Monday, April 21, 2014

Korea: The first test of the containment policy

An interesting Paper 3 question inspired this blog:

  • Assess the policies of President Truman, containment, and its implications for the United States.
This question is difficult because we understood what containment was, but how do you really describe it without coherent examples, or an actual case where the US took definitive action in order to 'contain' communism?

How does the Korean War actually show the containment policy in action?  Were there any limits to the ways in which the United States and United Nations would implement containment into military strategy?

16 comments:

  1. Korean War showed the containment policy because Truman did not want the war to expand into other countries, just have it remain with Korea. The problem they wanted to avoid was having the Soviets get involved and team up with the Koreans. There were not many limits that were implemented into military strategy. When China tried to intervene the US threatened them with atomic weapons. The purpose of this was to make sure that the war stayed in Korea. Although it was ridiculous to make such a threat, it shows the absence of limitations to what could be said and the actions taken place. They really wanted to contain the war because if more communists helped out, and defeated the US, more countries would probably look to communism as a new form of government.

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  2. The Korean War shows the containment policy in action because president Truman was determined to prevent war with Korea. Truman wanted to avoid a direct confrontation and he also had to take into consideration the publics opinion on Korea. Truman, in fighting communism in Korea, had pledged the United States to defend a corrupt government and a brutal dictator. The United States and United Nations, sought to keep the Chinese and Korean communists outside of Korea. The Korean War was also yet another outlet for the expansion of anti-communist propaganda.

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  3. China's purpose for the Korean War was to prevent itself from another war because the new Chinese government was just founded. And the US showed the containment policy by participating the war, which showed that the US wanted to stop the spreading of communism in Korea and also protect itself from being threatened by North Korea in case they would win the war. Things that limited the US and UN to implement the containment policy were the participation of China in the war and the growth of communism. The US realized the it might not be good for them to stop communism all the time because in some developing counties communism might work.

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  4. It didn't really go into detail about the limits of the Korean War. It seems, somewhat obviously, that everyone did not want to resort to the use of atomic weapons. The Korean War, as well as Vietnam were mediums for American president's to show their stance against the invasion and spread of Communism. Looking at the actions of General McArthur he showed a clear disregard for authority as well as common military etiquette. His arrogance and short sight cost thousands of lives and almost the entire norther Korean peninsula that could have been, if acquired correctly, part of South Korea today.

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  5. The Korean War showed the containment prelacy because President Truman didn't want the war spreading into other countries and maybe starting another World War. Truman was especially scared of Russia, USSR at the time, from allying with Korea and teaming up against the United States. I think the UN and US used the containment strategy to keep the communism inside of Korea and not spread the other countries because as Jake said, other countries could see communism as a stronger government and convert to that and team up with the other communist powers.

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  6. The Korean War showed the containment policy in action because like Lauren and Nick said President Truman did not want the war spreading and wanted to prevent the war with Korea. The United States wanted to defer and intersect the relationship between Russia and Korea. The United Nations and United States were limited by the involvment of China in the war. Also the growth of communism effected them greatly. Overall they did not want to spread communism in other countries.

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  7. Truman tried containing the Korean War within Korean. He did not want it spreading into other countries and starting another world war. He wanted to prevent war with Korea. Which stopping this war from spreading meant stopping the spread of communism in other countries. Also, Truman was worried that since Korea was an ally with Russia that this meant bad news and worst things were going to come.

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  8. Overall, i don't really know much about his topic but from what i have learned in past years of history Truman was fearful that the Korean war would spread throughout Europe and he did not want that so he tried to contain it in Korea. Truman also did not want to go to war with Korea because Truman was really scared of Korea and Russia teaming up together and deciding to go after the United States.

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  9. The Korean War was a big deal between communism and capitalism this is why Truman wanted to intervene. He wanted to stop that war because he knew it would be very violent and hurt all of Asia. Also, as Chinese intervened and the URSS did too, Truman feared so much the expansion of communism and therefore decided to get into the conflict to try and prevent the faster and faster expansion of communism.

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  10. The Korean war showed the containment policy of truman because even when the U.S had choice not to risk many U.S lives for saving Korea out of communism, they chose to declare police action against North Korea in order to contain communism out of soviet's hands. In reality, United States did have many reasons not to help korea. First, the Soviets had the A-bomb and it was very risky for the United States to declare police actions against north korea in which Stalin was backing up. Secondly, the public opinion was not positive at first for going to korea because US had sacrificed much during the Second World War and it was likely that US would sacrifice many casualities If they went to Korea. However, Truman chose to keep the containment policy by going to Korea, in which he risked many stuff for.

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  11. The korean war was a big deal because it brought out the real problems between countrys and how there was a difference and problems between communism and capitalism. It was basically capitalism fighting against communism, and nuclear weapons were brought into the fight. THe weapons made everything extremley dangerous and TRuman decidede to try and help fight against north korea even though it was extremley dangerous.

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  12. The Korean war shows the containment policy in action in that the United Nation powers were putting out maximum effort in keeping the conflict in Korea. Truman had feared Korea was a mere diversion, and that the real focus of the USSR was Europe. Prior to the Korean war, there was a lot of appeasement, and all that very much hurt Truman's public image. The American people criticized him and said that he was soft on communism. The United States and Russia agreed on the 38th Parallel, and Truman couldn't just let communist forces cross into South Korea. This was one of the first actual military interventions to combat communism since World War II.

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  13. the korean war showed the extent to which america would go to stop the spread of communism. america spent billions in developing weapons, sending aid, and on espionage to stop communism. america would enter any war, denounce any leader and support any nation that took a stand against communism. America sent thousands of men and went to war on a small peninsula to protect the sovernty of a nation that granted no real benefit to the world.

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  14. I think the Korean War demonstrate that the US do want to contain communism from spreading. No matter what the price they had to pay for, US is sending troops in for battles. Indeed it was many men's life for containing communism in the north korea peninsula. United States, send troops in as the UN and saying that they are fighting for the justice. So the US could not keep going into China to get China back to North America even the US had the power to. I think war battle is the only way to stop communism spreading over sea in other countries.

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  15. The Korean War was the first example of America's containment policy in action because it was the first time that we were fighting to stop the spread of Communism. The original goal in the Korean peninsula was to prevent communism from spreading to a democracy, contain the spread to Korea, and to even unify Korea under a republic. By the end, the American public settled for the current borders because it felt that too many Americans died in a country that is so small and far away that it doesn't really matter.
    Korea was important because of what we didn't do. We didn't use any atomic-bombs. Had we done so, we would of opened up the possibility of the USSR using atomic-bombs on us. Although we set this limit for ourselves causing the stalemate in Korea, overall the world benefited because powerful countries saw the possibility of going into conflicts without weapons of mass destruction.

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  16. Korean exemplifies Truman's containment policy. It also shows how U.S. focuses its power on the Asia and Europe side to limit Communism's spreading. The result of the Korean is futile. The boarder between the North and South Korea did not change at all. It seems like the only changes that are made are damage to the people. It is clear that Truman's containment policy was not as effective as it ought to be. UN's effort on limiting communism goes in vain. The Korean War also angered many people within U.S., which caused internal conflict.

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