Korean War Mao Zedong example essay topic

The Korean War is a war that many people will never forget. All wars in American history fought before the Korean War was based on either national survival or the gain of territory. A strong conflict was created between the Soviet Union and the United States. The conflict was so strong that wars were fought in the midst of this cold war. The Korean War was the first American war that was not fought for national survival, for territory, for manifest destiny or for hegemony. "Korea was the first ideological war".

(1) The American Revolution was based on national survival. The people of the thirteen colonies wanted a nation in which they were free of Britain's tyranny. They wanted to live as an independent nation and survive as one. The American Civil War was another national survival. President Lincoln had the point that if was the unsuccessful or was pushed in the right direction then the nation would be divided into the north and south.

World War One was fought as a result of both the gain of territory and national survival. Austria Hungary was expanding into western parts of Russia and Northern Italy. It was also conquering the nations to the east and taking control of their governments. The Allied powers sought to stop this expansion and war broke out in Europe. The United States then sent troops to assist France and Great Britain in the conflict. At the end of world war one, Austria Hungary was divided up, its territory formed many new nations.

In world war two, much of the same circumstances were present with events that contributed to the escalation of the war, and the involvement of the United States. Germany, under the rule of Hitler was expanding very slowly across Europe. They took land to the east and west of them, took over many of the new nations created by the Versailles Treaty, as well as disregarding many laws passed during the 2 Versailles Treaty. As the war continued, France was taken over, and Stalin gave Germany a large area of land that belonged to Russia when the country withdrew from the war.

These countries needed to be restored and Germany needed to be pushed back to its original boarders. Japan which was also in alliance with Germany, needed raw materials to continue building on its economy. When Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, it was inevitably drawn into the war. The United States joined the war effort in order to defend their country at first, then we continued the war. The Korean and Vietnam wars were the next two wars in American History. They were not fought for either national survival or for a gain in territory.

These two wars were unique in that they were fought over a belief in politics rather than the traditional reasons the United States had fought wars in the past. The Koreans began in the middle of the cold war. The war was fought as a result of North Korea invading the south. "Large movements of troops, tanks. Ordinance and ammunition to the border areas were reported. This was not suspected as a treat of war because it was thought to be a normal aspect of cold war behavior".

(2) When America joined the war under command of General MacArthur, they made a great push north. When they were close to the Yalu River they were ordered to stop and turn around. "United States forces were ordered to turn around when they were in visual distance of the Yalu River". (3) When China learned of the position of the Americans they joined the war and pushed the Americans back to the thirty-eighth parallel.

When China entered the Korean War, the United States had much control over the land around the Yalu River. The main objective of China was to eliminate the 3 presence of U.S. Military control in South Korea. "Mao Zedong thought the removal of United States troops was necessary to ensure a safe environment for communism to flourish without the persuasion of a capitalistic society". (4) Mao ZeDong's need to clear the U.S. forces because of many reasons or China would be in chaos. U. S forces occupied most of the Yalu River, if this remained, the northeastern defense force of China would be pinned down. Southern Manchuria had hydroelectric plants in the North Korea which could be controlled by U. S forces. As a result, international and domestic rioting would occur, also the question would arise of whether communistic society that China was using was better than the capitalistic democracy that the United States was using.

The Vietnam War was similar in that it was caused by the conflicting ideals of communistic and capitalistic societies, and which would prove to be a better choice. The differences between the two wars was that in Korea, the ideals of communism were already thought to be the better choice by the North Vietnamese. Where as in Vietnam the people were divided in what they thought. In both countries the south was based upon a capitalistic economy. South Vietnam was influenced to a capitalistic democracy from all of the United States, which was aiding it in the war effort.

Northern Vietnam was much the opposite. They already had a one party dictatorship in place and favored a communistic one because of the influence of their supporters. The Vietnam War was mainly a child of the cold war between Russia and America. Northern Vietnam was receiving large benefits from the Soviet Union.

They shipped guns, ammunition, money, food supplies, tanks, planes and contributing man 4 power. Southern Vietnam was being shipped the same from the United States, so the south was in the same situation. The main objective behind hat was driving the politicians to keep the war going was to help an ally, and to show which power was stronger. During the Korean War the United States was very unreasonable. After the Korean War Mao ZeDong even said "American imperialists are very arrogant, they are very unreasonable whenever they can't get away with it, if they become a little bit reasonable, it was because they had no other choice".

(5) This statement is true. When China entered the war, Mao ZeDong had made several attempts to solve the matter peacefully and had told them not to send soldiers across the thirty-eight parallel that is what escalated the war. "The most unreasonable thing the United States did during the war was consider using the atomic bomb after the war was over, the second most unreasonable thing the United States did was consider using the atomic during the war". (6) At one point in 1953 MacArthur submitted a list of retaliation targets in China and North Korea; this plan required twenty-six atomic bombs.

MacArthur also wanted to use atomic bombs to "isolate the battle fields". (7) Shortly after the suggestion MacArthur made to the president for nuclear bombs he was fired. The soldiers that were fighting the war were also very unreasonable. Chinese prisoners of war were kept as animals. A B...