Aftermath of the Korean War

rdf:langString Aftermath of the Korean War

rdf:langString April 2013

rdf:langString Why were the Australians decorated for an action carried out by New Zealanders

rdf:langString The aftermath of the Korean War set the tone for Cold War tension between all the superpowers. The Korean War was important in the development of the Cold War, as it showed that the two superpowers, United States and Soviet Union, could fight a "limited war" in a third country. The "limited war" or "proxy war" strategy was a feature of conflicts such as the Vietnam War and the Soviet War in Afghanistan, as well as Angola, Greece, and wars in the Middle East. The Korean War was the first war in which the United Nations (UN) participated in outside the Western World. Some commentators argued that it showed that the UN was a powerful organization for helping to keep world peace. The UN Command in South Korea is still functional. Around June 1950, the Korean War became an international crisis as it made communist and capitalist countries around the world go against each other. By the end of WWII the Soviet Union or USSR sought to spread communism to other nations. They did this by providing political, logistical, and diplomatic support, and assisted in the plans to invade South Korea. The USSR also provided military training for North Korean and Chinese allied troops. In Response the United States, fearing Russia would control and spread communism to the entire peninsula and the south pacific, sent troops into South Korea to support the Republic of Korea's military forces. These actions quickly escalated into other countries from the United Nations (UN) supporting the south, and China supporting the north to get involved in the conflict. The war devastated both North and South Korea. Both fronts suffered major damage to their economies and infrastructure, as a result of bombings, artillery strikes and loss of life to include military personnel and civilians. In the aftermath of the war, the United States funneled significant aid to South Korea under the auspices of the United Nations Korea Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA). Concomitantly, North Korean reconstruction was assisted by "fraternal socialist nations," namely the USSR and China. In the years immediately following the war, North Korea's growth rate of total industrial output exceeded that of South Korea, averaging 39% between 1953 and 1960.