cold war Essay -- essays research papers

World War II divided Korea into a Communist, northern half and an the Statesn-occupied southern half, divided at the 38th parallel. The Korean War began when the northwarfareds Korean Communist army crossed invaded non-Communist in the south Korea. As North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, right away overran sulfur Korea, the join States came to South Koreas aid. General Douglas MacArthur, who had been overseeing the post World War II affair of Japan, send the US forces, which began to hold off the North Koreans at Pusan, at the southern some tip of Korea. Although Korea was non strategically important to the United States, the political environment at this stage of the Cold War was much(prenominal) that policymakers did not want to appear soft on Communism. The US footprint in as part of a "police action" bunk by a UN international peace- keeping force.With the US, UN, and South Korean forces pinned against the ocean at Pusan, MacArthur orchestrated a daring a mphibious attack on Inchon a port on the western coast of Korea. Having made this landing, MacArthur overcome the North Korean army and recaptured Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Instead of be satisfied with his defeat of South Korea, MacArthur crossed the 38TH Parallel and pursue the North Korean army all the way to the northernmost provinces of North Korea. Afraid that the US was interested in taking North Korea as a base for operations against Manchuria, the Peoples Republic of China secretly sent an army across the Yalu River. This Chinese army attacked the US/UN/ROK forces. Only aft(prenominal) the appointment of Lt. General Matthew Ridgway as commander of ground forces did American the motivation begin to swing against the Chinese Communists.Although President Truman hoped to end the war quickly and pressed MacArthur to be more tactful, the brilliant strategist went against presidential orders and go on spouting incendiary lines about his hopes to reunify Korea. After gaining the plump for of the pronounce Chiefs of Staff Truman relieved MacArthur of command. The move was extremely unpopular in America MacArthur was perceived as a popular war hero. Only the support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saved Truman from impeachment after the firing.Ridgway took MacArthurs command and held off the Communists with smashed forts and entrenchments just north of the 38TH Parallel, sending episodic offensives against the Iron Tria... ... terms. Although the United States attempted to keep the war on a very small scale, it quickly snowballed out of proportion, involving China, at times appear as if it might become a World War III. Looked at another way, though, the Korean War can be considered a victory although the war did at times get out of hand, the US and the USSR were adapted to overturn direct confrontation, especially since the USSR fought mainly by proxy. Perhaps most importantly of all, though it was fought just five years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, the Korean War was not an atomic war, avoiding both the possibility of immediate atomic and setting a pattern that would continue throughout the Cold War.The Korean War had a huge effect on the US government. one and only(a) of the main reasons that the war was fought was to stop communism from taking over the world. The war strengthened our relationship with Britain. This war also let the US avoid a confrontation with the USSR, which would have hurt the economy drastically. If this war would not have happen I retrieve that the world would have been conquered by communism. Instead of living our lavish US life I believe that we would be living like Russia.