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Stalemate in the Korean War: History Revision - Ela Nicholson - Coggle…
Stalemate in the Korean War: History Revision - Ela Nicholson
Why Did the Stalemate Last So Long?
The US/UN kept on heavily bombing North Korea all the way through the peace talks - Pyongyang was reduced to rubble.
Syngman Rhee refused to compromise and ordered further attacks on the North.
Arguments over POWs - many North Koreans and some Chinese troops who had been captured by the South/UNC did not want to return to the North/China. The USA did not want any of them to return - both sides argued about POWs.
China was worried that the USA might consider expanding the war.
Why Was the Stalemate Broken?
Eisenhower became the President of the US in 1953, and he promised to end the war.
Stalin died in March 1953, and the North Koreans and China weren't sure that the new leader would support them in a war with the US.
Had the War Been a Success?
The United Nations had acted quickly and decisively.
Communism was contained at the 38th Parallel and South Korea remained capitalist under Syngman Rhee. The US had also supported Chiang Kai-Shek (Taiwan) = containment.
In 1954, the US formed SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organisation), which was designed to contain communism in Asia (which led to the Vietnam War)
The UN/US killed over half a million Chinese communists.
HOWEVER...
There were an estimated 30,000 casualties, and one in ten Korean civilians were killed in the conflict.
North Korea had been lost to communism and formed a tight friendship with China and the USSR - North Korea was a buffer zone.
The costs were immense. The defence spending for the US military went up from $12 billion to an impressive $60 billion.
The only reason that the Un had provided support was because the USSR had been absent from the vote.
SEATO made the USSR and China hate the USA even more - this made them more likely to support opposite sides in future Asian conflicts.
Reasons for the Stalemate
"The government of South Korea under Syngman Rhee was already too corrupt" - the US were forced to support Rhee as he had been established by elections in 1948 as the President. But, he was corrupt, selfish, and ruled like a dictator. The US did not want to risk a full all-out world war with China/USSR to support such a corrupt leader.
"The North Koreans were getting a large amount of support from the USSR and China" - China sent 200-300,000 soldiers to help North Korea, as well as the USSR sending tanks, weapons, and planes. The USSR could help with strategy and tactics also. The Chinese taught the communists to hate the USA. It would have been very difficult to fight an enemy with two powerful allies.
"The terrain of Korea was too harsh for UN troops" - cold, snowstorms, jagged mountains, forests, ravines, swamps, and malaria: the Chinese were well used to conditions like these, but the UN/USA troops weren't.
"The reluctance of the USA to escalate the war beyond North Korea and China" - this might trigger war with the USSR, also China might send thousands more troops, and the UN had not said they would support a rollback INTO China. Truman sacked MacArthur and made it clear that US troops must not enter China.
Stalemate was reached by early 1951, and peace talks began in June 1951.