The impact of the Korean War

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  • The impact of the Korean War
    • America
      • 33,651 Americans died in combat and 103,284 were wounded
      • Military spending had gone from 4% of GNP in 1948 to 14% in 1953
      • Humiliating military set back (300 mile) retreat
      • Encouraged anti-communist paranoia that had been developing in the 1940s. McCarthyism gained support and stretched to the White House
        • Senior Republicans went along with McCarthy until Eisenhower became president in 1953 who was a Republican himself
      • The Korean War helped Eisenhower win the election, especially with his phrase "I will go to Korea"
      • Increase in defence spending - The navy ships, air force, the army, atomic bombs and the CIA all received an enormous boost
      • Taiwan, Japan and South Korea were all now guaranteed by US treaty and had US troops stationed their
    • Korea
      • 600,000 homes destroyed in North and South Korea
      • 8700 industrial plants knocked out in the North by repeated US bombing
      • Civilian population declined from 9 million to 7 million through death and emigration
      • ROK army lost 415,000 killed and 429,000 wounded
      • Korea still remained divided
      • North Korea remained as it was in 1950 - a dictatorship with a low standard of living,sealed of from the 21st century
      • US agreed to offer South Korea protection and troops but insisted no attacks should be made on the North
    • Japan
      • A friendly South Korea established instead of a hostile soviet state
      • Japan was the key base for US operations and gained money from US defence spending their
        • By 1954 the Japanese defence industry earned 3 billion US dollars from sales to the US
          • The Korean War helped Japan recover economically
      • US-Japan security pact 1951, Japan persuaded to start partial rearmament as a defence against Russia and China
      • Japanese Prime Minister claimed that the war was 'the grace of heaven" to Japan
    • China
      • 150,000 troops killed and many times this figure was the wounded
      • Convinced Peng that China could not win by sheer numbers alone
        • Set about creating a more technological army
      • The economic cost of the war was a massive burden on China and slowed the new communist regime
      • Stopped the complete defeat of the nationalists
        • Who were now protected by the US 7th fleet
      • Increased hostility between US and China, which ensured China's continued exclusion from the UN
      • Created a friendly buffer state between China and the West
      • Those who opposed Mao and looked to the US had now been repressed and disciplined
      • Like the first emperor, Mao had made his mark in Korea

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