Summary by Jon Larr
Korean War
After World War II the Japanese, who had occupied Korea since the early 1900's, was driven out of Korea. Soviet forces occupied the Northern half of Korea and the United States occupied the southern half. After WWII the U.S. pulled the majority of its troops out of Korea. The Soviet Union saw this a sign that they could back North Korea in an invasion of South Korea and the U.S. would not fight back. On June 25, 1950 the North Koreans invaded deep into South Korea. On June 27, President Truman sent in American soldiers stationed in Japan along with an American fleet. South Korea looked towards the UN for help. Because the Soviet Union was boycotting the UN they could not stop the UN from sending an international force into South Korea. The troops were from 16 nations and General Douglas MacArthur led them.
The war then bounced back and forth between the U.S. army and the North Korean army. By September 1950 the North Koreans were in control of all of Korea. The only are they did not control was a small portion to the southeast. However, MacArthur had a surprise for the North Koreans. He landed a small force of marines at Inchon behind North Korean lines. The UN then chased the North Korean army all the way to the Korean border with China. Then the Chinese poured into Korea with 300,000 soldiers and pushed the UN forces back. The Chinese wanted North Korea as a Communist buffer state to protect their northeastern province of Manchuria and they felt threatened by the American fleet on their shore. This escalated the war into a fight mainly between the Americans and the Chinese. The Chinese, by sheer force of numbers, then drove the UN forces all the way out of North Korea and far enough South to enable the Chinese to capture the South Korean capitol of Seoul. At this point in the war, MacArthur announced that he felt the use of the atomic bomb would be the best way to assure Chinese defeat. Truman dismissed him, saying that the U.S. is trying to prevent a world war, not start one.
The war then became a limited war, in which each side tried for a less than complete victory. The U.S. only aimed to push the North Koreans back beyond the 38th parallel, which they accomplished by 1952. In July 1953, North Korea and South Korea signed a cease fire agreement. The war cost an estimated 5 million lives, both soldiers and civilians, and resulted in very minor changes in the border. The most important result of the war was that it showed that Communist China was a major force to contend with.
Korean War Links
Vietnam War
After WWII the French chose to fight the independence of the colonies which they had captured. The most famous battle for control of a colony was the Vietnam War. Vietnam had iron and coal mines in the north, rubber plantations and rice fields in the south. The French desired to keep these valuable natural resources, and, consequently, they would not let Vietnam become independent. The Vietminh, a communist group led by Ho Chi Minh, led the nationalist movement in Vietnam. The Vietminh had control of the Vietnamese countryside and he used hit and run tactics to bottle the French up in cities and a few strongholds.
The war in Vietnam was becoming unpopular with the French voters. They did not believe that the war in Vietnam was worth the lives of the men who died. In 1954 the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and they agreed to a settlement. A conference was held in Geneva to discuss the future of Vietnam.
The U.S. saw Ho Chi Minh's victory in Vietnam as a threat to the rest of Asia. This followed the lines of the domino theory. This was an important part of U.S. foreign policy which dictated that it one country feel to communism, it's neighbors would as well. This led the U.S. to try as hard as they could to prevent Vietnam from becoming communist.
At the peace conference in Geneva, the U.S. tried to limit the communist influence in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was given the northern half of Vietnam and the U.S. and France set up a government under Ngo Dinh Diem in the Southern half. Unfortunately, Diem was unpopular and not a strong leader. Therefore, the communists gained influence in South Vietnam, forming a group called the Vietcong. In 1963, Diem was assassinated with the quiet help of the U.S.
The U.S. saw no option except to step up the influence they had in Vietnam. U.S. advisors had been in Vietnam since the early 1950's but the number of advisors was increased and massive amounts of military equipment was shipped to Vietnam. In August 1964, the North Vietnamese attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Consequently, Congress gave the president authority to send more troops into Vietnam. By late 1965 185,000 soldiers were located in Vietnam.
The U.S. had the most technologically advanced army in the world but they faced two major problems in battle. The first was the use of guerilla tactics by the Vietnamese, and the second was that the Vietcong had great popular support while the South Vietnamese government was growing less popular. Because of the difficulties the U.S. was having fighting on land, they fell back on air power to support them. However, this strategy backfired in that it made the peasant hate the South Korean government even more and turned them more towards communism.
During the late 1960's, many people in the U.S. were protesting the war in Vietnam. Influenced by this pressure, Nixon started to withdraw troops from Vietnam in 1969. The U.S. then tried to help South Vietnam by sending weapons, but they were not enough. In the spring of 1975 the North Vietnamese invaded South Vietnam and within six weeks had gained control of all of Vietnam.
Links to other Vietnam War Pages