How Significant Was The Korean War? Flashcards
Militarisation and globalisation of containment
It was a tp:
- the first proxy war- ‘boots on the ground’ set the trend for more future proxy wars like Vietnam. First hot conflict
- nsc-68 in practice
-accelerated the Asia focus of us policy whereas it had been focussed on Europe previously.
- seato
Less sig tp:
- it was not a total reshaping but an extension of the intensification [militarisation]
E.g military force had long been a presence in the cw[ nato , threat of arms at Berlin blockade], and Asia focus had already been developing in 1950[acheson line,nsc68 already been created before kw in response to Chinese threat and signing of the sino-soviet friendship in 1950.
Militarisation in Europe
Militarisation of the cw in Asia also led to increased militarisation in Europe- militarisation of nato with west Germany allowed to rearm and join
However, the ossifiction of blocs was traced back to the Berlin blockade where nato was created and later the Warsaw pact so the Korean War only indirectly strengthened it and refined it and did not cause it.
War weakened communism in Europe
Economic pressure on ussr led to Stalin accelerating industrialisation- fewer consumer goods were produced in sovietised states which made them dissatisfied.
However, the sino soviet friendship in 1950 where Mao pledged its allegiance to the ussr led to the growing Asia first policy as they feared the threat of china so communism was already weakened in Europe beforehand.
Contributed to the sino soviet split
Mao thought Stalin was unreliable and was keen to lead the communist world, the ussr worried about mao’s ambitions.
However, this tension predated the kw bc they had different interpretations of Marxism-Leninism, Mao wanted an active war to showcase the strength of the Chinese military whereas Stalin was afraid of provoking a world war and therefore helped the North Koreans through indirect or covert methods
