Australia's Involvement In The Korean War Essay

To understand the significance of Australia’s involvement in the Korean War, it is necessary to explore the factors that led to this conflict. The significant factors and events leading to the Korean conflict were the fact that, at the end of World War II, the Soviet Union had occupied North Korea and the United Sates troops had ‘liberated’ South Korea from the North and the country was formally divided. Most of the wealth in Korea was in the South and this led to North Korea wanting to re-unite with South Korea in order to get its wealth back and doing it the only way they knew how: by invading. Australia’s involvement in this war was small in scale, however it served an important purpose - to demonstrate our loyalty and support for our valuable

It was believed that Australia’s involvement in this war would upset most Australian citizens considering that only five years ago, they had only just gotten through the horrible events of World War II and some, still rebuilding from the aftermaths of the air raids in Darwin and in some parts of Queensland. But the Australian citizens were understanding knowing that being involved would be the only way to stop the ‘Domino Effect’ from completing. Although, there was more than a handful of people that did oppose the action of sending Australian troops to Korea. The Australian Communist Party was amongst those that disagreed with sending troops to Korea. It was understandable that they would not want Australian soldiers to aid because it would have a bad impression on their party in Parliament. The Australian Government therefore banned the Communist Party from Parliament leaving only a small number of Australian’s opposing their efforts in the support of South Korea. There were no countries that had opposed Australia’s efforts of joining the Korean War, but they were praised by many for courage of going into this war to help South Korea. The United States would have been happy knowing that Australia was a loyal ally and that they were going into this war fighting beside them. There was no conscription in Australia at the time of the Korean War, so all soldiers were volunteers

Australia going into this war with one goal, to stop the spread of communism, had achieved it by stopping the North Koreans from invading South Korea and by doing so sent the message of their stand against communism to the whole world. In the mountains of Northern Korea, Australian soldiers battled in many raids and ambushes during the war and one of their most well-known military actions took place against a Chinese offensive on the Kapyong River in April 1951. After many months of fighting, the International military force advanced forward and into North Korea. By November the United Nations force of 150 000 soldiers were opposed to 300 000 Chinese and 80 000 North Korean soldiers. The UN force were pushed back once again to the 38th parallel in their efforts to invade North Korea. For the remainder of the war, both sides held their positions and neither side was able to make valuable advance resulting in a stalemate which is what brought the war to an end in 1953. Australia’s involvement in this war won many praises from other nations around the world. 615 awards and decorations were given to Australia during the war and a total of 173 awards given to Australia by other countries after the war. Australia had also gained several political and security benefits. The most important of the countless benefits gained by