Chapter 9: Korean War



Chapter 9: Korean War

← What were the long-term causes, short-term causes and immediate cause which led to the Korean

war?

The long-term cause of the Korean War involves the reason responsible for the division of Korean

into two parts. The North is communist and the south is a democracy. When World War II

ended, Korea (which was a former Japanese colony) was split into half along the 38th parallel.

The Russians who occupied the area north of the 38th parallel helped set up a communist

government in North Korea. The Americans who occupied the area south of the 38th parallel helped set up an anti-communist democracy in South Korean. It remains how Korea will reunify itself.

The short-term cause of the Korean war was America’s decision to announce that Korea was no longer in their area of interest. The US also withdrew some of their troops from Korea. This seemed like an opportunity for the North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung, to reunify Korea.

The immediate cause of the Korean war was when China and the Soviet Union endorsed Kim Il Sung’s plan to invade South Korea. The moment North Korea invaded South Korea, the Korean war occurred.

← Why did the US and China get themselves involved in the war?

The US got themselves involved because they immediately realised that the fall of Korean threatened their strategic position in the region. Japan was close by and an ally of the US. If Korea was unified under communist rule, the Americans feared that it would lead to communist influence growing and spreading to Japan and Southeast Asia.

The US also involved themselves in Korea because the South Korean army was unable to defend South Korea effectively. After a few months, the capital of South Korean, Seoul was already in North Korean hands. US and South Korean troops only held on to the Pusan area.

China got themselves involved because the US general McArthur was determined to provoke China into entering the war. McArthur was able to defeat the North Korean Army and pushed them out of South Korea. Yet he decided on bombing Chinese positions along the Yalu River. This angered the Chinese.

China also got themselves involved because their strategic interest in the region was affected with the defeat of the North Korean Army. Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea was occupied and it seemed like the US would achieve total victory in Korea, reunifying Korea under US influence. China did not want this to happen because it meant that China would now have a common border with democratic Korea. At all costs, China was determined to ensure that North Korea would be a buffer zone between the two countries.

← Why did the Soviet Union not participate more vigorously in the Korean War?

The Soviet Union only sent their air force and technical crew to the Korean War. They also supplied North Korea and China with weapons. They did not send in ground troops and played a limitd role in the Korean War.

The reason why they did so was because they did not want the event to lead to an all-out nuclear war. Both the US and the Soviet Union are nuclear powers. In the event of a nuclear war between these two giants, both countries would be wiped out.

The Soviet Union also did not participate more actively in the Korean war because they were concerned about other places in Europe which was of more strategic interest to the Soviet Union. There was always a danger that war would break out in Europe over Berlin.

Another reason is because the Soviet Union would not be directly affected by the Korean incident. The country which would share a common border with Korea and be most affected by US victory was China.

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