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Causes Of The Korean War Essay Research

Causes Of The Korean War Essay, Research Paper


Causes of the Korean War


Andrew Glass


Global Studies


Period Seven


The Korean War, 1950-1953


After the USSR installed a Communist government in North Korea in


September 1948, that government promoted and supported an insurgency in


South Korea in an attempt to bring down the recognized government and


gain jurisdiction over the entire Korean peninsula. Not quite two years


later, after the insurgency showed signs of failing, the northern


government undertook a direct attack, sending the North Korea People’s


Army south across the 38th parallel before daylight on Sunday, June 25,


1950. The invasion, in a narrow sense, marked the beginning of a civil


war between peoples of a divided country. In a larger sense, the cold


war between the Great Power blocs had erupted in open hostilities.


The western bloc, especially the United States, was surprised by the


North Korean decision. Although intelligence information of a possible


June invasion had reached Washington, the reporting agencies judged an


early summer attack unlikely. The North Koreans, they estimated, had not


yet exhausted the possibilities of the insurgency and would continue


that strategy only.


The North Koreans, however, seem to have taken encouragement from the


U.S. policy which left Korea outside the U.S. “defense line” in Asia and


from relatively public discussions of the economies placed on U.S. armed


forces. They evidently accepted these as reasons to discount American


counteraction, or their sponsor, the USSR, may have made that


calculation for them. The Soviets also appear to have been certain the


United Nations would not intervene, for in protest against Nationalist


China’s membership in the U.N. Security Council and against the U.N.’s


refusal to seat Communist China, the USSR member had boycotted council


meetings since January 1950 and did not return in June to veto any


council move against North Korea.


Moreover, Kim Il Sung, the North Korean Premier, could be confident that


his army, a modest force of 135,000, was superior to that of South


Korea. Koreans who had served in Chinese and Soviet World War II armies


made up a large part of his force. He had 8 full divisions, each


including a regiment of artillery; 2 divisions at half strength; 2


separate regiments; an armored brigade with 120 Soviet T-34 medium


tanks; and 5 border constabulary brigades. He also had 180 Soviet


aircraft, mostly fighters and attack bombers, and a few naval patrol


craft.


The Republic of Korea (ROK) Army had just 95,000 men and was far less


fit. Raised as a constabulary during occupation, it had not in its later


combat training under a U.S. Military Advisor Group progressed much


beyond company-level exercises. Of its eight divisions, only four


approached full strength. It had no tanks and its artillery totaled


eighty-nine 105-mm. howitzers. The ROK Navy matched its North Korean


counterpart, but the ROK Air Force had only a few trainers and liaison


aircraft. U.S. equipment, war-worn when furnished to South Korean


forces, had deteriorated further, and supplies on hand could sustain


combat operations no longer than fifteen days. Whereas almost $11


million in materiel assistance had been allocated to South Korea in


fiscal year 1950 under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program,


Congressional review of the allocation so delayed the measure that only


a trickle of supplies had reached the country by June 25, 1950.


The North Koreans quickly crushed South Korean defenses at the 38th


parallel. The main North Korean attack force next moved down the west


side of the peninsula toward Seoul, the South Korean capital, thirty-


five miles below the parallel, and entered the city on June 28.


Secondary thrusts down the peninsula’s center and down the east coast


kept pace with the main drive. The South Koreans withdrew in disorder,


those troops driven out of Seoul forced to abandon most of their


equipment because the bridges over the Han River at the south edge of


the city were prematurely demolished. The North Koreans halted after


capturing Seoul, but only briefly to regroup before cros

sing the Han.


In Washington, where a 14-hour time difference made it June 24 when the


North Koreans crossed the parallel, the first report of the invasion


arrived that night. Early on the 25th, the United States requested a


meeting of the U.N. Security Council. The council adopted a resolution


that afternoon demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities and a


withdrawal of North Korean forces to the 38th parallel.


In independent actions on the night of the 25th, President Truman


relayed orders to General of the Army Douglas MacArthur at MacArthur’s


Far East Command headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, to supply ROK forces with


ammunition and equipment, evacuate American dependents from Korea, and


survey conditions on the peninsula to determine how best to assist the


republic further. The President also ordered the U.S. Seventh Fleet from


its current location in Philippine and Ryukyu waters to Japan. On the


26th, in a broad interpretation of a U.N. Security Council request for


“every assistance” in supporting the June 25 resolution, President


Truman authorized General MacArthur to use air and naval strength


against North Korean targets below the 38th parallel. The President also


redirected the bulk of the Seventh Fleet to Taiwan, where by standing


between the Chinese Communists on the mainland and the Nationalists on


the island it could discourage either one from attacking the other and


thus prevent a widening of hostilities.


When it became clear on June 27 that North Korea would ignore the U.N.


demands, the U.N. Security Council, again at the urging of the United


States, asked U.N. members to furnish military assistance to help South


Korea repel the invasion. President Truman immediately broadened the


range of U.S. air and naval operations to include North Korea and


authorized the use of U.S. Army troops to protect Pusan, Korea’s major


port at the southeastern tip of the peninsula. MacArthur meanwhile had


flown to Korea and, after witnessing failing ROK Army efforts in


defenses south of the Han River, recommended to Washington that a U.S.


Army regiment be committed in the Seoul area at once and that this force


be built up to two divisions. President Truman’s answer on June 30


authorized MacArthur to use all forces available to him.


Thus the United Nations for the first time since its founding reacted to


aggression with a decision to use armed force. The United States would


accept the largest share of the obligation in Korea but, still deeply


tired of war, would do so reluctantly. President Truman later described


his decision to enter the war as the hardest of his days in office. But


he believed that if South Korea was left to its own defense and fell, no


other small nation would have the will to resist aggression, and


Communist leaders would be encouraged to override nations closer to U.S.


shores. The American people, conditioned by World War II to battle on a


grand scale and to complete victory, would experience a deepening


frustration over the Korean conflict, brought on in the beginning by


embarrassing reversals on the battlefield.


More far reaching was the war’s impact on the two Great Power blocs. The


primary result for the western bloc was a decided strengthening of the


NATO alliance. Virtually without military power in June 1950, NATO could


call on fifty divisions and strong air and naval contingents by 1953 a


build-up directly attributable to the increased threat of general war


seen in the outbreak of hostilities in Korea. With further reinforcement


in the NATO forecast at the end of the Korean War, USSR armed aggression


in western Europe became unlikely. For the east, the major result was


the emergence of Communist China as a Great Power. A steady improvement


in the Chinese army and air force during the war gave China a more


powerful military posture at war’s end than when it had intervened; and


its performance in Korea, despite vast losses, won China respect as a


nation to be reckoned with not only in Asian but in world affairs.


Kaiser, Robert. Korea from the Inside. New York, 1980


Lawrence, John. A History of Korea. New York, 1993


Seeger, Elizabeth. The pageant of Korean History. Canada, 1967

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