The Korean war of 1950 among other things, set the tone for a great rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States. It created more tensions between the two world powers regarding the ideologies of communism and capitalism/democracy. It also proved that the United States would treat allies of the Soviet Union as communists and the same for the Soviet Union. This is evident in the post-Korean War era where the United States and the Soviet Union fought in Vietnam and Afghanistan respectively. The United States and the Soviet Union literary divided the world into and each power backed the countries which aligned with their ideologies. Any country which supported the communist ideas was an enemy of the United States. Other impacts of the Korean War on the post-World War II era included the rising of China as a powerful communist military state, strengthened relations between the US and Britain and the increased military expenditure by the United States. This paper aims to describe some of the significant impacts of the Korean War in the mid-twentieth-century era, after the Second World War.
Before the First World War, Korea was a single colony under the Japanese. After the nuclear bombing of the two Japanese cities in 1945 by the United States, Korea became liberated from Japan. The United States troops continued to camp in the southern region of Korea after World War II while attempting to keep the peace as part of the United Nations mandate. The United States then divided Korea along the 38th parallel into North and South as people from the two regions seemed to have different ideologies concerning communism. As the north was near the communist territories, it became influenced by the communist ideas. As the Korean War broke in 1950, the US had to fight to protect the anti-communist South from being absorbed by the Soviet Union or the communists. The United Nations, mainly the United States, provided military support to the South while the North received military aid from the Soviet Union and China. At the end of the war, the world divided into two ideological regions.
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The Korean war proved how far the two superpowers would go to protect their political ideas. While the United States provided troops to fight against Northern Korea and Chinese soldiers in the Korean War, the Soviet Union mere participated in the actual war. The Soviet Union simply provided North Korea with ammunition, tanks and other supplies while staying out of the war. The Soviet Union avoided direct war with the United States (United Nations), and never sent its troops to Korea. In the spirit of carrying out the United Nations peace-keeping policy, the United States sent its troops to Korea to support the anti-communist southern region of Korea. It was because after the onset of the war in 1950, the South Korean Army backed away and never participated in the battle. The United Nations fought the war on behalf of South Korea. The only reasons for supporting South Korea by the United States was for the simple reason that its leader was an anti-communist who is said to have been in exile in the United States.
The Korean War intensified Cold War and the rivalry between the communist world and the democratic world. The Soviet Union proceeded to get more states to join the communist world as the United States fought to prevent the invasion of the Soviet Union in various parts of the world. The United States supported anti-communist countries at all costs. It did not matter whether the leaders of these states were dictatorial. The United States, for instance, had no particular interest in South Korea other the fact that an anti-communist leader led the region. The United States took it as their mandate in the fight against communism to support countries under the threat of socialist or communist invasion. This was seen in the Vietnam War and the communist wars that followed such as the war in Afghanistan.
While fighting in Korea on behalf of the United Nations, the United States found a reason to expand its military expenditure. More money was put under military spending, developing the military and posting troops in various countries all over the world. After the Korean War, the United States also strengthened ties with different western European nations such as Britain. The Korean War also put China on the map. China's involvement in the war a communist ally made the world aware of its military prowess. The Korean War also led to the division of the peninsula into South and North with each state having a different political ideology. While the north proceeded with a dictatorship form of leadership, the south was under an anti-communist leader.
The Korean War, as described in the paper, intensified Cold War and the rivalry between the communists and the counterparts. Going forward, the United States, supported and provided military aid to states which faced invasion from the Soviet Union or the communists. The Soviet Union and the Communist countries also offered support to their allies. It was important for each political divide to gain more territory with regards to their political ideologies. The Soviet Union expanded their areas across Eastern Europe and Asia and in parts of Africa. The United States, fought wars to stop the invasion of the communists in other states.
