The Korean War Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Korean War - Term Paper Example In 1945, following the surrender of Japan, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part. The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division between two sides, and the North established a Communist government. The 38th Parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Koreas. Although reunification negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tensions intensified. Cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th Parallel persisted. The situation escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. It was the first significant armed conflict in the global struggle between democracy and communism, called the cold war. After the Japanese defeat in 1945 Korea had been divided into the pro-Soviet North and the pro-American South. According to a post-war agreement , the division of Korea into the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) was overseen by the United States and the Soviet Union. These two military occupation zones were later to be united into an independent country, but, because of the Cold War, that objective proved unachievable for tensions between North and South Korea started to grow as the Cold War intensified. North Korean army crossed the border between the two rivals, and invaded South Korea. The United States immediately received approval for a military intervention from the UN. Canada and most Western nations, led by the United States, thought that North Korea was acting under Communist Chinese or Soviet direction. To the Americans and their allies, the Korean War demonstrated the need for containment and because of this, along with the majority of other Western states Canada participated in the UN force in Korea. The Korean conflict didn’t happen at the t ime which was favorable to Canada, for its army had been drastically reduced in size after the World War II, and the steps to increase the strength of the three armed forces to meet the nation’s commitments to the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Canadian contingent was initially supposed to be an infantry brigade group made up of one battalion each from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light infantry, the Royal Canadian Regiment, and the Royal 22e Regiment and signals, tank, artillery and other support units were also included. However, each regiment had to raise new battalions because the country couldn’t denude itself of its only standing army units. The country remained divided, with the American-supported Republic of Korea in control of the south by virtue of election sanctioned by the United Nations, while Soviet-supported Democratic Republic of Korea ruled the north, where elections were not held. The only unifier of the country was the civil war with each side threatening to invade the other claiming to be the legitimate government. But to do so, they needed support. The Americans denied this support to their Korean allies, mainly because the Truman administration had decided to liquidate all positions on the Asian mainland and concentrate on the defense of island strong points like Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines- but not Taiwan. The president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, constantly asked for support to liberate the north from officials in Washington