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As the Soviets began to supply and support the Chinese and North Korean forces, U.S. President Harry Truman expressed concern over the future of the United Nations and the spread of communism.
The Korean War was a conflict between the northern and southern sections of the country, with other countries participating and supporting the two combatants. Korea was divided into the two sections following the end of World War II in the Pacific. Because the country had been occupied and ruled by Japan since before the first World War, the United States divided the peninsula at the approximate middle point, the 38th Parallel, following Japan's surrender in 1945. The U.S. continued to occupy the southern section, while their World War II ally, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, remained in the north.
In keeping with the Soviet Union's practices, North Korea established a communist government to lead the region. South Korea, on the other hand, imitated its American occupiers and created a constitution-backed democracy with Syngman Rhee as its president. As tensions grew between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., North Korean troops invaded the South Korean region in 1950, inciting the first proxy war of the decades-long Cold War. The United States came to South Korea's aid and helped to press the North Korean army back across the 38th Parallel.
The Peoples Republic of China, having become communist as a result of a civil war in the late 1940s, came in on the side of North Korea. They launched an offensive that drove the troops from the U.S. and other United Nations members to back out of North Korea and deep into the southern tip of the peninsula. While the Soviet Union supplied both the North Korean and Chinese armies, they did not enter any formal troops into the battle. Eventually, the war ended with an agreement that re-established the division of the two parts of the country at the original post-World War II border.
The transition of the Soviet Union from its position as a primary ally against Germany, Italy and Japan in World War II to the main U.S. concern in connection with nuclear weapons took place largely over the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s in Korea. As the U.S. became concerned with Chinese influence over Asia, the decision was made to support Japan as a power in the area. The U.S.'s interest in South Korea was primarily due to its physical proximity to Japan. As the Soviets began to supply and support the Chinese and North Korean forces, U.S. President Harry Truman expressed concern over the future of the United Nations and the spread of communism.
Even though the U.N. Security Council approved forceful action in assisting South Korea of repelling the northern invaders, the U.S. committed only to air and naval forces. Truman and other American government officials feared that using ground troops in Korea would trigger the Soviet Union to act against the United States. Once assured that this was not the case by way of a June 27, 1950, communication from the U.S.S.R., Truman approved the use of American infantry soldiers.
The Soviet Union held a position that questioned the legitimacy of the U.N.'s resolutions, due to the membership of China as a different state from the newly-created Peoples Republic of China. By boycotting the meetings in which these issues were addressed, the Soviet Union established their position as the intention to inhibit any United Nations actions against North Korea or her supporters.
With the hindsight available to modern analysts and historians, the Korean War is thought to be part civil war between the North and South, and part territory struggle between China and the United States. While the Soviet Union did take a side, and did support the actions of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, U.S.S.R. leader Joseph Stalin was ultimately unwilling to risk a nuclear-based third world war by challenging the South Korean supporters by committing Soviet ground troops.
Communism remains still in North Korea, in direct contrast to the democracy in South Korea. The country remains divided and despite the intentions and resolutions from the leaders of both states, each region is vastly different from the other in terms of culture, economy, political structure, and standard of living. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, both North and South Korean were accepted into the United Nations. While North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, most political analysts term the country as a totalitarian communist dictatorship. North Korea maintains an active nuclear weapons program, and despite the reunification efforts since the end of the Korean War in 1953, offensive military actions between the two disparate countries have occurred as recently as November 2010.
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA); May 11, 2017
The Washington Post; May 7, 2017
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA); April 30, 2017
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA); April 27, 2017
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA); April 27, 2017
The Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY); September 27, 1993
The Historian; June 22, 2013
The Washington Post; December 16, 1990
The National Interest; December 22, 1995
The Historian; June 22, 2005
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