1. Korean War
The Yalta Conference in 1945 agreed that Soviet and American troops would occupy Korea after the war.
The country was divided at the 38th parallel and in 1948 the Soviet Union set up a People's Democratic Republic in North Korea. At the same time the United States helped establish the Republic of South Korea.

2. After the war Syngman Rhee emerged as the main right-wing politician in South Korea and in 1947 he received the unofficial support of the United States government.
In 1948 Rhee became the first president of South Korea. He soon developed a reputation for authoritarian rule and his political opponents were quickly silenced.

3. In June 1949 the United States Army began to withdraw from South Korea
In June 1949 the United States Army began to withdraw from South Korea. Statements made by General Douglas MacArthur and Dean Acheson suggested that the United States did not see the area as being of prime importance.
Acheson argued that if South Korea was attacked: "The initial reliance must be on the people attacked to resist it and then upon the commitments of the entire civilized world under the Charter of the United Nations."

4. Kim Il-Sung, the communist dictator of North Korea, became convinced that the people in the south would welcome being ruled by his government.
At dawn on 25th June 1950, the North Koreans launched a surprise attack on South Korea. Three days later, communist forces captured the South Korean capital, Seoul.

5. The Security Council of the United Nations recommended that troops should be sent to defend South Korea.
As the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council at the time, it was unable to veto this decision. Fifteen nations sent troops to Korea, where they were organized under the command of Douglas MacArthur.

6. The surprise character of the attack enabled the North Koreans to occupy all the South, except for the area around the port of Pusan.
On 15th September, 1950, Douglas MacArthur landed American and South Korean marines at Inchon, 200 miles behind the North Korean lines.
The following day he launched a counter-attack on the North Koreans. When they retreated, MacArthur's forces carried the war northwards, reaching the Yalu River, the frontier between Korea and China on 24th October, 1950.

7. Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State, told MacArthur to limit the war to Korea. MacArthur disagreed, favoring an attack on Chinese forces.
Unwilling to accept the views of Truman and Acheson, MacArthur began to make inflammatory statements indicating his disagreements with the United States government.

8. MacArthur gained support from right-wing members of the Senate such as Joe McCarthy who led the attack on Truman's administration: "With half a million Communists in Korea killing American men, Acheson says, 'Now let's be calm, let's do nothing'. It is like advising a man whose family is being killed not to take hasty action for fear he might alienate the affection of the murders."

9. In April 1951, Harry S. Truman removed MacArthur from his command of the United Nations forces in Korea.
McCarthy now called for Truman to be impeached and suggested that the president was drunk when he made the decision to fire MacArthur: "Truman is surrounded by the Jessups, the Achesons, the old Hiss crowd.
Most of the tragic things are done at 1.30 and 2 o'clock in the morning when they've had time to get the President cheerful."

10. While this conflict was taking place in the United States, the Chinese government sent 180,000 men to North Korea.
This back-up enabled North Korean forces to take Seoul for a second time in January U.N. troops eventually managed to halt the invasion sixty miles south of the 38th parallel.
A counter-offensive at the end of January gradually recovered lost ground.

11. Once in control of South Korea, representatives of the United Nations began peace talks with the North Korean government on 8th July 1951.
An armistice agreement, maintaining the divided Korea, was signed at Panmunjom on 27th July 1953.
Over 25,600 American troops were killed during the war and other U.N. contingents lost 17,000 men. It is estimated that including civilians, the Korean War cost the lives of around 4 million people.

12. Look at the next four slides of the map of Korean during the Korean conflict.
Why do you think the war created many civilian causalities?
What impact do you think it had on infrastructure of Korea?

13. Pre conflict 1950

18. Legacy
“The Korean War was the first armed confrontation of the Cold War, and it set a model for many later conflicts. It created the idea of a limited war, where the two superpowers would fight without descending to an all out war that could involve nuclear weapons. It also expanded the Cold War, which to that point had mostly been concerned with Europe.”

19. Economic and political effects
The US doubled the size of its army, boosted its defense budget and changed its view of what France was doing in Indochina to a favorable one.
The war contributed to a decline of Chinese-Soviet relationships. The fact that Chinese forces had held its own against UN and American forces announced the turning of China into a major world power.

20. Economical and Political Effects- Japan
Japanese manufacturing grew by 50% in a year because of the investment realized by American companies in Japan. There was also a heavy technological exchange between America and Japan. Over 3.5 billion was spent in Japanese companies from which only 5% was non-military.

21. Sources http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/kowar/kowar.htm
Millet, Allan. The Korean War: A 50-Year Critical Historiography. Edited by Paul M. Edwards and published by the Greenwood Press.
Freeman, Adam. Short Essay on the Korean War. National Geographic. October 1989: pages 18-19