June 25, 2019 • 9 mins
The Korean War began 70 years ago today, and remains unresolved. Learn how this war shaped the future of the powers involved in today's episode of BrainStuff.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff. Lauren Vogue obamb here. On June fifty, North
Korean tanks rolled across the thirty eighth Parallel, the line
that separated communist North Korea from US backed South Korea.
As a now declassified US intelligence cable from Tokyo to
Washington concluded, the incursion wasn't just a mirror raid. Quote.
(00:27):
The size of the North Korean forces employed, the depth
of penetration, the intensity of the attack, and the landings
made miles south of the Parallel on the east coast
indicated that the North Koreans are engaged in all out
offensive to subjugate South Korea. It was the start of
a war that is still not ended a full seven
decades later. The Korean War, which ultimately would pit the
(00:48):
U S against China in the first ever confrontation between
the two superpowers, would claim the lives of an estimated
two point five million military members and civilians, including nearly
thirty four thousand Americans. The DT would cease with an
armistice on July nineteen fifty three, but the Geneva Conference
of nineteen fifty four failed to produce a peace treaty,
and the North and South remained tense enemies, and that's
(01:11):
the way things have pretty much continued. Though. In eighteen,
North Korean dictator Kim Jong un and South Korean President
Mun Jaen announced that they would work together toward a
peace treaty, but after the collapse of a February summit
between US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim
Jong Un, those tensions seemed likely to remain for a
while longer. In the US, the Korean War is sometimes
(01:33):
called the forgotten War because it's overshadowed by the conflicts
that came before and after it, the stirring victory of
World War Two and the lengthy, painful ordeal of the
Vietnam War. We spoke with Edward Rhodes, a professor on
the faculty of the shar School of Policy and Government
at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, who is an
expert in American foreign and national security policy. He said,
(01:55):
modern Americans don't think about it much. Vietnam was more
traumatic and World War Two was more of victorious. Nevertheless,
the overlooked conflict has exerted a powerful influence that still
felt today. According to Rhodes, the war forever changed the
course of US foreign and national security policy, compelling the
US to accept a permanent military involvement around the globe
(02:15):
even in peace time. It also helped drive the creation
of a vast US nuclear arsenal to deter possible Communist aggression,
with the threat of annihilation, and a global nuclear arms
race still continues. All this happened, according to Rhoads, after Korea,
a nation that had been occupied by the Japanese from
nineteen ten to nineteen forty five, was split into two
(02:36):
by the U S and the U S s R.
After World War Two. He explains, it was a practical matter.
There were Japanese armies that had retreated into Korea from
Manchuria and they needed to be disarmed. We split that
large task with the Soviet Union, with the understanding that
the Soviets would disarm the Japanese in the north and
we would do it in the south. But as the
Cold War developed between the US and its European allies
(02:58):
and the Soviets, the temporary partition turned into a permanent
one with the formation of a communist regime headed by
Kim Eel sung in the north and an authoritarian pro
American government headed by Sing Man e in the South.
Each regime saw itself as the real government of Korea
and its rival as illegitimate. Kim eel sung decided to
settle the matter by invading South Korea, and in May
(03:20):
nineteen fifty finally obtained reluctant approval from his patron, the
Stalin regime. About a month later, Kim launched a surprise attack,
which initially had devastating results. The South Korean forces essentially
dissolved the U n Security Council, taking advantage of a
Soviet boycott of the body, then passed a measure calling
for member nations to assist the belaggered South Koreans. That
(03:43):
mandate enabled US President Harry Truman to respond militarily without
having to go to Congress for a declaration of war.
Up until that point, the U s hadn't seen South
Korea as having much strategic importance, a road said, but
when the North Korean tanks rolled across the border, the
image that flashed in Truman's mind was that this was
a repeat of what the Nazis did. His response is
(04:04):
to stand up, thinking that if we had stood up
to Hitler early on, the world would have been a
better place. An outnumbered contingent of UN forces formed a
desperate line of defense around the only part of South
Korea not yet captured by the Communists, and managed to
hold off the invaders for two months. That gave General
Douglas MacArthur, who had been placed in overall command of
the U N forces, enough time to make an audacious,
(04:26):
amphibious landing at Incheon, near the South Korean capital of Seoul,
on September fifteenth, nineteen fifty, cutting off the over extended
North Koreans. McArthur's forces chased the invaders back north across
the thirty eighth Parallel, and by mid October had captured
the North Korean capital of Kyongyang, but MacArthur, over confident,
kept pushing the North Koreans back to the Yalu River,
(04:47):
the border with China. China then responded with a massive
counter attack of between thirteen thousand and three hundred thousand troops.
This time it was the UN forces who were driven back.
A bloody stalemate on the ground developed as the US
pounded North Korea from the air. MacArthur eventually was relieved
of his command by Truman and replaced with General Matthew Ridgeway.
(05:07):
The US abandoned the idea of a total victory and
shifted to a holding action against the communist forces. Rhodes
said MacArthur embraced the idea that there's no substitute for victory.
You beat the enemy and they surrender. But Rhodes explained,
after the Chinese intervention, quote, We're still in a situation
where there's got to be a substitute for victory, because
how are we going to fight the manpower of China.
(05:29):
There's a realization that we can't fight this war to victory,
and it's hard for the American people to accept. The
longer the war stretched on, the more unpopular it became
back in the US. Many of the soldiers sent to
Korea or reservists who had served in World War Two.
Rhodes explained, They've got homes and families and jobs, and
then they were called up and sent to fight another war.
(05:50):
There was a feeling that this wasn't fair. Eventually, truman successor,
President Dwight Eisenhower, ran on a promise that he would
go to Korea and seek an end to the conflict.
Actually did that a month before his inauguration in three
but though Eisenhower had ended the fighting, the Korean War
still shaped his policies. Rhodes said Eisenhower looked at this
(06:11):
as the wrong war at the wrong time, using the
wrong weapons. He reaches the conclusion that with the Cold
War going on with the Soviets, we have to plan
for the long haul. We're going to sustain this kind
of military deterrence. That led to resources being pumped into
the development of a massive nuclear deterrent that could be
used to contain the Soviets. Additionally, Eisenhower began attempting to
(06:32):
form alliances with more and more countries in an effort
to create a unified front to hold off Communist aggression.
We also spoke via email with Charles K. Armstrong, the
Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences
at Columbia University. He said the US was forced to
take China more seriously as a military power after fighting
to a stalemate in the Korean War. General MacArthur had
(06:55):
severely underestimated the Chinese military's willingness to confront the US
in capacity to fight, leading to a bad route for
UN forces In the initial months after China entered the war.
China's participation in the Korean War also consolidated Mao's rule
and dashed the hopes of sub Americans that the communist
regime could be rolled back and replaced by Schangkai Shek's nationalists.
(07:16):
Armstrong said a Mao's willingness to support the North Koreans directly,
as opposed to Stalin's reluctance, helped solidify China North Korean
relations and caused the North Koreans to be more distrustful
of the Russians. For the US, China was seen from
the Korean War onward as the primary ally of North
Korea and the primary great power there was an enemy
of the US in Korea. The Armistice ended the fighting,
(07:39):
but North Korea, now backed by the Chinese, remained as
a belligerent enemy to South Korea. The ongoing threat meant
that U S forces couldn't just withdraw and come home.
Armstrong notes the North Korean invasion in the emerging Cold
War convinced American policymakers that the US needed a permanent
military presence in Asia and Europe in order to contain
communist aggression. I Additionally, the Korean war helped set the
(08:01):
table for another even bloodier and more painful future conflict.
According to Armstrong, Korea led directly to the U. S
decision to help the French against communist led insurgency in
colonial Vietnam, and then, after the French defeat, to intervene
in support of an anti communist regime in South Vietnam,
which blocked an election called for by the nineteen fifty
four Geneva Conference that helped set the stage for the
(08:23):
Vietnam War. Armstrong said the most lasting legacy of the
Korean War for the US was the establishment of a
global military presence over the long term and a commitment
to confront communism throughout the world during the Cold War
and for Korea in East Asia, ideological and military confrontation
that has lasted seven decades. That included a U. S
(08:44):
force stationed in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea,
which in turn has a massive array of long range
artillery and rockets equipped with chemical and biological weapons aimed
at Seoul. That's in addition to the nuclear weapons and
ballistic missile arsenal. The Trump so far has been unable
to persuade the North Korean regime to give up. Today's
(09:07):
episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger and produced by
Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio's
How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of
other topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com,
and for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff. Lauren Vogue obamb here. On June fifty, North
Korean tanks rolled across the thirty eighth Parallel, the line
that separated communist North Korea from US backed South Korea.
As a now declassified US intelligence cable from Tokyo to
Washington concluded, the incursion wasn't just a mirror raid. Quote.
(00:27):
The size of the North Korean forces employed, the depth
of penetration, the intensity of the attack, and the landings
made miles south of the Parallel on the east coast
indicated that the North Koreans are engaged in all out
offensive to subjugate South Korea. It was the start of
a war that is still not ended a full seven
decades later. The Korean War, which ultimately would pit the
(00:48):
U S against China in the first ever confrontation between
the two superpowers, would claim the lives of an estimated
two point five million military members and civilians, including nearly
thirty four thousand Americans. The DT would cease with an
armistice on July nineteen fifty three, but the Geneva Conference
of nineteen fifty four failed to produce a peace treaty,
and the North and South remained tense enemies, and that's
(01:11):
the way things have pretty much continued. Though. In eighteen,
North Korean dictator Kim Jong un and South Korean President
Mun Jaen announced that they would work together toward a
peace treaty, but after the collapse of a February summit
between US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim
Jong Un, those tensions seemed likely to remain for a
while longer. In the US, the Korean War is sometimes
(01:33):
called the forgotten War because it's overshadowed by the conflicts
that came before and after it, the stirring victory of
World War Two and the lengthy, painful ordeal of the
Vietnam War. We spoke with Edward Rhodes, a professor on
the faculty of the shar School of Policy and Government
at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, who is an
expert in American foreign and national security policy. He said,
(01:55):
modern Americans don't think about it much. Vietnam was more
traumatic and World War Two was more of victorious. Nevertheless,
the overlooked conflict has exerted a powerful influence that still
felt today. According to Rhodes, the war forever changed the
course of US foreign and national security policy, compelling the
US to accept a permanent military involvement around the globe
(02:15):
even in peace time. It also helped drive the creation
of a vast US nuclear arsenal to deter possible Communist aggression,
with the threat of annihilation, and a global nuclear arms
race still continues. All this happened, according to Rhoads, after Korea,
a nation that had been occupied by the Japanese from
nineteen ten to nineteen forty five, was split into two
(02:36):
by the U S and the U S s R.
After World War Two. He explains, it was a practical matter.
There were Japanese armies that had retreated into Korea from
Manchuria and they needed to be disarmed. We split that
large task with the Soviet Union, with the understanding that
the Soviets would disarm the Japanese in the north and
we would do it in the south. But as the
Cold War developed between the US and its European allies
(02:58):
and the Soviets, the temporary partition turned into a permanent
one with the formation of a communist regime headed by
Kim Eel sung in the north and an authoritarian pro
American government headed by Sing Man e in the South.
Each regime saw itself as the real government of Korea
and its rival as illegitimate. Kim eel sung decided to
settle the matter by invading South Korea, and in May
(03:20):
nineteen fifty finally obtained reluctant approval from his patron, the
Stalin regime. About a month later, Kim launched a surprise attack,
which initially had devastating results. The South Korean forces essentially
dissolved the U n Security Council, taking advantage of a
Soviet boycott of the body, then passed a measure calling
for member nations to assist the belaggered South Koreans. That
(03:43):
mandate enabled US President Harry Truman to respond militarily without
having to go to Congress for a declaration of war.
Up until that point, the U s hadn't seen South
Korea as having much strategic importance, a road said, but
when the North Korean tanks rolled across the border, the
image that flashed in Truman's mind was that this was
a repeat of what the Nazis did. His response is
(04:04):
to stand up, thinking that if we had stood up
to Hitler early on, the world would have been a
better place. An outnumbered contingent of UN forces formed a
desperate line of defense around the only part of South
Korea not yet captured by the Communists, and managed to
hold off the invaders for two months. That gave General
Douglas MacArthur, who had been placed in overall command of
the U N forces, enough time to make an audacious,
(04:26):
amphibious landing at Incheon, near the South Korean capital of Seoul,
on September fifteenth, nineteen fifty, cutting off the over extended
North Koreans. McArthur's forces chased the invaders back north across
the thirty eighth Parallel, and by mid October had captured
the North Korean capital of Kyongyang, but MacArthur, over confident,
kept pushing the North Koreans back to the Yalu River,
(04:47):
the border with China. China then responded with a massive
counter attack of between thirteen thousand and three hundred thousand troops.
This time it was the UN forces who were driven back.
A bloody stalemate on the ground developed as the US
pounded North Korea from the air. MacArthur eventually was relieved
of his command by Truman and replaced with General Matthew Ridgeway.
(05:07):
The US abandoned the idea of a total victory and
shifted to a holding action against the communist forces. Rhodes
said MacArthur embraced the idea that there's no substitute for victory.
You beat the enemy and they surrender. But Rhodes explained,
after the Chinese intervention, quote, We're still in a situation
where there's got to be a substitute for victory, because
how are we going to fight the manpower of China.
(05:29):
There's a realization that we can't fight this war to victory,
and it's hard for the American people to accept. The
longer the war stretched on, the more unpopular it became
back in the US. Many of the soldiers sent to
Korea or reservists who had served in World War Two.
Rhodes explained, They've got homes and families and jobs, and
then they were called up and sent to fight another war.
(05:50):
There was a feeling that this wasn't fair. Eventually, truman successor,
President Dwight Eisenhower, ran on a promise that he would
go to Korea and seek an end to the conflict.
Actually did that a month before his inauguration in three
but though Eisenhower had ended the fighting, the Korean War
still shaped his policies. Rhodes said Eisenhower looked at this
(06:11):
as the wrong war at the wrong time, using the
wrong weapons. He reaches the conclusion that with the Cold
War going on with the Soviets, we have to plan
for the long haul. We're going to sustain this kind
of military deterrence. That led to resources being pumped into
the development of a massive nuclear deterrent that could be
used to contain the Soviets. Additionally, Eisenhower began attempting to
(06:32):
form alliances with more and more countries in an effort
to create a unified front to hold off Communist aggression.
We also spoke via email with Charles K. Armstrong, the
Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences
at Columbia University. He said the US was forced to
take China more seriously as a military power after fighting
to a stalemate in the Korean War. General MacArthur had
(06:55):
severely underestimated the Chinese military's willingness to confront the US
in capacity to fight, leading to a bad route for
UN forces In the initial months after China entered the war.
China's participation in the Korean War also consolidated Mao's rule
and dashed the hopes of sub Americans that the communist
regime could be rolled back and replaced by Schangkai Shek's nationalists.
(07:16):
Armstrong said a Mao's willingness to support the North Koreans directly,
as opposed to Stalin's reluctance, helped solidify China North Korean
relations and caused the North Koreans to be more distrustful
of the Russians. For the US, China was seen from
the Korean War onward as the primary ally of North
Korea and the primary great power there was an enemy
of the US in Korea. The Armistice ended the fighting,
(07:39):
but North Korea, now backed by the Chinese, remained as
a belligerent enemy to South Korea. The ongoing threat meant
that U S forces couldn't just withdraw and come home.
Armstrong notes the North Korean invasion in the emerging Cold
War convinced American policymakers that the US needed a permanent
military presence in Asia and Europe in order to contain
communist aggression. I Additionally, the Korean war helped set the
(08:01):
table for another even bloodier and more painful future conflict.
According to Armstrong, Korea led directly to the U. S
decision to help the French against communist led insurgency in
colonial Vietnam, and then, after the French defeat, to intervene
in support of an anti communist regime in South Vietnam,
which blocked an election called for by the nineteen fifty
four Geneva Conference that helped set the stage for the
(08:23):
Vietnam War. Armstrong said the most lasting legacy of the
Korean War for the US was the establishment of a
global military presence over the long term and a commitment
to confront communism throughout the world during the Cold War
and for Korea in East Asia, ideological and military confrontation
that has lasted seven decades. That included a U. S
(08:44):
force stationed in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea,
which in turn has a massive array of long range
artillery and rockets equipped with chemical and biological weapons aimed
at Seoul. That's in addition to the nuclear weapons and
ballistic missile arsenal. The Trump so far has been unable
to persuade the North Korean regime to give up. Today's
(09:07):
episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger and produced by
Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio's
How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of
other topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com,
and for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
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