SGQ13, January 29, 2010

MWH p. 143-147
1. Background
a. Explain the evolution of control of Korea from 1910 to 1948.
Korea had been controlled by Japan from 1910 to 1945, after which the Japanese were defeated and Korea was divided along the 38th Parallel, with the north occupied by the Russians and the south occupied by the Americans. The Russians set up a communist government in their zone.
b. What was the leadership situation in Korea in 1949?
Elections were held in South Korea under which Syngman Rhee was elected as President with the capital being Seoul, and North Korea was set up as a communist government (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) with Kim II Sung as leader. After the Russians and the Americans withdrew from North and South Korea, both leaders felt that they deserved to rule the whole country.
2. Why did the North invade the South?
Possible answers:
a. Kim's idea - Kim heard a statement made by Dean Acheson, the American Secretary of State, that the USA intended to defejnd several areas around the Pacific but Korea was not mentioned, therefore it's believed Kim thought this meant he could get away with invading South Korea.
b. Chinese role - The Chinese government may have encouraged Kim to invade, since they were at the time massing troops in Fukien province facing Taiwan, as if about to attack Chiang Kai-shek there.
c. Russian role - Stalin and the Russians may have wanted to test Truman's determination; they supplied the North Koreans with tanks and gave them the necessarily resources to invade and in addition, if the communist north took over the south, it would strengthen Russia's position in the Pacific and would make up for Stalin's failure in West Berlin as a gesture against the Americans.
d. S. Korea's role - Communists claimed that South Korea started the war when Syngman Rhee's troops crossed the 38th parallel.
3. What did the USA do?
a. Why did Truman decide to intervene?
i. Truman was convinced that Stalin was responsible for the attack, which he took as part of a vast Russian plan to spread communism as widely as possible.
ii. Some Americans saw the invasion as similar to Hitler's policies in the 1930s and it was essential not to try and appease the aggressors in this situation since appeasing Hitler had failed back in the '30s.
iii. Truman saw it as important to support the United Nations Organization, which was going to attempt to preserve peace among the world powers, something that the League of Nations had failed to do.
iv. Truman was a Democrat president and his party was coming under criticism from Republicans for their failure to take action against what they saw as the dangerous spread of communism. Truman was anxious to show that Joseph McCarthy's claim that the State Department was filled with communists working for the USSR was a false claim.
b. What nations joined the US in support of S. Korea? Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Nationalist China, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Greece, Turkey, Panama, Philippines, Thailand, and Britain.
c. Briefly summarize the course of the war in 1950. Communist forces had captured the whole country except the south-east, and once UN reinforcements poured in, the North Korean troops collapsed, after which Truman ordered an invasion of North Korea was the goal to unite the whole country and hold free elections.
d. How and why did China get involved? The Americans placed a fleet between Taiwan and the mainland China to prevent an attack on Chiang, and it seemed that they'd now invade Manchuria. The Chinese did not want this, as they planned on attacking Taiwan as well.
e. How did the war end? UN troops cleared the communists out of South Korea, peace talks opened in Panmunjom and lasted for two years, after which it was agreed that the frontier would be divided along the 38th Parallel as it had been before the war began. That was the end of the war.
4. What were the results of the war?
a. Korea - Country was devastated, four million Korean soldiers and civilians had been killed and five million people left homeless. Both states (North and South Korea) remained highly suspicious of one another and heavily armed.

b. the US - Republicans felt that the US had lost the opportunity to destroy communism in China and this feeling contributed to the later excesses of McCarthyism. However Truman was satisfied because he contained communism and discouraged communism from further world expansion.
c. the UN - Exerted its authority, reversed an act of aggression, but fell under the criticism of the communists for being a tool of the capitalists.
d. China - Military performance of communist China was impressive, prevented the unification of Korea under American influence, and now found itself a world power. China was still not allowed a seat in the UN however.
e. the Cold War - American relations now permanently strained with China and Russia, adding a new dimension to the Cold War. Familiar pattern of both sides trying to build up alliances appeared in both Asia and Europe. China supported Indo-Chinese communists in their struggle for independence from France, offering friendship and aid to under-developed countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; signed peaceful co-existence agreements with India and Burma in 1954.