An alternate video part1/2
An alternate video part 2/2
Timeline of the Korean War in video form
Why did US get involved in Korean War? It was because of a variety of reasons.
The first is because of the domino theory. As China has just become communist in 1949 after its civil war where Mao’s army won Chiang Kai-Shek and forced him and his democratic followers out of China into Formosa (now Taiwan), it had gotten the Americans really worried. President Truman feared that the next domino or the next country that would fall under the hands of communism would be Japan if Korea was to fall to communism. Japan was a major trading partner of the US and the US feared that if she was to fall under the arms of communism she would lose a lot of her trade. The US was afraid that communism would spread all over the world, which seemed to be confirmed by the existence of COMINFORM. Furthermore, the US was very keen to make sure that the rest of Asia, especially Southeast Asia, would not fall under the arms of communism due to it being extremely close to China. Also, when China became communist, his administration was criticized for losing China to the communists by not giving the nationalists enough supplies for them to be able to defeat the communist forces and drive them out of China.
The second reason was because the US wanted to undermine communism. President Truman believed that capitalism, freedom and the American way of life were in the danger of getting overrun by communist ideas. The Truman doctrine and Marshall Plan were a few of the ways of containing the spread of communism in Europe but recently, the communists were catching up fast. The Soviets ended the American’s nuclear monopoly by successfully exploding a nuclear bomb in 1949 and China being communist in 1949 really worried the US. Thus in April 1950, the American National Security Council issued a report (NSC 68) which recommended the Americans to stop simply containing communism and take actions instead to “confront it with convincing evidence of the determination and ability of the free world to frustrate the Kremlin design of a world dominated by its will.” This caused Truman to think about driving the communists out of Korea. Thus when South Korea was invaded by the North Koreans, Truman took the opportunity to step in and intervene by defending a non-communist country from a communist invasion. Truman was concerned about the aggressive nature of the communist.
In his speech of June 27, Truman argues that "communism has passed beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent nations and will now use armed invasion and war." His statement shown that he believed the invasion of Korea was just a small part of a much bigger plan by the newly communist China and possibly Russia as well. He believed and told his advisors that the invasion of Korea was inspired by the Soviet Union. He also said that America had to step up and fight now otherwise there would be no telling as to what the communists would do. Truman was concerned about the future of the non-communist governments currently in Asia and he pledged to defend several countries including Formosa from communist attacks as well as to support the French who were in Indochina. Also, his statement reflected a new order in the American military system. Even though the US was the one taking the lead in the Korean War, it did it under the rubrics by the United Nations. He also reminded all of the members of the United Nations to "consider carefully the consequences of this latest aggression in Korea" and that America "will continue to uphold the rule of law."
Furthermore, Truman realized that the US and Russia were both competing for world domination. If America were to step into the Korean War, she would be able to indirectly attack Russia without getting into a hot war as the effects of both parties getting into a hot war was undesirable and they would rather fight a proxy war where the US controls South Korea and Russia controls North Korea.
Another reason for entering the Korean War was to save face. Korean was not important to the US economically and thus the US had no need for Korea. However, it entered partially because it did not want to seem weak and cower before communism. Thus, the US brought its forces in to defend Korea so that would appear strong to the rest of the world.
In conclusion, the US decided to intervene in the Korean War because of the domino theory, to try to undermine the spread of communism to protect the American way of life, to compete with Russia indirectly without starting a hot war as well as to appear strong and save America’s face.
References:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/korean-conflict/
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/koreanwar/context.html
http://www.korean-war.com/Archives/2001/04/msg00014.html
The fighting of the Korean War was mainly between the troops from North and South Korea, the UN and China. Hence, some might think that Russia had little effect on the progress of the war. However, Russia did have a say in the war: in fact, it turns out that the war would not have started without Russian support on the side of the North Koreans.
After World War II, Russia believed that a reunification of Korea could still take place. Hence, Stalin was not planning to initiate an attack of South Korea from North Korea. Instead, he was actually afraid that South Korea would attack first, so he avoided offending the US and South Korea. This attitude continued through early 1949, when Stalin was informed of the increasing number of violations of the 38th parallel, where North and South Korea are divided.
It had been believed that Stalin commanded Kim to start the Korean War. Instead, Russian documents declassified in the early 1990s reveal that it was Kim who asked Stalin for permission to go to war for nearly a year before Stalin finally approved of it. Indeed, during Kim's visit to Moscow in March 1949, he told Stalin that the reunification of Korea was only possible "through military means". Stalin refuted this point, stating that North Korea did not have as large an army as South Korea. Also, Stalin said that North Korea should only attack South Korea after the South launches an attack first.
However, North Korea did not stop putting pressure on Russia to start an invasion of South Korea. This continued persuasion worked; Stalin finally gave in to Kim's requests in January 1950, and promised to help plan the invasion as long as risks of failure of reunification are minimised. To this end, Stalin provided the North Koreans with munitions and advisers, who drew up the entire battle plan for North Korea. The actual invasion was carried out on 25 June 1950, under the excuse that the South Korean border guards shot at the North Korean guards (this incident was also caused by the North Koreans themselves).
It is not clear what prompted Stalin to make this decision of offering assistance to North Korea, but possible factors include the successful establishment of Mao's communist government in China in 1949, which might lead him to believe that a similar revolution is feasible in other areas. Also, there was the desire to eliminate the only ally of the US in mainland Asia, so as to consolidate the position of the USSR as a world superpower, with a large part of Asia under its influence.
However, Stalin would not have joined the Korean War if not for the continuous persuasion by the North Koreans that there was no other way to reunite Korea than by force. All preparation by Russia for North Korea for the Korean War was under the pretext that North Korea actually succeed in their operation, and that this war would be swift enough to not allow any time for the US to intervene. Stalin placed this as the top priority, as he absolutely did not wish for a third World War to happen. This explains why he ordered all advisers and ships off the front line, and did not openly support North Korea for a full week, after the UN troops landed in Incheon on 15 September 1950. Thereafter, all Soviet involvement in the Korean War had been kept confidential.
Interestingly, the Korean War was useful to Russia in a way unforeseen before the war. When Russia could participate in the war under cover, Stalin realised that he could use this as an opportunity to find out about US technologies, in particular the F-86 Sabre which rivalled the Soviet MiG-15. This was the main reason why the Korean War dragged on for so long in stalemate: Stalin could veto armistice agreements proposed by the Security Council indefinitely, to continue gathering intelligence through the war. This period finally ended with the death of Stalin in March 1953, and the ceasefire took effect relatively quickly on 27 July of the same year.
Sources:
Lashmar, Paul, "Stalin's 'hot' war": http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/lashmar.htm
The Origins of the Korean War: http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Korean_War.html
The United Nations is a multinational peace organisation founded in 1945. Its main purpose was to replace the then near-defunct League of Nations, an organisation with similar goals to the UN, and in addition create a platform for dialogue and communication, and the promotion of peace without massive Hippie Jam Festivals. When the KPA invaded South Korea, sparking a war in the Korean Peninsular, the UN almost immediately condemned the North Korean invasion. This was followed by United Nations Resolution #83, recommending military assistance to the ROK, eventually resulting in collective UN peacekeeping intervention.
The United Nations organisation cited a reason for its decision to intervene:
The KPA attack was, according to intelligence, backed by China and possibly the Soviet Union, and hence was no longer classified as a "Civil War" - the UN had to intervene to prevent the total annexation of ROK.
However, there is another reason:
The UN was under heavy American influence, and the largely American policy of containment persuaded the UN to pass a resolution in favour of a non-communist linked state.
It is noteworthy that the Soviet Union strongly opposed this resolution. The Soviet Union claimed that the intelligence about the KPA attack was based on American espionage, and thus was void. It then boycotted the United Nation Security Council.
However, the UN did not follow exact procedure when it was handling the crisis. It violated multiple charters, for example, North Korea was not invited as a temporary member at discussions involving the handling of the crisis. Also, although the Soviet Union boycotted the Security Council, the UN continued on without it, despite major decisions requiring all five permanent members to agree unanimously.
Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film.
Undated.
Civil Defense, based on the assumption that a nuclear attack from the former Soviet Union was imminent, ranked high on the list of U.S. priorities in the 1960s. The Federal Civil Defense Administration was in charge of this Cold War activity. A key point emphasized in the video is that for citizens to survive a nuclear attack, they must be prepared. This meant they must know the locations of approved Civil Defense shelters or have their own shelter at their home, or both.
In the opening scenes, an Air Raid Warden is blowing his whistle while air raid sirens are blaring, and citizens are heading toward the shelters. The narrator extols citizens to prepare a fallout shelter with adequate food and emergency supplies. He warns that the usual emergency services such as fire, police and hospitals may not be available after a nuclear attack. He also urges citizens to know the sanctioned evacuation routes from potentially targeted cities. Citizens were expected to evacuate in an orderly manner, free from panic and driving mishaps.
The video shows that many nuclear tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) to gain data that would help in Civil Defense preparedness. As part of Operation Cue, the video depicts many unidentified atmospheric tests fired to learn potential effects of detonations on citizens and cities and to test the effectiveness of Civil Defense organizations.
At the NTS, entire cities or "doomtowns," including houses containing furniture, appliances, food, and mannequins representing people, were built. Utility stations and automobiles were also located in the town. The houses were constructed with various exteriors. Inside each house was an array of instruments to gather the pertinent data on blast, heat and radiation effects. The majority of the houses were destroyed by the blasts. Industrial-type buildings and transportation structures, such as railways, bridges and freeways were also subjected to nuclear blasts.
The video shows military troops participating in Camp Desert Rock Exercises and witnessing the power and fury of an atomic blast. The underlying message given is that if citizens remain calm and "face it," they can survive the bomb.
Reasons to why China entered the Korean War:
China entered the Korean War because of a variety of reasons.
The first reason was for self defense, as China was afraid of being attacked militarily and politically, the latter referring to the threat of Anti-Communism.
China, having just become a communist nation, was still relatively unstable politically. Therefore it wanted to keep a 'safety zone' so that no countries, especially the anti-communist nations would disrupt its political reconstruction. Countries that come to close might try to use the opportunity to disrupt the internal security of China and try to overthrow The CCP(Chinese Communist Party) and try to change its ruling system from a communist to a democratic nation. China was afraid that when South Korea won the war and China did not help, the US would have a big opportunity to break into China and try to convert the entire nation into a democratic nation and put the KMT(Kuomintang) back into power. As such, it was willing to lend aid into the war to try and drive the 'evils' of the American imperialism from North Korea.
Also, China did not want to enter the war much later as it would be economically less advantageous as compared to if it had entered the war much earlier. Furthermore, China also wanted to protect its own infrastructures from other countries. For example, the hydro electrical dams built at South Manchuria would have been seriously exploited if the other countries successfully captured the whole of Korea and proceeded onto China
The second reason could be due to General MacArthur's bad decision to not heed the Chinese warnings for the US troops to back off.
General MacArthur, who was invading North Korea, was coming far to close to the Yalu River, the border of China and North Korea. As such, the government of China warned him not to come closer than 20 miles from the Yalu River or China would consider that as a threat to the internal security of China and China would then enter the war on the side of the North Koreans. However, General MacArthur ignored China's warning and continued to march forward, closer and closer to the Yalu River. Despite repeated warnings from the current US president at that time, President Henry Truman, MacArthur continued to push forward and even boasted that the Americans would be able to return home by Christmas. He even provoked the Chinese by lining his men up against the side of the Yalu River.
On October 25 1950, China launched 2 minor skirmishes that routed the American soldiers. Then on first November 1950, the first major battle started when thousands of PVA(People's Volunteer Army) encircled and scattered many of the soldiers and turned the tables of the war, where it begun its offensive push downwards.
Peng Dehuai, commander-in-chief of the PVA(People's Volunteer Army) during the Korean War
PVA(People's Volunteer Army) crossing the Yalu River
The third reason was a more offensive reason, which was to prove China's military strength.
The communist China hated the Americans as they had backed the KMT(Kuomintang) during the Chinese Civil War and they had been looking for a chance to fight the Americans. Also, Mao wanted to show that China was a force not to be reckoned with and she wanted to show that a country can still be strong with a communist government. Mao also wanted to show that China was a force in world communism as he thought that Russia had looked down on China and entering the Korean War was a good way of showing China's military strength. As such, China entered the war and supplied aid to the North Koreans, just like what the Russians were doing. China entered the war because of national pride and to show to the West that it too, can be a world power.
The last reason was because China felt indebted towards the North Koreans as they had provide them with assistance during the Japanese invasion of China as well as the Civil War in China and as such, helped to establish China as a communist nation by helping the CCP(Chinese Communist Party) to win the war. During the Japanese invasion, Chinese and Korean communists were cooperating with each other to mount guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in a combined effort to drive them out of both Korea and China. During that time, the Chinese and Korean communist leaders, Mao Zedong and Kim both forged close ties with each other. Furthermore, during the Chinese Civil War between the nationalist KMT(Kuomintang) and the communist CCP, (Chinese Communist Party), Kim supported the communist side by continually supplying them with food, supplies and troops.
Chinese propaganda poster asking the Chinese to stand up help the Koreans while resisting the Americans
In short, the reasons that could have made China enter the Korean War in the side of the North Koreans was because of:
1. National Security
2. MacArthur's Threats towards China
3. To prove China's Military Strength
4. To repay North Korea for all their help towards China
Chinese anti-American poster
Acknowledgments for the pictures:
http://factsanddetails.com/media/2/20080310-Korean%20war,%20anti%20American.jpg
http://factsanddetails.com/media/2/20080310-Korean%20war,%20anti%20American%202.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:General_Peng_Dehuai.jpg
http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20090820/000bcdb95f1d0bf7609a60.jpg
