President Truman's Decision To Be Involved In The Korean War

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Why did President Truman decide for the U.S to be involved in the Korean War?

A. Plan of Investigation This investigation assesses President Truman’s justification for the U.S to be involved in the Korean War of 1950. In order to evaluate the justification for Truman’s decisions, the investigation is listed through the events that led up to the War in chronological order from the initial days before the War and into the War. This supports the purpose in why the war started and what led Truman to aid Korea during the war. Two of the sources used in this essay, The Korean War: Challenges in Crisis, Credibility, and Command, compiled by Burton I. Kaufmann and Rise to Globalism, written by Stephen Ambrose are then evaluated for their origins,
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Kaufman is an in-depth report of the history of America 's diplomatic and military involvement in the Korean War that carries the themes of crisis, credibility, and command throughout. The author, Burton I. Kaufman is a Professor of History at Kansas State University and he wrote many other books including, Efficiency and Expansion: Foreign Trade Organizations in the Wilson Administration, The Oil Cartel Case and Trade and Aid: Eisenhower’s Foreign Economic Policy, 1953-1961. The Korean War was written with the purpose emphasize the foreign policy decisions that directed U.S. involvement in Korea and that significantly defined America’s role as a world military-political power. The book’s values lies in the fact that Kaufman presents a careful and thorough description of the events that take place before the war connecting it to the ongoing conflict taking place. It also provides a strong, useful information of the treatment of American politics. However the limitations can be found in the author’s weakest spot describing the conditions of Korea and the Soviet-American rivalry and in the battles that took …show more content…
Analysis President Truman’s determination for the U.S’s involvement in the Korean War can justify why the U.S was associated to the war and whether it’s reasonable to go help South Korea. The investigation analyzes the political pressures that Truman was under and the influences they had on his final decision to commit ground forces to Korea. This can be shown through the pros and cons of helping South Korea from communism and weaknesses in the U.S by their fear of the spread of communism in countries. Initially, bringing the invasion to the United Nations appeared the only reasonable course of action and was also a way of achieving a collective response to the invasion. Most people perceived the North Korean’s to move across the border to increase communist expansion. Ultimately, the “elimination of South Korea would influence both Soviet and Chinese moves in Indochina, Formosa, Malaysia, and Burma”(Kaufman, 21). Washington concerned over the fact that the U.S not taking any action would affect the American prestige in Europe as well as the Middle East. The main goals of the American leaders were to steer clear of appeasement, which promoted Adolf Hitler’s dream of “world dominance”. Domestic considerations furthermore contributed to the Truman administrations determinations over Korea. If communist overtook Korea, there would be a high chance of congressional investigation into the military resulting in a reduction in conventional

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