38th Parallel

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The United States was integral in the neutralization of the Korean War conflict through its use of limited war, strategic invasions, and facilitation of the compromise of the Korean War Armistice. The United Nations was instrumental for the United States in entering the war. On June 25th, 1950, North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, marking the beginning of the Korean War. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting that day in which they demanded North Korea to cease fire and retreat back north (United Nations Security Council). At the time, the United Nations was only 5 years old, born in the waning days of WWII. In theory, the members of the United Nations promote world peace through a mutual obligation to rally in defence against an aggressor nation that broke international peace. However, its overall effectiveness was hampered during Cold War tensions. While North Korea invaded South Korea, Russia boycotted UN meetings because communist China was …show more content…
Peace talks begin as early as July 10, 1951. Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson (Truman’s Secretary of State) in early 1952, in opposition to their highest military advisors, insisted on voluntary repatriation of prisoners of war, which dragged out armistice negotiations for more than fifteen months (Bernstein). The Truman-Acheson decision to include voluntary repatriation in the armistice terms instead of standard automatic repatriation, gave the U.S. a symbolic victory by establishing the opposition of many captured Chinese and North Korean prisoners of war to return to their communist homelands. This new standard of voluntary repatriation may help deter communist nations from going to war in the future. This is because their soldiers, when guaranteed voluntary repatriation, can quickly surrender in order to flee

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