Abstract
“ War is the father of all things,” said Heracleitus, a sixth-century B.C. philosopher. This aphorism proved to be painfully evident in the twentieth century in Korea, which, in part by accident and in part by design, became the first fiery crucible of the Cold War. The drama of the international struggle for post—World War II power was played out to the full on the impoverished Korean peninsula, the crossroads of the superpower competition that most expected to occur in Europe. Instead, it erupted in full force, to the surprise and chagrin of the United States. The latter was caught off guard strategically, tactically, and psychologically. China and the Soviet Union, as we shall see, were in the position of the sorcerer’s apprentice. Korea was once again the victim of great-power rivalry.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See Mark Paul, “Diplomacy Delayed:TheAtomic Bomb and the Division of Korea, 1945,” in Bruce Cumings, ed., Child of Confict: The Korean-American Relationship 1943–1953 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1983).
See Robert R. Simmons, The Strained Alliance: Peking, Pyongyang, Moscow and the Politics of the Korean Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1975), chap. 1, “A Partial Korean Genealogy of the Korean Civil War.” While domestic factors did indeed play a role, the war in Korea and its consequences clearly places it within the Cold War Great Power context. For more discussion of this point, particularly as raised by Professor Bruce Cumings, see below in this chapter. Also see William Struck, The Korean War: An International History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).
Ibid., p.71.
See United States Relations with China, with Special Reference to the Period 1933–1948 (Washington, D.C.: The United States Department of State, 1949).
See Michael H. Hunt, Crises in U.S. Foreign Policy:An International History Reader (New Haven, CT:Yale University Press, 1996), p. 199, citing Washington: Department of State Bulletin, 22 923, (January 1950), 114–116.
See Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War:The Making of the Sino-American Confrontation (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994); and also Sergei H. Ginchabov, John W. Lewis, and Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners: Stalin Mao and the Korean War (Stanford, CA.: Stanford University Press, 1995).
Ibid., p. 500.
Frank Holober, Raiders of the China Coast (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999).
The Gaston Sigur Center, George Washington University,Washington, D.C.
Korea’s Place in the Sun, pp. 263–64.
See Sung ChulYang, “A Convoluted Approach to the Study of the Korean War,” Korea and World Affairs, vol. 17, no. 2, Summer 1993, p. 323.
See Chen Jian, Working Paper No. 1, “The Sino-Soviet Alliance and China’s Entry into the Korean War,” Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Cold War International History Project, June 1992.
Ibid., p. 3.
Lee, op. cit., p. 10.
Ibid., pp. 9–10.
Ibid., p. 13.
See Anthony Farrar-Hockley, The British Part of the Korean War, Volume I, A Distant Obligation (London: HMSO, 1990), p. 204.
Ibid., p. 207.
Ibid., pp. 211–12.
Chen Jian, Working Paper, ibid., p. 28.
Ibid., p. 28.
See Max Hastings, The Korean War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), chap. 27, pp. 305–329.
See Kathryn Weatherbee, assistant professor of history, Florida State University, “The Soviet Role in Prolonging the Korean War, 1951–53.” Prepared for “The Korean War: An Assessment of the Historical Record,” July 24–25, 1996. International Center Auditorium, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
See Han Sungjoo, The Failure of Democracy in Korea (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1974), chap. 2, pp. 7–32.
Copyright information
© 2001 Robert J. Myers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Myers, R.J. (2001). The Cold War Erupts in Korea. In: Korea in the Cross Currents. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299583_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299583_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-38647-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-312-29958-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)