Korea 1950, under American leadership, the United nations went into war for the first time. What began as a conflict between rival regimes between North and South Korea, turned into a confrontation between East and West, threatening to escalate into a third world war. The allied forces became embroiled in a war unlike any they have known, yet, for the Americans it served as a military rehearsal, for one, they would come to know, in Vietnam. Reminiscent to the First World War, it started in racketed advances and retreats, and ended in trench warfare, continuing with bombardment. The United Nations forces relied on superior weaponry to limit their losses, experts believed that the shear volume of the United Nations air power would win the war,
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Yet, even the most massive American bombing campaign, that systematically pulverized Northern cities, was installment only in grinding the war to its final destruction; devastating the country in the process. It was a war in which nobody won, but the losers could be seen everywhere. A sea of refugees constantly settled adrift by the changing tide of battle. Three million Korean civilians were estimated to have died within the three years of war. What appeared simply as a “border dispute between two unstable dictatorships”,(SOURCE) unfortunately appeared to be the initial step in a communist campaign for power. There will be further exploration on the Cold War influence on what came to be the Korean War and devastating effects. Korea was no stranger to war, with common borders China, Russia and proximately to Japan have made it the focus of three wars in six years, ending in its forceful colonization by Japan in 1910. Yet, Berlatsky confirms in the book “North and South Korea,” “it was the allied decision of 1945, splitting the country along the 38th parallel, with Russia and America each occupying half.” Eventually, this led to the Korean war, and left it today with rival governments: Pyongyang and Seoul, both two different
Yet, even the most massive American bombing campaign, that systematically pulverized Northern cities, was installment only in grinding the war to its final destruction; devastating the country in the process. It was a war in which nobody won, but the losers could be seen everywhere. A sea of refugees constantly settled adrift by the changing tide of battle. Three million Korean civilians were estimated to have died within the three years of war. What appeared simply as a “border dispute between two unstable dictatorships”,(SOURCE) unfortunately appeared to be the initial step in a communist campaign for power. There will be further exploration on the Cold War influence on what came to be the Korean War and devastating effects. Korea was no stranger to war, with common borders China, Russia and proximately to Japan have made it the focus of three wars in six years, ending in its forceful colonization by Japan in 1910. Yet, Berlatsky confirms in the book “North and South Korea,” “it was the allied decision of 1945, splitting the country along the 38th parallel, with Russia and America each occupying half.” Eventually, this led to the Korean war, and left it today with rival governments: Pyongyang and Seoul, both two different