THE COLD WAR OUTSIDE EUROPE THE KOREAN WAR

THE KOREAN WAR Before World War II Korea was a Japanese colony. When the war ended the country was divided along the 38th Parallel. The Soviet Union supported a communist dictator, Kim Il Sung, in North Korea and the United States supported democratic South Korea.

THE KOREAN WAR Kim Il Sung wanted to unite the whole of Korea under his rule and invaded the South in 1950. South Korea asked the United Nations for help. The army was led by American General McArthur and most of its troops were American. North Korea retreated back to the Yalu River on the Chinese boarder. The communist Chinese feared American invasion and pushed them back into Korean, with McArthur retreating to the 38th Parallel. Peace talks did not take place until Stalin’s death in 1953.

THE KOREAN WAR RESULTS: 4 million soldiers and civilians had died in the war. It set a pattern for the balance of terror where the superpowers did not fight each other directly.

THE ARMS RACE During the Cold War each superpower tried to build bigger and more deadly weapons than its rival. The Americans had the atom bomb in 1945 and the Soviets in 1949. They also had inter-continental ballistic missiles. Fear over these weapons may have stopped all out war. this was called the ‘balance of terror’.

Following Stalin’s death in 1953, Khrushchev became the ruler of the Soviet Union. He wanted to reduce conflict and ‘peaceful co-existence’. However, conflict increased from 1961 when John F Kennedy became US President and the Berlin wall was built by the East Germans. America put missiles in countries near the Soviet Union (Turkey and Norway) as a threat.

CUBA AND THE AMERICAS Cuba is an island off the coast of America and was under its control. In 1959 Fidel Castro led a revolution and gained control of the country. Cuba was cut off from America and turned to the Soviet Union for help.

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Khrushchev installed missiles in Cuba. American spy planes spotted this. For three days it seemed that war would break out before the superpowers made a deal. The Soviet Union would remove missiles from Cuba. The US would not invade Cuba and they would remove missiles from Turkey.

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS The crisis frightened the two superpowers and relations between them improved. They set up a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin so that the leaders could easily find out what the other was thinking.

END OF THE COLD WAR Khrushchev retired following the Cuban Missile Crisis and was followed by Brezhnev. Gorbachev took over in 1985 and wanted to bring reform to the Soviet Union, making it more democratic. In November 1989 civilians pulled the Berlin Wall down. In other countries communists were forced from power. The Cold War was over.

THE KOREAN WAR Before World War II Korea was a Japanese colony. When the war ended the country was divided along the 38th Parallel. The Soviet Union supported a communist dictator, Kim Il Sung, in North Korea and the United States supported democratic South Korea. Kim Il Sung wanted to unite the whole of Korea under his rule and invaded the South in 1950. South Korea asked the United Nations for help. The army was led by American General McArthur and most of its troops were American. North Korea retreated back to the Yalu River on the Chinese boarder. The communist Chinese feared American invasion and pushed them back into Korean, with McArthur retreating to the 38th Parallel. Peace talks did not take place until Stalin’s death in 1953.