At the end of world war two, Korea was shared between the U.S ( South- Korea) and the Soviet Union ( North Korea), and in 1948 governments were established. The republic of Korea in the south, and the communistic norhern part named "The people's democratic republic of Korea."
The relation between these two parts soon became tense, and at the 25th of june 1950, North Korea sent troops into the south. The U.S diden't like this at all and they commanded the north- Korean forces to withdraw.When the situation did not inprove, president Truman made the use of American sea, land and air forces leagal. Hardly a week later the forces of 15 members of the united nations were set under U.S command, and General Douglas McArthur was appointed by the president to lead them.
In the beginning of the war, during the first weeks, North Korean forces had a solid acquiring. They managed to drive both a small part of the American forces and the South Korean Army to the southeast tip of Korea, an area called Busan already by september the 10th. But then, five days later on september the 15th, the U.S forces landed at Incheon, on the west coast. The anti- communist forces recovered and at October the 19th the North Korean capital, Pyongyang was captured. Five days later they almost drove the North Korean forces to the Yalu River. This river symbolized the border against China. At this stage of the war, everything seemed promising for the anti- communist forces, and General McArthur even planned a new offensive, but then something really unexpected happend.The Chinese communists joined the North Korean forces and performed a counterattack. This was a new turningpoint in the war, and in january 1951 the communists regained control by taking over Seoul, the South Korean capital.
Months of fighting went on. General Douglas McArthur wanted another offencive and criticized the U.S policy, which resulted in president Truman replacing him with General Matthew B. Ridgway. When he started at June the 10th, he immediately began to negotiate regarding the cease- fire. His wishes did not come through, and they continued the fights in Korea, although they were not as devastating as earlier.
When Dwight D. Eisenhower became president in 1953, the war was close to an end. The unpopularity of the war had been going on for a while in America and played an important role in Eisenhowers presidential victory. After a lot of discussions he finally succeeded in ending the war at june the 27th, almost exactly 3 years after the beginning of the war. An agreement was signed. The war was over, and in total 2.5 million civilians were killed or wounded, 1550.000 of these came from North Korea.
Sources:
Pictures:
I didn't know anything about the Korean war until I read your text. :) You write in a way which is easy to understand :)
SvarSlett