Chapter 19 Continuing the Cold War
Diplomacy | Chapter 19 : The Dilemma of Containment: The Korean War | Summary
Summary
For several years containment worked in Europe primarily as it had been conceived, uniting the European democracies and preventing further Soviet expansion. American leaders were surprised when in June 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea. North Korean leaders had misunderstood President Harry Truman, who was determined to uphold international norms against aggression and avoid any hint of appeasement. Truman dispatched thousands of American soldiers at the head of an international coalition to thwart the attack. American and allied forces were overwhelmingly successful, but as the North Koreans retreated Truman found it difficult to define America's objectives in the larger war. The American military commander Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) argued the United States ought to launch a counter-invasion of North Korea, to show that aggressors would be punished. Truman agreed, and American forces pursued the communists northwards.
Unfortunately, Chinese leaders saw the advancing American forces as a threat to their position in Manchuria. In December 1950 Chinese armies counterattacked, driving American forces back down the peninsula. The two armies ended up in a stalemate near where the North-South border had been before the North Korean attack. MacArthur argued the United States should continue to escalate the war, even if it meant invading China, but Truman was worried this sort of escalation would only lead the Soviet Union to join the war directly and perhaps set off a third world war. When MacArthur took his disagreement with the president public, Truman was forced to fire him. But Truman was unable to produce a viable strategy of his own. The United States sought a negotiated solution to the conflict, but once Chinese leaders realized Truman would not escalate the war further, they lost any incentive to negotiate seriously. The stalemate lasted until Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969) became president in 1953, at which point the United States signed an armistice dividing the Korean peninsula once again.
The Korean War revealed both the strengths and the weaknesses of America's strategy of containment. On the one hand, containment helped American leaders justify why the United States ought to meet communist aggression in Korea, by arguing that the United States needed to uphold American values like nonaggression. On the other hand, American leaders struggled to translate their ideals into policies, as when Truman failed to produce a strategy to win the war. Truman's inability to win led to major debates in American domestic politics, including the harmful anti-communism of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–57). These domestic divisions presaged the much deeper disputes that would emerge a decade later over Vietnam. At the same time Chinese leaders recognized the tremendous costs of confronting America directly, even when they were successful. The biggest loser turned out to be the Soviet Union, since Truman blamed the Soviets for the war and began a major arms buildup that imperiled Soviet security.
Analysis
Henry Kissinger explains that at the time of the Korean War, most Americans believed the Soviets were behind the war, that Joseph Stalin had ordered North Korean president Kim Il-Sung (1912–94) to launch his attack, and then ordered Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung (1893–1976) to reinforce the North Koreans. Later evidence suggests this was not the case. In fact, Kim lobbied Stalin hard for permission to invade the South, which Stalin gave only grudgingly. Throughout the war Stalin provided little aid to either North Korea or China, an early instance of the Sino-Soviet tensions that would emerge in greater force a decade later.
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