What do you know about Korea War in 1950?

[Iamcoming]

[nightdrot]

The Korean War was fought from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. It is generally seen, at least in the popular mind, as the opening salvo in the diplomatic, economic, ideological and occasionally military conflict that came to be called the Cold War between the USA and the Western nations and the USSR, China and the other communist states.

The war is generally agreed to have begun in part by accident. The USSR had been facing pressure from the West in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. The USSR had entered the Second World War against Japan a day after the atomic bombing, by the USA, of Hiroshima. The USSR then sent its forces into Japanese occupied Korea up to the 38th parallel, where they met up with an American force coming from the south.

North Korea was then placed under the communist dictatorship of Kim Il-sung. South Korea under the presidency of Syngman Rhee. Here the situation stayed even as tensions between the USSR and the West began to rise, particularly over the status of occupied Germany in Europe.

However, the delicate balance was accidentally upset when the American Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, gave a speech in 1950 defining the defensive perimeter of the United States in the Far East. He drew a line that - perhaps accidentally, perhaps intentionally, (it is not clear) - excluded South Korea. Kim Il-sung read this and saw is as an opportunity to unify the Korean peninsula under his communist rule. In the USSR, Stalin, seeing perhaps an easy victory and also looking to distract the USA from Europe, gave North Korea the nod and on June 25, 1950, North Korea launched a massive invasion of the south.

The North Korea attack caught the South Koreans and the residual American force backing them, and drove down the peninsula. The North Korean offensive being halted around the South Korean port city of Pusan at the bottom of the peninsula. From here, at the "Pusan Perimeter," the war bogged down in stalemate. The South Korean-American force was hemmed in, but the North Koreans lacked the resources to capture Pusan and end the war.

(On the diplomatic front, the USA went to the Security Council of the United Nations Organization to ask it to condemn the North Korean action and to organize a multi-national force to support South Korea. Normally, the Soviets would have been in a position to veto the UN action, but Moscow was boycotting the UN for its refusal to seat the Chinese Communist as the official representative of China. With the USSR absent, and China represented by Taiwan on the Security Council, the resolution passed. Eventually over 20 countries would send forces to fight on the South Korean side in the war.)

Against this backdrop, the American commander, General Douglas MacArthur (of WWII fame), organized his forces and launched a daring amphibious invasion behind the North Korean lines at the port city of Inchon. This in coordination with an offensive by the USA-South Korean-UN force out of Pusan.

The North Koreans collapsed and withdrew all the way to the Yalu River on the border with China. At this point MacArthur asked President Truman for permission to pursue the remnant North Koreans onto the river to defeat them and end the war. Fearing Chinese intervention, Truman refused. The ensuing dispute between Truman and MacArthur would result in the latter being fired, to immense furor in the USA and damage to Truman's popularity.

In any event, with an allied force on their border, the Chinese under Mao Zedong launched a surprise attack against the UN-US-South Korea force, driving it all the way back to approximately the 38th parallel. There the war stalemated and although there would be tactical and some operational movement of the lines over the next two years, overall the war remained in stalemate.

CONT.

[nightdrot]

When WWII war hero Dwight Eisenhower was elected to succeed President Truman, he quietly threatened nuclear action unless North Korea agreed to an armistice. Subsequently, on July 27, 1953, the Armistice of Panmunjom was signed, ending the fighting though - and this is true to this day - not the war under international law. Subsequently, the USA and South Korea signed a mutual defense treaty that remains in effect to the present day.

Two other points: The death of Joseph Stalin probably was a factor in the end of the war. He had a stake in the war and inhibited negotiations to end the war, but when he died the Soviet leadership was able to get out of a conflict that they increasingly saw as a distraction.

Also, there was a split on how the war was seen. Eisenhower, whose implicit threat to use nuclear weapons facilitated the war's end saw it as a satisfactory end, but not necessarily victorious. Thus he did not support engaging in negotiations with the USSR to end the Cold War and bring about a settlement in Europe. By contrast, leaders like Churchill saw the war as a victory for the West - after all, the aim had been to save South Korea and it had been saved - and an opportunity to negotiate with the Soviets from a position of strength.

This is where things currently stand. Hope that helps.

[TwoToTooTutu2]

My Grandpa was there. He was a Naval Engineer of sorts on sole Aircraft carrier.

[Nisabennn]

Aylayı izledim ğdpcieifşeşiflğw ordaki bilgiler şslfkeşd şaka.

[Guy13]

China, USA, Asia, and SE Asia.

[JohnK123]

More 18 year old boys getting killed

[OddBeMe]

It was actually our only war against china.

[Anonymous]

I know more than most people.