The Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb in 1949, ending the United States' monopoly on the weapon. On the eve of the North Korean invasion, a number of events had made Truman anxious. The decision to intervene in Korea, however, grew out of the tense atmosphere that characterized Cold War politics. As late as January of 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson had implied that the Korea Peninsula lay outside the all-important "defense perimeter" of the United States, a statement that some took to mean that the United States would not defend the ROK from communist attack. Although it backed the government of Syngman Rhee, the United States had begun withdrawing its troops from South Korea in 1948. However, the entry of the United States into the conflict signaled a reversal of policy toward Korea. Truman did not seek a formal declaration of war from Congress officially, America's presence in Korea amounted to no more than a "police action."
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Fifteen other nations also sent troops under the U.N. Truman quickly committed American forces to a combined United Nations military effort and named Gen. The United Nations Security Council voted 9-0 to adopt a resolution condemning the invasion as a "breach of the peace." The Security Council did not have a Soviet delegate, since six months prior, the Soviet Union had left to protest the United Nation's refusal to seat a delegate from China. On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops coordinated an attack at several strategic points along the 38th parallel and headed south toward Seoul. Each government hoped to reunify the country under its own rule. Shortly after, nationalist exile Syngman Rhee returned to Korea and set up a rival government in the south –the Republic of Korea (ROK). This line became more rigid after 1946, however, when Kim Il Sung organized a communist government in the north –the Democratic People's Republic. The U.S.-Soviet agreement temporarily divided Korea along the 38th parallel, a latitudinal line that bisected the country this avoided a long-term decision regarding Korea's future. Japanese troops surrendered to the Russians in the north and to the Americans in the south. The United States quickly moved its own troops into southern Korea. In August of 1945, the Soviet Union occupied Korea, which had been under Japan's control since 1910. The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to temporarily divide Korea and oversee the removal of Japanese forces. The division of Korea into two halves had come at the end of World War II. Indeed, Asia proved to be the site of the first major battle waged in the name of containment: the Korean War.
Although formulation of the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and the Berlin Airlift suggested that the United States had a particular concern with the spread of communism in Europe, America's policy of containment extended to Asia as well. Fearing that the Soviet Union intended to "export" communism to other nations, America centered its foreign policy on the "containment" of communism, both at home and abroad. While the end of World War II brought peace and prosperity to most Americans, it also created a heightened state of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. Students reflect on the language used in Truman's statement to the American people, compare it with Soviet views of events in Korea, and identify how Truman's words reflect the US policy of containment during the Cold War.įind other teaching activities related to the Cold War on DocsTeach. In the activity Containment in Korea: Entering the Korean War, students analyze President Truman's press release of June 27, 1950, announcing that he was committing American forces to a combined United Nations military effort in Korea at the beginning of the Korean War.