Topic 15 - Postwar America (1945-1975)

Lesson 2 - Korea and Other Postwar Conflicts

Korea is a peninsula in East Asia. Russia and China border it to the north and the west. Japan lies to the east across the Sea of Japan (known in Korea as the East Sea). In the past, these powerful neighbors often competed to control Korea.

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This photograph shows a parade of Mao’s Red Army. What do you think the purpose of such parades might have been?

Guiding Questions

Why did the United States become involved in the conflict in Korea?
How did the fighting in Korea end?
Why did the Cold War spread to Africa and other parts of Asia?
Why were there hunts for Communists at home in the United States, and what were the results?

Vocabulary

Academic Vocabulary

The Korean War

From 1910 to 1945, Japan ruled Korea as a colony. As World War II wound to an end, the Soviet Union moved into the northern portion of Korea. In September, following Japan’s surrender, the United States entered southern Korea, setting the stage for the division of the Korean peninsula.

A Divided Nation

The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to a temporary division of Korea at the 38th parallel of latitude. The United States backed a non-Communist government in South Korea. The Soviet Union supported the Communist government of North Korea. Both nations also agreed that Korea would soon be reunited. As the Cold War deepened, however, Korea remained divided.

Communist Aggression

In June 1950, North Korean troops swept across the 38th parallel, overwhelming the South Korean army. This marked the beginning of the Korean War. Within days, North Korean forces occupied Seoul (sol), the capital of South Korea.

President Truman immediately asked the United Nations to authorize a military response to the invasion. The UN Security Council agreed. Although 16 nations joined the UN action in Korea, about 80 percent of the troops were American.

The military force would be commanded by a general chosen by Truman. The President chose General Douglas MacArthur, who had commanded Allied forces in the Pacific during World War II.

Strategic Advances

At first, UN forces were outnumbered and poorly supplied. Armed with new Soviet tanks, the North Koreans continued their push southward and soon occupied almost all of South Korea. MacArthur then launched a daring counterattack by sea. He landed his forces at Inch’on, behind North Korean lines. Caught by surprise, the North Koreans were forced back across the 38th parallel.

MacArthur’s original orders called for him only to drive the invaders out of South Korea. Truman and his advisers, however, wanted to punish North Korea for its aggression. They also wanted to unite Korea. With these goals in mind, they won UN approval for MacArthur to cross into North Korea.

China Joins the Fight

While MacArthur advanced northward, the Chinese government warned that it would not “sit back with folded hands” if the United States invaded North Korea. As UN forces neared the Chinese border, Communist China perceived them as a threat to its own security. The Chinese were determined to fight off that threat. Masses of Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River into North Korea.

Once again, the fighting seesawed. The Chinese overwhelmed the UN forces, pushing them back deep into South Korea. Then, the UN forces regrouped and pushed the Chinese back into North Korea. By March 1951, UN troops had regained control of the south. The war then turned into a bloody deadlock.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLS

The Korean War comprised a series of advances and reversals up and down the Korean peninsula.

Location Based on the map, how does the success of the UN forces in November 1950 help explain why China entered the war?
Infer How might the deep penetrations of the UN and of the North Korean forces have influenced the opposing sides in the war?

READING CHECK

Summarize What is the best way to summarize American involvement in the Korean War?

When Did the Fighting End?

During the deadlock, a serious disagreement arose between General MacArthur and President Truman. MacArthur thought that to win the war, UN forces must attack China. Truman feared that an attack on China might lead to a world war. He ordered MacArthur to limit the war and restore the border at the 38th parallel.

Disagreement at the Top

A frustrated MacArthur complained publicly that politicians in Washington were holding him back. “We must win,” he insisted. “There is no substitute for victory.” Angry that MacArthur was defying orders, Truman fired the popular general.

Truman’s action outraged many Americans. They gave MacArthur a hero’s welcome when he returned home. Truman, however, had the Constitution behind him. He pointed out that the President is commander in chief, responsible for key decisions about war and peace. MacArthur’s statements, said Truman, undermined attempts to reach a peace settlement.

Armistice

Peace talks began in mid-1951. At first there was little progress. Meanwhile, the deadly fighting continued.

Republicans nominated Dwight Eisenhower, the popular World War II general, as their presidential candidate in 1952. Eisenhower pledged that if he were elected, he would personally go to Korea. At the same time, he would work to get the stalled peace talks going again.

Eisenhower won the election and visited Korea within a few weeks of his victory. By then, both sides were eager for a cease-fire. The only remaining problem was the return of prisoners of war. After long negotiations, the two sides agreed to turn this issue over to an international commission.

Finally, in July 1953, the two sides signed an armistice to end the fighting. It redrew the border between North Korea and South Korea near the 38th parallel, where it had been before the war.

The armistice also set up along the border a demilitarized zone (DMZ), an area where no military forces were allowed. On either side of the DMZ, however, heavily armed troops dug in. They remain there today.

Analyze Images American soldiers in a North Korean prisoner-of-war camp celebrate the end of the Korean War.

Infer How do you think these soldiers would have felt about what America accomplished in this war?

What Were the Effects of the Korean War?

The human costs of the Korean War were staggering. Well over 30,000 Americans lost their lives in the war zone. Nearly 2 million Koreans and Chinese were also killed.

Politically, the Korean War changed nothing. Korea remained divided. To this day, relations between North Korea and South Korea remain poor. On the other hand, UN forces did push back North Korean forces during the war and kept communism out of South Korea. Through this action, the United States and its allies showed that they were ready to fight to prevent Communist expansion.

Analyze Graphs These graphs show the costs of the Korean War.

Draw Conclusions Why do you think the graph shows civilian casualties for North Korea and South Korea but not for China and the United States?

READING CHECK

Summarize the terms of the Korean War armistice.

A Global Cold War

The Korean War was not the only conflict resulting from the Cold War. Around the globe, rivalries sprang up between groups backed by the Soviet Union and the United States, respectively.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLS

During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union competed to gather allies and to gain influence in countries around the world.

Interaction What patterns can you find on the map regarding allies in Europe and Asia?
Summarize How would you describe the differences in where the allies of the United States and the Soviet Union were located?

The Cold War Spreads

In September 1959, the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev (KROOSH chawf), arrived in New York to address the United Nations. Khrushchev, who had gained power a few years after Stalin died in 1953, spoke calmly at first. He expressed hopes that the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union would end. Then, gradually his manner changed. Twice, he became so angry that he took off his shoe and pounded it on the table.

Khrushchev’s trip to the UN symbolized the fact that the Cold War had become global. Although the Cold War had started in Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union now competed for allies and influence among the members of the United Nations.

Struggle for Power Over Colonies

For years, many of the nations of Africa and Asia had been governed as colonies of European and other foreign powers. After World War II, many colonial people demanded and won independence. Some achieved independence peacefully. Others had to fight for it.

In these colonies, Communists often joined other groups to fight foreign control. Khrushchev called these struggles “wars of national liberation.” Both openly and secretly, the Soviets gave economic and military aid to rebel forces.

The West tried to prevent the Soviets from expanding their influence. In doing so, American leaders faced difficult choices. Should the United States provide aid to a colonial power? Should Americans use secret aid to counter the Soviets? Should they send troops into another nation to influence its internal affairs? The United States used all these tactics at one time or another.

The Philippines

In 1946, the United States granted independence to its colony in the Philippines. Crowds in Manila cheered as the American flag was lowered and the Filipino flag was hoisted high.

Since gaining independence, the Philippines has suffered from poverty, local uprisings, and dictatorships. Under the rule of Ferdinand Marcos, who was in power from 1965 to 1986, opposition parties were repressed. In the years that followed, the Philippines struggled to find a stable and honest government.

African Independence

During the 1950s and 1960s, more than 30 African nations won freedom from European rule. Some of these new nations faced civil wars among rival ethnic or tribal groups. Some fought border wars with their neighbors. Inevitably, the United States and the Soviet Union backed opposing sides in these struggles. As a result, the Cold War turned local conflicts into international crises.

In East Africa, the United States and the Soviet Union took sides in a long war between Somalia and Ethiopia. The United States backed Somalia, while the Soviet Union supported Ethiopia. In southern Africa, the Cold War intensified a civil war in Angola.

Analyze Images Throughout Africa, people demanded independence from colonial rule. This 1959 photograph shows Ghanaians rallying in support of African liberation.

Infer Ghana gained independence in 1957. Why were Ghanaians still protesting colonialism two years after their nation’s independence?

South Asian Independence

In 1947, India won independence from Britain. Soon, the Indian subcontinent was divided into two nations: India and Pakistan. Pakistan, feeling threatened by the Soviet Union to its north, became an ally of the United States. India accepted both American and Soviet aid but remained neutral in the Cold War.

French-ruled Indochina included present-day Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. In each country, separate nationalist groups fought for independence. The wars lasted for almost 30 years and eventually drew in the United States, as you will read in a later lesson.

READING CHECK

Understand Effects How did the freedom of former colonies in Africa and Asia impact the Cold War?

Fears About Communism at Home

For many Americans, the Korean War increased worries about Communists at home. They feared that Communist sympathizers and spies might be secretly working to overthrow the U.S. government. These concerns helped spark a hunt for Communists within American society.

During the Great Depression, some Americans had turned against democracy and free enterprise. They had rejected the efforts of the New Deal as inadequate. To them, communism offered the only solution to the nation’s deep economic troubles. In time, however, many American Communists recognized that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was a brutal dictator, and they left the party.

Hunting Spies

Still, some remained avid Communists. Between 1946 and 1950, several people in the United States, Canada, and Britain were arrested as Soviet spies. In the United States, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to death for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. Despite protests, both were executed in 1953. The Rosenberg case made many Americans wonder if other Soviet spies were living among them as ordinary citizens.

Americans also worried that there were Communists in high government positions. In 1950, Alger Hiss, a State Department official, was imprisoned for perjury, or lying under oath. Hiss had denied that he was part of a Soviet spy ring. Later evidence would show that Hiss and several other government officials were passing secrets to the Soviet Union.

In 1947, President Truman ordered investigations of government workers to determine if they were loyal to the United States. Thousands of government employees were questioned. Some people were forced to resign. Many of those had done nothing disloyal to the United States.

Analyze Timelines The Red Scare lasted for almost 20 years and included a number of major developments, as shown on the timeline.

Hypothesize After McCarthy was reprimanded, do you think the fear of communism in the United States faded permanently?

The McCarthy Era

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin made a shocking announcement. He claimed to have a list of 205 State Department employees who were Communist Party members.

McCarthy never offered evidence for his claims. Yet, McCarthy’s dramatic charges won him national attention.

During the next four years, McCarthy’s campaign spread suspicion across the nation. Businesses and colleges questioned employees. Many people were fired and forced out of their professions. The term McCarthyism came to refer to threatening people and repressing dissent through the use of reckless charges of disloyalty.

In 1954, the Senate held televised hearings to investigate a new McCarthy charge. He insisted that there were Communists in the United States Army. This time, McCarthy had gone too far. On national television, he came across as a bully, not a hero. His popularity plunged.

In December 1954, the Senate passed a resolution to censure, or officially condemn, McCarthy for “conduct unbecoming a member.” As a result, McCarthy lost much of his support. By the time he died three years later, the Communist scare was mostly over.

Analyze Images Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to have proof that his opponents and enemies, such as Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, associated with alleged subversive groups.

Infer Why do you think McCarthy showed off documents but did not let news reporters read them?

READING CHECK

Draw Conclusions How does the Rosenberg case demonstrate American attitudes toward communism during the Cold War?

Lesson Check

What was the significance of the 38th parallel in Korea?
What was the effect of the demilitarized zone?
Summarize the hunt for Communists that occurred within the United States.
Identify Main Ideas How did the Cold War turn regional conflicts into international crises?
Writing Workshop: Develop a Clear Thesis Draft a thesis for your essay on changes to the United States after World War II. You can revise this statement as your essay develops.

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