History Of The Cold War

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The Cold War is often thought of a war only between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America, however that is not the case. There were proxy wars in countries like Vietnam, Korea and Pakistan. The Cold War itself is a complicated subject that was seen as “good (capitalism)” vs. bad (communism)”, which in itself was a bad idea that wouldn’t allow for a case by case analysis of the conflicts around the world. But in a time of “Domino Theory”, Eisenhower’s theory that communism would spread from one country to a neighboring country, and containment which would take precedence in foreign affairs. Korea belonged to the Japanese until the end of World War II, Korea was divided into two sections along the 38th …show more content…
Stalin knew that the United States had troops in the South and didn’t want to get into a full out war with the US and there were still fights going on in China. It wasn’t until the spring of 1950 that Stalin saw a shift that could work in his advantage, the US had fully pulled out all troops (June 1949”, the Soviet Union had detonated their first atomic bomb in September 1949, so in April of 1949 Stalin gave the Supreme Leader Kim Il-Sung the permission to invade South Korea. When Stalin gave the okay he required that China help the north if needed, and made it clear that the Soviet Union would not be in a combat role. South Korea was ruled by Syngman Rhee, who was a staunch anti-communist but also a violator of human rights, like Kim Il-Sung he wanted to unite all of Korea under his form of government. From when the invasion occurred on June 25th, 1950 it would result in over 5 million deaths on both sides of the war by the …show more content…
It was signed by U.S. Army Lieutenant General William Harrison, Jr. who represented the United Nations Command and by General Nam II who represented both the Korean People’s Army but the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army. Its intention was to keep the peace until a “final peaceful settlement” was achieved, which still hasn’t been achieved. It created the KDM or what is commonly known as the Demilitarized Zone, it forcefully started a cease-fire and would finalize a repatriation of prisoners of war which the US was originally against. The South Korean president Syngman Rhee did not support the peace talks and wanted to continue the fighting to unify the whole peninsula, while originally getting support they eventually agreed to the negotiations. The North’s leader wanted the same but would take advice from the Chinese and Soviets to attend the armistice discussion. The final armistice took over two years to negotiate due to huge lapses in time and both sides were reluctant to negotiate. When Stalin died it did fast-track the negotiations as the following leadership wanted to end the hostilities. Even when the Korean War ended it did not signify the end of the hostility between North Korea and the