Had it not been for the fall of China and the Korean war, the Cold War as a fifty-year phenomenon involving the expenditure of billions of dollars and the destruction of millions of lives might never have happened'

Randall B Woods

What were the causes of the Korean War?

1. The Red Scare and NSC 68

By 1949, it appeared that the US had been successful in containing communism; the USSR had been stopped in Berlin so the Truman Doctrine was working and was now supported by NATO. However two events shifted the balance in favour of the USSR: the USSR got the bomb and China fell to the Communist forces of Mao Zedong.

Both of these events had a profound effect on America in raising the government's fear of communism; simultaneously a Red Scare was taking place in the US which was heightened by these events and was to help shape the US response. The Red Scare heightened into a hysteria when Senator McCarthy accused members of the government as being Communist and triggered a witch hunt. (See ATL: Containment under Truman and Eisenhower)

One response of the US government was to draw up National Security Document 68 which set a new agenda for US foreign policy in the light of the new global threat.

Task One

ATL: Thinking skills

Task Two

ATL: Thinking skills

NSC 68 was not immediately implemented. President Truman’s Democratic Party faced difficult congressional elections in November 1950. Truman wanted to shelve the issues of the recognition of China and of commitment in Asia and the recommendations of NSC-68 until afterwards. However, on 25 June 1950, 90,000 North Korean soldiers launched an invasion into South Korea. Truman had no time now for sober consideration as to whether ‘total commitment’ on a global scale was a wise policy to follow. The North Korean attack was seen as a clear example of Soviet expansionism. Again, it is possible to see here the United States’ belief in a monolithic Communist bloc; the North Koreans were assumed to be acting on the orders of Stalin. There was a fear that failure to take action would undermine the credibility of the USA in its determination to resist Communism and would encourage a ‘domino effect’ in neighbouring states. As Truman put it:

If we let Korea down, the Soviets will keep right on going and swallow up one piece of Asia after another … If we were to let Asia go, the Near East would collapse and no telling what would happen in Europe … Korea is like the Greece of the Far East. If we are tough enough now, if we stand up to them like we did in Greece three years ago, they won’t take any more steps.

This idea that Communism would quickly spread from one country to another became known later as the domino effect . The U.S. response in Korea was thus dictated by the same policy it had used in Europe: containment.

2. The situation of Korea after Second World War

Japan had officially annexed Korea in 1910 and was still in occupation of Korea when World War Two ended. Korean nationalists, who had led a revolution in 1945 and who included many Communists, were not allowed to decide the fate of Korea in 1945 and it was agreed by the USA and the USSR that the two superpowers would take joint responsibility for repatriating the Japanese forces there. The 38th parallel line of latitude was taken as the dividing point, with the USSR occupying Korea north of the line and the USA occupying Korea south of the line.

This was originally intended to be a temporary arrangement and at the Council of Foreign Ministers’ Moscow Conference in December 1945 the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on the creation of a Korean provisional government, followed by a short period of international trusteeship or supervision, leading eventually to independence.

This was difficult to achieve, however, because:

• As the Cold War developed, the USA and the USSR became less willing to co-operate.

• Despite the Moscow Agreement, separate administrations emerged on either side of the 38th parallel. In the South, the U.S. military government put forward as leader the elderly Synghman Rhee, a rebel who had fought against the Japanese and spent much of his life in exile. The Soviets supported the Communists and backed a faction headed by Kim Il Sung, a young Russian-trained Korean Communist who had been a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese. Although the two men were very different, they had much in common: both were Korean nationalists, both wanted to end the division of Korea and each saw himself as the leader of a united Korea.

In the increasingly tense atmosphere of the Cold War, the division of Korea was confirmed in 1947. The Americans persuaded the UN to establish a commission to supervise Korean elections. This commission was refused entry into the North, but observed a separate election in the South in May 1948. Although most Koreans opposed partition, the Republic of Korea (ROK) was set up in the South under Synghman Rhee. It was an undemocratic and strongly anti-Communist administration, which was recognized as legitimate by the UN General Assembly. In response, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was founded in the North under Kim Il Sung in September 1948 and was immediately recognized by the Communist bloc. ‘The Cold War had thus institutionalized a Korean civil war in two hostile states, each claiming to represent all Koreans’ (Callum MacDonald in Korea: The War Before Vietnam, Free Press, 1987).

Although the USA supported Synghman Rhee with economic and military aid, they did not intend to station troops there, and the U.S. military had left South Korea by mid-1949. Soviet troops left the North in 1948. The United States made it clear that they still saw Europe as the most important area in the Cold War, but decided to maintain a line of offshore strong points stretching from Japan to the Philippines rather than involve themselves in expensive military commitments on the mainland. This was made clear in Dean Acheson’s ‘perimeter’ speech of January 1950, in which both South Korea and Taiwan were publicly excluded from the American defensive perimeter in the Western Pacific.

3. The actions of Kim Il Sung

Kim Il Sung’s role is key to explaining this war. It is clear that both Synghman Rhee and Kim Il Sung wanted to unify the country. Thus a civil war would have existed here in any case, regardless of the involvement of the superpowers. However, neither side could unify the country on its own, and thus the involvement of the Soviets in support of Kim Il Sung or the Americans in support of Synghman Rhee was essential for success. Kim Il Sung put a huge amount of effort into persuading Stalin that he should back an attack on the South. Stalin initially had no interest in these plans and Kim Il Sung obtained Stalin’s approval only after persistent appeals. Thus it is clear that the impetus for war came from Pyongyang and not from Moscow. The Truman administration’s assumption in June 1950, and of many scholars writing since then, that the war was Stalin’s initiative is therefore false, though his support for Kim Il Sung was key in allowing the war to go ahead.

4. The role of Stalin and Mao

Thus both Stalin and Mao misjudged the situation; indeed historian Warren Cohen describes Stalin's actions in agreeing to support Kim as his 'most disastrous Cold War gamble'. Truman's response to the invasion was swift and resulted in a large UN force being sent to Korea to push back the North Korean forces.

Task One

ATL: Thinking and self-management skills

Task Two

ATL: thinking skills

Task Three

ATL: Thinking skills

8. What were the military developments in the Korean War?

These maps show Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Korean War.

There were several dramatic changes in the course of the war over the first few months, followed by a stalemate situation which lasted until the armistice in 1953:

•  The initial push by the North Koreans took them deep into South Korea, leaving only a corner of the peninsula out of their control. South Korean and American troops were pushed back into this small area around Pusan.

•  General MacArthur led the UN forces in an amphibious landing at Inchon in order to bypass the Korean troops and cut them off. Within a month he had retaken Seoul and driven the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel.¶

•   Encouraged by this success, the United States then redefined its war aims and, rather than just concentrating on ‘containment’, now decided on a policy of ‘rollback’. This would mean liberating the North Koreans from Communist rule and reuniting Korea. UN forces crossed the 38th parallel into North Korean territory and began a rapid advance northwards, capturing Pyongyang, the capital of the North, in October.

•   The march towards the Yalu River, however, made China concerned about its own security. On 27 November 1950, a force of 200,000 Chinese joined 150,000 North Koreans and sent the UN troops into a rapid retreat. Pyongyang was recaptured in December and by the end of 1950, the North Koreans and their allies had retaken all land up to the 38th parallel. There were heavy American casualties in the bitter cold, and many were taken prisoner.

•   A stalemate then developed around the 38th parallel.

•   Truman now realized that the United States needed to go back to the original aim of containing Communism above the 38th Parallel. MacArthur disagreed, claiming, ‘Here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest. Here we fight Europe’s war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words’. He was subsequently relieved of his command.

•   Peace talks started in 1951 with a focus on the repatriation of prisoners of war (POWs).

•   The war continued for another two years, during which time fighting continued, causing serious casualties (over 40 per cent of American casualties were in this period). The United States put pressure on China by threatening to use the atom bomb.

•   A military armistice was finally signed at Panmunjom in July 1953.

Task One

ATL: Thinking skills

Task Two

ATL: Thinking and communication skills

8. What was the impact of the Korean War on international relations?

As a result of the war, the US took the following actions:

• Defence cuts in the conventional military forces were initiated by Eisenhower on the advice that nuclear weapons were an effective deterrent. This led to the policy of brinkmanship [see next activity].
• West Germany was given membership of NATO in 1955 to strengthen its European alliance and in response to the Soviet's establishment of the Warsaw Pact alliance.
• The recommendations of NSC 68 to triple the defence budget were now implemented.
• The US established a new alliance bloc, SEATO (the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) in 1954.  
• The US signed a Treaty with Japan in 1952 which enabled it to maintain military bases in Japan.
• The USA now committed itself to defend Taiwan; following the Korean War it sent Taiwan's Jiang Jieshi with military and economic aid and continued to recognise Taiwan as the only official Chinese state until as late as 1971.
• China was now isolated by the United States.
• The US became committed to supporting other regimes in Asia that it believed were resisting Communism; this would lead to US involvement in the Philippines and in Vietnam.

What did the Korean War and the subsequent actions of the USA mean for other countries?

For Korea: The cost in human lives and property was vast. There was also no hope now of reunification. This was no longer a local issue, but a Cold War issue and the ceasefire line turned into a heavily armed Cold War frontier. North Korea has subsequently remained under Communist rule. South Korea became a model capitalist success story with heavy American and Japanese investment.

For China: Although now isolated by the USA, China’s reputation grew greatly and it became a major power in the region. It preserved its own revolution, took on the USA and successfully ‘saved’ North Korea. This increased Mao Zedong’s reputation at home and strengthened the Chinese revolution. However, it also meant that valuable resources at home were diverted away from recovery to the war effort, and in addition that China’s aim of uniting Taiwan and China was now far more difficult. Stalin’s reluctance throughout the war to help Mao with any substantial military commitments also meant that from now on Mao would be less likely to rely on Soviet help and would be less bothered about following Moscow’s lead. (See Chapter Eleven.)

For the USSR: Although the USSR had kept out of direct conflict with the USA, the results of the Korean War were not good for the Soviet Union. The USA’s decision to triple its ¶

defence budget, rearm West Germany, maintain troops in Europe and fight Communism in Asia meant that the Soviet Union was now embroiled in an even more intense and broader Cold War standoff than had existed in 1950.

For South-East Asia: The USA’s perception of all Communist movements as being part of a ‘monolithic’ movement, and its commitment to intervene wherever it saw the threat of Communism on the move, meant that South-East Asia became involved in the Cold War. It was now harder for nationalist movements in the region to triumph in the post-colonial era and many of these groups were forced into increasing dependence on the USSR or China. However, it was only in Vietnam that the USA, the USSR and China became directly involved in the fighting.

What did the Korean War mean for the Cold War?

The Korean War caused the globalization of the Cold War. The USA and USSR now found themselves embroiled in conflicts in Asia as well as Europe, and these conflicts would soon spread to other parts of the developing world. It also led to the militarization of the Cold War. To maintain the now increased military commitments, U.S. defence spending increased dramatically, running at around 10 per cent of American GNP in the 1950s. In Europe, there was also increased military spending, which helped to boost the economic prosperity of both regions. In the Soviet Union, the Red Army increased from 2.8 million troops in 1950 to almost 5.8 million by 1955. Stalin’s successors, however,cut military spending sharply after 1955, though continuing the development of nuclear armaments.

Task One

ATL: Thinking skills