This became clear when the US and the Soviet Union tried to implement a revived trusteeship plan after the Moscow Conference in December Eighteen months of intermittent bilateral negotiations in Korea failed to reach agreement on a representative group of Koreans to form a provisional government, primarily because Moscow refused to consult with anti-Communist politicians opposed to trustee- ship. Meanwhile, political instability and economic deterioration in southern Korea persisted, causing Hodge to urge withdrawal.
Postwar US demobilization that brought steady reductions in defense spending fueled pressure for disengagement. With Communist power growing in China, however, the Truman administration was unwilling to abandon southern Korea precipitously, fearing domestic criticism from Republicans and damage to US credibility abroad. Seeking an answer to its dilemma, the US referred the Korean dispute to the United Nations, which passed a resolution late in calling for internationally supervised elections for a government to rule a united Korea.
Truman and his advisors knew the Soviets would refuse to cooper- ate. Discarding all hope for early reunification, US policy by then had shifted to creating a separate South Korea, able to defend itself. Bowing to US pressure, the United Nations supervised and certified as valid obviously undemocratic elections in the south alone in May , which resulted in formation of the Republic of Korea ROK in August.
There now were two Koreas, with President Syngman Rhee installing a repressive, dictatorial, and anti-Communist regime in the south, while wartime guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung imposed the totalitarian Stalinist model for political, economic, and social development on the north. A UN resolution then called for Soviet-American withdrawal. Despite plans to leave the south by the end of , Truman delayed military withdrawal until June 29, In spring , US military advisors supervised a dramatic improvement in ROK army fighting abilities.
They were so successful that militant South Korean officers began to initiate assaults northward across the thirty-eighth parallel that summer. These attacks ignited major border clashes with North Korean forces. Fears that Rhee might initiate an offensive to achieve reunification explain why the Truman administration limited ROK military capabilities, withholding tanks, heavy artillery, and warplanes.
Moreover, by June , the US policy of containment in Korea through economic means appeared to be experiencing marked success.
As important, the ROK army virtually eliminated guerrilla activities, threatening internal order in South Korea, causing the Truman administration to propose a sizeable military aid increase. Communist victory in China in fall pressured Stalin to show his support for a similar Korean outcome.
In January , he and Kim discussed plans for an invasion in Moscow, but the Soviet dictator was not ready to give final consent. Significantly, Mao also voiced concern that the Americans would defend the ROK but gave his reluctant approval as well. The president immediately named MacArthur, who was required to submit periodic reports to the United Nations on war developments.
The ad- ministration blocked formation of a UN committee that would have direct access to the UNC commander, instead adopting a procedure whereby MacArthur received instructions from and reported to the JCS. Despite these American commitments, UNC forces initially suffered a string of defeats. State Department officials began to lobby for forcible reunification once the UNC assumed the offensive, arguing that the US should destroy the KPA and hold free elections for a government to rule a united Korea.
The JCS had grave doubts about the wisdom of landing at the port of Inchon, twenty miles west of Seoul, because of narrow access, high tides, and sea- walls, but the September 15 operation was a spectacular success. A month earlier, the administration had abandoned its initial war aim of merely restoring the status quo. On September 11, , Truman had approved NSC, a plan to cross the thirty-eighth parallel and forcibly reunify Korea.
Invading the DPRK was an incredible blunder that transformed a three-month war into one lasting three years. US leaders had realized that extension of hostilities risked Soviet or Chinese entry, and therefore, NSC- 81 included the precaution that only Korean units would move into the most northern provinces.
He also wanted to repay the DPRK for sending thou- sands of soldiers to fight in the Chinese civil war. On August 5, Mao instructed his northeastern military district commander to prepare for operations in Korea in the first ten days of September. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them.
Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. Finally, in July , the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.
The Korean peninsula is still divided today. In August , two young aides at the State Department divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel.
The Russians occupied the area north of the line and the United States occupied the area to its south. By the end of the decade, two new states had formed on the peninsula. In the south, the anti-communist dictator Syngman Rhee enjoyed the reluctant support of the American government; in the north, the communist dictator Kim Il Sung enjoyed the slightly more enthusiastic support of the Soviets.
Neither dictator was content to remain on his side of the 38th parallel, however, and border skirmishes were common. Nearly 10, North and South Korean soldiers were killed in battle before the war even began. Even so, the North Korean invasion came as an alarming surprise to American officials. As far as they were concerned, this was not simply a border dispute between two unstable dictatorships on the other side of the globe. Instead, many feared it was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world.
For this reason, nonintervention was not considered an option by many top decision makers. As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the United States readied its troops for a war against communism itself. At first, the war was a defensive one to get the communists out of South Korea, and it went badly for the Allies.
Also, it was one of the hottest and driest summers on record, and desperately thirsty American soldiers were often forced to drink water from rice paddies that had been fertilized with human waste. As a result, dangerous intestinal diseases and other illnesses were a constant threat.
By the end of the summer, President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur , the commander in charge of the Asian theater, had decided on a new set of war aims. Initially, this new strategy was a success. This was something that President Truman and his advisers decidedly did not want: They were sure that such a war would lead to Soviet aggression in Europe, the deployment of atomic weapons and millions of senseless deaths.
The communists in the South boycotted the election, and refused to allow it in the North. Rhee became President of the newly-declared independent South Korea in October As the United States drew down its military in the post war period, the American garrison of 40, quickly withered to a force of officers and men who made up the Korean Military Advisory Group KMAG. The Korean army, known as ROK, was given only light weapons. The North Korean Army, on the other hand, was heavily equipped with tanks and other armored vehicles.
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