14 things Korea test

How was Korea divided after liberation from Japan?
- Communist, northern half (Kim Il Sung)
- American-occupied southern half (Syngman Rhee)
- Based on the troops that liberated that region from the Japanese
- divided at the 38th parallel.
How did the crisis start?
- The North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea.
How did the US get involved?
- Kim Il-sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea
- The United States came to South Korea's aid.
- General Douglas MacArthur role?
  - had been overseeing the post-WWII occupation of Japan
  - now commanded the US forces which now began to hold off the North Koreans at Pusan (the southernmost tip of Korea )
Why did the US get involved?
- Korea was not strategically essential to the United States
- BUT the political environment at this stage of the Cold War was such that policymakers did not want to appear "soft on Communism."
Why did the US go to the UN?
- Nominally, the US intervened as part of a "police action" run by a UN (United Nations) international peace- keeping force; in actuality, the UN was simply being manipulated by US and NATO anti-Communist interests.* need more details
How successful were the US and South Korea at first?
- The US, UN, and South Korean (ROK) forces were pinned against the sea at Pusan
- So MacArthur orchestrated a daring amphibious assault on Inchon (a port on the western coast of Korea)
- MacArthur then crushed the North Korean army in a pincer movement and recaptured Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
Why did MacArthur want to continue?
- MacArthur = not satisfied with his rapid reconquest of South Korea
- crossed the 38TH Parallel
- pursued the North Korean army all the way to the northernmost provinces of North Korea.
What was the response of China?
- Mao = afraid that the US was interested in taking North Korea as a base for operations against Manchuria
- So, the People's Republic of China secretly sent an army across the Yalu River (border with N Korea)
- This Chinese army attacked the US/UN/ROK forces. It was hard for the US to match them.
- BUT? after the appointment of Lt. General Matthew Ridgway as commander of ground forces American morale improve and the initiative begin to swing against the Chinese Communists.
Why did Truman fire MacArthur?
- President Truman wanted
  - hoped to end the war quickly
  - pressed MacArthur to be more tactful
- General MacArthur
  - a brilliant strategist
  - went against presidential orders and continued spouting incendiary lines about his hopes to reunify Korea
- So Truman
  - After gaining the support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)
  - Truman relieved MacArthur of command.
- Reaction = ?
  - The move was extremely unpopular in America;
  - MacArthur was perceived as a popular war hero.
  - Only the support of the JCS saved Truman from impeachment after the firing.
What happened under Ridgway’s command?
- Ridgway took MacArthur's command and held off the Communists with strong fortifications and trenches just north of the 38TH Parallel
- He sent occasional offensives against the Iron Triangle, the Communists staging area for attacks into South Korea.
Why did peace negotiations go slowly?
- They dragged on at
  - Kaesong,
  - then moved and continued to drag at Panmunjom through 1951 and 1952.
- The US tried using?
  - strategic bombing to intimidate the Communists into negotiating a peace treaty, but they wouldn't budge
- Particularly could not agree on…
  - the issue of POW (Prisoner of War) repatriation.
- Neither side wanted to appear weak, and so...
  - the talks went on, occasionally breaking down for months.
Why did Eisenhower help end the conflict?
- he was a war hero
- he was unafraid of Republican criticism (since he himself was a Republican),
- SO, he could the US make substantial concessions to the Communists.
How did the war end?
- In 1953 a peace treaty was signed
- at Panmunjom that ended the Korean War
- Korea returned to a divided status essentially the same as before the war.
Impact on the Cold War?
- Neither the war nor its outcome did much to lessen the era's Cold War tension.

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