Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
Theme 3 World Powers and International Tensions Since 1918
PART 1: the pathway to becoming a world power: the United States
Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
Did the war in Korea represent a triumph or a failure of the American foreign policy?
A peripheral conflict/ A proxi war (= un conflit périphérique) ?
Not only salami tactic in Eastern Europe but also in Far East (= extreme Orient).
The Korean War was an episode in the Cold War. It seemed to be only a war between South and
North Korea, but America and Russia were using it to fight without having a ‘hot war’ because with
the possession of the atomic bomb would have meaning a mutual destruction.
a) Korea after WW2.
Ever since the late 19th century Korea was under Japanese rule, but Korea was liberated in 1945
by U.S. and Soviet troops. To avoid conflict between the two wartime Allies, they agreed to a
temporary division of the country along the 38th Parallel (Same situation as Germany): Soviet forces
in the Industrial North, and American troops occupying the agrarian South.
Korea was split at the 38th parallel because, when they were discussing what to do with Korea,
the Americans could only find a small-scale map.
Situation in the SOUTH:
With the encouragement of the United States the South held elections in the spring of 1948. The
Soviets objected, but the result was a resounding victory for Syngman Rhee, a dedicated antiCommunist who had been educated in the United States. His regime quickly became a very strong
and repressive dictatorship. Because of the fight against communism, the regime put in jail thousand
of opponents, but with the support of Washington.
Situation in the NORTH:
In retaliation the Soviets announced the formation of People’s Republic of Korea (recognized
by the USSR and other communist regime) and a communist government in North Korea, under the
leadership of Kim Il-Sung.
By the mid-1949 both halves of Korea had been recognized as independent countries, and all
U.S. and Soviet troops had been withdrawn from the Korean peninsula. Only 500 US troops in the
South
b) The reasons of the Korean War
=> The USA went to war in Korea for two main reasons.
 The first reason was the ‘DOMINO THEORY’
The domino theory was a US foreign policy theory during the 1950s to 1980s that speculated that if one
land in a region came under the influence of communism then the surrounding countries would
follow in a domino effect.
PB: China turned Communist in 1949.
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Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
During WW2, Japanese troops occupied most of Asia and of China, with huge massacres.
By the end of WW2, Chinese communists led by Mao Zedong/ Mao Tse-tung (Both spelling
are correct because Chinese writing) had control of the Northern part of China, against Japanese
occupation. The rest of the country was occupied by some nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek
(supported by the USA).
From 1945 to 1949, civil war in China and victory of the communists thanks to the support of
the huge peasant population pleased by the communist policy of redistributing lands to the poorest
farmers.
In 1949, the defeated Chiang Kai Shek and about one million of his Nationalist forces grabbed
what they could of China’s wealth (including many of its art treasures) and fled to the island of Taiwan/
old name = Formosa, with the support of the USA.
In October 1, 1949, Mao established the People’s Republic of China with the support of the
USSR. Alliance between them = Signature of a Sino-Soviet Treaty of Mutual assistance. It placed
China in the Russian Orbit.
Cold war had now split East Asia in two parts. Some talked about the “bamboo curtain”
President Truman and the rest of the West were worried that, if Korea fell, the next ‘domino’
would be Japan, which was very important for American trade and American foreign policy of
control of Eastern Asia. This was probably the most important reason for America’s involvement in the
war. Fear of the entire Asia turning communist.
 The second reason was that Truman realized the USA was in a competition with the USSR not
only for the domination of Europe but also for a worldwide domination competition.
Supporting South Korea was a way to fight communism without having a “hot war”, to
undermine Communism and protect the American way of life.
In order to win such confrontation, Truman agreed in a MAJOR CHANGE IN THE USA
FOREIGN POLICY: in April 1950 the American National Security Council issued a report (NSC
68) recommending that America should abandon 'containment' as in Eastern Europe and start
'rolling back' Communism. ROLLING BACK = repousser.
DEF°: to rollback is the policy of totally annihilating an enemy army and occupying its country, as
was done in the American Civil War to the Confederacy.
“Rollback” emerged in the late 1940s and was proposed by US strategists. It must be considered
as the Republican Party’s direct counterpart to the Democrats' containment model.
Behind the new strategy stood the idea of taking the offensive to push Communism back
rather than just defensively containing it. Much debated was the question whether the U.S. should
pursue a rollback strategy against Communism in Eastern Europe in 1953-56; the decision was not
to: Only containment in Europe.
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Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
The crucial initiator of the policy of rollback was John
Foster Dulles. When Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) became
President in January, 1953, he appointed Dulles as his Secretary
of State
In the Korean War, the United States and the United
Nations officially endorsed a policy of rollback - the destruction
of the North Korean government.
Dulles' rollback policy was later implemented by the
Reagan Administration during the 1980s and it is sometimes
credited with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the Communist
Bloc in Eastern Europe as well as the Soviet Union itself.
NSC-68 recommended policies that emphasized military
(“rolling back”) over diplomatic action (cf Kennan’s telegram
and the policy of containment).In NSC-68, US foreign policy
towards the Soviets can be defined as "a policy of calculated and
gradual coercion (=contrainte)."
The NSC-68 called for significant peacetime military spending, in order to build a military
power able to overthrow the Soviets.
The beginning of the Korean War led Truman to consider the NSC 68 in a good way and he
decided to drive the Communists out of North Korea.
=> Diplomatic organization of the communist offensive
Kim Il-Sung repeatedly asked Stalin for permission to launch an invasion of the South. In
1949, the Northern leader of Korea persuaded Stalin that he could conquer South Korea. Eventually,
Stalin gave his agreement.
Why Stalin gave his agreement to Kim Il-Sung?
Stalin saw a chance to continue the cold war and discomfort America, but ‘at arm’s length’
(à distance), without directly confronting the Americans
 A few months (January 1950) before the invasion, the US secretary of State Dean Acheson
declared that the area defended by the US went up to Formosa and Japan, excluding Korea
=> such statement was considered by Stalin as a tacit recognition of the Soviet influence over
Korea
 Stalin though that neither America nor the UN would get involved, that it had a minor risk of
an enlargement of the conflict to the US => underestimation of the US policy and motivation
as in Berlin two years before.
 Stalin considered also that the period and the situation were very in favor of the communists
=> diplomatic interests mainly
o Defeat of the Soviets in Berlin (containment’s policy) but victory of the communists in
China, Indochina and Indonesia: euphoria in the Soviet block
o The Southern regime seems to be so corrupted and not any more in contact with the
population that it would be very easy to conquer the South
o Invading South Korea would be a strategic victory because it would increase the
communist influence over Asia, it would threaten the US presence in Japan and it would
contain the growing influence of China (ally but…)
According to recently released archival documents, Stalin agreed to allow a North Korean
attack, but warned Kim that while the Soviet Union would continue to provide military and economic aid
to the North, the country would not become directly involved.
Stalin’s said: “If you should get kicked in the teeth, I shall not lift a finger. You have to ask Mao
for all the help”.
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Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
Kim Il Sung also went to see Mao Zedong, the leader of China, to get his agreement. Mao
agreed also.
c) The Korean War (June
1950 to July 1953)
=> Situation in Korea during the spring
1950:
Multiplication of military incidents
between Northern and Southern Korean
soldiers along the border. In 1950,
Syngman Rhee threatened to attack
North Korea. It was an excuse, an alibi,
the trigger (gachette, déclencheur) for
war.
KOREAN OPERATIONS:
=> 1st PART: North Korean offensive and American response
The North Korean invasion began on June 25, 1950. In fact, the northern leader of Kim IlSung claimed that the Southern leader was responsible for the war because of his aggression and that the
North was only responding to imperialist threats.
It’s wrong because several northern divisions attacked at the same time, according to a very
strict plan, while the South was unable to respond, disorganized and fighting under improvisation => it
quickly became apparent that South Korea's armed forces were not up to the task of defending their
country.
Northern troops captured quickly most of the country.
Problem for the USSR and for North Korea, the US decided to consider this war as a major
confrontation, as a test about their ability to contain and rollback communism in Asia.
The day after the beginning of the offensive in Korea, the US called for a meeting of the UN and
the United Nations called upon its members to help South Korea resist (the resolution only managed
to win approval from the U.N. Security Council because the Soviet delegation was boycotting its
proceedings at the time because of the opposition of the USA to admit China in the UN).
UN members noticed the Northern aggression and gave to the US a mandate to the US (the
only military power able to over there) to help South Korea
In his autobiography, President Truman acknowledged that fighting the invasion was
essential to the American goal of the global containment of communism:
President Truman: "Communism was acting in Korea, just as Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese
had ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist
leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores. If the Communists were
permitted to force their way into the Republic of Korea without opposition from the free world, no
small nation would have the courage to resist threat and aggression by stronger Communist
neighbors.” "
National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68):
Truman ordered the bombing of North Korea and he ask General Douglas MacArthur, hero
of the Pacific Theater in World War II, to take command of a multinational force (UN force”) to assist
in the defense of South Korea. A lot of US soldiers were still in Japan so they moved quickly to South
Korea.
Out of the 300,000 UN troops, 260,000 were Americans.
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Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
At first, the US-Un troops helped South Korea around Pusan in the South, securing the area.
Then on 15 September 1950, the American General MacArthur led a UN amphibious landing at
Inchon (near Seoul) behind the NKPA (North Korean people’s Army) lines. They freed Seoul at the
end of September
The North Koreans simply began to withdraw toward their own borders.
In September 1950, what had once been simply an effort to defend South Korea now became
an effort to punish the North.
The president Truman authorized MacArthur to lead his forces across the 38th Parallel. If the
Chinese did intervene, MacArthur assured, their army would quickly be crushed.
On 7 October 1950 MacArthur invaded North Korea. He advanced as far as the Chinese
border (Yalou river) and mid-October the UN forces took Pyongyang, the North Korea Capital.
The General boasted that the Americans would be 'home by Christmas'.
=> 2nd PART: Chinese are coming!!!
MacArthur was wrong: On 25 November 1950, the Chinese sent a massive army across the
Yalu River into North Korea: 200,000 Chinese troops ('People's Volunteers') attacked MacArthur. They
had modern weapons heavily supplied by Russia (weapons, planes, military advisors), and a fanatical
hatred of the Americans.
Then, on 31 December, half a million more Chinese troops entered the war and overwhelmed
the Americans.
They drove the Americans back: they recaptured North Korea, and advanced into South Korea,
conquest of Pyongyang and Seoul during the winter 1950-1.
CSQ = The Americans landed more troops and used bombers. The Americans drove the Chinese back,
but lost 54,000 American soldiers dead doing so. MacArthur reached the 38th parallel in March 1951
and there they would remain for the duration of the conflict.
But tensions between Truman and Mac Arthur:
 General MacArthur repeatedly and publicly wanted to push back the Chinese even after the
Yalou, by bombing Manchuria, by using the atomic bomb, with a blockade of the Chinese coast, and
the "unleashing" (=lacher, déchainer) of anti-communist Chinese forces from Taiwan.
 Truman totally disagreed because of the risk of a third world war. The President wanted to
avoid turning the Korean conflict into an all-out war against the Soviet Union and its allies, with the real
risk that nuclear weapons might be used: strategy of "limited war,"
The tension between the two men, particularly MacArthur's tendency to publicize his criticism of
administration policy, led to the general's firing early in 1951 (MacArthur remained very popular in the
US and received a huge ovation when he came back from Korea).
The new general in Korea was General Ridgway
=> 3rd PART: stalemate and end of the war
As the conflict grew into a stalemate (=statu quo), the popularity of Truman's decision to
intervene plummeted. The Republican Party, which hadn't seen one of its own elected president since
1928, made Korea the centerpiece of their campaign for the White House in 1952. The party's candidate
in that year, Dwight D. Eisenhower, pledged that if elected he would go to Korea personally in an effort
to bring an end to the fighting.
He kept this promise while still President-elect,
The Americans threatened to use the atomic bomb if China did not stop fighting. The Chinese
agree to a truce (=trêve) and an armistice was finally concluded in July 1953.
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Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
d) Consequences of the Korean War
=> Human result of the Korean War:
– Four million military and civilian casualties, including 33,600 American, 16,000 UN allies,
415,000 South Korean, and 520,000 North Korean dead.
– There were also an estimated 900,000 Chinese casualties.
– Half of Korea's industry was destroyed and a third of all homes.
=> Diplomatic and military consequences = hardening (raidissement) of the blocs
THE COLD WAR BECAME A GLOBAL WAR, EVEN IN FAR EAST: it increased tensions
between the two leaders.
▲ The Korean War (1950–53) was the first major proxy war in the Cold War (1945–91), the
prototype of the following sphere-of-influence wars such as the Vietnam War (1959–75). The Korean
War established proxy war as one way that the nuclear superpowers indirectly conducted their
rivalry in third-party countries.
Permanent division of the country between two states over the 38th parallel
For Socialist countries:
Source of frustration for the young Republic of China:
 China became even more dependent on the USSR (Chinese communists had to pay the USSR
in order to have some weapons and tanks, at the difference of the North Korean soldiers): human and
financial burden for the Chinese.
 Also China lost all chance to get Formosa because the US decided to strongly protect the island
as soon as the beginning of the conflict
Csq = no official tension but beginning of some resentment against the USSR. It will have
consequences later on.
On the eastern bloc: spectacular hardening of the Soviet bloc with some negative consequences for
Eastern populations
Stalin was afraid of the US military superiority and afraid of an invasion to crush, annihilate
the USSR. So he imposed a very strict regime to the “friendly states” => A purge of their political
regime.
In three years, ¼ of the communists in the People’s Republic (les Républiques Populaires) are
arrested, judged and killed: mainly, former Bolsheviks, replaced by young communist that are totally
under Stalin control (cf 1936-8 Great Purges before WW2) => state terrorism
For the USA:
Changes of the US policy toward Japan.
Until the beginning of the war, the US and the proconsul Mac Arthur were very strict with
Japanese, with a strong policy of de-militarization, democratization and de-cartelization of the main
Japanese companies. + Japan had to give up its right to fight, also to own military forces. The US gave
Japan a political system based on the West and the emperor had to stay quiet.
But, because of the Korean War, Washington had to review its policy: Signature in September
1951 of the Treaty of San Francisco: it ended officially the war and Japan recover its total political
sovereignty => end of the US occupation but maintain of us military and naval bases, mainly on the
archipelago of Okinawa, at half an hour of the Chinese territory.
In the USA:
The war in Korea helped the boost to the US economy, mainly the war industries and mainly in
the West Coast.
But it coasted human lives
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Handout #3: The Korean War, 1950- 1953
For the USA, 2 main consequences:
 1st consequence: It increased the American rearmament, already boosted by the Truman
policy of containment. The NSC 68 recommended the increasing of the military spending up to 20%
of the GDP (only 6% in the USA at that time and around 13% in the USSR) => implementation of the
NSC-68
Congress and Truman were not really in favor of such increase, but the intervention of the
Chinese created the opportunity in order to convince the Congress.
CSQ = the military budget reach 13% of the GDP (the highest % in the US history during the Cold
War): the defense budget increased to 50billion $ a year.
= The troops expanded from 1.4M at the beginning the war to 3.5 million soldiers. Real
revolution because it was not an American tradition to keep a strong army during a peacetime

2nd consequence: the war in Korea reinforces the communist fear in the USA.
Development of the McCarthyism in the USA: denunciation of communists in the USA by the
senator of Wisconsin, McCarthy => “Witch hunt” against thousands of politicians, journalists, public
workers, intellectuals, celebrity such as Charlie Chaplin
1953, McCarthyism send to the electric chair a couple accused of being spies and of delivering
the secrets of the atomic bomb, the Rosenberg’s (nicknamed the “Atom spies”). People were waiting
for their execution in front of the Sing Sing jail screaming “Burn all reds”.
Such great fear of the communist lead Eisenhower into presidency in 1952 with Dulles as
secretary of States + massive implementation of the Rolling back policy
+ PACTOMANIA = signature of regional pacts with countries in Asia and Latin America in order to
surround the communists: ANZUS, Baghdad Pact, NATO, SEATO
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