Oral+History+Research

Topic- The Korean War Interview Subject Jason's Grandfather

The Korean war was a war between North Korea and its allies and South Korea and its allies. North Korea was communist and had the Soviet Union on their side as well as China. South Korea was democratic and had the U.S.A and the U.N. The war started when North Korea invaded South Korea. This war was considered a proxy war of the cold war because the cold war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and each of those countries supported different countries. It was like an indirect war between the two nations. Douglass Macarthur was in charge of all the U.N. forces.This was the first war in which U.S. units were intergrated.

The Korean war went back and forth for both sides. Each side neared victory only to be pushed back until they deadlocked near the 38th parralell the original border between South and North Korea. Macarthur was fired by president Truman during the war, they had not had the same approach to fighting the war. Eventually the war died down and there was a ciese fire but there was never a peace treaty so technically the war never ended. The war by some was effective in stopping the spread of communism which is why the US got involved in the war but others say it just got people aware about communism.