Korean War

BIBLIOGRAPHY

On June 25, 1950, North Korea’s invasion of South Korea transformed a civil conflict under way since the end of World War II (1939–1945) into a conventional war. In April 1945, U.S. president Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) abandoned a trusteeship plan for the restoration of Korea’s sovereignty after forty years of Japanese colonial rule. His quest for unilateral U.S. occupation, after an atomic attack forced Japan’s prompt surrender, ended when the Soviet Union entered the Pacific war, resulting in the lastminute decision to divide Korea at the 38th parallel into zones of occupation. The failure of negotiations to reunite Korea led to the creation in 1948 of an authoritarian government under Syngman Rhee (1875–1965) in the south and a Communist regime under Kim Il Sung (1912–1994) in the north. Both Koreas were obsessed with reunification, resulting in major military clashes at the parallel during the summer of 1949. Washington and Moscow, however, opposed their clients’ plans for invasion until April 1950, when Kim persuaded Soviet premier Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) that an offensive would spark an internal uprising and bring swift conquest of the peninsula.

At first, Truman hoped that South Korea could defend itself with U.S. air support and more military equipment, actions that the United Nations endorsed in resolutions calling for a ceasefire and assistance for South Korea. Commitment of U.S. ground forces came after General Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964), the U.S. occupation commander in Japan, visited the front and advised that the South Koreans could not halt the advance. Overconfident U.S. soldiers would sustain defeat as well, retreating to the Pusan Perimeter, a rectangular area in the southeast corner of the peninsula. On September 15, MacArthur staged a risky amphibious landing at Inchon behind enemy lines that sent Communist forces fleeing back into North Korea. Mao Zedong (1893–1976), leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), viewed the U.S.–South Korean reunification offensive that followed as a threat to China’s security and prestige. In late November, Chinese “volunteers” attacked en masse. After a chaotic retreat, UN forces counterattacked in February 1951 and moved the line of battle just north of the parallel. MacArthur wanted to widen the war to China, but Truman instead sought a ceasefire and then relieved the general for publicly ridiculing this policy. By June 1951, fighting had reached a stalemate.

Negotiations to end the war began in July 1951, but, after steady progress toward a truce, stalemated in May 1952 over the issue of repatriation of prisoners of war. Peace came because of Stalin’s death in March 1953 rather than a U.S. threat to use nuclear weapons against China. An armistice in July ended a brutal war that killed nearly three million combatants and Korean civilians. Almost as destructive was the conflict’s impact on world affairs. Still divided, Korea would remain a source of tension threatening regional peace. Sino-American relations were poisoned for twenty years, especially after the United States persuaded the United Nations to condemn the PRC for aggression in Korea. For Japan, Korea not only ignited economic recovery, but led to treaties restoring sovereignty and establishing a security alliance with the United States. Hailed as an example of collective security, the war instead severely strained relations between the United States and its allies, not least because it ensured the survival of odious regimes on Taiwan and in South Korea. Most important, the Korean conflict intensified the cold war, motivating huge increases in U.S. defense spending, the rearmament of West Germany, and the militarization of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

SEE ALSO Cold War; Communism; Mao Zedong; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Partition; Truman, Harry S.; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; United Nations

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cumings, Bruce. 1981–1990. The Origins of the Korean War. 2 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Goncharov, Sergei N., John W. Lewis, and Xue Litai. 1993. Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Stueck, William. 1995. The Korean War: An International History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

James I. Matray