Korean War Lessons

Shannon Walsh
Report for Eisenhower
Report to the new President:
The United States needed to have control in Korea because it was the symbol of “the watching world.” If the United States lost Korea, it would mean that “they lost another match to the Soviet Union.” (The US State Department, 1950.) The United States was scared that if the USSR was to win Korea that there would be a big spread in communism. If there was communism in Korea it would mean that there would mean that the bumper that the US was using to keep the communism from getting close would now be made up of communism. By having the bumper become communist it would mean that the Soviet Union would have won because they destroyed the bumper that the US was relying on. The United States did not achieve its aims because at the end of all the fighting the border line between the North and South was still the 38th parallel.
The United Nations was able to help a lot with pushing the North Koreans out of South Korea. Based on source 4 it showed that with their help they were able to push the North Koreans all the way to the border line of North Korea and China. But when the Chinese joined the North Korean forces the UN and US were pushed back past the 38th parallel. The United Nations was only trying to restore peace to Korea. In source 5 the resolution that was passed by the UN in 1950 states that “The UN will render such assistance to the republic of Korea as may be necessary to restore international peace and security to the area.” This shows that the UN was only interested in helping saving the peace, and not gaining land for the United States.
MacArthur was removed from his position as General in Korea because he did not want to listen to Truman and he wanted to do what he wanted. MacArthur wanted to invade China, but Truman said he was not allowed to invade because it would start WWIII. Truman knew that the Chinese and the Soviets would back each other up because they were both communists. MacArthur did not listen to Truman and he decided to go behind Truman’s back and told the newspapers and magazines what he was going to do. Truman was furious so he fired MacArthur.
The death tolls of war were varied greatly between each group of people. Based on source 11 the civilians in both North and South Korea lost the most people. But the soldier toll was much less