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Korean War
conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea
from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II,
Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Korean)
and U.S. (South Korean) zones of occupation. In 1948 rival
governments were established: The Republic of Korea was
proclaimed in the South and the People's Democratic Republic of
Korea in the North.
Relations between them became increasingly
strained, and on June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded South
Korea. The United Nations quickly condemned the invasion as an act
of aggression, demanded the withdrawal of North Korean troops
from the South, and called upon its members to aid South Korea. On
June 27, U.S. President Truman authorized the use of American
land, sea, and air forces in Korea; a week later, the United Nations
placed the forces of 15 other member nations under U.S. command,
and Truman appointed Gen. Douglas MacArthur supreme
commander.
In the first weeks of the conflict the North Korean forces met little
resistance and advanced rapidly. By Sept. 10 they had driven the
South Korean army and a small American force to the Pusan area at
the southeast tip of Korea. A counteroffensive began on Sept. 15,
when UN forces made a daring landing at Inchon on the west coast.
North Korean forces fell back and MacArthur received orders to
pursue them into North Korea.
On Oct. 19, the North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured;
by Nov. 24, North Korean forces were driven by the 8th Army, under
Gen. Walton Walker, and the X Corp, under Gen. Edward Almond,
almost to the Yalu River, which marked the border of Communist
China. As MacArthur prepared for a final offensive, the Chinese
Communists joined with the North Koreans to launch (Nov. 26) a
successful counterattack. The UN troops were forced back, and in
Jan., 1951, the Communists again advanced into the South,
recapturing Seoul, the South Korean capital.
After months of heavy fighting, the center of the conflict was
returned to the 38th parallel, where it remained for the rest of the
war. MacArthur, however, wished to mount another invasion of
North Korea. When MacArthur persisted in publicly criticizing U.S.
policy, Truman, on the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
removed (Apr. 10, 1951) him from command and installed Gen.
Matthew B. Ridgway as commander in chief. Gen. James Van Fleet
then took command of the 8th Army. Ridgway began (July 10, 1951)
truce negotiations with the North Koreans and Chinese, while small
unit actions, bitter but indecisive, continued. Gen. Van Fleet was
denied permission to go on the offensive and end the “meat grinder”
war.
The war's unpopularity played an important role in the
presidential victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower , who had pledged to
go to Korea to end the war. Negotiations broke down four different
times, but after much difficulty and nuclear threats by Eisenhower,
an armistice agreement was signed (July 27, 1953). Casualties in
the war were heavy. U.S. losses were placed at over 54,000 dead
and 103,000 wounded, while Chinese and Korean casualties were
each at least 10 times as high.
(Adapted from www.encyclopedia.com)
Korean War Questions
1. What happened to Korea at the end of World War II?
2. How did the United Nations respond to North Korea’s invasion of South Korea?
3. Who was appointed Supreme commander of UN forces in Korea?
4. How did Truman respond to MacArthur’s public criticism of U.S. policy?
Vietnam War
conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam
between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla
forces aided by North Vietnam. The war began soon after the
Geneva Conference provisionally divided (1954) Vietnam at 17° N
lat. into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and
the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It escalated from a
Vietnamese civil war into a limited international conflict in which the
United States was deeply involved, and did not end, despite peace
agreements in 1973, until North Vietnam's successful offensive in
1975 resulted in South Vietnam's collapse and the unification of
Vietnam by the North.
Section: Causes and Early Years
In part, the war was a legacy of France's colonial rule, which
ended in 1954 with the French army's catastrophic defeat at
Dienbienphu and the acceptance of the Geneva Conference
agreements (see Vietnam ). Elections scheduled for 1956 in South
Vietnam for the reunification of Vietnam were canceled by President
Ngo Dinh Diem . His action was denounced by Ho Chi Minh , since
the Communists had expected to benefit from them. After 1956,
Diem's government faced increasingly serious opposition from the
Viet Cong , insurgents aided by North Vietnam. The Viet Cong
became masters of the guerrilla tactics of North Vietnam's Vo
Nguyen Giap . Diem's army received U.S. advice and aid, but was
unable to suppress the guerrillas, who established a political
organization, the National Liberation Front (NLF) in 1960.
Section: U.S. Involvement
In 1961, South Vietnam signed a military and economic aid treaty
with the United States leading to the arrival (1961) of U.S. support
troops and the formation (1962) of the U.S. Military Assistance
Command. Mounting dissatisfaction with the ineffectiveness and
corruption of Diem's government culminated (Nov., 1963) in a
military coup engineered by Duong Van Minh ; Diem was executed.
No one was able to establish control in South Vietnam until June,
1965, when Nguyen Cao Ky became premier, but U.S. military aid
to South Vietnam increased, especially after the U.S. Senate passed
the Tonkin Gulf resolution (Aug. 7, 1964) at the request of
President Lyndon B. Johnson .
In early 1965, the United States began air raids on North Vietnam
and on Communist-controlled areas in the South; by 1966 there
were 190,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam. North Vietnam,
meanwhile, was receiving armaments and technical assistance from
the Soviet Union and other Communist countries. Despite massive
U.S. military aid, heavy bombing, the growing U.S. troop
commitment (which reached nearly 550,000 in 1969), and some
political stability in South Vietnam after the election (1967) of
Nguyen Van Thieu as president, the United States and South
Vietnam were unable to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese
forces. Optimistic U.S. military reports were discredited in Feb.,
1968, by the costly and devastating Tet offensive of the North
Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong, involving attacks on more than
100 towns and cities and a month-long battle for Hue in South
Vietnam.
Section: U.S. Withdrawal
Serious negotiations to end the war began after U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson's decision not to seek reelection in 1968. Contacts
between North Vietnam and the United States in Paris in 1968 were
expanded in 1969 to include South Vietnam and the NLF. The United
States, under the leadership of President Richard M. Nixon , altered
its tactics to combine U.S. troop withdrawals with intensified
bombing and the invasion of Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia
(1970).
The length of the war, the high number of U.S. casualties, and
the exposure of U.S. involvement in war crimes such as the
massacre at My Lai (see My Lai incident ) helped to turn many in
the United States against the war. Politically, the movement was led
by Senators James William Fulbright , Robert F. Kennedy , Eugene
J. McCarthy , and George S. McGovern ; there were also huge
public demonstrations in Washington, D.C., as well as in many other
cities in the United States and on college campuses.
Even as the war continued, peace talks in Paris progressed, with
Henry Kissinger as U.S. negotiator. A break in negotiations
followed by U.S. saturation bombing of North Vietnam did not derail
the talks, and a peace agreement was reached, signed on Jan. 27,
1973, by the United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the
NLF's provisional revolutionary government. The accord provided for
the end of hostilities, the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops
(several Southeast Asia Treaty Organization countries had sent
token forces), the return of prisoners of war, and the formation of a
four-nation international control commission to ensure peace.
Section: End of the War
Fighting between South Vietnamese and Communists continued
despite the peace agreement until North Vietnam launched an
offensive in early 1975. South Vietnam's requests for aid were
denied by the U.S. Congress, and after Thieu abandoned the
northern half of the country to the advancing Communists, a panic
ensued. South Vietnamese resistance collapsed, and North
Vietnamese troops marched into Saigon Apr. 30, 1975. Vietnam was
formally reunified in July, 1976, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi
Minh City . U.S. casualties in Vietnam during the era of direct U.S.
involvement (1961-72) were more than 50,000 dead; South
Vietnamese dead were estimated at more than 400,000, and Viet
Cong and North Vietnamese at over 900,000.
(Adapted from www.encyclopedia.com)
Vietnam War Questions
1. How did the Geneva Conference divide Vietnam in 1954?
2. What is the name of the insurgent group that was supported by North Vietnam?
3. Which U.S. President requested the Tonkin Gulf Resolution?
4. When was Vietnam formally reunified?
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1961, an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported
by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about
1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on
the south coast of Cuba. Trained since May, 1960, in Guatemala by
members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with the approval
of the Eisenhower administration, and supplied with arms by the
U.S. government, the rebels intended to foment an insurrection in
Cuba and overthrow the Communist regime of Fidel Castro. The
Cuban army easily defeated the rebels and by Apr. 20, most were
either killed or captured. The invasion provoked anti-U.S.
demonstrations in Latin America and Europe and further embittered
U.S.-Cuban relations. Poorly planned and executed, the invasion
subjected President Kennedy to severe criticism at home. Cuban
exile leader José Miró Cardona, president of the U.S.-based National
Revolutionary Council, blamed the failure on the CIA and the refusal
of Kennedy to authorize air support for the invasion. In Dec., 1962,
Castro released 1,113 captured rebels in exchange for $53 million in
food and medicine raised by private donations in the United States.
(Adapted from www.encyclopedia.com)
Bay of Pigs Questions
1. What was the goal of the Cuban exiles armed by the U.S. government?
2. Who received most of the blame for the failure at the Bay of Pigs?
3. Castro released over 1,100 rebels under what conditions?
Cuban missile crisis
1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and
the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the USSR
increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the
summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to install
ballistic missiles in Cuba. When U.S. reconnaissance flights revealed
the clandestine construction of missile launching sites, President
Kennedy publicly denounced (Oct. 22, 1962) the Soviet actions. He
imposed a naval blockade on Cuba and declared that any missile
launched from Cuba would warrant a full-scale retaliatory attack by
the United States against the Soviet Union. On Oct. 24, Russian
ships carrying missiles to Cuba turned back, and when Khrushchev
agreed (Oct. 28) to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the missile
sites, the crisis ended as suddenly as it had begun. The United
States ended its blockade on Nov. 20, and by the end of the year
the missiles and bombers were removed from Cuba.
(Adapted from www.encyclopedia.com)
Cuban Missile Crisis Questions
1. What nations were involved in this incident?
2. How did President Kennedy respond to Soviet missiles being in Cuba?
3. What was Khrushchev’s response to Kennedy’s actions?
United States/China Relations
A quite separate development in Asia, a civil war between the
nationalist and communist Chinese, resulted in a communist victory in
1949. This brought to power a government which effectively unified
China and restored it to a position of complete independence after a
century of European colonial domination.
Because the United States had, by 1949, defined all Communist
governments as the enemy, the relations between China and the U.S.
quickly deteriorated. The United States intervened in the Chinese civil
war by interposing a U.S. fleet in the Taiwan straits, thus protecting
the Nationalist Chinese, who had fled to the island, from invasion by
the mainland Chinese.
At the end of World War II, the Korean peninsula was divided at
the 38th parallel between United States military forces in the south
and Soviet forces in the north. Both powers supported client states in
their respective areas, and both of these client states sought to unite
Korea under their auspices. This led to the outbreak of war in June,
1950. Because the United States had not given extensive military aid
to South Korea, and the Soviets had done so in the north, North Korea
had the advantage and invaded the south.
The United States intervened with it own forces and reversed the tide
of war. The approach of U.S. military forces to the Yalu River border
with China provoked Chinese involvement. The war dragged on
between the United States and China for three years. President
Truman limited the war to the Korean peninsula, where immense
destruction took place. The fighting ended with a cease fire in place,
but no permanent peace treaty. The effect of the war was to create a
heavily fortified border zone still closely guarded by both sides
through the end of the twentieth century. The war greatly intensified
the tension in the Cold War, accelerated the arms race, and led to a
change in U.S. policy towards Vietnam.
Hostility had continued meanwhile between Communist China and the
Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, who pledged himself to
the reconquest of the mainland. The Communist government insisted
upon its right to Taiwan, but the United States made clear its intention
to defend that island against direct attack, having even given (1955) a
qualified promise to defend the Nationalist-held offshore islands of
Quemoy and Matsu as well. China's relations with other Asian nations, at
first cordial, were affected by China's encouragement of Communist
activity within their borders, the suppression of a revolt in Tibet
(1959–60), and undeclared border wars with India in the 1960s over
disputed territory. In the Vietnam War, China provided supplies,
armaments, and technical assistance as well as militant verbal support
to North Vietnam.
In 1971 long-standing objections to the admission of the People's
Republic of China to the United Nations were set aside by the United
States; that October, Communist delegates were seated as the
representatives of all China and, despite the opposition of the United
States, which favored a "two-China" membership, the Nationalist
delegation was expelled. A breakthrough in the hostile relations
between the United States and Communist China came with the visit
of President Richard M. Nixon to Beijing in Feb., 1972. Although
U.S. support of Taiwan remained a sensitive issue, the visit resulted in
a joint agreement to work toward peace in Asia and to develop closer
economic, cultural, and diplomatic ties.
(Adapted from www.encyclopedia.com)
(Adapted from http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/coldwar.html)
Reopening Chinese – United States Relations Questions
1. How did Communist China and the United States differ over the question of Taiwan
during the period 1949 – 1972?
2. In what other ways did the 1972 agreement change the relationship between Communist
China and the United States?
3. How did the 1972 agreement pave the way for the large amount of trade between China
and the United States today?
Korean War
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Vietnam War
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Bay of Pigs Invasion
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U.S. President Involved:
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Cuban Missile Crisis
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Reopening of U.S.- China Relations
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Suggested Questions for Review Game
1. Which one of the countries that we discussed today started as a French colony?
2. Who was the Communist leader of Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion?
3. What year did the Cuban Missile Crisis take place?
4. True or False: In 1945 the Chinese Communists fled to Taiwan to set up a government in
exile.
5. Who was the President that negotiated an end to the Korean War?