started as a civil war, but eventually broke out to a full scale regional war due to poor communication. The Korean War started out as a civil war due to nationalistic tendencies of Kim and Ryee who wanted to reunify Korea under their administration without success. Constant cross border skirmishes between the two countries armed forces escalated their differences. With the help of communists, North Korea was sure of a swift win in South Korea and never thought that the United States would come to the assistance of South Korea in time. However, the South Korean communists had been suppressed harshly with no chance of helping North Korea forces. After successfully defeating the South Korean army and on the brink of winning, a combined United States and United Nations forces attacked North Korean forces successfully pushing North Korean forces past the 38th parallel. Kim had grossly underestimated the United States armed forces capacity in the region and the U.S commitment to Ryee’s government. North Korea invaded South Korea starting the civil war in which Koreans fought each other on their own soil. Had Kim not invaded the south the civil war would not have started but still it could not have been fought if the communist Russians and the United Nations had not divided the country at the 38th parallel splitting the country into an industrial north and an agricultural south after World War II. North Korea had a superior army and quickly overwhelmed the South Korean Forces. With military support from Stalin and blessings from Mao, South Korea could not hold long, and they did not; they had a weaker army and were not prepared for war. North Korea’s leader had unified his country with swift reforms and nationalistic policies, which increased his popularity in contrast to Ryees government, which had embarked on a campaign to root out communists. It was his unification ambition and his brutal leadership that had prevented the United States from strengthening his military strength. Kim’s army had the support of the Soviet Union and without Stalin’s support; he would have delayed his attempts at unifying Korea through military means. Why Did United States and Russia Interfere In The War? Failing to unify their country due to bad communications and different ideologies, Kim and Ryee had to involve external powers to unite Korea. Stalin initially did not support Kim in attacking South Korea, he changed his mind when China’s communist took china’s leadership and the Soviet Union acquired and tested their first atomic bomb. NATO was established when Russia’s relation with the west was very poor. They could not support the war because the country’s sovereignty was threatened by the west and he did not want to aggravate the situation1. The atomic bomb made the Soviets more secure and hence they stopped being concerned with the reaction of the United States if they actively supported the war. The United States could have attacked the Soviet Union from the south but through Acheson statements America weakening involvement in Asia was evident. Russia wrongly interpreted this as a weakening of the United States military capabilities and influence around the region. If Russia did not have the capability to defend itself against the west, Stalin would not have consented to the war. The increasing communist successes in the region concerned the United States government. Communist governments spread would weaken their influence in the region. If South Korea had suppressed North Koreas attack, Washington would not have a valid reason to attack. By defending the South Korea nationalistic government, it would empower the people through democracy, but Bruce Cumings disagrees claiming that the United States and South Korea committed sustained atrocities during the war. He claims that many unarmed civilians were shot indiscriminately by their forces, and that President Truman's allusions to attacking the KPA with nuclear weapons “Were a threat based on contingency planning to use the bomb, rather than the faux pas so many assumed it to be.2" Russia and the United States were not fighting to Unite Korea; they were not fighting a Korean cause but their own. Was It The Influence Of The Chinese? Movement of the United States troops to the Taiwan Strait caused a miscommunication of its intention and China considered it a threat. During the period, China was mostly neutral and this somehow made a delicate balance between the two superpowers and they both related warmly with China. This fact is highlighted by Nathan and Ross in their book the Great Wall and Empty fortress when they say that “China was the only major country that had the capacity to bring the United States and the Soviet Union to an intersection where they could consult”3. The sheer size of China and its enormous population made it a force to be reckoned with. It was evident that the winner of the cold war would be determined by the direct influence of the Chinese4. After the communist forces won in mainland China, China’s Nationalist Government had retreated to the island of Taiwan. Contrary to the United States proclamation that it would not defend nationalists from communists, it moved its seventh fleet into the Taiwan Strait to discourage spread of military conflict in the region. China considered this as an interference of its internal affairs. China alliance with the Soviet Union made the United States influence in the region seriously compromised and with the start of the Korean civil war, China had to put on hold their plans of “liberating Taiwan”5. The outcome of the war was uncertain and it could have profound effect in China’s internal and external affairs. If the United States had not moved its troops close to China, China would not have interfered with the Korean War. If they had, their actions would have been seen as an aggression against the United States. The role of Kim II sung Breakdown of unification talks with the south made Kim resort to use military force to Unify Korea. North Korea enacted sweeping land reforms, nationalized industries and gave women equality under the law. Under his leadership, Kim rapidly consolidated his hold over North Korea by successfully overcoming factionalism. If he was not successful, his concern would be centered in his back yard and would not have thought about unifying Korea. He could only succeed if he got the Soviet Union and China’s support without which his campaign would not have been possible. Against reluctance from Stalin he got the approval with an endorsement by China. Without their support, he could not have started the war. When the war started, he declared, “the war which we are forced to wage is just war for the unification and independence of the motherland and freedom and democracy "6 but the war fought was not for the unification of his motherland but rather became an international war with Korea’s ambition put under the rag. Though he succeeded in manipulating Stalin and Mao when the war became a regional warfare, he did not have muscle to have a say in the progress of the war. The war becomes an international affair The United Nations involvement of the war at the request of the United States made the war into an international conflict. When the North attacked the South and rapidly subdued their weak forces and the United States became concerned, they had a weak force within the Asian region. They would have not succeeded in containing North Korea on their own because of its communist neighbors. Truman convinced the United Nations Security Council to send its troops to southern Korea to restore peace. The National Security Council came up with a winning military strategy outlined in a document called National Security council Memorandum 68(NSC-68)7, which advised the president to quadruple military spending to deal with “the threat arising from communist states and revolutionaries in East Asia.” NSC-68 was the response and the largest peacetime mobilization of national resources in American history8. Without this memorandum the United States would not have sustained the United Nations led attack. What started as a civil war had developed into a regional war with major spending by foreign governments to win the war. The internal affairs of Korea ceased to matter and when the United Nations forces attacked the North Koreans, they successfully regained lost ground and entered deep into North Korea. China had to interfere in the war. If the United Nations had not interfered with the war, China would not have attacked their forces and the war would not have become a regional issue. Transformation the Korean civil war into a full scale war The aim of the war was to unify North Korea and South Korea into a single country under one leadership. Koreans fought to unite their country. The United States erred in omitting South Korea from its protected states in East Asia. Through a statement by Acheson, who was the United States Secretary, Mao-Stalin meetings had produced a Chinese –Soviet green light for Kim’s military plans to conquer the south. The Soviet Union supplied Kim with weapons, which were distributed to troops placed under the 38th parallel”9. The United Nations and United States government wanted to capitalize on their successful attack on Kim’s forces to roll back communism by uniting Korean under a non communist leadership. The mission was not on their original mandate of restoring peace to Korea and international politics started. Despite a warning by the Chinese not to advance past the Yalu river, the United Nations forces under general Macarthur did not stop because they underestimated the size and determination of the Chinese forces10. The Chinese viewed this as a threat and responded by sending troops into North Korea successfully pushing back the U.N forces. The war had become regional. Had the UN and U.S forces heeded the warning of the Chinese, the war would not have escalated into a regional war. The war entered into a stale mate with neither force having the capacity to force the other to surrender. Representatives from North Korea and South Korea failed in the larger goal of uniting their country. This led all to parties joining in the negotiations and it led to signing of an armistice in 1953. The Korean governments failed to come into an agreement but rather foreign powers dictated the terms for the cease-fire, signifying that Koreans interest were not central to the foreign governments’ agenda in the war. Notes 1. Evgini Bajanov 1995 p1 2. Cumings, Bruce. The origins of the Korean War. 1981 3. Nathan Andrew and Ross Robert 1997 p13 4. Zhang, Shu Guang 1994 5. Chen, Jian 1994 p 57. 6. Donald K. Chung p. 50 7. Paul et al 1994 NCS-68: Forging the Strategy of Containment, p. 6, 8. John Lewis Gaddis 1982, ch. 4 9. Chen, Jian 1994 p 57 Bibliography Bajanov, Evgini. The Korean War, an Assessment of the Historical Record. Georgetown Univ. Washington D.C, 1995. Retrieved from http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Korean_War.html on 20/03/2012 Chen, Jian. China’s Road to the Korean War: the Making of the Sino-American Confrontation. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Chung, Donald. The Three Day Promise: A Korean Soldier's Memoirs. Tallahassee: Father and Son Publishing, 1989. Cumings, Bruce. The Origins of the Korean War. New York: Princeton University Press, 1981. Gaddis John Lewis. Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Goncharov, Sergei, John Lewis and Xue Litai. Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1993. Nathan, Andrew and Robert Ross. The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress: China's Search for Security. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. National Security Council (U.S.), Paul Nitze and Nelson Drew. NCS-68: Forging the Strategy of Containment. Washington DC: National Defense University, 1994. Zhang, Shu Guang. Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953. Lawrence: Univ. of Kansas Press, 1995. Word count: 1825 words Read More