THE KOREAN CIVIL WAR
On June 24, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea nd the Cold War suddenly turned red hot. Nestled between Japan, China, and the Soviet Union, Korea had long been a point of contention among those three Asian powers. Japan had occupied and ruled Korea from 1910 to 1945, when it was divided into a Soviet zone north of the 38th parallel and a U.S. zone to the south. Drawn up hastily by Colonel Dean Rusk the day after Nagasaki was bombed, the arrangement was meant as a temporary one until unification and independence could be restored. In the north, the Soviets installed General Kim II Sung, who had led guerrilla forces against the Japanese in Manchuria during the war ; the Americans installed Syngman Rhee in the south. Border skirmishes occurred frequently. The Joint Chiefs had warned repeatedly against getting drawn into a war in Korea----a place of little strategic importance bordering on the Soviet Union and China --- and recommended that it be excluded from the United States' defense perimeter. Acheson also excluded Korea in an important speech in January 1950, leading some critics to charge that he had deliberately invited the attack.
The Soviet watched nervously a the United States strengthened Japan economically and militarily, stationed troops on Japanese territory and inched toward a peace treaty without Soviet participation. The chiefs cautioned that excluding the Soviets from the peace treaty might provoke a Soviet attack on Japan. The Soviets struck instead in Korea.
Rhee's repressive policies and economic blunders made him a very unpopular figure in South Korea. Under U.S. pressure, he allowed elections to proceed in 1950. His supporters received a thrashing at the polls. Despite the setback, he continued to discuss plans to militarily unify Korea under his own command in the coming months. Kim, too, spoke of reunification, but under Communist control. Rhee's electoral setback and overall unpopularity gave Kim the opening he was looking for.
In spring 1950, Stalin, after repeated entreaties from the North Korean leader, gave Kim the green light to invade the South. Believing that a South Korean attack on the North was coming, Stalin decided to act first. He was feeling a new burst of confidence. He now had the atomic bomb and had just concluded a formal alliance with Mao. Kim promised a swift victory.
Truman was in Missouri when word of the North Korean invasion reached him. Immediately concluding that the attack represented a new stage of Communist aggression, he decided the United States must respond militarily. The New York Times urged Truman to act decisively or risk "losing half a world." Acting decisively would also silence the Republicans, who blamed Truman for losing China. He quickly pushed a resolution through the UN Security Council, which the Soviets had been boycotting over its refusal to seat Communist China. Despite deploying tens of thousands of troops, Truman refused to call the intervention a "war," instead latching on to the terminology of a reporter who asked if it would "be possible to call this a police actin under the United Nations." Although it was nominally a UN effort, the United States provided half the ground forces and almost all of the naval and air power. Most of the other ground forces came from South Korea. TRUMAN ALSO OPTED TO BYPASS CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORIZATION, SETTING THE PRECEDENT FOR FUTURE MILITARY CONFLICTS.
SO NOW THE U.S. HAS ITS WAR AND THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY IS TICKLED SHITLESS.
The Soviet watched nervously a the United States strengthened Japan economically and militarily, stationed troops on Japanese territory and inched toward a peace treaty without Soviet participation. The chiefs cautioned that excluding the Soviets from the peace treaty might provoke a Soviet attack on Japan. The Soviets struck instead in Korea.
Rhee's repressive policies and economic blunders made him a very unpopular figure in South Korea. Under U.S. pressure, he allowed elections to proceed in 1950. His supporters received a thrashing at the polls. Despite the setback, he continued to discuss plans to militarily unify Korea under his own command in the coming months. Kim, too, spoke of reunification, but under Communist control. Rhee's electoral setback and overall unpopularity gave Kim the opening he was looking for.
In spring 1950, Stalin, after repeated entreaties from the North Korean leader, gave Kim the green light to invade the South. Believing that a South Korean attack on the North was coming, Stalin decided to act first. He was feeling a new burst of confidence. He now had the atomic bomb and had just concluded a formal alliance with Mao. Kim promised a swift victory.
Truman was in Missouri when word of the North Korean invasion reached him. Immediately concluding that the attack represented a new stage of Communist aggression, he decided the United States must respond militarily. The New York Times urged Truman to act decisively or risk "losing half a world." Acting decisively would also silence the Republicans, who blamed Truman for losing China. He quickly pushed a resolution through the UN Security Council, which the Soviets had been boycotting over its refusal to seat Communist China. Despite deploying tens of thousands of troops, Truman refused to call the intervention a "war," instead latching on to the terminology of a reporter who asked if it would "be possible to call this a police actin under the United Nations." Although it was nominally a UN effort, the United States provided half the ground forces and almost all of the naval and air power. Most of the other ground forces came from South Korea. TRUMAN ALSO OPTED TO BYPASS CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORIZATION, SETTING THE PRECEDENT FOR FUTURE MILITARY CONFLICTS.
SO NOW THE U.S. HAS ITS WAR AND THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY IS TICKLED SHITLESS.
No comments:
Post a Comment