Causes of Korean War

• 1945- Split of Korea along 38th parallel
• North- Communist, Kim Il Sung
• South- Capitalist, Syngman Rhee
• Two opposing ideologies sharing a border caused a lot of tensions, especially due to both leaders wanting to unify
• 1947- Truman launches the Truman Doctrine. The main idea is to save other countries from communism. He introduced the marshall plan, to see how much money European countries would need to stop themselves from being overtaken by communists.
• Truman gives European countries money to protect themselves from communism.
• Domino theory, if one country falls to communism others around them will
• the US creates the foreign policy that they should try to contain communism as much as possible
• China became communist in 1949
• The American Security board advised the US government that containment wouldn't be enough to stop communism
• The cold war was an idealogical war that had no fighting until the Korean war.
• US and USSR used Korea as proxy war, essentially Korea was their battle ground of capitalism vs communism
• Syngman Rhee boasted often that he would invade North Korea. He was almost egging Kim Il Sung on to retaliate.
• Syngman Rhee had a very close relationship with the USA and had lived there for many years before.
• Kim Il Sung was a USSR general. He was very close with Stalin.
• June 1950- Kim Il Sung invades South Korea
• Stalin approved Kim Il Sung's attack of South Korea and provided weapons, training and money but NO TROOPS
• The USA suggested that the UN needed to support South Korea. If the USSR were present they could have vetoed this, however they were boycotting the meetings due to China being banned from them for being communist under Mao Zedong
• The rest of the UN decided that they would order North Korea to leave the south
• 16 countries went to support south korea
• The USSR prevents Eastern bloc countries from accepting the US Marshall Plan's aid.
• The USA gave millions of dollars in aid of the Chinese people fighting against communists in the Chinese civil war.
• The government wanted to take a tougher stance on communism after what happened in China
• USA officials were convinced the USSR was responsible for China becoming communist
• Only the USSR acknowledged the new Chinese state in 1950
• USA called for nationalists to represent China in the UN and gave aid to Taiwan
• In 1950 Senator McCarthy campaigned against communists in the USA who he believed weakened the country.
• Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910-1945
• Korean nationalists wanted to creat an independent free Korea. These peaceful protests were crushed by the Japanese and thousands were killed
• Many Koreans escaped to China to join the communists to fight against the Japanese. One of these individuals was Kim Il Sung, who eventually became a guerrilla leader.
• After WW2 ended the USA set up a military government in South Korea. The USA kept Japanese officials as administrators over Koreans and banned a Korean nationalist government.
• The Korean people were not consulted in the division of their country
• Kim's government took away land from rich landlords and gave it to peasants
• Kim-Il-Sung was not democratically elected
• Syngman Rhee was elected
• Rhee's security would arrest communists
• In South Korea people were not allowed free speech
• USA did not supply South Korea with any heavy weapons to prevent invasion