Korean War

After the end of World War II, Korea was divided into north and south divisions, the north being socialist and part of the Soviet circle of influence and the south being a right-wing dictatorship backed by America. However, the military strength in the north far outweighed the meager resources of the military in the south and when North Koreans launched an invasion into South Korea on June 25, 1950, the United Nations sanctioned the declaration of war against North Korea by South Korea and the United States. This was a significant step for the newly created United Nations as it was the first time a world organization intervened successfully in avoiding international and multinational conflict. On the very day President Truman mobilized U.S. naval and air forces to assist the efforts of South Korea, the United Nations requested in a resolution that its members "furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area" (Laite 2).

The United Nations was, of course, dominated by the United States at this point in its history and the American army basically represented the U.N. army. By crossing over the 38th parallel in its invasion of South Korea, the U.S. and U.N. saw the action as an unprovoked armed attack lead by Chinese and communist forces. The United States was actually the first explosion in the Cold War which would pi

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en taken had the U.S., and MacArthur in particular, not been so determined to do more than just �repel the attack' and �restore the peace'. The actual movement north, close to the Yalu river border, provoked the Communist Chinese to enter the fray. The Chinese had already warned the U.N. forces to not come near the Yalu and they invaded Tibet in 1951 after forcing U.N. forces to move south of the Yalu border at the end of 1950. After this point in the conflict, the U.N. and South Korean forces and the Chinese and North Korean forces remained in a stalemate of maintaining their respective positions along the 38th parallel. The Korean War was basically waged between the Chinese and North Korean forces assisted by advisers and logistic support from the Soviet Union against the United Nations Command which was mainly composed of U.S. and Republic of Korea forces and many smaller contingents from other U.N. member states. The was basically unfolded in four phases: Initial North Korean success/Pusan perimeter U.N. offensive northwards/Inchon landings Chinese enter the way and push the U.N. forces south of the 38th parallel Renewed U.N. offensive results in operational stalemate (Course and Conduct 1) The inability of eithe

Category: History - K