The Korean War Period
25-3
Vocab
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Pursue- to follow; to attempt to capture or achieve
Resolve- to settle or decide
Stalemate- situation in which neither side wins
Demilitarized zone- an area which neither side
controls
• Joseph McCarthy- senator of Wisconsin
• Censure- or condemn
Conflict in Korea
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Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan in 1910
After Japans defeat in world war II, Korea was divided
North and south Korea tensions started to increase rapidly
North Korean troops invaded south Korean troops on June
25,1950
Within three days south Koreans capital, Seoul, was invaded
As a result of president Truman’s response, the UN Security
Council sent military forces to Korea
90% of the 16 nations that sent troops, to fight under the UN
flag, were American
The delegate of the Soviet Union was not at the UN debate so
the proposal failed.
• The UN forces that arrived at the front were
badly outnumbered and poorly supplied
• They got pushed back to the Tip of the Korean
Peninsula
• General MacArthur launched a counter attack
in September
• North Koreans were pushed back from Yalu
River by MacArthur’s forces
• Large numbers of Chinese troops crossed the
border as the UN soldiers neared the Yalu River
• The battle front was once again in South Korea,
where the war settled down into a stalemate
Truman Versus MacArthur
• Publicly, MacArthur called for the bombarding of
the supply bases in China
• President Truman thought that if Americans
pounced on China it might start a new world war
• Even though Truman advised MacArthur to make
no more public statements, but he disregarded
his commands and did it anyways
• MacArthur was then fired by Truman
Peace Talks
• The divergent sides began peace talks in July 1951
• For two more years these talks continued
• The whole time this was going on, the killing and the fighting went
on
• July 1953, the fighting was finally concluded
• A minimum of 2 million Koreans, mostly civilians, died while
fighting
• 30,000 Americans died and 100,000 were wounded
• As the fighting continued into the next century, tensions were built
as the two forces faced each other in the demilitarized zone.
Communists in Government?
• Soviet control over atomic weapons, the communists beat China, and
the Korean stalemate all led to the united states ability to overthrow
communism
• Many people thought that communists sympathizers and spies
wanted to takeover the U.S. government
• The first of the two cases that caught the publics attention was when
Alger Hiss, a previous State Apartment Official, was convicted of
giving the Soviet agents government secrets
• Whittaker Chambers, Hiss’s accuser, claimed that Hiss gave him top
secret papers to hand off to the soviet union
• Hiss then sued Whittaker for making fabricated claim
• Chambers made copies of the papers know as “pumpkin papers”
• Since so many years had passed since the crime Hiss committed, he
was not charged of spying. He was committed of perjury or lying and
was spent to prison for several years.
• In 1950, many Americans were imprisoned on charges
of giving secrets about the atomic bomb to Soviets
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were held guilty for
supplying these secrets
• As a result, fears of Americans security rose
• Today, more than half a century after the trials of Alger
Hiss and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, their roles are still
debated
• The US government released copies of secret
Soviet messages, that were decoded after years
of hard work, in the 1990s
• These messages proved all three of them were
spies for the Soviets
McCarthyism
• The rise of senator Joseph McCarty, of Wisconsin,
resulted in a cloud of fear
• He built his career by threating to expose Communists
• In February 1950, at Wheeling, West Virginia, he waved a
paper in the air he claimed that had 205 Communists
names who worked in a State Department
• This number was then reduced to 81, and then again
to 57
• In the next four years the more extraordinary his
charges became
• Accusing someone of disloyalty without having any
proof is know as McCarthyism
• Although people knew McCarthy was trying to
get rid of businesses, a limited amount of
people were brave enough to stand up to him
and his scare tactics
• In 1954, when millions were watching a
television program he lost his followers due to
him making a false claim against the United
States Army
• After three years McCarthy died by that time
the Communists scare was almost over
http://ahersko.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/12.jpg
http://votingamerican.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/mccarthyism_400.jpg
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~park25h/classweb/worldpolitics/images/pushintofire.jpg
http://www.willisms.com/archives/nkoreaposter6.jpg
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~park25h/classweb/worldpolitics/images/north-koreanpropaganda-kids-6.jpg