Korean War [1950-1953]

Korean War [1950-1953] Kim Il-Sung Syngman Rhee “Domino Theory”

Background Info! America had managed to keep communism in Europe and western Asia from spreading until this period of time Korea was ruled harshly by the Japanese from 1910 until the end of WWII At that time the peninsula was divided in half The north was backed by the Soviet Union The south was backed by America

Summary of War June 25, 1950 North Korean troops invaded Within three days the entire peninsula was almost entirely taken over President Truman acted quickly and ask the UN Security Council to deal with the issue So who was & wasn’t there for the vote? (hint p. 850 & 841) The leader for American forces was a WWII hero, General Douglas McArthur 90% of the UN forces were American

Summary of War When UN forces first showed up they were completely outnumbered and poorly supplied In September McArthur counterattacked and put North Korea’s forces on the run across the 38th parallel McArthur and his forces nearly pushed the North Koreans to the Yalu River which separates Korea and China Next the Chinese jumped in this fight and pushed the UN forces back to South Korea where a stalemate was reached at the 38th parallel

MacArthur McArthur felt that the only way to win was to attack China Truman did not because he thought this could lead to a new world war McArthur was asked to not make any further public comment about the decision, but McArthur would not stop and went on to say that he could not win this war because of the politicians in Washington McArthur was fired! The fighting would go on for two more years, while peace talks were happening between the two sides Finally a cease-fire was reached in July of 1953

Final summary of the war Both sides agreed to create a DMZ (demilitarized zone) which neither side controls It is still there today! Two million Koreans died, many were civilians America lost 30,000 soldiers & 100,000 were wounded Even though the fighting stopped in 1953, tensions between North and South Korea continue even to this day Kim Jong Un Park Guen-hye

More fear of Communism With the Soviets developing an atomic bomb in 1949, China becoming communist in 1949, and the stalemate of the Korean War 1950-1953, Americans were now very paranoid! To add to all of this Alger Hiss was accused by a known communist, Whittaker Chambers, of giving him top secret papers to pass on to the Soviet Union in the 1930’s Hiss was a State Department official at the time and denied the accusation entirely Then Chambers came up with the papers on microfilm that he had hidden in a pumpkin in his garden Too much time had passed to convict Hiss of spying, but he did go to jail for lying to the congressional committee

Rosenbergs To add to all of this paranoia several American were accused in the 1950’s of passing atomic bomb secrets on to the Soviets Julius & Ethel Rosenberg were two such people who were executed in 1953 At the time many people thought that the evidence against them was weak However, in the 1990’s the government finally was able to release more information about both the Hiss and Rosenberg's cases showing their involvement and justification for punishments

McCarthyism Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin fueled the fire even further He promised to expose people who were communists At one time he swore he had a list of 205 people who worked for the State Department Then his number changed to 81 & then later 57 He never showed his “list” to anyone, but people still believed what he was saying because of our paranoia of the times

McCarthyism From 1951 – 1954 McCarthy’s charges became more and more crazy and people began using the term McCarthyism became popular to use when accusing someone of being a Communist Many people were afraid to stand up to McCarthy because they didn’t want to labeled as a Communist too It all came to a end in 1954 when McCarthy was caught making false accusations on television before a live audience against the United States Army McCarthy was seen as a bully and his career was finished Three years later he died and the whole Communist “freak out” was over