Korean war

• Ideological differences - There was an ideoligical divide between America and the USSR. their main areas of difference were: Individual freedom vs state control. Individual wealth vs collective wealth. Democracy vs dictatorship.
• The end of WW2 - Between 1941 and 1945 the USA and the USSR were allies against Nazis in WW2. However,at the Potsdam conference at the end of the war there was conflict because of  the division of Germany and Atomic bomb
• The Emergence of the Soviet Bloc - after the Postsdam conference Stalin ignorged America's wishes and began to take over all of the countries in Eastern Europe, setting up comunist single party states in them. Chuchill described it as the "Iron curtain"
• Containment - President Truman was convinced by the Domino theory and, feeling threatend, introduced the policy of cntaimnet. He wanted tostop comunism spreading by provinding non-communist countries with large sums of money to help stop comunsim. This was called the Truman Doctrine and the Mrashall plan
• Military Rivals - In 1949 there was a crisis in Germany and America decided toorm a military alliance with the western democracies called NATO.One of their terms were : If one country was attacked all countries would retailate. In 1955 the USSR  their own miliatry alliance with other communist counries called the warsaw pact.

In 1949 the Communist State of China was set up by Mao Tse-Tung – this meant that the USA was also worried by the Communist threat in Asia, and the Cold War extended all the way around that side of the world.

• In 1950 War broke out in Korea. Communist North Korea wanted South Korea in order to reunite the country - this was seen as a direct challenge from Communism to the West. The USA and the Western powers intervened on behalf of the United Nations to stop communism spreading.
• America aided the south because they were captalist, and China and the USSR aided the North because they were communist. 
• The UN ordered an immediate attack against the North Koreans.
• UN forces landed at Inchon and drove the North Koreans back over the 38th parallel by September 1950.
• President Truman allowed General Macarthur (UN commander) to invade North Korea - most of the UN forces were Americans.
• This worried China, who feared a Western invasion.
• In November 1950, China launched an attack on the UN forces, driving them back and capturing Seoul (the capital of South Korea) by February 1951. 

The war ended in a stalemate because of Chinese involvement. The Chinese had a massive  army that was able to balance out the UN forces and push them back down the peninsula after they had made it as far the border with China.

Another reason is that the US did not want to pursue an all-out war against China. Macarthur wanted to attack China  with nuclear weapons but Truman disagreed - after arguing with the President, Macarthur was sacked.

Truman looked for peace and a cease-fire was agreed in 1963.

.The US's desire to keep the war limited is maybe a further reason why the war ended in a deadlock.

The effects of Korean war has divided Korea into North Korea and South Korea. Many Korean families were split with relatives on either sides of the border due to different kind of thoughts, either communism or non-communism.The Korean War was one of the most destructive of the 20^th century. 1.3million Koreans died throughout the peninsula, two-thirds of them civilians. The Korean War also brought  damage to Korea, especially in the North, where three years of bombing left hardly a modern building standing.10%of the entire Korean population was reported killed, missing or wounded. 30,000 American soliders died.