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After World War Two, Korea had been divided at the 38th parallel into the Soviet-backed communist North Korea, led by Kim Il Sung, and non-communist, American-backed South Korea under the leadership of Syngman Rhee.

Neither leader in Korea had been elected nor did either recognise the legitimacy of the other.

However, Rhee was a corrupt and unpopular leader and did badly in the April 1950 elections when many in the south voted for reunification with the North.

In June 1950, with the support of China and the Soviet Union, North Korea launched an attack on South Korea across the 38th parallel.

1. The USA believed it could win and that China would not intervene.
2. The advance of communism elsewhere made America more determined. For example, China turning communist in 1949.
3. The USA wanted not just to contain communism - they also wanted to prevent the domino effect . Truman was worried that if Korea fell, the next country to fall would be Japan.
4. The Truman Doctrine had promised to help countries who were threatened by communism.
5. The USA believed that the USSR was behind the North Korean invasion and they were determined to stop Stalin.

• It was part of Soviet ideology to spread communism which is what Kim Il Sung was trying to do.
• Stalin wanted to see communism expand as long as he did not get involved in a ‘hot war’ with the USA.
• Stalin wanted to avoid Korea becoming a Chinese satellite state.

• China feared an American invasion.
• North Korea as a communist country provided a buffer zone for China.
• The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance with the USSR meant that, as their ally, China was under pressure from Stalin to help Korea.

MacArthur and the UN forces crossing the 38th parallel worried China.

The Chinese issued a warning to the UN but this was ignored.

MacArthur continued to push the UN troops into North Korea as far as the border with China.

China responded to the approaching UN force by sending over 250,000 Chinese “volunteers” into North Korea.

These volunteers helped to push the UN forces back across the 38th parallel.

Despite its denials at the time, the Soviet Union was intimately involved in the Korean War.

It provided ‘advisors,’ medical services, weapons and MiG-15 fighter jets.

Soviet pilots also flew aircraft with Chinese or North Korean markings.

• 3-4 million Koreans died in the war which had resulted in a slight change to the border.
• The relationship between North and South Korea was bitter and tense.
• The war was disastrous for all of Korea, destroying most of its industry.

• Containment had worked. Communism had not spread (domino theory) and so America increased her commitment to the Truman Doctrine and their policy of containment.
• US-Chinese relations worsened.
• America signed a treaty with Japan.
• The USA made a series of alliances including one with the Philippines and in 1951 they signed the ANZUS Pact with Australia and New Zealand.
• NATO became a military alliance.
• The war led to massive American rearmament.

• The war increased tension between the USSR and China as they squabbled over who should pay the bill for it.
• The Chinese came to feel that the Soviet Union was both an unreliable and demanding ally and so in 1960, China broke from the Soviet Union in an event known as the Sino-Soviet Split, creating tension amongst all communist powers.

• The war demonstrated the determination of the USA to contain communism on a worldwide scale.
• The war established the pattern whereby if one superpower was directly involved, the other was indirectly associated.
• The temporary division of Korea along the 38th parallel was a success for the policy of containment, as communism did not spread into South Korea.
• The war revealed that China was no longer weak and was prepared to stand up to the West.
• The split between China and the USSR was influenced by the Korean War and shaped relations between the two countries until 1989.