Despite the total victory and unconditional surrender in the recent World War II, the Korean War was not along the same lines whatsoever. The Korean War began when the North and South were divided at the 38th parallel; suddenly, the Communist North invaded the south and most of it was consumed except for a final southernmost city. There, General MacArthur was sent my President Truman to Korea for a “police action. ” With U.
N advancements up near the Chinese-Korean border, the Chinese sent their own troops to force MacArthur back near the original border lines, where MacArthur called for extra support and was denied. Korea was a different sort of war in numerous ways. To begin, Korea was not to be a major part of the Soviet Communist expansion plan. Stalin originally did not favor invading South Korea but believed that it would be a small step in expanding and that the U. S would not care too much.
Having this be the case, no one knew that the war would carry on for years, certainly not the United States. This attack was a surprise for the U. S and Truman responded quickly. This war was again different because the war was supposed to restore the boundaries to the original 38th parallel. Instead, MacArthur was ordered to push into North Korea and the Chinese became engaged in the battle. The move into the North changed the battle grounds of the war. Now, the U. N was not only defending non-communist South Korea, but also attacking a larger China.
Forces being pushed back called for MacArthur to ask for larger scale attacks, even involving nuclear missiles to be used on China. Having deviated from the original plan to this extent, Truman could not continue and needed to say “no. ” This leads to the fact that MacArthur’s claim that “there is no substitute for victory’ as problematic in the case of Korea because victory meant launching a full-out attack on China. The U. S at the time was mainly concerned with the U. S. S. R and not the Chinese. Launching an attack would spring the U.
S back into war-mode, which nobody was willing to do at the time. Also, the engagement of war would have probably sprung a war against not only China, but would have also involved the Soviet Union in assisting China, which mightVe ended a disaster for the U. S. Even with the help of newly- founded NATO, many European powers in WWII would not be resent in the war against Korea/China/Soviet Union due to still-Reconstruction. This belief that victory needed to be sought after led to MacArthur ranting on the President in public.
Even being a great general, Truman had to remove MacArthur from his duties; the nation banded MacArthur as a traitor. Truce was reluctantly discussed momentarily; having more interest in prisoner exchanges, truce discussions were hesitantly discussed and the battle waged and more souls were unnecessarily lost. With the invasion of South Koreans by the North, the Korean War was underway and would prove to be a stalemate between both sides. The Soviet Union did not intend for attacking South Korea to be a major priority in their plans; thus, they did not go “all-out” in the attack before and after U.
S and U. N involvement. Similarity, the U. N originally only wanted to restore the 38th parallel boundary. However, as the war continued, it seemed that victory could only be reached by attacking China, and eventually the Soviet Union as well. Witn neither side really engaging in full war tactics, neither side also really wanted to declare a truce as well. Battle waged on and the loss of lives was plenty as an armed hostile armistice was loosely formed to “end” the war.
