The Korean War

38th parallel

The 25^th June in 1950 is the beginning of the Korean War. Korea was divided into two parts: into the communist North and the democratic South. The border between North and South is the 38^th parallel. The Korean War lasted three years and can be seen as a war during the period of the Cold War. Many Americans today already forgot about the Korean War, that’s why it is also called the “Forgotten War”. It was the first real “shooting” war after World War II the Americans were involved in.

Before and during WWII Korea belonged to the Japan Empire. After Japan surrendered in 1945, the Soviets and Americans had to decide what happens with Kora. They divided it into two parts along the 38^th parallel of the globe.

In 1949 China became communist and they started to support North Korea in order to conquer the South. The communist dictator of the North was Kim Il Sung, the “democratic” dictator of the South was Syngman Rhee, both unable to reunite Korea which caused a Civil War. But this war became more than a Civil War when the US started to support the South Korean government. They thought the North was supported by the Soviets. The American president at that time, Truman, did not ask the Congress if he could send troops in order to invade North Korea, he asked the UN for a “UN police action” because of National Emergency. Truman declared his aim to reunite Korea as one non- communist country.

“If we let Korea down,” President Harry Truman (1884-1972) said, “the Soviet[s] will keep right on going and swallow up one [place] after another.” The fight on the Korean peninsula was a symbol of the global struggle between east and west, good and evil. As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the United States readied its troops for a war against communism itself.

In November 1950, American troops came close to the Chinese boarder so the Chinese feared an attack by them. That’s when China started to join the Korean War. The war went on for two years, in total America dropped more bombs on Korea than in the whole Pacific Theater during WWII. When the Americans realized they were not going to win that war, they started to look for a way out and elected a new president in 1952: Eisenhower.

In 1953 both sides of Korea signed a treaty: it gave more territory to the South and created a 2-mile- wide demilitarized zone which exists still today.

The most important facts about the Korean War:

1.      It was expensive: in both, money and lives. Nearly four million Chinese and Korean people were wounded or killed, most of them Korean civilians.

2.      Truman went into war without asking the Congress for permission, he gave the position of the President new power and going into war without asking the Congress became quite popular in the last 60 years in US history. The people wanted to see the US doing something and to take South Korea to help them.

3.      The war was the beginning of a bigger intervention of America in Asia: the Vietnam War.

The Domino Theory

Because the Americans believed in the so called “domino theory” they had to eliminate the northern communist state of Korea and to support the democratic South. They were feared that if one state gets communist whole South East Asia would become communist like a row of dominoes. The people at that time were afraid that the Soviet Union had the power over a whole continent.

Personal opinion:

From our point of view, this war was just another occasion to show the world that America is the “police” of the world and helps poor countries to fight against communism. They were so scared of communism and the Soviets that they had to join the war because the whole world expected them to do so. 

We understand that they wanted to follow their interests and to support the South Korean government, but when we take a look at the millions of people who died during this war, we are so shocked. Civilians had to die because America fought for their interest: “eliminating communism”.

Bibliography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IcmLkuhG0

http://www.history.com/topics/korean-war

World War III

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/05/28/413287/US-war-China-Russia-

In this post you can read an article that appeared some days ago talking about the possibility of a World War III between Russia, USA and China.

Personally, we think it is something that could happen because Russia and China (especially China) are growing very fast and USA just left behind a recession and maybe actually they are no longer the first economic power in the world. Also because even if China has a capitalist system, it is a "communist" dictatorship, and Human Rights are not respected there. So this feeling that Americans have that they have been chosen by God to protect the weakest people could again appear. 

In the other hand, European Union has now many problems with Russia due to the war in Ukraine, because Russian gouvernment is helping Ukranian separatist who want to join Russia, so the USA could help its Euuropean partner in order to get a more peaceful and tolerant world (ironic).

All these reasons would only be a pretext, and of course, the main reason for a war is always the money. USA want to keep on being the most powerful country in the world.

What do you think about?

The Vietnam War simplified

In case you did not understand something explained in the previous post, here you can watch a short video talking about the Vietnam War in a very simple way, 

Vietnam War

At the end of World War II, political and military tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union increased sustainably. The U.S. perceived communism, the political system in the Soviet Union and China, as a significant threat to its national security and power. Fearing communism would spread over to Vietnam and potentially South East Asia, called the “Domino Theory”, the U.S. opposed the independence movement there.

U.S. first involvement in Vietnam began when they financially supported France in the first Indochina War from 1946 under President Eisenhower. The French defeat in Dien Bien Phu led to a peace conference in Geneva in July, 1954 which resulted in splitting the former French colony Indochina into 3 separate countries, viz. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The last was also temporarily divided into the Communist North Vietnam and the anti-Communist South Vietnam until a nationwide election would be held to unify the country. However, in 1956, South Vietnam backed by the American refused to hold the election. To support the South’s government, 2,000 military advisors were sent to Vietnam under President Kennedy – which rocketed to 16,300 in 1963. By 1960, the National Liberation Front also known as Viet Cong had begun to crush the South Vietnamese government.

In 1964, after an alleged attack on two U.S. Navy vessels, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress authorizing President Johnson to use military forces in Southeast Asia. The first U.S. combat troops were sent to Vietnam a year after that. In 1968, a surprising and massive attack known as the “Tet Offensive”  threatened U.S. position in both South Vietnam and its own country, and therefore was widely considered as a turning point of the Vietnam War.

Napalm attack in Vietnam

In 1969, President Nixon proposed the so-called “Vietnamization” which gave South Vietnamese forces greater responsibility in fighting the war while still receiving American aid as well as air and naval support if required. However, the 1972 Easter Offensive put a big question mark on the policy’s effectiveness, suggesting that the South Vietnamese forces could not wage a full-scale war against the North Communists without considerable support from the U.S.

In 1970, the war escalated into Vietnam’s neighbours as Nixon attempted to destroy Viet Cong’s supply bases to the South in Laos and Cambodia. That, however, provoked anti-war protests in the U.S.  and all around the world, which had been started since the Tet Offensive and My Lai massacre in 1968.

In January 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed establishing a ceasefire and allowing prisoners of war exchange following U.S. force withdrawal from Vietnam. The accord officially ended the U.S. and its allies’ direct involvement in Vietnam despite its continued support for South Vietnam until the end of the war. Eventually, the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War and Vietnam was reunified as a communist country.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Personal opinion:

We ourself cannot imagine the cruelty and misery that happened during the Vietnam War. Also, we are convinced that it is one of the most difficult things to think about causes of war, wars itself, all the casualties and leaders’ hatred and trying to understand it. Trying to understand the reasons is impossible, at least it is for us. Furthermore, there is always this “What would have happened, if….?”-question. Nobody is able to answer this because nobody can change the past.

The only thing WE can do is to prevent further wars like this. This is a great ethical subject about which one could write more than one book with controversial questions and thoughts in it. Do you agree with our opinion? What do you think, feel when it comes to wars – not only the Vietnam war but wars in general?

You are welcome to leave a comment. 

Bibliography:

http://www.bo-ra.ch/vietnamkrieg/index.php?id=5,0,0,1,0,0

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=18

http://www.historynet.com/vietnam-war