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The Korean War: An Unending Rift

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The Korean War:
An Unending Conflict, And a Growing Rift

Kaylea Austin

History 1700
Professor Crawford
October 20, 2015

“Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefield and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse, it was contagious, and could destroy a unit before a battle even began. Because of that, commanders were the first and foremost in the fear suppression business.” –David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War

U.S. and Soviet Intervention in the Korean Conflict both helped and hindered the Koreans in their efforts to unite their country, as well as serve to only heat tensions between the two countries throughout the conflict. U.S. interventions in the Korean War allowed the South …show more content…

intervention first began a month after August 9, 1945, when the Soviet Union began invading Korea from the north, swiftly occupying the northern part of the Korean peninsula, patiently waiting for the U.S. to organize and occupy the lands south of the 38th parallel, and carefully honoring the agreement that had been reached in Potsdam, Germany just the month prior. With the potential for a nuclear conflict on the line, the U.S. was forced to modify their plan of attack, develop and implement doctrines that limited warfare, as well as pursue alternatives to their interests strategically so as to prevent the chance of triggering a war that had the highest potential for devastation. The U.S. at that point had convinced the United Nations to enter the war under an act of “police action,” which only served as a cover for the Americans true …show more content…

Between 1946 and 1950, all of Korea was wracked with constant attacks of increasing brutality from anti and pro-communist insurgencies, and even though many of South Koreas’ best army units defected to Kim’s side, Kim was still unable to topple the government in South Korea. With the struggles of violence and guerrilla warfare still raging on, the economy and infrastructure of Korea as a whole remained in a state of disrepair.
Douglas MacArthur deployed a pincer maneuver as an attempt to unbury the U.S. and South Korean soldiers trapped at the Pusan Perimeter. It involved parts of their forces at the perimeter to push forward while forces simultaneously infiltrated enemy lines at Inch’on and began pushing back, surrounding the North Korean Peoples Republics forces on both sides. It worked brilliantly by catching the NKPR’s troops off guard, giving them the chance they needed to begin pushing back against the Northern Korean forces back towards the Chinese

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