FIFTH YEAR GCSE

THE IMPACT OF THE KOREAN WAR

ARTICLE EXTRACT.

One of America's least understood wars, it nonetheless marked an important transition to the Cold War national security state. Previously America had radically disarmed after every war. World War II was no exception, and the United States was thus woefully unprepared to fight even a limited war on the Korean peninsula against a second-rate military power. The war was a powerful factor in the rearmament of the United States. Soon the defense budget had quadrupled, and the United States emerged with the most powerful military in the world, a state of affairs that continues to the present. Domestically, the war speeded up the racial integration of the armed forces, which in turn greatly accelerated the later civil rights movement.

Diplomatically, the war solidified the role of the United States as the world's police officer, and the country's relationship with its West European allies and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) underwent fundamental change. The war facilitated the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany, for a divided Germany seemed to many observers all too reminiscent of Korea before the Communist invasion. The conflict also stiffened U.S. attitudes toward the People's Republic of China and toward perceived domestic leftism. In addition, the United States changed its position regarding aid to the French in their war in Indochina.

Militarily, the Korean War is worth studying for its two-phase nature of maneuver and stalemate, and for the restrictions placed on its conduct by political leaders on both sides, a process that would be repeated in Vietnam. The war saw many military innovations. The helicopter established its potential in reconnaissance, evacuation, resupply, and rescue work; and jet aircraft entered battle against each other for the first time in history. But it also served as a reminder that air power alone cannot bring about final decisions in warfare. It again showed the importance of command of the sea, especially in resupply from Japan; and it saw considerable advances in the treatment of wounded.

Certainly the Korean War cast a long shadow. During the later Vietnam War, planners in Washington were haunted by fears of Chinese military intervention based on misconceptions born in the Korean War of that nation's military power. And Japan's emergence as a world economic power has roots in the conflict.

Strangely, in the United States the Korean War soon came to be known as the "Forgotten War." World War II veterans were honored while Korean veterans never received the measure of praise they too deserved (although they fared better than veterans of the Vietnam fighting). Indicative of the American desire to forget was the fact that the Korean War did not have a war memorial in Washington until 1995.

Technically, the Korean War continues today, as only an armistice agreement halted the fighting in 1953. The Korean peninsula remains one of the world's most dangerous flash points, and the West knows less about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) than about any other nation on earth. The intentions and behavior of its leaders remain shrouded in mystery. To maintain the uneasy armistice, some 37,000 U.S. troops remain in the Republic of Korea. A solution to the Korean problem seems as far off as ever.