![]() Instead, many feared it was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world. As far as they were concerned, this was not simply a border dispute between two unstable dictatorships on the other side of the globe. The Korean War and the Cold WarĮven so, the North Korean invasion came as an alarming surprise to American officials. Nearly 10,000 North and South Korean soldiers were killed in battle before the war even began. Neither dictator was content to remain on his side of the 38th parallel, however, and border skirmishes were common. In the south, the anti-communist dictator Syngman Rhee (1875-1965) enjoyed the reluctant support of the American government in the north, the communist dictator Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) enjoyed the slightly more enthusiastic support of the Soviets. The series ran from 1972 until 1983, and its final episode was the most-watched in television history.īy the end of the decade, two new states had formed on the peninsula. The most famous representation of the war in popular culture is the television series “M*A*S*H,” which was set in a field hospital in South Korea. The Russians occupied the area north of the line and the United States occupied the area to its south.ĭid you know? Unlike World War II and Vietnam, the Korean War did not get much media attention in the United States. In August 1945, two young aides at the State Department divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Korea had been a part of the Japanese empire, and after World War II it fell to the Americans and the Soviets to decide what should be done with their enemy’s imperial possessions. Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893-1971) once said, “the unanimous choice would have been Korea.” The peninsula had landed in America’s lap almost by accident. “If the best minds in the world had set out to find us the worst possible location in the world to fight this damnable war,” U.S. The Korean peninsula remains divided today. refer to as “the Forgotten War” for the lack of attention it received compared to more well-known conflicts like World War I and II and the Vietnam War. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.S. ![]() Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. ![]() This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. ![]()
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