The Korean War Flashcards
July 1945
At the Potsdam Conference, it was agreed that Korea would be split up in two by the 38th parallel. The Soviets would occupy the North, and the Americans the South. Soviet troops took over with Kim Il Sung as head of the Korean Communist Party in North Korea.
The US believed the USSR was trying to consolidate its own power in North Korea, and brought the subject to the UN. There, a commission for an all-Korean government was established. However, the Soviets opposed this and did not let it enter North Korea. Therefore, the commission arranged elections for a national assembly for South Korea in 1948. Syngman Rhee was elected its president. The UN’s General Assembly then established another commission to unify Korea in the future.
December 1948
Soviet troops were withdrawn from North Korea. US troops were also withdrawn from South Korea under General MacArthur, with only 500 officers remaining.
March 1949
Kim Il Sung believed widespread uprisings had weakened the South Korean military and that a North Korean invasion would be welcomed by much of the South Korean population. He began seeking Stalin’s support for an invasion, traveling to Moscow to persuade him.
April 1950
Stalin accepted the invasion of South Korea as: Mao Zedong had secured victory in China, US forces had withdrawn from Korea, and the Soviets had detonated their first nuclear bomb. He gave the condition that Mao Zedong would have to agree to send reinforcements if needed and that the USSR would not intervene directly in the war.
February 1948
The Korean People’s Army (KPA) was established in North Korea, made up of Korean communist guerrillas who had previously served with the communist Chinese People’s Liberation Army. By mid-1950 the Korean People’s Army was made up of some 223,000 men.
June 1950
The Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea and rapidly advanced southwards, taking over Seoul and trapping South Korean and American troops in a small perimeter around the port of Pusan. Countries in the United Nations sent in troops to support the south, including Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and India, but most of them were still American.
October 1950
The first South Korean units entered the North, but recieved information that if they did so, the Chinese, under Mao Zedong, would enter the war on North Korea’s side. Truman chose to ignore this, thinking it was fake.
September 1950
The United Nations commander General MacArthur ordered a sea landing at Inchon, a port halfway up the Korean Peninsula.His forces were able to drive the Korean People’s Army back northwards and up to the Yalu River, the border between China and North Korea.
October 1950
The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army entered the war and, again, pushed UN forces back into the south.
First half of 1951
Fighting was detained
July 1951
Armistice negotiations began. However, the negotiations achieved little success and the forces continued fighting each other in trenches little more than a mile apart for the next two years.
July 1953
After Dwight D. Eisenhower became president of the US, in July 1953, an armistice was signed agreeing that Korea would remain divided.
