Dear President Eisenhower, Essays - East Asia, Free Essays

Dear President Eisenhower, Essays - East Asia, Free Essays Dear President Eisenhower, The US aims in Korea were obviously was to prevent the spread of communism. The US developed the idea of the domino theory', if one country fell into communism, others would also follow like a row of dominoes. First, their aim was to prevent a complete communist takeover of the whole peninsula. The US leaders felt that it would continue to spread to the east and result in the loss of Japan. After US and UN succeeded in intervening the communist army, they moved back near the Russian and Chinese borders. The US was aiming to make Korea free of communism, which means free of Chinese and Russian influence. Then, the Chinese army entered the war, the great expense and also the loss of lives during the war abandoned the idea of taking the whole Korea. As a result, the southern part was established as a non-communist state and allowing the northern part to set up a communist government in order for the war to end. The Korean War (1950-1953) was the most severe war the UN had to face. Since the Korean War was a part of the whole Cold War scenario, it was a complicated issue in which they had to deal with it successfully no matter what was the problems they had to face in order for them not to lose their credibility just five years since its inception. In June 1950, the North Korean troops attacked South Korea all of a sudden and the US wanted an immediate invasion before the Security Council. At the end of WWII, Korea was split into two. The north was dominated by Russia while the south was in the America's hands. Back in 1947, the UN had involved in the affairs of Korea which they had declared that elections should be held for a government for the whole country and that they need to inspect the elections to make sure that they were fair. In South Korea, it was declared that the elections was fair. The Russian presence in North Korea made matters complicated as they disallowed the UN to observe them. Due to this, the UN declared that the results of the election in the northern part was not acceptable. By the end of 1948, Korea was divided into two separate states. The actual invasion by the northern part was on June 25th, 1950. The Security Council of the UN met the same day. At that time, the Russian delegation to the Security Council did not attend the meeting, they were boycotting the UN as they recognized Chiang Kai-shek, the government of Taiwan, as the official government of China, intending to ignore Mao's communist regime in China. China started to support the North when they became communist and the South was considered to be the only democratic nation out of the two by the west. Therefore, the obvious use of the veto by the USSR did not occur. Today, South Korea is a democratic, prosperous country. While in contrast, North Korea is a dictature, economically weak country but strong military. There is huge comparison between two different systems applied to the same people. One of the aims the US failed to achieve is to take North Korea and overthrow the communist regime. At least they brought peace to the southern part until now. The Korean War damaged both states heavily. Although South Korean economy was declining in the decade after the war, they were able to industrialize and modernize. While the North Korean economy recovered quickly right after the war but eventually decreasing. Today, the South Korean economy is still expanding. The CIA World Factbook states that North Korea's GDP to be $40 billion, which is merely 3.34% of South Korea's $1.196 trillion GDP. The North Korea's per capita income is $1,800, which is 7.35% of South Korea's $24,500 per capita income. Until now, there is still a guarded demilitarized zone on the 38th parallel which divides the two countries. Anti-Communist and anti-North Korean citizens still remain in South Korea today. However, a Sunshine Policy was established to control the party, the Uri Party. The Uri Party and the former South Korean President Roh, often disagreed with