The Korean War 22.2

Chinese Revolution Before WWII, Communists struggled to overthrow Nationalist government During WWII, they put aside their differences to resist Japanese invasion After WWII, civil war broke out

U.S. Intervenes U.S. gave Nationalists $2 billion in an effort to defeat the Communists By 1949, Nationalists squander the funds and fall to the Communists U.S. discontinued funding to Nationalists and they fled to Taiwan Communists created the People’s Republic of China in Oct. 1949

The World Falls Apart The Communists take China U.S.S.R. tests first atomic bomb (1949) 1950: China and the Soviets sign a treaty of friendship and alliance

Discussion Slide What would be a parallel of this happening to us today?

An Old Enemy Becomes a New Ally With the Communists’ takeover in China, the U.S. needed a new ally in Asia U.S. promoted democracy in Japan; it also helped recover its economy

Map of Korea

Occupation In 1945 Korea was occupied by Soviet forces in the north and American forces in the south. They were present to disarm the Japanese stationed there The line that was chosen to separate the two was the same one that Japan and Russia used in the early part of the 20th century. It was called the 38th parallel.

Korea After WWII When WWII ended, talks of reunification failed The North remained communist and had support from the U.S.S.R. The South had continued support from the U.S. Both sides wanted the Korean Peninsula On July 25, 1950, the North Koreans attacked –This ignites the conflict

At The U.S. Responds Truman sees the invasion as a test of containment Truman gets the U.N. on the U.S.’s side and sends in MacArthur At first, U.S. and S. Korean troops pushed all the way back to the Pusan Perimeter They were able to hold out until MacArthur arrived

U.S. Response (Continued) When MacArthur arrived at the port of Inchon he took Koreans by surprise He pushed them all the way back to the Yalu River This threatened China and they pushed the U.N. forces all the way back to the 38th parallel MacArthur wanted to expand the war against China but Truman did not allow it

Discussion Slide Do you support MacArthur’s offensive move?

Truman Fires MacArthur Truman did not want to commit to war with China and MacArthur saw this as a for of appeasement MacArthur publicly criticized Truman, leading the him to fire the general in 1951 Limited War-a war fought to achieve a limited objective; this became the main policy during the Cold War Truman feared all-out war would lead to nuclear war

The War Winds Down By November 1951, the North and South were only fighting small, local battles An armistice was signed on July 27, ,600 American soldiers died in the conflict

The Significance of the War The conflict encouraged the U.S. to begin a major military buildup Began revealed the spread of the Cold War into non-European areas Caused the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (1954) Set the 38th parallel which still exists today

Korea is still split up into North Korea (communist) and South Korea (non-communist) The border between the two countries has remained one of the most heavily-armed stretches of land on Earth