THE HEATING OF THE COLD WAR: KOREA

After World War II Korea was divided into a communist North Korea and a noncommunist and pro-American South Korea divided along the 38th parallel. In late June of 1950 North Korea invaded the south. The Security Council of the United Nations voted to send in a peacekeeping force (the Soviet Union was protesting the U.N.’s decision not to allow communist China in as a member and failed to attend the Security Council session when this was discussed). Douglas Mac Arthur was appointed to lead the United Nations forces, and the Korean War began.

U.N. forces under Mac Arthur drove northward into North Korea. In late November forces from communist China forced MacArthur’s troops to retreat, yet by March 1951 his troops were on the offensive again. MacArthur was very critical of President Truman’s handling of the war, demanding a greatly intensified bombing campaign and suggesting that Truman order the Nationalist Chinese to attack the Chinese mainland. In April 1951 Truman finally fired MacArthur for insubordination. Armistice talks to end the war dragged on for nearly two years; in the end it was decided to divide North and South Korea along the 38th parallel (along virtually the same line that divided them before the war!). More than 57,000 Americans died in this “forgotten war.”