The Cold War: The Wars in Korea and Vietnam
Unit 10 Review Reading #3
The Cold War was the period after WWII when the world’s two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, waged a war of words and ideas with each other. Though these two countries did not engage in direct warfare with eachother, their competition did result in numerous conflicts. Two of these conflicts were actual wars involving areas under the influence of the two superpowers.
These wars, the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Vietnam War (1955-1975) are called proxy wars. In a proxy war opposing powers (like the United States and the Soviet Union) use other countries as substitutes for fighting each other directly. In Korea and Vietnam, the Soviets (and the Communist Chinese) supported Korean and Vietnamese communists living in the northern halves of those countries. The United States supported the more democratic southern regions of those countries. Even though these wars had some similarities, each had very different outcomes.
What Started the War in Korea?
Korea lies between China and Japan. In 1910, Japan made Korea part of its empire. When World War II ended, Soviet forces took over the northern half of Korea. American forces occupied the south. The 38th parallel of latitude became the border that divided the two republics. On June 25th, 1950, Communist troops crossed this border into South Korea.
How did the United Nations Help South Korea?
South Korea asked the United Nations to stop the North Koreans. The UN Security Council voted to send aid to South Korea. (The Soviet Union was not attending the UN meetings at that time. If it had been, the Soviets probably would have stopped any UN action.) The United Nations sent soldiers to help South Korea. China and the Soviet Union helped North Korea.
How did the UN Troops Push Back the Communists?
By September of 1950, the Communists controlled most of Korea. However, the UN forces got behind North Korean lines. Then they made a surprise attack at a place called Inchonthat cut the Communist forces in two and forced them to retreat.
By November, UN forces had pushed the Communists back to the YaluRiver, the border between China and North Korea. It looked as if the war was over. The UN hoped that Korea would become one country again. But then China sent in thousands of troops to help the North Koreans. The fighting went on.
What Ended the Korean War?
In July, 1951, truce talks began. A truce is an agreement to stop a war for a time. The talks dragged on for two years. Finally, the two sides signed an armistice. It left Korea divided. The border between the two Koreas was almost the same one that existed before the war.
Why Was the Korean War Important?
The Korean War showed that the UN could stop an attack on a member nation. It showed that China could hold its own in a war that did not use atomic weapons. It also showed that the Cold War between the two superpowers would continue.
Since 1953, the United States has continued to support South Korea. It has become an industrial powerhouse in Asia. North Korea remains Communist and struggles to feed its citizens. Its government occasionally threatens its neighbors with military action. Furthermore, even though the fighting has stopped, the war has not officially ended. Only a truce or temporary peace exists between the two warring sides.
What Started the Vietnam War?
After WWII, nationalist independence movements spread across Southeast Asia. In 1946, the U.S. gave the Philippine Islands their independence. South of the Philippines, Indonesia was given its independence by the Netherlands. However, France refused to give up its colonial lands in the area of Southeast Asia known as “Indochina.”
What Did Ho Chi Minh Want for Vietnam?
Japan had conquered Indochina during WWII. The Vietnamese, under the leadership of a man named Ho Chi Minh, fought against the Japanese. After the war, Ho Chi Minh wanted Vietnam to be and independent country, not a colony of France.
Between 1946 and 1954, Ho Chi Minh and his communist followers fought a fierce guerrilla style war against the French. The United States sent help to the French. The U.S. did not want another communist government in Asia. However, in 1954, the Vietnamese communist forces captured a French fort. Because of this, the French government decided that it could not win the war.
What Happened After the Communists Defeated France?
Ho Chi Minh and the French agreed to divide Vietnam into two areas. The communist area became known as North Vietnam. The non-communist area became South Vietnam. Two other areas in Indochina became independent: Cambodia and Laos.
The division of Vietnam was not meant to be permanent. The government of South Vietnam was supposed to hold an election. In this election, the Vietnamese people would choose how to unite their country. But the election never took place. North Vietnam began a guerrilla war inside of South Vietnam to unite the whole Vietnamese peninsula into one communist nation. Communists living in South Vietnam (who were called the “Vietcong”) joined in this struggle against the government of South Vietnam.
What Did the United States Do About the Guerrilla War in Vietnam?
In the early 1960’s, the United States began to send military advisors to South Vietnam. Their job was simply to help the South Vietnamese government. But by 1968, nearly 500,000 American troops were fighting a war in South Vietnam. However, many American citizens began protesting against the UnitedState’s getting involved in this war.
America’s part in the Vietnam War lasted from 1960 to 1975. In 1969, the U.S. government started to gradually withdraw its forces from South Vietnam. The American plan was to turn the fighting of the war entirely over to the South Vietnamese army. The United States called this plan Vietnamization.
What United North and South Vietnam?
After the United States pulled all of its soldiers out of Vietnam in 1975, the South Vietnamese government collapsed. The North Vietnamese took control of South Vietnam’s capital city, Saigon.
The next year, North and South Vietnam united into one communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The government gave a new name to Saigon, the former capital. It became Ho Chi Minh City.
After many years of struggle, the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam found ways to work together. Trade between the two countries increased, and the United States investment in Vietnam grew. Today, there is more travel and tourism in Vietnam. There is also a renewed effort to locate American soldiers that had gone missing in Vietnam during the war.