Transcript korean+war - thebrightestman

Korean War
• The Yalta Conference in 1945 agreed that Soviet
and American troops would occupy Korea after
the war.
• The country was divided at the 38th parallel and in
1948 the Soviet Union set up a People's
Democratic Republic in North Korea. At the same
time the United States helped establish the
Republic of South Korea.
• After the war Syngman Rhee emerged as the main
right-wing politician in South Korea and in 1947
he received the unofficial support of the United
States government.
• In 1948 Rhee became the first president of South
Korea. He soon developed a reputation for
authoritarian rule and his political opponents were
quickly silenced.
• In June 1949 the United States Army began to
withdraw from South Korea. Statements made by
General Douglas MacArthur and Dean Acheson
suggested that the United States did not see the
area as being of prime importance.
• Acheson argued that if South Korea was attacked:
"The initial reliance must be on the people
attacked to resist it and then upon the
commitments of the entire civilized world under
the Charter of the United Nations."
• Kim Il-Sung, the communist dictator of North
Korea, became convinced that the people in the
south would welcome being ruled by his
government.
• At dawn on 25th June 1950, the North Koreans
launched a surprise attack on South Korea. Three
days later, communist forces captured the South
Korean capital, Seoul.
• The Security Council of the United Nations
recommended that troops should be sent to defend
South Korea.
• As the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security
Council at the time, it was unable to veto this
decision. Fifteen nations sent troops to Korea,
where they were organized under the command of
Douglas MacArthur.
• The surprise character of the attack enabled the
North Koreans to occupy all the South, except for
the area around the port of Pusan.
• On 15th September, 1950, Douglas MacArthur
landed American and South Korean marines at
Inchon, 200 miles behind the North Korean lines.
• The following day he launched a counter-attack on
the North Koreans. When they retreated,
MacArthur's forces carried the war northwards,
reaching the Yalu River, the frontier between
Korea and China on 24th October, 1950.
• Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, the Secretary
of State, told MacArthur to limit the war to Korea.
MacArthur disagreed, favoring an attack on
Chinese forces.
• Unwilling to accept the views of Truman and
Acheson, MacArthur began to make inflammatory
statements indicating his disagreements with the
United States government.
• MacArthur gained support from right-wing
members of the Senate such as Joe
McCarthy who led the attack on Truman's
administration: "With half a million
Communists in Korea killing American
men, Acheson says, 'Now let's be calm, let's
do nothing'. It is like advising a man whose
family is being killed not to take hasty
action for fear he might alienate the
affection of the murders."
• In April 1951, Harry S. Truman removed
MacArthur from his command of the United
Nations forces in Korea.
• McCarthy now called for Truman to be impeached
and suggested that the president was drunk when
he made the decision to fire MacArthur: "Truman
is surrounded by the Jessups, the Achesons, the
old Hiss crowd.
• Most of the tragic things are done at 1.30 and 2
o'clock in the morning when they've had time to
get the President cheerful."
• While this conflict was taking place in the
United States, the Chinese government sent
180,000 men to North Korea.
• This back-up enabled North Korean forces
to take Seoul for a second time in January
1951. U.N. troops eventually managed to
halt the invasion sixty miles south of the
38th parallel.
• A counter-offensive at the end of January
gradually recovered lost ground.
• Once in control of South Korea, representatives of
the United Nations began peace talks with the
North Korean government on 8th July 1951.
• An armistice agreement, maintaining the divided
Korea, was signed at Panmunjom on 27th July
1953.
• Over 25,600 American troops were killed during
the war and other U.N. contingents lost 17,000
men. It is estimated that including civilians, the
Korean War cost the lives of around 4 million
people.
• Look at the next four slides of the map of
Korean during the Korean conflict.
• Why do you think the war created many
civilian causalities?
• What impact do you think it had on
infrastructure of Korea?
Pre conflict 1950
Legacy
• “The Korean War was the first armed
confrontation of the Cold War, and it set a model
for many later conflicts. It created the idea of a
limited war, where the two superpowers would
fight without descending to an all out war that
could involve nuclear weapons. It also expanded
the Cold War, which to that point had mostly been
concerned with Europe.”
Economic and political effects
• The US doubled the size of its army, boosted its
defense budget and changed its view of what
France was doing in Indochina to a favorable one.
• The war contributed to a decline of ChineseSoviet relationships. The fact that Chinese forces
had held its own against UN and American forces
announced the turning of China into a major world
power.
Economical and Political EffectsJapan
• Japanese manufacturing grew by 50% in a
year because of the investment realized by
American companies in Japan. There was
also a heavy technological exchange
between America and Japan. Over 3.5
billion was spent in Japanese companies
from which only 5% was non-military.
Sources
• http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/kowar/
kowar.htm
• Millet, Allan. The Korean War: A 50-Year Critical
Historiography. Edited by Paul M. Edwards and
published by the Greenwood Press.
http://www.kimsoft.com/2002/kw-millett.pdf
• Freeman, Adam. Short Essay on the Korean War.
National Geographic. October 1989: pages 18-19
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkorea.h
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