10.9 Lecture – Wars in Korea and Vietnam

I. West Versus East in Europe and Korea A. The Soviet Union sought to prevent the reappearance of hostile regimes on its borders. 1. The Soviet Union seemed willing to accept government in neighboring states that included a mix of parities as long as they were not hostile to local communist groups or to the Soviets. 2. Western leaders saw the rapid emergence of communist regimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania as a threat. a. It took two years for the United States to shift from viewing the Soviet Union as an ally against Germany to seeing it as a worldwide enemy.

B. A more explosive crisis erupted in Korea, where the Second World War had left Soviet troops in control north of the thirty-eighth parallel and American troops in control to the south. 1. When no agreement could be reached on holding countrywide elections, communist North Korea and noncommunist South Korea became independent states in Two years later North Korea invades South Korea. a. The United Nations Security Council, in the absence of the Soviet delegation, voted to condemn the invasion and called on members of the United Nations to come to the defense of South Korea. 3. The ensuing Korean War lasted until a. The United States was the primary ally of South Korea. b. The People’s Republic of China supported North Korea.

4. The conflict in Korea remained limited to the Korean peninsula because the United States feared that launched attacks into China might prompt China’s ally, the Soviet Union, to retaliate, beginning the dreaded third world war. a. China sent troops across the border, and the North Koreans and Chinese pushed the American and South Koreans back. 1. The fighting then settled into a static war in the mountains along the thirty-eighth parallel. 2. The two sides eventually agreed to a truce along that line; but the cease-fire lines remained fortified, and no peace treaty was concluded. 5. The possibility of renewed warfare between the two Koreas continued well past the end of the Cold War and remains a disturbing possibility today.

C. The Korean War In Depth 1. Soviets armed the North in hopes to take over the South because it was believed that the Americans would not defend South Korea. 2. Standoff at the 38th Parallel a. June 25, 1950 North Korea crossed the 38th parallel for a surprise attack on South Korea. b. South Korea asked the United Nations to intervene 1. Troops were sent in under the command of Douglas MacArthur with the support of 15 nations including the United States and Britain. 3. By 1950 the North controlled the entire Korean peninsula except for a tiny area around Pusan in the far southeast. 4. Surprise attack was executed by MacArthur resulting in the capture of North Koreans and the retreat of many more.

5. Fighting Continues a. UN forces pushed into North Korea further north to the point where China was feeling threatened. b. January 1951 China gets involved and pushes the South Koreans out of North Korea. c. China was now allied with North Korea. d. July 1953 UN forces and North Korea signed a cease- fire agreement million soldiers and civilians had died. 6. Aftermath of the War a. Demilitarized zone was created, still existing today separating the two countries. b. North Korea was led by dictator Kim II Sung 1. Established collective farms, heavy industry, and built up the military. 2. Developed economic problems 3. Serious economic problems. c. South Korea prospered due to help and aid from the United States and other countries. 1. Developed industry and expanded foreign trade adopted a democratic constitution and free elections. d. With the threat of North Korea and their nuclear weapons, the countries have stayed divided.

II. United States Defeat in Vietnam A. The most important postwar communist movement arose in the part of Southeast Asia known as French Indochina. 1. The goal was to stop the spread of Communism due to the actions of the Cold War according to the Western Democracies. B. Southeast Asia was a resource rich area controlled by the French. 1. The development of nationalist independent movements began. 2. Ho Chi Minh a. Spent several years in France during World War I. b. He helped form the Communist Party in France c. In 1930, after training in Moscow, he returned to Vietnam to found the Indochina Communist Party. 1. He and his supporters took refuge in China during World War II.

3. At war’s end the new French government was determined to keep its prewar colonial possessions. a. Ho Chi Minh’s nationalist coalition, then called the Viet Minh, fought the French with help from the People’s Republic of China. b. After a brutal struggle, the French stronghold of Dienbienphu fell in 1954, marking the end of France’s colonial enterprise. c. Ho’s Viet Minh government took over in the north, and a noncommunist nationalist government ruled the south.

4. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his foreign policy advisers debated long and hard about whether to aid France militarily during the battle for Dienbienphu. a. They decided not to prop up French colonial rule in Vietnam, perceiving that the European colonial empires were doomed. b. After winning independence, communist North Vietnam eventually supported a communist guerrilla movement – the Viet Cong – against the noncommunist government of South Vietnam. c. President Eisenhower declared Vietnam as a threat using the term domino theory. 1. The Southeast Asian nations were like a row of dominos: the fall of one to communism would lead to the fall of its neighbors. 2. Their theory became a major justification for US foreign policy during the Cold War.

C. Vietnam – a divided country 1. Divided at 17 degrees north latitude 2. President John F. Kennedy and his advisers decided to support the South Vietnamese government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. a. Diem’s government was corrupt and unpopular. b. It was feared that a communist victory would encourage communist movements throughout Southeast Asian and alter the Cold War balance of power. c. Kennedy steadily increased the number of American military advisers from 685 to almost 16,000, while secretly encouraging the overthrow of Diem. 1. Viet Cong developed in South Vietnam due to the dislike of Diem. 2. Diem was assassinated.

D. The United States Involvement 1. Lyndon Johnson, who became President, after Kennedy was assassinated, obtained support from Congress for unlimited expansion of US military deployment after an apparent North Vietnamese attack on two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. a ,000 US soldiers were in combat b more than half a million US soldiers were present. c. Two difficulties were present for the US 1. US soldiers were fighting a guerrilla war in unfamiliar jungle terrain. 2. The South Vietnamese government that they were defending was becoming more unpopular. d. US failed in ground warfare so they turned to fighting from the air. 1. US forces bombed millions of acres of farmland and forest in an attempt to destroy enemy hideouts. e. Pushed the South Vietnamese to hate the US and desire communism more.

2. The US Withdrawals a. The war grew increasingly unpopular in the United States. b. Dissatisfied young people began to protest the tremendous loss of life in a conflict on the other side of the world. c. Due to pressure in the US Nixon started pulling troops in d. Vietnamization occurred which was the slow withdrawal of US troops. e. Two years later North Vietnam overran the south and took it over. f. 1.5 million Vietnamese were dead and 58,000 American lives were lost.

E. Postwar Southeast Asia 1. Cambodia suffered during the war from attacks due to the North Vietnamese hiding out. 2. Turmoil a. Pol Pot developed communist rule called the Khmer Rouge. 1. Very brutal b. Pol Pot’s followers slaughtered 2 million people to bring in Communist rule quarter of the nation’s population c. Vietnamese came into support Cambodia and threw out Pol Pot’s regime. d Cambodia adopted a democratic constitution and help free elections. 3. Vietnam After War a. Strict rules and regulations introduced into the South. 1. Many were sent to reeducation camps to learn and accept communism. b. Former capital called Saigon, now named Ho Chi Minh City. c. 1.5 million fled the country and many died in their escape. 1. Many of the refugees relocated in the US and Canada. d. Today Vietnam welcomes foreign investment. e. US normalized relations with Vietnam in 1995.