{"id":2631,"date":"2021-12-14T16:42:34","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T16:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=2631"},"modified":"2022-09-22T18:35:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T18:35:03","slug":"the-korean-war","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/chapter\/the-korean-war\/","title":{"raw":"The Korean War","rendered":"The Korean War"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Explain the goals of the U.S. and the United Nations during the Korean War<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2>Concerns about Communism in Asia<\/h2>\r\nA new chapter in the Cold War began on October 1, 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Tse-tung declared victory against \u201cKuomintang\u201d Nationalists led by the Western-backed Chiang Kai-shek. The Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan and the CCP took over the mainland under the red flag of the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC). Coming so soon after the Soviet Union\u2019s successful test of an atomic bomb on August 29, the \u201closs of China,\u201d the world\u2019s most populous country, contributed to a sense of panic among American foreign policymakers, whose attention began to shift from Europe to Asia.\r\n<h3>Military Buildup<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3365\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"676\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143238\/Chinese_stamp_in_1950-1000x562.jpeg\"><img class=\"wp-image-3365 \" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143238\/Chinese_stamp_in_1950-1000x562.jpeg\" alt=\"A stamp with a red-ink drawing of Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong shaking hands.\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. The communist world system rested, in part, on the relationship between the two largest communist nations\u2014the Soviet Union and the People\u2019s Republic of China. This 1950 Chinese Stamp depicts Joseph Stalin shaking hands with Mao Zedong.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAfter Dean Acheson became Secretary of State in 1949, George Kennan was replaced in the State Department by former investment banker Paul Nitze, whose first task was to help compose, as Acheson later described in his memoir, a document designed to \u201cbludgeon the mass mind of \u2018top government\u2019\u201d into approving a \u201csubstantial increase\u201d in military expenditures.\r\n\r\n\u201cNational Security Memorandum 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security,\u201d a national defense memo known as \u201cNSC-68,\u201d achieved its goal. Issued in April 1950, the nearly sixty-page classified memo warned of \u201cincreasingly terrifying weapons of mass destruction,\u201d which served to remind \u201cevery individual\u201d of \u201cthe ever-present possibility of annihilation.\u201d It said that leaders of the USSR and its \u201cinternational communist movement\u201d sought only \u201cto retain and solidify their absolute power.\u201d As the central \u201cbulwark of opposition to Soviet expansion,\u201d America had become \u201cthe principal enemy\u201d that \u201cmust be subverted or destroyed by one means or another.\u201d NSC-68 urged a \u201crapid build-up of political, economic, and military strength\u201d in order to \u201croll back the Kremlin\u2019s drive for world domination.\u201d Such a massive commitment of resources, amounting to more than a threefold increase in the annual defense budget, was necessary because the USSR, \u201cunlike previous aspirants to hegemony,\u201d was \u201canimated by a new fanatic faith,\u201d seeking \u201cto impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world.\u201d Both Kennan and Walter Lippmann were among a minority in the \u2018foreign policy establishment\u2019 who argued to no avail that such a \u2018militarization of containment\u2019 was tragically wrongheaded.\r\n\r\nOn June 25, 1950, as U.S. officials were considering the merits of NSC-68\u2019s proposals, including \u201cthe intensification of\u2026operations by covert means in the fields of economic\u2026political and psychological warfare\u201d designed to foment \u201cunrest and revolt in\u2026[Soviet] satellite countries,\u201d fighting erupted in Korea between communists in the north and American-backed anti-communists in the south.\r\n<h2>A Divided Korea<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"586\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203300\/CNX_History_28_02_KoreaMap.jpg\" alt=\"A map of North and South Korea, bordered by China to the north, the Yellow Sea to the west, the Sea of Japan to the east, and Japan to the southeast, is shown. Purple arrows show the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950; green arrows show the UN offensive response and the site of the landing at Inchon on September 15, 1950, and orange arrows should the Communist Chinese offensive. A dotted orange line shows the truce line of 1953. A grey dotted line shows the UN defensive line in September 1950, and a dotted green line shows the northern-most UN advance in November 1950.\" width=\"586\" height=\"548\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. After the initial invasion of South Korea by the North Korean People\u2019s Democratic Army, the United Nations established a defensive line in the southern part of the country. The landing at Inchon in September reversed the tide of the war and allowed UN forces under General Douglas MacArthur to retake the city of Seoul, which had fallen to North Korean troops in the early days of the war.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAfter Japan surrendered in September 1945, a U.S.-Soviet joint occupation had paved the way for the division of Korea. In November 1947, the UN passed a resolution that a united government in Korea should be created but the Soviet Union refused to cooperate. Only the south held elections. The Republic of Korea (ROK), South Korea, was created three months after the election. A month later, communists in the north established the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Both claimed to stand for a unified Korean peninsula. The UN recognized the ROK, but incessant armed conflict broke out between North and South.\r\n\r\nIn the spring of 1950, Stalin hesitantly endorsed North Korean leader Kim Il Sung\u2019s plan to \u2018liberate\u2019 the South by force, a plan heavily influenced by Mao\u2019s recent victory in China. While he did not desire a military confrontation with the U.S., Stalin thought correctly that he could encourage his Chinese comrades to support North Korea if the war turned against the DPRK.\r\n\r\nOn June 25, 1950, troops of the North Korean People\u2019s Democratic Army crossed the thirty-eighth parallel, the border between North and South Korea. The first major test of the U.S. policy of containment in Asia had begun, for the domino theory held that a victory by North Korea might lead to further communist expansion in Asia, in the virtual backyard of the United States\u2019 chief new ally in East Asia\u2014Japan. The North Koreans launched a successful surprise attack and Seoul, the capital of South Korea, fell to the communists on June 28.\r\n\r\nThe United Nations (UN), which had been established in 1945, was quick to react.\u00a0On June 27, the UN Security Council denounced North Korea\u2019s actions and called upon UN members to help South Korea defeat the invading forces.\u00a0 As a permanent member of the Security Council, the Soviet Union could have vetoed the action, but it had boycotted UN meetings following the awarding of China\u2019s seat on the Security Council to Taiwan instead of to Mao Zedong\u2019s People\u2019s Republic of China. The UN passed resolutions demanding that North Korea cease hostilities and withdraw its armed forces to the 38<sup>th<\/sup> parallel and calling on member states to provide the ROK military assistance to repulse the Northern attack.\r\n<h3>War in Korea<\/h3>\r\nThat July, UN forces mobilized under American General Douglass MacArthur. Troops landed at Inchon, a port city around 30 miles away from Seoul, and took the city on September 28. They then pushed north. As North Korean forces moved back across the thirty-eighth parallel, UN forces followed. MacArthur\u2019s goal was not only to drive the North Korean army out of South Korea but to destroy communist North Korea as well. At this stage, he had the support of President Truman.\r\n\r\nOn October 1, ROK\/UN forces crossed the 38th parallel, and on October 26 they reached the Yalu River, the traditional Korea-China border. They were met by 300,000 Chinese troops who broke the advance and pushed them back. On November 30, ROK\/UN forces began a fevered retreat. They returned across the 38<sup>th<\/sup> parallel and abandoned Seoul on January 4, 1951. The United Nations forces regrouped, but the war entered into a stalemate. General MacArthur, growing impatient and wanting to eliminate the communist threat, requested authorization to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and China. Denied, MacArthur publicly denounced Truman. Truman, unwilling to threaten World War III and refusing to tolerate MacArthur\u2019s public insubordination, dismissed the General in April. The Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed, calling the escalation MacArthur had called for \u201cthe wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy.\u201d Nonetheless, the public gave MacArthur a hero\u2019s welcome in New York with the largest ticker-tape parade in the nation\u2019s history.\r\n\r\nOn June 23, 1951, the Soviet ambassador to the UN suggested a cease-fire, which the U.S. immediately accepted. The UN forces had recovered from the setbacks earlier in the year and forced North Korean and Chinese troops back across the thirty-eighth parallel. However, combat raged on for more than two additional years. The primary source of contention was the fate of prisoners of war. The Chinese and North Koreans insisted that their prisoners be returned to them, but many of these men did not wish to be repatriated. Finally, an armistice agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. A border between North and South Korea, one quite close to the original thirty-eighth parallel line, was agreed upon. A demilitarized zone between the two nations was established, and both sides agreed to an exchange of prisoners. Five million people died in the three-year conflict. Of these, around 36,500 were U.S. soldiers; a majority were Korean civilians.\r\n\r\nAs the war wound down and the global balance of Cold War power continued to frustrate policymakers, other shifts in power occurred. General Dwight Eisenhower, the hero of the D-Day invasion, resoundingly defeated Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election, and Joseph Stalin died in March 1953.\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Remembering a 'forgotten War'<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"295\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/tile.loc.gov\/image-services\/iiif\/service:pnp:highsm:13000:13010\/0,125,4800,5621\/370,\/0\/default.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph from the Korean War memorial, showing the statue of a soldier.\" width=\"295\" height=\"346\" \/> <strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. A photograph from the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial includes nineteen of these larger-than-life statues, representing a platoon on patrol during the war.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nComing so soon after World War II and ending without clear victory, Korea became for many Americans a \u201cforgotten war.\u201d (Decades later, though, the nation\u2019s other major intervention in Asia, the Vietnan War, would be anything but forgotten.) Perhaps indicative of the war's marginal status when compared to World War II or Vietnam, The Korean War Veterans Memorial memorial was not dedicated until 1995. You can visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abmc.gov\/about-us\/history\/korean-war-memorial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Battle Monuments Commission website<\/a> to learn more about this memorial.\r\n\r\nDespite it not being as well known in the nation's collective history, it is likely one of the deadliest conflicts in East Asia and certainly one of the most destructive in Korean history. Following the desegregation of the armed services in 1948, it was also the first major conflict for the U.S. where the armed services were integrated, meaning that soldiers of all races served together.\r\n\r\nVisit this website to read\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.koreanwar.org\/html\/units\/frontline.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">firsthand accounts<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. soldiers who served in Korea, including prisoners of war.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3366\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"368\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143556\/KoreanWarFallenSoldier1-1000x800.jpeg\"><img class=\"wp-image-3366\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143556\/KoreanWarFallenSoldier1-1000x800.jpeg\" alt=\"A photograph of one soldier holding and comforting another soldier.\" width=\"368\" height=\"294\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 4<\/strong>. With the policy of \u201ccontaining\u201d communism at home and abroad, the U.S. pressured the United Nations to support the South Koreans, ultimately supplying American troops to fight in the civil war. Though rather forgotten in the annals of American history, the Korean War caused over 30,000 American deaths and 100,000 wounded, leaving an indelible mark on those who served.[\/caption]\r\n<h2>Communism in Vietnam<\/h2>\r\nThe Vietnam War had deep roots in the complexities of the Cold War as well as in the earlier phase of European colonialism in the nineteenth century. Vietnam had been colonized by France beginning in 1862, and was later seized by Imperial Japan during World War II. The nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh had been backed by the U.S. during his anti-Japanese insurgency and, following Japan\u2019s surrender in 1945, \u201cViet Minh\u201d nationalists, quoting Thomas Jefferson in their founding documents, declared an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). Yet France moved to reassert authority over its former colony in Indochina, and the United States deferred to France\u2019s colonial imperatives, effectively sacrificing Vietnamese self-determination. Ho Chi Minh then turned to the Soviet Union for assistance in waging war against the French colonizers.\r\n\r\nAfter French troops were defeated at the \u2018Battle of Dien Bien Phu\u2019 in May 1954, U.S. officials helped broker a temporary settlement that partitioned Vietnam in two, with a Soviet\/Chinese-backed state in the north and an American-backed state in the south. To stifle communist expansion southward, the United States would send arms, offer military advisors, prop up corrupt politicians, prevent nationwide elections, and, eventually, send over 500,000 troops, of whom nearly 60,000 would be lost before the communists finally reunified the country.\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\r\nWhat was agreed to at the armistice talks between North and South Korea?\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"652937\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"652937\"]The border between North and South Korea was established close to the original line along the thirty-eighth parallel, with a demilitarized zone serving as a buffer. Prisoners of war were free to decide whether they wanted to be returned home.[\/hidden-answer]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\r\n<h3>WATCH IT<\/h3>\r\nThis CrashCourse video explains the Cold War events in Asia and how the struggle against communist expansion led to U.S. wars in both Korea and Vietnam.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y2IcmLkuhG0?start=1&amp;feature=oembed\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>\r\n\r\nYou can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/US+history+II\/TheColdWarinAsiaCrashCourseUSHistory38.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cThe Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/553e36e9-7b16-4a74-8801-23fb36c2338c\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Explain the goals of the U.S. and the United Nations during the Korean War<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Concerns about Communism in Asia<\/h2>\n<p>A new chapter in the Cold War began on October 1, 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Tse-tung declared victory against \u201cKuomintang\u201d Nationalists led by the Western-backed Chiang Kai-shek. The Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan and the CCP took over the mainland under the red flag of the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC). Coming so soon after the Soviet Union\u2019s successful test of an atomic bomb on August 29, the \u201closs of China,\u201d the world\u2019s most populous country, contributed to a sense of panic among American foreign policymakers, whose attention began to shift from Europe to Asia.<\/p>\n<h3>Military Buildup<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_3365\" style=\"width: 686px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143238\/Chinese_stamp_in_1950-1000x562.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3365\" class=\"wp-image-3365\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143238\/Chinese_stamp_in_1950-1000x562.jpeg\" alt=\"A stamp with a red-ink drawing of Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong shaking hands.\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-3365\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. The communist world system rested, in part, on the relationship between the two largest communist nations\u2014the Soviet Union and the People\u2019s Republic of China. This 1950 Chinese Stamp depicts Joseph Stalin shaking hands with Mao Zedong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>After Dean Acheson became Secretary of State in 1949, George Kennan was replaced in the State Department by former investment banker Paul Nitze, whose first task was to help compose, as Acheson later described in his memoir, a document designed to \u201cbludgeon the mass mind of \u2018top government\u2019\u201d into approving a \u201csubstantial increase\u201d in military expenditures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNational Security Memorandum 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security,\u201d a national defense memo known as \u201cNSC-68,\u201d achieved its goal. Issued in April 1950, the nearly sixty-page classified memo warned of \u201cincreasingly terrifying weapons of mass destruction,\u201d which served to remind \u201cevery individual\u201d of \u201cthe ever-present possibility of annihilation.\u201d It said that leaders of the USSR and its \u201cinternational communist movement\u201d sought only \u201cto retain and solidify their absolute power.\u201d As the central \u201cbulwark of opposition to Soviet expansion,\u201d America had become \u201cthe principal enemy\u201d that \u201cmust be subverted or destroyed by one means or another.\u201d NSC-68 urged a \u201crapid build-up of political, economic, and military strength\u201d in order to \u201croll back the Kremlin\u2019s drive for world domination.\u201d Such a massive commitment of resources, amounting to more than a threefold increase in the annual defense budget, was necessary because the USSR, \u201cunlike previous aspirants to hegemony,\u201d was \u201canimated by a new fanatic faith,\u201d seeking \u201cto impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world.\u201d Both Kennan and Walter Lippmann were among a minority in the \u2018foreign policy establishment\u2019 who argued to no avail that such a \u2018militarization of containment\u2019 was tragically wrongheaded.<\/p>\n<p>On June 25, 1950, as U.S. officials were considering the merits of NSC-68\u2019s proposals, including \u201cthe intensification of\u2026operations by covert means in the fields of economic\u2026political and psychological warfare\u201d designed to foment \u201cunrest and revolt in\u2026[Soviet] satellite countries,\u201d fighting erupted in Korea between communists in the north and American-backed anti-communists in the south.<\/p>\n<h2>A Divided Korea<\/h2>\n<div style=\"width: 596px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203300\/CNX_History_28_02_KoreaMap.jpg\" alt=\"A map of North and South Korea, bordered by China to the north, the Yellow Sea to the west, the Sea of Japan to the east, and Japan to the southeast, is shown. Purple arrows show the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950; green arrows show the UN offensive response and the site of the landing at Inchon on September 15, 1950, and orange arrows should the Communist Chinese offensive. A dotted orange line shows the truce line of 1953. A grey dotted line shows the UN defensive line in September 1950, and a dotted green line shows the northern-most UN advance in November 1950.\" width=\"586\" height=\"548\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. After the initial invasion of South Korea by the North Korean People\u2019s Democratic Army, the United Nations established a defensive line in the southern part of the country. The landing at Inchon in September reversed the tide of the war and allowed UN forces under General Douglas MacArthur to retake the city of Seoul, which had fallen to North Korean troops in the early days of the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>After Japan surrendered in September 1945, a U.S.-Soviet joint occupation had paved the way for the division of Korea. In November 1947, the UN passed a resolution that a united government in Korea should be created but the Soviet Union refused to cooperate. Only the south held elections. The Republic of Korea (ROK), South Korea, was created three months after the election. A month later, communists in the north established the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Both claimed to stand for a unified Korean peninsula. The UN recognized the ROK, but incessant armed conflict broke out between North and South.<\/p>\n<p>In the spring of 1950, Stalin hesitantly endorsed North Korean leader Kim Il Sung\u2019s plan to \u2018liberate\u2019 the South by force, a plan heavily influenced by Mao\u2019s recent victory in China. While he did not desire a military confrontation with the U.S., Stalin thought correctly that he could encourage his Chinese comrades to support North Korea if the war turned against the DPRK.<\/p>\n<p>On June 25, 1950, troops of the North Korean People\u2019s Democratic Army crossed the thirty-eighth parallel, the border between North and South Korea. The first major test of the U.S. policy of containment in Asia had begun, for the domino theory held that a victory by North Korea might lead to further communist expansion in Asia, in the virtual backyard of the United States\u2019 chief new ally in East Asia\u2014Japan. The North Koreans launched a successful surprise attack and Seoul, the capital of South Korea, fell to the communists on June 28.<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations (UN), which had been established in 1945, was quick to react.\u00a0On June 27, the UN Security Council denounced North Korea\u2019s actions and called upon UN members to help South Korea defeat the invading forces.\u00a0 As a permanent member of the Security Council, the Soviet Union could have vetoed the action, but it had boycotted UN meetings following the awarding of China\u2019s seat on the Security Council to Taiwan instead of to Mao Zedong\u2019s People\u2019s Republic of China. The UN passed resolutions demanding that North Korea cease hostilities and withdraw its armed forces to the 38<sup>th<\/sup> parallel and calling on member states to provide the ROK military assistance to repulse the Northern attack.<\/p>\n<h3>War in Korea<\/h3>\n<p>That July, UN forces mobilized under American General Douglass MacArthur. Troops landed at Inchon, a port city around 30 miles away from Seoul, and took the city on September 28. They then pushed north. As North Korean forces moved back across the thirty-eighth parallel, UN forces followed. MacArthur\u2019s goal was not only to drive the North Korean army out of South Korea but to destroy communist North Korea as well. At this stage, he had the support of President Truman.<\/p>\n<p>On October 1, ROK\/UN forces crossed the 38th parallel, and on October 26 they reached the Yalu River, the traditional Korea-China border. They were met by 300,000 Chinese troops who broke the advance and pushed them back. On November 30, ROK\/UN forces began a fevered retreat. They returned across the 38<sup>th<\/sup> parallel and abandoned Seoul on January 4, 1951. The United Nations forces regrouped, but the war entered into a stalemate. General MacArthur, growing impatient and wanting to eliminate the communist threat, requested authorization to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and China. Denied, MacArthur publicly denounced Truman. Truman, unwilling to threaten World War III and refusing to tolerate MacArthur\u2019s public insubordination, dismissed the General in April. The Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed, calling the escalation MacArthur had called for \u201cthe wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy.\u201d Nonetheless, the public gave MacArthur a hero\u2019s welcome in New York with the largest ticker-tape parade in the nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>On June 23, 1951, the Soviet ambassador to the UN suggested a cease-fire, which the U.S. immediately accepted. The UN forces had recovered from the setbacks earlier in the year and forced North Korean and Chinese troops back across the thirty-eighth parallel. However, combat raged on for more than two additional years. The primary source of contention was the fate of prisoners of war. The Chinese and North Koreans insisted that their prisoners be returned to them, but many of these men did not wish to be repatriated. Finally, an armistice agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. A border between North and South Korea, one quite close to the original thirty-eighth parallel line, was agreed upon. A demilitarized zone between the two nations was established, and both sides agreed to an exchange of prisoners. Five million people died in the three-year conflict. Of these, around 36,500 were U.S. soldiers; a majority were Korean civilians.<\/p>\n<p>As the war wound down and the global balance of Cold War power continued to frustrate policymakers, other shifts in power occurred. General Dwight Eisenhower, the hero of the D-Day invasion, resoundingly defeated Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election, and Joseph Stalin died in March 1953.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Remembering a &#8216;forgotten War&#8217;<\/h3>\n<div style=\"width: 305px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/tile.loc.gov\/image-services\/iiif\/service:pnp:highsm:13000:13010\/0,125,4800,5621\/370,\/0\/default.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph from the Korean War memorial, showing the statue of a soldier.\" width=\"295\" height=\"346\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. A photograph from the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial includes nineteen of these larger-than-life statues, representing a platoon on patrol during the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Coming so soon after World War II and ending without clear victory, Korea became for many Americans a \u201cforgotten war.\u201d (Decades later, though, the nation\u2019s other major intervention in Asia, the Vietnan War, would be anything but forgotten.) Perhaps indicative of the war&#8217;s marginal status when compared to World War II or Vietnam, The Korean War Veterans Memorial memorial was not dedicated until 1995. You can visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abmc.gov\/about-us\/history\/korean-war-memorial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Battle Monuments Commission website<\/a> to learn more about this memorial.<\/p>\n<p>Despite it not being as well known in the nation&#8217;s collective history, it is likely one of the deadliest conflicts in East Asia and certainly one of the most destructive in Korean history. Following the desegregation of the armed services in 1948, it was also the first major conflict for the U.S. where the armed services were integrated, meaning that soldiers of all races served together.<\/p>\n<p>Visit this website to read\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.koreanwar.org\/html\/units\/frontline.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">firsthand accounts<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. soldiers who served in Korea, including prisoners of war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3366\" style=\"width: 378px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143556\/KoreanWarFallenSoldier1-1000x800.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3366\" class=\"wp-image-3366\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/12\/12143556\/KoreanWarFallenSoldier1-1000x800.jpeg\" alt=\"A photograph of one soldier holding and comforting another soldier.\" width=\"368\" height=\"294\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-3366\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 4<\/strong>. With the policy of \u201ccontaining\u201d communism at home and abroad, the U.S. pressured the United Nations to support the South Koreans, ultimately supplying American troops to fight in the civil war. Though rather forgotten in the annals of American history, the Korean War caused over 30,000 American deaths and 100,000 wounded, leaving an indelible mark on those who served.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Communism in Vietnam<\/h2>\n<p>The Vietnam War had deep roots in the complexities of the Cold War as well as in the earlier phase of European colonialism in the nineteenth century. Vietnam had been colonized by France beginning in 1862, and was later seized by Imperial Japan during World War II. The nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh had been backed by the U.S. during his anti-Japanese insurgency and, following Japan\u2019s surrender in 1945, \u201cViet Minh\u201d nationalists, quoting Thomas Jefferson in their founding documents, declared an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). Yet France moved to reassert authority over its former colony in Indochina, and the United States deferred to France\u2019s colonial imperatives, effectively sacrificing Vietnamese self-determination. Ho Chi Minh then turned to the Soviet Union for assistance in waging war against the French colonizers.<\/p>\n<p>After French troops were defeated at the \u2018Battle of Dien Bien Phu\u2019 in May 1954, U.S. officials helped broker a temporary settlement that partitioned Vietnam in two, with a Soviet\/Chinese-backed state in the north and an American-backed state in the south. To stifle communist expansion southward, the United States would send arms, offer military advisors, prop up corrupt politicians, prevent nationwide elections, and, eventually, send over 500,000 troops, of whom nearly 60,000 would be lost before the communists finally reunified the country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\n<p>What was agreed to at the armistice talks between North and South Korea?<\/p>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q652937\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q652937\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">The border between North and South Korea was established close to the original line along the thirty-eighth parallel, with a demilitarized zone serving as a buffer. Prisoners of war were free to decide whether they wanted to be returned home.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\n<h3>WATCH IT<\/h3>\n<p>This CrashCourse video explains the Cold War events in Asia and how the struggle against communist expansion led to U.S. wars in both Korea and Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y2IcmLkuhG0?start=1&amp;feature=oembed\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/US+history+II\/TheColdWarinAsiaCrashCourseUSHistory38.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cThe Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_553e36e9-7b16-4a74-8801-23fb36c2338c\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/553e36e9-7b16-4a74-8801-23fb36c2338c?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_553e36e9-7b16-4a74-8801-23fb36c2338c\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-2631\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Modification, adaptation, and original content. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Jonathan Roach for Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Political, Economic, and Military Dimensions. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The American Yawp. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/25-the-cold-war\/\">http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/25-the-cold-war\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>The Cold War: Korean Map. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Openstax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/28-2-the-cold-war\">https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/28-2-the-cold-war<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Crash Course. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Y2IcmLkuhG0?t=1s\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/Y2IcmLkuhG0?t=1s<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cc0\">CC0: No Rights Reserved<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">Public domain content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Memorial Image. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Carol M. Highsmith. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Library of Congress. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/2011631204\/\">https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/2011631204\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>1950 Chinese Stamp. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikimedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Chinese_stamp_in_1950.jpg\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Chinese_stamp_in_1950.jpg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Korean war fallen soldier. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikimedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/1\/1b\/KoreanWarFallenSoldier1.jpg\">http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/1\/1b\/KoreanWarFallenSoldier1.jpg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":29,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Political, Economic, and Military Dimensions\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"The American Yawp\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/25-the-cold-war\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"The Cold War: Korean Map\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Openstax\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/28-2-the-cold-war\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"copyrighted_video\",\"description\":\"The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Crash Course\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Y2IcmLkuhG0?t=1s\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc0\",\"license_terms\":\"Standard YouTube License\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Modification, adaptation, and original content\",\"author\":\"Jonathan Roach for Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"Memorial Image\",\"author\":\"Carol M. Highsmith\",\"organization\":\"Library of Congress\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/2011631204\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"1950 Chinese Stamp\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikimedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Chinese_stamp_in_1950.jpg\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"Korean war fallen soldier\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikimedia\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/1\/1b\/KoreanWarFallenSoldier1.jpg\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"4a283d71-ece4-45cb-97bd-1d50a1bdf3cc,4f8f2b02-a040-4bd5-a62b-3b09a32cf9dd","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-2631","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":331,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9535,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2631\/revisions\/9535"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/331"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2631\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=2631"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2631"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=2631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}