Alan Rodriguez
US History
May 10, 2013
Period 1
The Korean War
The Korean War was written by Bruce Cumings in 2010, this book was about how the
Americans felt and forgotten the Korean War. The Korean War started in June 25, 1950 to July
27, 1953. The book started with the start of the war to the end in the first part. It had chapters of
the civil conflict in Korea before the war. The story talked about the memories before and during
the war. Bruce provided insights on the leaders of North Korea and South Korea. The North
Korean attack had defeated the guerilla movement below the 38th parallel. Bruce dwells with the
failures and defeats with South Korea during the war, but the army ignored it and made to
defense of the Pusan Perimeter and its manning by mid-1952.
Before the war Korea was annexed by Japan until 1945. In the 1930s small Korean troops
formed resistance groups called Dongnipgun (Liberation Army). They used guerrilla tactics on
the Japanese force. One of the groups were lead by future leader of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung.
Many anti-Japanese rallies continued. When the Japanese knew where the villagers hid the
rebels, they would force them to live in building and the buildings were set on fire.
When the Japanese surrendered to the allied forces in 1945, the American forces stationed at the
southern part of Korea while the Soviets stayed at the North. US Colonel Dean Rusk proposed to
the Soviet military administrator of northern Korea, that Korea should be split apart at the 38th
parallel. This led to the division of Korea.
The Korean war was the start of the Cold war between the Soviets and the Americans, it was a
communist expansion to the US. For Koreans, it was just colonial powers. The North turned into
communism and the South was democracy. Different countries sitting side by side and fighting
each other. The United Nations pushed the North up to the Chinese border, but then the Chinese
Alan Rodriguez
US History
May 10, 2013
Period 1
brought their own troops to help the North. This reversed the tide of the battle and then pushed
the United Nations to the South. This stayed for three years and then it came to a cease fire.
More than 37,000 American soldiers died and the Chinese lost 900,000. For the North and South,
it was estimated 3 million with half were civilians. Bruce’s research said that the South were
more vicious than the North after the war.
This book was really interesting to me. I never knew anything about Korean War, but I read this
book and I know why they fought and the conflicts. The book compared the Korean War and
Vietnam War by the popularity of it. This book was very detailed and it had a lot of history
about Korea and the war. I think the author made a great book about the war.