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Who won the Korean War?
No winner emerged. Instead, Korea returned to the status quo ante bellum (the way things were before the war), and North and South Korea remained divided along the same borders as earlier. While the US did succeed in checking Communist expansion, it did so at great cost in lives and money. In the larger Cold War context, while the Korean War certainly didn’t improve the situation, it also didn’t lead to disintegration of relations or to a much wider (and potentially nuclear) war, as it could have.
Why did North Korea cross the 38th Parallel and invade South Korea?
The North Koreans wanted to reunify Korea under Communist rule, and Stalin most likely gave his approval for the invasion, perhaps as a test of how the US would react—or, as some have hypothesized, a test run for a Soviet takeover of Berlin. Regardless, the North Koreans were armed with Soviet T-34 tanks. It is also possible that the North Koreans had misinterpreted US rhetoric and policy at the time to suggest that Korea was not vital to American security and interests.
How did American politics effect the war?
Truman, a Democrat, did not want to appear to be “soft on Communism,” lest his Republican opponents attack him. McCarthyism, a rampant paranoid anti-communism sweeping the US, created a particularly hysterical anti-Communist environment. Within this context, although General MacArthur often acted insubordinately, Truman was hesitant to take action against him because the general was so popular with the Republicans, and to a high degree, the American public overall. The combined support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff helped Truman from being impeached after he fired MacArthur. Truman could not negotiate easily with the Communists either, for fear of Republican criticism. Only Eisenhower, a Republican war hero, was able to make concessions to Chinese and Panmunjom, managing to get a weak treaty signed without criticism.
Why did the US intervene in Korea when it did not intervene in China?
Having just seen China fall to Communism, US policymakers had a heightened sensitivity to Communist threats, and considered the North Korean invasion to be a possible test-run for an invasion in Eastern Europe. According to the logic of a memo issued by the National Security Council, known as NSC-68, a communist attack anywhere should be viewed as an attack everywhere. Under that logic, Korea became “as good a place to draw the line as anywhere.”
What was the role of the UN in the Korean War?
The United Nations acted as a policy instrument of the US during the Korean War. Especially with the USSR boycotting most UN proceedings, the US used its powerful influence to shape UN policy to meet its own individual needs. The UN International Peace-Keeping Force, made up mostly of American troops (and a few NATO troops), was created primarily to give the appearance that support for South Korea was more than just a unilateral American action. Nevertheless, over 3,000 of these non-US soldiers in the UN forces supporting South Korea were killed during the conflict.
Was the Korean War an international war or a civil war?
It was both. Many nations were involved in the Korean War and about 75,000 non-Korean combatants were killed, making it was an international war. Nevertheless, it was also a civil war in that both sides had been part of the same country, sharing a common language and culture just a few years earlier. Korea had been divided along the 38th Parallel—a boundary with no historical precedent or resonance by the US and the USSR after World War II. It was because of this somewhat ambiguous nature of the Korean War that the UN classified the attack by North Korea as a “breach of peace” rather than a far worse act of “aggression.”
Why did the negotiations to end the Korean War go on for so long?
The negotiations at Kaesong and then Panmunjom dragged on for so long (about 2 years) primarily because neither side was willing to make concessions for fear of appearing weak. Specific issues included the fate of Formosa (Taiwan), the dividing line between North and South Korea, and the question of what to do with prisoners of war.
Why did China launch a counteroffensive against the US/UN/ROK forces?
Analysis of the motivation behind the decision by the People's Republic of China cross the Yalu and start a counteroffensive against the United States, United Nations, and Republic of Korea forces usually focuses on the fact that as MacArthur’s forces pressed North across the 38th Parallel, the Chinese Communists feared an invasion of Manchuria. Furthermore, MacArthur’s meeting with Truman at Wake Island may have been misinterpreted to suggest to PRC leaders that a major US offensive was in the works, perhaps a plot to restart the Chinese civil war.
What was the result of Truman's firing MacArthur?
General Ridgway replaced MacArthur as Commander of the Far East. Ridgway held a more cautious stance than MacArthur, and unlike his predecessor, he followed orders from Washington readily and did not seek to expand the war as haphazardly. However, Truman’s dismissal of MacArthur angered many of Republican admirers of MacArthur in Congress, who threatened to impeach Truman. Fortunately for him, Truman had the unanimous opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff behind him, so the impeachment did not proceed. In the long run, Truman’s reliance on the Joint Chiefs of Staff increased the group’s power in military decisions over the future Presidents.
Was strategic bombing effective during the Korean War?
For the most part it was not. North Korea was simply not industrialized enough for strategic bombing to have a devastating impact. The infrastructure (especially bridges and roads) that strategic bombing did manage to destroy were usually quickly rebuilt by North Korean laborers. In negotiations as well, strategic bombing, even that aimed against dams and power plants in northernmost Korea, failed to win concessions, and may actually have hardened the resolve of the Communists.
