THE KOREAN WAR, 1950–1953 term paper

After defeating Japan in August, 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea, a country Japan had occupied since 1910, at the 38th parallel. The Soviets selected Kim Il-Sung to rule the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea north of the 38th parallel. The United States chose Syngman Rhee to govern the Republic of Korea south of this line.

On 25 June 1950, 90,000 North Korean troops invaded South Korea and within one week had captured the capital, Seoul. The United Nations Security Council condemned North Korea’s aggression. President Harry Truman announced that the United States, along with sixteen other nations, was undertaking a “police action” to rescue South Korea. After sending an American relief force to Pusan, General Douglas MacArthur counterattacked behind North Korean lines at Inchon. The Inchon landing caught the North Koreans by surprise. By October UN forces had crossed the 38th parallel. As the United Nations forces neared the Yalu River, the boundary between North Korea and China, China issued warnings. Then, on 26 November 1950, Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River. American forces retreated, but they did not break. President Truman refused to give General MacArthur permission to bomb industrial and military targets in China. MacArthur launched a public relations campaign to gain support for widening the war. On 11 April 1951, Truman removed MacArthur from command and appointed General Matthew Ridgway to take his place. After two more years of bitter fighting a truce was signed at Panmunjom. This truce again divided Korea at the 38th parallel, provided for an exchange of prisoners, and created a demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, but it did not lead to a comprehensive peace treaty. The Korean War resulted in nearly 4 million casualties, most of whom were civilians. American forces suffered 142,000 casualties, including 54,000 deaths. Several lessons were drawn from the war. First, President Truman considered it a “police action” and did not seek a formal declaration of war from Congress; successive administrations used this precedent in prosecuting the Vietnam War. Second, the President’s newly established National Security Council (NSC) argued that the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China would continue to challenge the United States and recommended a dramatic increase in American defense spending. Third, American policy planners noted that although U.S. forces did not win in Korea, they did not lose, and that therefore the United States should use its forces where necessary to stop the spread of communism.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Read some of the soldiers’ oral histories of the Korean War (see Suggested Sources) and write a paper that draws on these recollections. 2. Interview a Korean War veteran about his experiences.
3. Explore President Truman’s decision to fire General MacArthur and write a paper that assesses whether the decision was correct.
4. In what ways might the Korean War have influenced the United States’ decision to aid France in Indochina in the early 1950s?
5. On 27 July 1995, President Clinton dedicated the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Write a paper discussing the reasons why it took the United States forty-two years to build the memorial.
6. Investigate the role of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China in encouraging North Korea to begin the Korean War.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese War against the French, 1946–1954” (#41), “The Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948–1949” (#45), and “The Victory of the Chinese Communist Party, 1949” (#46). Search under Cold War, Mao Zedong, and Josif Stalin.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary sources

Berry, Henry. Hey, Mac, Where Ya Been? Living Memories of the U.S. Marines in the Korean War. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. Personal recollections of U.S. Marines on all aspects of the war.

Horwitz, Dorothy G., ed. We Will Not Be Strangers: Korean War Letters between a M.A.S.H. Surgeon and His Wife. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. A poignant set of letters that captures the loneliness of the war.

Kaufman, Burton I. The Korean Conflict. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. A good overview for students, with accompanying biographical profiles and primary documents.

Knox, Donald. The Korean War: An Oral History. 2 vols. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985–1988. One of the most comprehensive oral histories of the war.

Russ, Martin. Last Parallel. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. One of the very best combat memoirs to come out of Korea.

Tomedi, Rudy. No Bugles, No Drums: An Oral History of the Korean War. New York: Wiley, 1993. A first-rate personal narrative of the grim realities of combat. Secondary Sources

Brune, Lester H. The Korean War: Handbook of the Literature and Research. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. A useful guide to all aspects of the war.

Cumings, Bruce. The Origins of the Korean War. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981–1990. A thorough and quite critical study of American conduct of the war.

Foot, Rosemary. The Wrong War: American Policy and the Dimensions of the Korean Conflict, 1950–1953. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985. A solid study that shows how Cold War perceptions shaped the decision to go to war in Korea.

Goncharov, S., J. W. Lewis, and Xue Litai. Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. A fascinating discussion of how Kim Il-Sung played Mao off against Stalin to gain backing for his attack on South Korea.

Matray, James I. Historical Dictionary of the Korean War. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991. A comprehensive overview of all aspects of the war with good bibliographic leads.

———. The Uncivil War: Korea, 1945–1953. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. A fresh interpretation that brings together the latest research on the war.

Russ, Martin. Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign: Korea 1950.New York: Fromm International Publishing, 1999. A gripping firsthand account how 12,000 U.S. Marines battled 60,000 Chinese in a desperate battle in sub-zero temperatures.

World Wide Web

“Cold War International History Project.” http://cwihp.si.edu/default.htm. Useful studies and good documentation for all aspects of the Korean War.

“Korea, 1949–1953.” http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/05. Based on CNN’s Cold War documentary series, the Web site includes background, documents, a transcript of the program, and other features.

“The National Security Archive.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv. The National Security Archive, an independent, nongovernmental institution, makes available documents from the Cold War period. Many documents having to do with the Korean War are located on its Web site.