The Korean War Flashcards
5 Questions held by historians regarding the Korean War
§ Why did N Korea invade the S - to what extent was it egged on by USSR + CCP
§ Should it be understood as a peoples war (like Vietnam and Chinese civ war, ideological content, guerillas, propaganda) or conventional?
§ US intervention (+UN) was it warranted + was it effective
§ Was Chinese intervention warranted + effective - chose this at the expense of going after Taiwan
§ Why did the war take so long to end
Yi (Lee) dynasty
Korea trad a tributary state of china - in Confucian cult sphere - w local independence, local kingship, Yi dynasty dominated until 1910 (500yrs) (Lee dyn)
Treaty of Kwanghwa
It gave extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens in Korea, and forced the Korean government to open three ports to Japan:Busan, Incheon and Wonsan.
‘great powers’ interested in ‘opening’ up China + Korea - outside power that got in was Japan, who had been subjected to same treatment 20 yrs before
§ Treaty of Kwanghwa
§ Then came everyone else trading
Sino-Japanese War
○ Tonghak - tad purists offended by change - sect built on basis of Buddhism, Tao* Confucianism - China sent in help - Japan offended -> China + Japan at war
§ Japan won - Sino-Japanese war of 1895
Russo-Japanese war
○ Russians move into Chinese gap + challenge Japanese -> Russo-Japanese War - Japan wins - 1905 onward unchallenged exercise of Japanese hegemony - protectorate 1905, annex country in 1910 - way they run country -> Korea civ war
‘Comfort Women’
under Japanese duel policy □ Annexation -> meant to be part of Japan - sent over 10s of thous of bureaucrats + teachers - assimilation project -1930s - Korean lang no, Japanese surnames, drafted into Japanese army, Japanese religion - Korean Lang is banned as instrument of public business
□ Also treated as colony -> run by Japanese Military - landlords + businessmen had free run of country - agricultural colony - after 1930s -> mainly Korean women in brothels for Japanese army, 200k women ‘Comfort Women’
□ Only g thing - Japanese kicked up a lot of opposition - only good thing was building up of infrastructure - postal service, roads, powerplants etc
Korean Immigrants + External centres of resistance
○ External centres of resistance - late 19th c - Korean migration -> Manchuria, Soviet Union, China, USA (Hawaii) - nationalism caught on, resistance to Japanese - reflect the dominant ideology of community around them
§ USSR Koreans - Bolshevik outlook - want communist republic
§ US Koreans - lib dem republic
§ Immigrant communities - some form small military units - red army
§ Raise the profile of the issue - on international agenda
Korean war talk about transitory process
1945 - great powers decide this would be set up by Soviets and Americans, shared
1945 Soviets in North Korea
§ Soviets enter N Korea in 1945 - bringing small Korean Military units + small communist cadres - bringing Korean communist cadres to run the place, don’t have to set up military govt - closely allied w Koreans - don’t initially look to be all that oppressive - local admin evolve into ‘democratic peoples republic of Korea’ in 1948 - run by Korean fighter trained by soviets
Kim Il-Sung - ancestor of now N Korean dictators
1945 US in South Korea
§ US recognize Soviets could take all of Korea - US send own forces to take S peninsula - stop at 38th parallel - 9th of sept (1 month late) - sent forces over not well prepped -> had to impose military govt - before they got there a peoples republic had got going in the S, USA dissolved in upon arrival
Syngman Rhee
a young radical -> immigrated - lived in Hawaii, Christian etc - so US ideological leaning - aligned to conservatives - July 1948 elected president - with UN recognition - N Korea was not recognized - (S election was rigged)
North Korea Reunification
Kim talking reunification - affiliated w E bloc countries - wanted stronger Korean presence to be more independent - so placed bets on guerillas to destabilize regime - by 1950 looked like it was not going to work - bulk of operations were in SW FAR from N Korea centre of operations
□ Had N Korean peoples army - relatively strong force - 135k men, heavily armed (T-34 tanks, heavy weapons) - once Chinese civ war ended - 12k Korean soldiers released from service + went back to N Korea, seasoned combat experience
‘trusteeship’
transitory process where the ‘great powers’ manage + administer Korea to prepare it for independence
What are the two rival regimes that emerged in 1948
‘Democratic People’s republic’ and the ‘Republic of Korea’ (RoK)
Kim going south ca 1950
US secretary of state, had mentioned that US did not consider Korean peninsula to be within security perimeter in the pacific - drew that US was not going to help the S if he attacked it
□ Needed green light from Stalin - had prev been opposed, did not want US war - hearing this have his ok, BUT have to clear with Mao
□ Kim clears it with Mao - got the ok
○ 25th Jun 1950 - N troops go S - enormously successful - by Aug 1950 main prob was logistics with lines of communication than the S troops
Pusan perimeter
Kim goes south, as far as Pusan
Reason for US intervention post Kim’s push to Pusan perimeter
Truman under right-wing attacks (joseph McCarthy) red scare, anti-communist people - Couldn’t allow this to be unanswered so intervened
□ Believed by US that everything in Communist world came from the Kremlin - thought they were testing us
What was significant about the way in which Truman committed army to Korea in 1950?
Sanction to do this from UN - how if soviets have veto? - Soviets at time were boycotting security council - KMT retained UN seat even when Mao won - Soviets were not there to oppose
what were the consequences of the Soviets boycotting the security council
◊ US intervene + 16 other UN countries - tolken except for BRIT
◊ Made it impossible for intervene on side of the UN, supposed to be in g standing with the UN - could not openly support - secretly intervene via committing fighting aviation core, 115 fighters flown by soviet pilots, thous of dogfights
◊ US didn’t have to declare war - rubric of UN police action - no dec of war via congress
Douglas Macarthur
® Trapped in Pusan for a while - Macarthur comes up with maritime landing in China - considered risky option - not easy to carry out, successful - N troops had to get out of S really fast
® Truman makes another imp decision - weather to chase peoples army into the N - decides yes - told Macarthur to be careful of CCP intervention - be careful - US + UN forces take N capital - Mao decides to intervene
§ People used to think Mao reacted to Macarthur - but in process to intervene earlier - set up Chinese volunteer force - Mac went ad hoc with lot of force up to Yalu river - Mao huge intervention
Korean war 1951
fighting bogged down - 38th parallel
Korean war 1953
static fighting last for long period - blame lies with N regime and CCP - big issue was with POW - N Korea had lost 170k as prisoners - wanted all of them back - S Koreans, KMT, and US doing propaganda work + convince them not to go back, 50k did not want to go back - N regime insistent to give them ALL back -
® Long period of negotiation
1953 factors for signs of progress and ultimately a ceasefire for korean war
◊ Harry Tuman president comes to end in ‘52 - Eisenhower wins, said that he may use atomic weapons against China -> CCP believed this - once took charge authorized to start using atomic weapons
} MacArthur storming N - wanted to go after CCP using Atomic weapons, had been fired - now US on track - scared Chinese, more amenable to negotiations
} Stalin dies in power in 53 - successors wanted better relations w US
