Korea in the Cold War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Korea in the Cold War - Essay Example 883). The war broke in June 25, 1950; led by the Soviet made tanks, the North Korean military rumbled across the thirty-eighth parallel. South Korea was caught unprepared, and their forces were pushed back southward to a treacherously tiny defensive region around Pusan. In the process of restoring peace between these two regimes, General MacArthur was the U.N. commander in the entire operation. Instead of fighting his way out of the southern Pusan perimeter, MacArthur launched a bold amphibious landing behind the rival’s lines at Inchon. This action succeeded, and the North Koreans scrambled back behind the asylum of the thirty-eighth parallel. MacArthur received authorization to cross the border to North Korea by the U.N. Assembly; President Truman ordered him northward. MacArthur insisted there was no substitute for victory, and his comments against Truman led to his removal from command (Kennedy et al. 884). The Korean War provided the occasion for a vast expansion of the A merican army. President Truman gave orders to MacArthur, and this shows that America was extensively involved in the war. Through the National Security Council Memorandum Number 68 (NSC-68), President Truman ordered enormous military buildup which was beyond what was essential for the instant purposes of the Korean War. (Kennedy et al. 883). Truman took advantage of the temporary absence of the Soviet Union from the U.N. Security Council, to obtain an undisputed condemnation of North Korea as the assailant. Without consulting the Congress, Truman ordered U.S. naval and air units to support South Korea. When America realized there was no intervention from China or the Soviet Union, they raised their stakes in Korea. The Chinese communists counter attacked North Korea when hostile troops approached the Yalu River border between China and Korea. The effects of the Korean War later led to disintegration of North Korea and South Korea. In July 1951, peace discussions started in a rude meadow tent close to the firing line, but these talks were also immediately hitched on the issue of prisoner exchange. Talks hauled unproductively for almost two years (Kennedy et al. 885). The events of this war led to hilarious welcome of MacArthur’s actions whereas Truman was condemned as an appeaser of Communist China and Communist Russia. These two countries up until now involve themselves in the blame game, in relation to nuclear weapons. # 3 The cold war began in 1945 after the end of the World War II. After Americans celebrated their nation’s victories in Asia and Europe, they started ending relations with their wartime ally after the Soviet Union threatened a new and more terrible international conflict (Kennedy et al. 858). According to historical relations of United States and the Soviet Union, there was little hope that these two nations would reach pleasant understandings about the form of the postwar world. Mutual suspicions were antique, abiding, and abundant. Communism in the Soviet Union and capitalism in America facilitated the cold war. The delays of opening up a second fr ont against Germany by America and Britain nourished the skepticism of the Soviet towards the West. America and Britain had also frozen their Soviet ally out of the project of developing atomic weapons, further adding the mistrust. The Washington authorities deteriorated