At the outset of the Cold War, the US used political and economic means to battle against Communism. However, the Cold War suddenly turned hot in the East Asian nation of Korea. As American soldiers fought in the Korean War, other Americans hunted for Communists in America.
Conflict in Korea
In 1910, Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula and ruled it harshly. After Japan’s defeat in WWII, Korea was divided at the 38th Parallel line of latitude. The Soviet Union backed a Communist government in North Korea, and the US backed a non-Communist government in South Korea.
Tensions between North and South Korea continued to increase; then, on June 25, 1950, North Korean troops suddenly invaded South Korea. Armed with Soviet tanks and artillery, the North Koreans shattered the South Korean army and pushed south. Within three days, the invasion had reached the South Korean capital of Seoul. Korea, it seemed, would soon fall to the Communists.
President Truman quickly responded to the attack. At his urging, the UN Security Council voted to send a military force to Korea. Truman appointed WWII hero General Douglas MacArthur to lead the force. Although 16 nations sent troops to fight under the UN flag, 90% were American. The Soviet delegate was (unsurprisingly) not present at the UN debate and so failed to veto the proposal.
The first UN forces to arrive at the front were badly outnumbered and poorly supplied. They fought bravely but were pushed back almost to the tip of the Korean Peninsula. As fresh troops and supplies arrived, however, the defensive line held.
In September 1950, General MacArthur launched a bold counterattack. UN forces at Inchon, a port city near Seoul, were able to pursue the North Koreans back across the 38th Parallel into North Korea. MacArthur’s forces chased the North Koreans almost to the Yalu River, which separates North Korea from China.
China’s government responded angrily. As UN soldiers neared the Yalu, masses of Chinese troops crossed the border. The UN forces were overwhelmed. Soon, the battlefront was once again in South Korea. After the sides continued to go back-and-forth, the war settled down into a stalemate, a situation in which neither side wins.
The Korean War was heavily broadcast on television, and became a part of the national subculture, so much so that in the 1970s there was a TV about the Korean War called “M.A.S.H.” that showed the ups and downs faced by Army doctors and medics in the Korea conflict.
Truman vs. MacArthur
General MacArthur believed that the US couldn’t win in Korea unless the US attacked China. MacArthur publicly called for the bombing of supply bases in China. Truman, on the other hand, was more cautious; he believed that an American attack on China might start a new world war (as the Soviet Union supported China) and he warned MacArthur against making further public statements. MacArthur didn’t listen to Truman, continued to make public statements in support of going to war with China, and was fired by Truman.
Peace Talks
Meanwhile, the stalemate in Korea continued. In July 1951, the opposing sides began peace talks. These talks would continue for two long years while the fighting continued. In July 1952, a cease-fire finally ended the fighting. The border between the warring sides stood almost exactly where it had before the war. The two sides agreed to establish a demilitarized zone, an area from which military forces are prohibited. It still divides the country today.
The war’s toll was horrendous. At least two million Koreans died in the fighting. Most of them were civilians. American loses totaled well over 30,000 dead and more than 100,000 wounded. Thousands of soldiers from other nations were also killed.
With the cease-fire, the fighting ended in Korea. However, tensions between North and South Korea continued well into the next century. Two heavily armed forces continued to face each other across the demilitarized zone, sometimes called the DMZ.
Tensions are still high between North and South Korea today, and the two nations fight each other not with bombs but with information…and K-pop music. I remember seeing on the news around 2016 or so that the South Korean military was using high-powered speakers to blast information about what was really happening in North Vietnam over the border, hoping that the people who lived close to the border would hear; also, the South Korean military was blasting music over the speakers, knowing the North Koreans (1) often receive bootlegged K-pop music anyway and (2) that the country's leadership despised anything considered to be westernized.
American confidence was shaken by the Communist victory and Soviet possession of the atomic bomb, and the failure to win a decisive victory in the long stalemate in Korea further worried Americans. Due to these, American fears were realized at home.
Next post, we're going to examine the rise of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare.
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