Superpower Motives in relation to the Korean Conflict

The Course of the War

Implications of the Korean War:

For the USSR

For the US

Stalin’s Motives for supporting the North Korean invasion of June 1950

1. Polical opportunism

2. Strategic calculations

American motives for backing South Korea

1. Domestic politics of anti-communism

2. NSC – 68 – a response to the communist victory in China which advocated a three-fold increase in military spending. Justified an increase in taxation.

3. Moscow’s absence from the UN Security Council

The Course of the Korean War

The North Korean army crossed the 38th Parallel on 25 June 1950. The war continued for 3 years until an armistice was signed in July 1953. In territorial terms, the war decided very little. The dividing line remained at the 38^th Parallel after the conclusion of the conflict.

The Implications of the Korean War

1. For the USSR, the costs probably outweighed the benefits.

2. For the US, the outcome of the war indicated that communist expansion could be halted but not easily reversed.

3. For the international system, the Korean War confirmed that the Cold War was both global in scope and long term in nature.

By 1953, Stalin was dead and Truman had been replaced by Eisenhower. 94 000 UN troops had been killed, 55 000 of them American. There were an estimated 1.5 million North Korean deaths and an estimated 1 million South Korean deaths.

The seeds of enmity between the Soviets and China grew out of this war.

Germany was integrated into the alliance, because it was decided that the bigger threat at this stage was Communism. Japan also was firmly orientated with the US.