Seventy years ago , on June 25 , 1950 , North Korean storage tank vagabond across the 38th parallel , the pipeline that separated communistNorth Koreafrom U.S.-backedSouth Korea . As a top secretU.S. intelligence cablefrom Tokyo to Washington conclude , the incursion was n’t just a mere raid . " The sizing of the North Korean Forces apply , the depth of penetration , the intensity level of the onset , and the landings made statute mile to the south of the parallel on the east coast argue that the north Koreans are engage in an all - out offense to subjugate South Korea . "
The Korean War , which ultimately would pit the U.S. against China in the first - ever opposition between the two superpowers , would take the life history of an estimated2.5 millionmilitary members and civilians , include nearly34,000 Americans . The scrap would stop with anarmisticeon July 27 , 1953 , but theGeneva Conference of 1954failed to produce a pacification treaty , and the North and South stay tense enemies .
That ’s the way things pretty much have continued , though in 2018 , North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae Inannounced that they would shape togethertoward a peace pact . But after thecollapse of a February summitbetween U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un , those tension seem likely to stay for a while longer .
The “Forgotten War”
In the U.S. , the Korean War is sometimes call the " forgotten warfare " because it ’s overshadowed by the conflict that came before and after it — the stirring victory of World War II and the drawn-out , abominable ordeal of the Vietnam War . " Modern Americans do n’t conceive about it much , " explainsEdward Rhodes , a professor on the faculty of theSchar School of Policy and Governmentat George Mason University in Fairfax , Virginia , and an expert in American foreign and home security measures policy . " Vietnam was more traumatic , and World War II was more winning . "
Nevertheless , the unmarked difference has exerted a powerful influence that is still felt today . According to Rhodes , the war forever change the class of U.S. foreign and national security policy , compelling the U.S. to accept a permanent military liaison around the globe , even in peacetime . It also helped aim the creation of avast U.S. atomic arsenalto dissuade possible communistic aggression with the threat of annihilation , and a planetary nuclear weapons system raceway that still persist in .
Why North and South Korea Split
All this happen , harmonize to Rhodes , after Korea , a nation that had beenoccupied by the Japanesefrom 1910 to 1945 , was break up in two by the U.S. and the Russians after World War II . " It was a practical topic , " he explains . " There were Japanese armies that had retreated into Korea from Manchuria , and they want to be disarmed . We split that heavy chore with the Soviet Union , with the apprehension that the Soviets would unarm the Japanese in the N , and we would do it in the south . " But as the Cold War originate between the U.S. and its European allies and the Soviets , the temporary partition rick into a permanent one , with the formation of a communist regime headed by Kim Il Sung in the North and an authoritarian pro - American government head bySyngman Rheein the South . Each regimen saw itself as the real government of Korea and its rival as outlaw , Rhodes explains .
Truman Goes to War Without Congress
The U.N. Security Council — taking reward of a Soviet boycott of the torso — then passed a metre calling for member res publica to wait on the beleaguered South Koreans . That authorization enable U.S. President Harry Truman to respond militarily without having to go to Congress for a annunciation of war .
Up until that point , the U.S. had n’t image South Korea as having much strategical grandness , Rhodes say . " But when the North Korean cooler roll across the perimeter , the image that flashed in Truman ’s nous was that this was a repeat of what the Nazis did , " he explain . " His response is to stand up up , thinking that if we had stood up to Hitler early on , the world would have been a better spot . "
General Douglas MacArthur in Command
An outnumbered contingent of U.N. effect form a heroic line of Department of Defense around Pusan , the only part of South Korea not capture by the communist , andmanaged to view as offthe invaders for two months . That gave Gen. Douglas MacArthur , who had been placed in overall control of the U.N. forces , enough time to make an audaciousamphibious landing at Inchon , near the South Korean Das Kapital of Seoul on Sept. 15 , 1950 , cutting off the overextended North Koreans .
MacArthur ’s forcefulness chased the invader back north across the 38th parallel , and by mid - October had becharm the North Korean cap of Pyongyang . But MacArthur , overconfident , keptpushing the North Koreans backto the Yalu River , the border with China . China then responded with a massive counterattack of between 130,000 and 300,000 troops . This time , it was the U.N. forces who were drive back . A bloody stalemate on the ground developed , as the U.S. pounded North Korea from the airwave . MacArthur eventually was relieved of his command by Truman and replaced with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway . The U.S. abandoned the estimation of a full triumph and shift to a hold action against the communist forces .
" MacArthur bosom the mind that there ’s no backup for victory , " Rhodes says . " You thump the enemy , and they surrender . " But after the Formosan intervention , " we ’re in a situation where there ’s got to be a fill-in for victory , because how are we extend to fight the manpower of China . There ’s a realization that we ca n’t fight down this warfare to victory , and it ’s tough for the American people to go for . "
The longer the warfare stretch on , the more unpopular that it became back in the U.S. Many of the soldiers sent to Korea were reservists who had served in World War II . " They ’ve got home and families and Job , and then they were visit up and sent to crusade another war , " Rhodes explain . " There was a touch sensation that this was n’t fair . "
Eisenhower Ends the Fighting
finally , Truman ’s successor , President Dwight Eisenhower , ran on a promise that he would go to Korea and seek an ending to the conflict , and actually did that a month before his inauguration in 1953 , as this article from the Eisenhower Presidential Library explains .
But though Eisenhower had terminate the fighting , the Korean War still determine his policy . " Eisenhower wait at this as the wrong warfare at the wrong time , using the wrong arm , " Rhodes says . " He reaches the finish that with the Cold War going on with the Soviets , we have to plan for the long draw . We ’re croak to sustain this variety of military deterrence . " That led to resource being pumped into the growth of a massive nuclear deterrent that could be used to hold back the Soviets . to boot , Eisenhower began attempt to constitute alinement with more and more countries , in an attempt to create a co-ordinated front to hold off communist hostility .
" The U.S. was forced to take China more earnestly as a military power after agitate to a stalemate in the Korean War , " Charles K. Armstrong , the Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences at Columbia University , says in an email . " Gen. MacArthur [ had ] hard underestimated the Chinese military ’s willingness to face the U.S. and capacity to fight , leading to a bad rout for U.N. forces in the initial month after China entered the state of war . "
China ’s involvement in the Korean War also consolidated Mao ’s rule and dash the hopes of some Americans the communistic regime could be " vagabond back " and replace byChiang Kai - shek’sNationalists , Armstrong says .
" Mao ’s willingness to support the North Koreans directly , as opposed to Stalin ’s indisposition , helped to solidify China - North Korean relations and make the North Koreans to be more distrustful of the Russians , " Armstrong sound out . " For the U.S. , China was seen from the Korean War forwards as the primary friend of North Korea and the master keen powerfulness that was an opposition of the U.S. in Korea . "
Korean War Set the Table for Vietnam
The cease-fire ended the combat , but North Korea , now backed by the Chinese , remained as a war-ridden enemy to South Korea . That ongoing threat meant that U.S. force could n’t just move back and derive home . " The North Korean encroachment in the emerging Cold War convinced American policy - makers that the U.S. needed a lasting military presence in Asia and Europe so as to contain communist aggression , " Armstrong mark .
to boot , the Korean War helped set the mesa for another , even fucking and more painful succeeding conflict . According to Armstrong , Korea pass now to the U.S. decision to help the French against communist - led insurgence in compound Vietnam , and then , after the French defeat , to intervene in support of an anti - communistic government in South Vietnam , which block an election called for by the 1954 Geneva Conference . That helped set up the stage for the Vietnam War .
A Lasting Legacy
" The most lasting bequest of the Korean War for the U.S. , was the establishment of a global military presence over the prospicient term , and a dedication to confront communism throughout the world during the Cold War , and for Korea and East Asia , ideologic and military encounter that has lasted seven decade , " according to Armstrong .
That ’s included aU.S. forcestationed in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea , which in number has a massive regalia of tenacious - range artillery and rockets equipped with chemical substance and biological weapon aimed at Seoul , agree to this recentarticlefrom the Council on Foreign Relations . That ’s in add-on to thenuclear weapon and ballistic projectile arsenalthat Trump so far has been ineffectual to persuade the North Korean regime to give up .
Learn more about the Korean War in " The Coldest War " by James Brady . HowStuffWorks picks related to titles based on books we cogitate you ’ll wish . Should you choose to grease one’s palms one , we ’ll receive a portion of the sale .
