History of the Korean War :: Korean War Asian History Essays

History of the Korean War The Korean War took place between the years of 1950 and 1953. The cause of the war was that Korea was under Japanese rule ever since the end of the Chinese-Japanese war in 1895. After World War II, in 1945, Korea was freed from Japan. The United States troops occupied the southern part of the country and Russian forces took the north. The very first and main reason we entered the war in Korea was because John Foster Dulles, the future Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower, said that it would be best if we entered the war. At the time Dulles was a special advisor to the Secretary of State Acheson. Dulles was in Tokyo when the Koreans staged war. Dulles sent a message to Acheson that if the South Koreans start losing and cannot hold back the North Koreans, they should send in United States forces. He said to do so, "even though this risks Russian counter moves. To sit by while Korea is overrun by unprovoked armed attack would start a disaster chain even leading most probably to Wo rld War III." When Dulles got back to Washington he specified that he meant sending in United States Air and Naval forces only, not troops. Almost immediately after getting word of the invasion, Acheson decided that the United States should put the matter before the United Nations. He then called President Truman and got his approval. Almost fourteen hours after Washington got word of the war there was a conference set up among certain members of the United Nations. The final decision of the United Nations was to give arms and equipment to the R.O.K. army (Republic of Korea). Then they authorized General MacArthur to use his forces and the United States Seventh Fleet, "to stabilize the combat situation". We first entered the war on June 25, 1950 because the United States felt that if Russia's troops would fight for North Korea, we should fight for South Korea. Also, since South Korea had a dictatorship, we wanted to prevent it from becoming communist and remaining a dictatorial form of government. If the communist started conquering many nations they might start a whole empire (the domino effect). In December 1943 the United States, China and Great Britain made a promise to Synyman Rhee during World War II that Korea would be given its independence "in due course" after World War II.