The USA was occupying Japan before the Korean War started and the original aim was to make Japan pay for the damage done in World War 2. However, if Japan was rebuilt then it would be a good trading partner for the USA. Korea had threatened Japan in the past and the USA saw a communist Korea as a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan. A communist Korea would threaten Japanese and American interests as Japan is a western style democracy, as well as a cold war ally to the USA. However, the reasons for US involvement in Korea can’t be explained simply by their interests in Japan.
How far do you agree with the view that the Korean War had a significant impact on the early stages of the Cold War? The Korean War (1950-1953) was a conflict between the Communist North and the Capitalist South of Korea who had been separated along the 38th Parallel, temporarily, by the US dominated UNTOK after World War Two. This war was supposedly based on the pledge of the US to reunify a capitalist Korea after Kim Il Sung’s communist invasion of the South. In reality, this war was an allegorical pawn for the development of the Cold War. It significantly highlighted the true conflict involving the US and the USSR, and more importantly the ongoing battle between two opposing ideologies- capitalism and communism.
Communist aggression was the most important reason because without the original assault by North Korea there would’ve been no war, merely suspicion on the US’ part regarding Stalin and other Communist nations’ activities. Another reason for the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 was the ambiguity of the US’ foreign policy. The US were very contradictory about their objectives prior to the war and at different stages throughout
How far do you agree with the view that the cold war spread to Asia in the years 1949-1953 because of Stalin’s desire to spread the influence of the USSR? Just as source P and source R argue, Stalin did play a role in furthering the spread of communism in Asia which in turn caused tensions to rise and the cold war spreading. However to simply assign blame to Stalin’s desire to spread the influence of the USSR is a very limited view which does not take into account Stalin’s reluctance to be involved in many Asian affairs. Indeed as source Q states, the USA’s foreign policies had contributed a great deal to the array of misconception that caused cold war situations to escalate. Sources O and R on the other hand show that superpower involvement was inevitable and which power struck first was a mystery but what is certain is as sources P, R and Q state, which is that Kim Il Sung’s drive for an invasion of south Korea and the pressure that came from the newly formed communist china caused an unavoidable mounting of tensions which caused the cold war to spread to Asia.
Not only for this reason did China attack the US, but also Mao Zedong wanted to strengthen his position in china and thought attacking the US would do so. This was a huge failure as it made the opposition stronger as they had China now to deal with as well as North Korea and the USSR pushing the NK’s to carry on the war. This failure made the US retreat. The Korean War has political successes within it for the US. The fact that they stopped North Korea and Kim Il Sung from
The USA had succeeded in this because North Korea was pushed back to the 38th parallel and South Koreas capital (SEOUL) was back in the south. Even though during 1951 the Chinese had Seoul, they were too pushed back therefore the war ended roughly on the same line as the 38th parallel. The Chinese and Korean forces had paid a very high price for their military action far greater than the USA’s forces; this was a success for the USA. MacArthur wanted to turn the whole of Korea into a non-communist regime based in Seoul, the attempt to move north Korea of the 38th parallel turned into a serious military defeat when the US and South Korea forces pushed north right to the Chinese border on the Yalu River. This took the Chinese by surprise which were unprepared but still managed to send them back to the 38th parallel therefore the achievements of the under-equipped Chinese troops forcing the USA and South Koreans forces back to the northern border indicates that the Korean war was not a victory for the USA, this was very humiliating for the USA and especially Truman as he was in charge of MacArthur.
After the overwhelming battle in Korea, starting in 1950, the war between North Korea, China and patron state USSR against South Korea and patron state USA finally ended in a ceasefire in June 16th 1953. It can be argued that the USA was the successors of the Korean War due to significant military and political success. However, the USA also faced great negative impacts from the war politically and militarily which can challenge the view of the USA triumph. It can be argued that the US was the victors of the Korean War because of their military success. Primarily the US goal was to defend South Korea from the invasion of North Korea, June 1950.
The Cold War had essentially started as a split between USA and the USSR due to ideological and strategic differences between the two countries. During the course of the Cold War, the official US foreign policy was of containment of communism. This policy fuelled by the fear of communism in USA was designed to prevent further expansion of communism. The policy emerged at a time when Eastern Europe was under the military, and increasing political, control of the Soviet Union, and when Western European countries appeared to be wobbling from their democracies because of socialist agitation and collapsing economies. Containment was a foreign policy introduced at the start of the Cold War by the United States, aimed at stopping the spread of Communism and keeping it 'contained' and isolated within its current borders, otherwise the 'domino effect' would occur, where if one nation became Communist, the surrounding ones would follow.
Additionally the conflict in Korea allowed the USA to demonstrate its military capabilities to the world, as Kennedy said, he wanted to prove America’s credibility and Vietnam was the perfect place to illustrate this and, in the bigger picture, help to increase UN credibility. However, despite US concession to accept containment as an accomplishment, North Korea remaining communist can be seen as an American failure. In 1950, the US made the decision to invade North Korea. This switch to rollback policy shows that their goals were higher than just containment. They were defeated by Chinese ‘dragon’ attacks, which in December 1950 caused the most humiliating retreat in US history, totalling 300 miles.
Japan had always relied on a strong military, and in the 1930's Japan's leaders turned to military power to solve problems such as a growing population, lack of resources and perceived racist policies of the Western world. Meanwhile, the US was seeking to advance themselves by isolating their country from external affairs: this meant they were isolating themselves from the conflict of World War 2 in Europe by only supplying arms (to Britain and China) but refusing to send American men to the front lines. This policy of isolationism was threatened when Japan's idea of a self-sufficient Asian area, the Co-Prosperity Sphere, was introduced. As these two strong forces grew, a collision course transpired. While Japan wanted to expand in Asia-Pacific and build an Empire.