Armed conflict in Korea.. Eisenhower?

Question

Ok, hi, i was wondering..

For an assignment, i am supposed to pick a period or event from Eisenhower's life to research and answer questions on.. and so, i've picked when he helped bring an end to the armed conflict in korea. The thing is, i need some help answering the follow questions and ideas.

1.) Can someone plz summarize the Korean War?

2.) What are some referral links that will help me understand the Korean War and Eisenhower's roll in the war better.

hopefully this is all i'll have to ask. XD

Answer 1

Ok Korea in a nutshell. I'm no expert on the conflict but we covered it briefly at school in the UK.

Korea had been invaded by Japan in WW2 and partially liberated by the Soviets at the end. It was decided to split the country just like Germany so that no one nation would have complete control. Soviets had the North; Allies (Mainly USA) had the south. As you can imagine each side sponsored their own puppet regime. Both North and South wanted to rule the other and after the USA seemed to suggest it may pull out of Korea, the Soviets finally gave NK its blessing to attack.

The NK forces were vastly superior to the SK Army and quickly made significant gains. The UN had promised to defend SK earlier and quickly leapt to the defence (The UN's predecessor, The League of Nations had stood by in WW2 and not interfered with Hitler which had led to his rise to power. The UN weren’t going to make the same mistake.)

The USA and now the UN were nearly destroyed but they regained the initiative and pushed the NK back and advanced into NK territory. China had stood by believing that their communist brothers had the USA forces beaten and were surprised to see the NK fall back. China rallied to the defence of NK and deployed thousands of troops in human waves which crushed the UN advances and slowly forced the allies to retreat. The technologically superior but vastly outnumbered allied troops were unable to hold out against the constant assaults.

Eventually both forces reached a stalemate at the 38th parallel (a random line drawn across the map when Korea was first partitioned) with each side too exhausted to fight any more. This stalemate lasted 2 years before a cease fire was signed. No formal peace treaty exists and both countries are still technically at war.

The conflict is famous for the first widespread use of Jet fighters and the first battle in what would become the Cold War. Many see the war as a pointless exercise due to the fact that many people died and no side has made any real gains. Others say that the war showed the Soviet Union that the USA and the UN had real teeth and would defend the rights of a member nation if attacked. Remember, Hitler did what he did because the LoN refused to stand up to him. It is probably due to this war that the Cold War never went ‘hot’.

I hold that helps. Wikipedia + many others explains the battles in greater detail.

As to your other question, Eisenhower’s participation is debatable as he only got involved right at the very end to negotiate the truce. I suggest Googling his name and “Impact on the Korean War” as well as checking Wikipedia.