What were the consequences of the Korean War for the Cold War?
1) The nuclear powers decided to keep wars limited without direct engage againts each other > the more limited 'hot' wars via 'client' states in the Developing world > the Cold War became a global phenomenon
2) However, the Korean War was used in the USA by Truman, his administration and the military as an opportunity to launch a new, much more aggressive Cold War policy. This policy was based on NSC-68 (Apr 1950) which stated that the US needed to maintain substantial armed forces so that it could prevent Soviet expansion ( < 'Containment')
> a) Truman got Congress to approve huge increases in the military budget after the beginning of the war
> b) According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan (Sept 1951), the US promised to end the occupation in 1952 and Japan guaranteed that the US military bases could remain
> c) After the Korean armistice in July 1953, President Eisenhower (1953-61) kept troops in South Korea and expanded the US defence perimeter in Pacific (vs Sect of State Acheson's Pasific Perimeter Speech in Jan 1950).
> d) Massive military and economic aid was given to Taiwan which was interpreteded to have decisive role in blocking expansion of Communist China; the USA also continued support for Taiwan as representative of the whole China in the United Nations > Within the US intervention in Korea, this led to a 20-year period of Sino-American hostility
3) > Korean War started in many ways the Cold War arms race (conventional and nuclear)
4) New security treaties were made in the Pasific ( > the ANZUS in 1951)
5) The worsened relations affected European situation > a decision to rearmament of West Germany and the beginning of the arrangements on its future NATO membership (> When this was actualized in 1955, the Soviet response was to establish the Warsaw Pact)
6) Good relations between the communists powers at the beginning but after Stalin's death the tensions between Mao's China and Khrushchev's Soviet Union heightened
7) North and South Korea remained divided and hostile towards one another (communist-nationalist 'Juche' ideology in Kim Il-Sung's Democratic People's Republic of Korea and a multi party system with market economy in the Republic of Korea)
8) The Korean War demonstrated the weakness of the UN system: either superpower had the ability to block resolutions againts its own national interests
Sources:
Mamaux, A., The Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries. Oxford University Press 2015.
Todd, A., The Cold War. Cambridge University Press 2011.
2) However, the Korean War was used in the USA by Truman, his administration and the military as an opportunity to launch a new, much more aggressive Cold War policy. This policy was based on NSC-68 (Apr 1950) which stated that the US needed to maintain substantial armed forces so that it could prevent Soviet expansion ( < 'Containment')
> a) Truman got Congress to approve huge increases in the military budget after the beginning of the war
> b) According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan (Sept 1951), the US promised to end the occupation in 1952 and Japan guaranteed that the US military bases could remain
> c) After the Korean armistice in July 1953, President Eisenhower (1953-61) kept troops in South Korea and expanded the US defence perimeter in Pacific (vs Sect of State Acheson's Pasific Perimeter Speech in Jan 1950).
> d) Massive military and economic aid was given to Taiwan which was interpreteded to have decisive role in blocking expansion of Communist China; the USA also continued support for Taiwan as representative of the whole China in the United Nations > Within the US intervention in Korea, this led to a 20-year period of Sino-American hostility
3) > Korean War started in many ways the Cold War arms race (conventional and nuclear)
4) New security treaties were made in the Pasific ( > the ANZUS in 1951)
5) The worsened relations affected European situation > a decision to rearmament of West Germany and the beginning of the arrangements on its future NATO membership (> When this was actualized in 1955, the Soviet response was to establish the Warsaw Pact)
6) Good relations between the communists powers at the beginning but after Stalin's death the tensions between Mao's China and Khrushchev's Soviet Union heightened
7) North and South Korea remained divided and hostile towards one another (communist-nationalist 'Juche' ideology in Kim Il-Sung's Democratic People's Republic of Korea and a multi party system with market economy in the Republic of Korea)
8) The Korean War demonstrated the weakness of the UN system: either superpower had the ability to block resolutions againts its own national interests
Sources:
Mamaux, A., The Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries. Oxford University Press 2015.
Todd, A., The Cold War. Cambridge University Press 2011.