Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Korean War=== {{Main|Division of Korea|Korean War|Rollback}} [[File:IncheonLandingMcArthur.jpg|thumb|left|General [[Douglas MacArthur]], UN Command CiC (seated), observes the naval shelling of [[Incheon]], Korea from [[USS Mount McKinley|USS ''Mt. McKinley'']], 15 September 1950.]] One of the more significant examples of the implementation of containment was the United Nations US-led intervention in the [[Korean War]]. In June 1950, after years of mutual hostilities,{{efn-ua|"South Korea's President Rhee was obsessed with accomplishing early reunification through military means. The Truman administration's fear that Rhee would launch an invasion prompted it to limit South Korea's military capabilities, refusing to provide tanks, heavy artillery, and combat planes. This did not stop the South Koreans from initiating most of the border clashes with North Korean forces at the thirty-eighth parallel beginning in the summer of 1948 and reaching a high level of intensity and violence a year later. Historians now acknowledge that the two Koreas already were waging a civil conflict when North Korea's attack opened the conventional phase of the war."{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/korean-myths-1.html| title=Revisiting Korea|date=15 August 2016|website=National Archives|access-date=21 June 2019}}}}{{sfn|Haruki|2018|pp=7β12}}{{sfn|Stueck|2013|pp=252β256}} [[Kim Il Sung]]'s [[Korean People's Army|North Korean People's Army]] [[Operation Pokpoong|invaded]] [[South Korea]] at the [[38th parallel north#Korea|38th parallel]]. Stalin had been reluctant to support the invasion{{efn-ua|"Contradicting traditional assumptions, however, available declassified Soviet documents demonstrate that throughout 1949 Stalin consistently refused to approve Kim Il Sung's persistent requests to approve an invasion of South Korea. The Soviet leader believed that North Korea had not achieved either military superiority north of the parallel or political strength south of that line. His main concern was the threat South Korea posed to North Korea's survival, for example fearing an invasion northward following U.S. military withdrawal in June 1949."{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/korean-myths-1.html|title=Revisiting Korea|date=15 August 2016|website=National Archives|access-date=21 June 2019}}}} but ultimately sent advisers.{{sfn|Weathersby|1993|pp=28, 30}} To Stalin's surprise,{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194β197}} the [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 82]] and [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 83|83]] backed the defense of South Korea, although the Soviets were then boycotting meetings in protest of the fact that [[Taiwan]] (Republic of China), not the [[China|People's Republic of China]], held a permanent seat on the council.{{sfn|Malkasian|2001|p=16}} A [[United Nations Command|UN force]] of sixteen countries faced North Korea,{{sfn|Fehrenbach|2001|p=305}} although 40 percent of troops were South Korean, and about 50 percent were from the United States.{{sfn|Craig|Logevall|2012|p=118}} [[File:KoreanWar recover Seoul.jpg|thumb|[[United States Marine Corps|US Marines]] engaged in street fighting during the liberation of [[Seoul]], September 1950]] The US initially seemed to follow containment when it first entered the war. This directed the US's action to only push back North Korea across the 38th Parallel and restore South Korea's sovereignty while allowing North Korea's survival as a state. However, the success of the [[Battle of Inchon|Inchon landing]] inspired the US/UN forces to pursue a [[rollback]] strategy instead and to overthrow communist North Korea, thereby allowing nationwide elections under U.N. auspices.{{sfn|Matray|1979}} General [[Douglas MacArthur]] then advanced across the [[Division of Korea|38th Parallel]] into North Korea. The Chinese, fearful of a possible US invasion, sent in a large army and defeated the U.N. forces, pushing them back below the 38th parallel. Truman publicly hinted that he might use his "ace in the hole" of the atomic bomb, but Mao was unmoved.{{sfn|Paterson|Clifford|Brigham|Donoghue|2014|pp=286β289}} The episode was used to support the wisdom of the containment doctrine as opposed to rollback. The Communists were later pushed to roughly around the original border, with minimal changes. Among other effects, the Korean War galvanised [[NATO]] to develop a military structure.{{sfn|Isby|Kamps|1985|pp=13β14}} Public opinion in countries involved, such as Great Britain, was divided for and against the war.{{sfn|Cotton|1989|p=100}} After the [[Korean Armistice Agreement]] was approved in July 1953, North Korean leader [[Kim Il Sung]] created a highly centralized, totalitarian dictatorship that accorded his family unlimited power while generating a pervasive [[cult of personality]].{{sfn|Oberdorfer|2001|pp=10β11}}{{sfn|No|Osterholm|1996}} In the South, the American-backed dictator [[Syngman Rhee]] ran an authoritarian regime that engaged in [[anti-communist mass killings]].{{sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=61β70}} While Rhee was [[April Revolution|overthrown in 1960]], South Korea continued to be ruled by a military government of former Japanese collaborators until the re-establishment of a multi-party system in the late 1980s. Subsequently, South Korea experienced an economic boom and became one of the most [[List of countries by Human Development Index#Nations|advanced countries on the planet]].{{sfn|Suh|2013|pp=25β35}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page