The Cold War Begins 25.4 The Korean War “Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew, and a people they never met.” 25.4 The Korean War

Focus Your Thoughts . . . Where is Korea? What countries neighbor Korea? Knowing what you know about the Cold War, Korea’s neighbors, and Korea as it exists today, what do you think the Korean War might be about?

Korea’s Significant Location East Asia Korea is a peninsula which is bordered on the west by the Yellow Sea and on the east by the Sea of Japan Korea shares a border with China, which shares a border with Russia Korea is also a close neighbor of Japan

What is the ‘38th’ parallel referred to as today? Korea before the War In 1905, Korea came under Japanese control, however, after Japan was defeated in WWII, Korea was made a free country by the Allied Powers In order to protect this new country, we divided Korea in two at the 38th parallel The Soviet Union controlled North Korea The Americans controlled South Korea What is the ‘38th’ parallel referred to as today?

The DMZ The De-Militarized Zone North and South Korean army personnel at the DMZ

The Split

Soviet & American Occupation The presence of the Soviets in the North and the Americans in the South was meant to be temporary, but the Cold War led to problems Stalin tried to set up a communist government in North Korea (shocking!) South Korea had a democratic government, led by President Syngman Rhee He hoped to unify North and South Korea once again North Korea then named itself the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea The first leader was Kim Il Sung He hoped to unify North and South Korea once again as well, disagreed about how to do this . . . this led to war

The Start of the Korean War June 25, 1950 100,000 N. Korean soldiers invaded S. Korea The troops carried Soviet weapons and drove Soviet tanks; the future of S. Korea was at stake The attack came as a complete surprise to the Truman administration, which had already begun to withdraw U.S. troops from S. Korea The decision to fight was made quickly . . . Why??

The Role of the United States S. Korea was a small country, incapable of defending itself against the N. Korean advance Truman felt we had to send a signal to the world proving that we would not tolerate communist aggression General Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed “We’ll have a dozen Koreas soon if we don’t take a firm stand.”

Would it fail as the League of Nations had? The Capture of Seoul Within days, N. Korea had pushed back S. Korean forces and captured the capital of Seoul Truman knew he had to act quickly He sent naval and air forces to defend S. Korea He then asked the U.N. to approve the use of force to stop the North Korean invasion What would the U.N. do?? Would it fail as the League of Nations had?

The Role of the U.N. The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously in favor of the use of force Under the U.N. rules, five key nations held the power to veto security council decisions . . . one of those nations was the Soviet Union (crap!) As luck would have it, the Soviet representative was not present to veto the use of force against N. Korea He was absent because the Soviets were protesting the admission of Nationalist China

June 30, 1950 It became clear to Truman that air and naval support were not going to be enough Although he feared putting troops on the ground, he realized it was the only way he could save S. Korea from communist takeover The military force sent into Korea was a U.N. force; the whole effort was referred to as a U.N. police action Some 40,000 other troops were provided by fifteen other member nations The U.S. never declared war

Fighting Conditions Troops entered the battle in South Korea N. Korean troops greatly outnumbered and outgunned S. Korean troops Summer heat and heavy rains sapped what little strength the soldiers had By the end of the month, N. Koreans had pushed U.N. forces to the southeast tip of S. Korea U.N. troops formed a 130-mile-long line around the port city of Pusan which they were told they had to hold on to at all costs

The Inchon Landing With more and more troops landing every day, the N. Korean advance stalled General MacArthur saw this as an opportunity to go on the offensive, and he called for a landing behind N. Korean lines at the port city of Inchon Inchon was a very risky place to launch an attack from because of high tides; the N. Koreans would never expect it The September 15th invasion was a complete success, in less than twenty-four hours the U.N. forces had regained some ground.

The Inchon Landing

Will we invade North Korea? North Korea on the Run The N. Koreans had stretched themselves too thin, and the capital city of Seoul soon fell to the U.N. forces The U.N. forces launched another attack from Pusan, this attack broke the N. Korean line; huge numbers of N. Korean troops died or were forced to surrender By October 1st, all of S. Korea was back under U.N. control, now the question became whether or not we should stop at the 38th parallel or invade N. Korea, knowing the Soviets and the Chinese may back them . . . What do you think? Will we invade North Korea?

The Invasion of North Korea Both Truman and General MacArthur supported the invasion Steady progress was made through October and November but then – as promised – the Chinese came to the rescue of N. Korea, just as MacArthur’s final push to end the war was getting under way With the promise of a quick end to the war dissolving before their eyes, the U.N. forces, faced with the harsh Korean winter and an impossible number of Chinese forces, were forced to retreat

Conflicting Viewpoints General MacArthur General Ridgeway & Truman Called for the expansion of the war Wanted to bomb mainland China with atomic weapons Wanted to pull Taiwan (where the Nationalist government of China had re-located to) into the war Felt MacArthur’s plan was too hasty and wanted to stay the course Ridgeway was successful, and succeeded in pushing the Chinese back to the 38th parallel again Truman fires MacArthur, a WWII hero, and enrages the American people

July 1951 The United States enters into peace talks; at this point 80,000 Americans have been wounded; 14,000 were dead Talks were delayed and largely unsuccessful: N. and S. Korea bickered over where their dividing line should be; fighting continued alone the 38th parallel and U.N. casualties reached 40,000, this area became known as Heartbreak Ridge Syngman Rhee refused to send prisoners of war back to their communist countries

1952 - 1953 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President Eisenhower had campaigned promising an end to the fighting in Korea; Communist China and N. Korea also seemed interested in ending the fighting Despite this, the U.N. suffered another 57,000 casualties in the last two months of the conflict; the communists lost 100,000 Finally, on July 27, 1953, the guns fell silent, yet the borders of North and South Korea were pretty much the same . . . nothing of any significance had been accomplished, but the costs were great: 37,000 Americans 60,000 U.N. troops 2 million communists 3 million Korean civilians

The Korean War Memorial Washington, D.C. Originally the plan was to include thirty-eight statues to represent the thirty-eighth parallel . . .

The Korean War Memorial Washington, D.C. Money ran out so, instead, they built nineteen and a wall that has the names of the dead lazered in, along with pictures . . .

The Korean War Memorial Washington, D.C. The wall also reflects the nineteen statues so, when combined, the nineteen physical statues and the nineteen reflections equal thirty-eight.