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This was a conflict between north and south Korean. It was considered a civil war. “The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south.” (History ,2009, para.1). North Korea wanted to take over South Korea in order to place Communism within their government. The war took place at the 38th Parallel in which North Korea invaded with tanks and soldiers. With this happening the Us forces were quickly involved to try and come to the aid of South Korea.

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Table of Contents

1. North vs. South Korea

2. The Korean War and the Cold War

3. 'No Substitute for Victory'

4. The Korean War Reaches a Stalemate

5. Korean War Casualties&nbsp;

The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People's Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea's behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China-or even, as some warned, World War III. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.S. refer to as "the Forgotten War" for the lack of attention it received compared to more well-known conflicts like World War I and II and the Vietnam War. The Korean peninsula remains divided today.

North vs. South Korea

"If the best minds in the world had set out to find us the worst possible location in the world to fight this damnable war," U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893-1971) once said, "the unanimous choice would have been Korea." The peninsula had landed in America's lap almost by accident. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Korea had been a part of the Japanese empire, and after World War II it fell to the Americans and the Soviets to decide what should be done with their enemy's imperial possessions. In August 1945, two young aides at the State Department divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel. The Russians occupied the area north of the line and the United States occupied the area to its south.

Did you know? Unlike World War II and Vietnam, the Korean War did not get much media attention in the United States. The most famous representation of the war in popular culture is the television series "M*A*S*H," which was set in a field hospital in South Korea. The series ran from 1972 until 1983, and its final episode was the most-watched in television history.

By the end of the decade, two new states had formed on the peninsula. In the south, the anti-communist dictator Syngman Rhee (1875-1965) enjoyed the reluctant support of the American government; in the north, the communist dictator Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) enjoyed the slightly more enthusiastic support of the Soviets. Neither dictator was content to remain on his side of the 38th parallel, however, and border skirmishes were common. Nearly 10,000 North and South Korean soldiers were killed in battle before the war even began.

The Korean War and the Cold War

Even so, the North Korean invasion came as an alarming surprise to American officials. As far as they were concerned, this was not simply a border dispute between two unstable dictatorships on the other side of the globe. Instead, many feared it was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world. For this reason, nonintervention was not considered an option by many top decision makers. (In fact, in April 1950, a National Security Council report known as NSC-68 had recommended that the United States use military force to "contain" communist expansionism anywhere it seemed to be occurring, "regardless of the intrinsic strategic or economic value of the lands in question.")

"If we let Korea down," President Harry Truman (1884-1972) said, "the Soviet[s] will keep right on going and swallow up one [place] after another." The fight on the Korean peninsula was a symbol of the global struggle between east and west, good and evil, in the Cold War. As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the United States readied its troops for a war against communism itself.

At first, the war was a defensive one to get the communists out of South Korea, and it went badly for the Allies. The North Korean army was well-disciplined, well-trained and well-equipped; Rhee's forces in the South Korean army, by contrast, were frightened, confused and seemed inclined to flee the battlefield at any provocation. Also, it was one of the hottest and driest summers on record, and desperately thirsty American soldiers were often forced to drink water from rice paddies that had been fertilized with human waste. As a result, dangerous intestinal diseases and other illnesses were a constant threat.

By the end of the summer, President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), the commander in charge of the Asian theater, had decided on a new set of war aims. Now, for the Allies, the Korean War was an offensive one: It was a war to "liberate" the North from the communists.

Initially, this new strategy was a success. The Inch'on Landing, an amphibious assault at Inch'on, pushed the North Koreans out of Seoul and back to their side of the 38th parallel. But as American troops crossed the boundary and headed north toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Communist China, the Chinese started to worry about protecting themselves from what they called "armed aggression against Chinese territory." Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) sent troops to North Korea and warned the United States to keep away from the Yalu boundary unless it wanted full-scale war.

'No Substitute for Victory'

This was something that President Truman and his advisers decidedly did not want: They were sure that such a war would lead to Soviet aggression in Europe, the deployment of atomic weapons and millions of senseless deaths. To General MacArthur, however, anything short of this wider war represented "appeasement," an unacceptable knuckling under to the communists.

As President Truman looked for a way to prevent war with the Chinese, MacArthur did all he could to provoke it. Finally, in March 1951, he sent a letter to Joseph Martin, a House Republican leader who shared MacArthur's support for declaring all-out war on China-and who could be counted upon to leak the letter to the press. "There is," MacArthur wrote, "no substitute for victory" against international communism.

For Truman, this letter was the last straw. On April 11, the president fired the general for insubordination.

The Korean War Reaches a Stalemate

In July 1951, President Truman and his new military commanders started peace talks at Panmunjom. Still, the fighting continued along the 38th parallel as negotiations stalled. Both sides were willing to accept a ceasefire that maintained the 38th parallel boundary, but they could not agree on whether prisoners of war should be forcibly "repatriated." (The Chinese and the North Koreans said yes; the United States said no.)

Finally, after more than two years of negotiations, the adversaries signed an armistice on July 27, 1953. The agreement allowed the POWs to stay where they liked; drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide "demilitarized zone" that still exists today.

Korean War Casualties

The Korean War was relatively short but exceptionally bloody. Nearly 5 million people died. More than half of these-about 10 percent of Korea's prewar population-were civilians. (This rate of civilian casualties was higher than World War II's and the Vietnam War's.) Almost 40,000 Americans died in action in Korea, and more than 100,000 were wounded. Today, they are remembered at the Korean War Veterans Memorial near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a series of 19 steel statues of servicemen, and the Korean War memorial in Fullerton, California, the first on the West Coast to include the names of the more than 30,000 Americans who died in the war.

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Korean War - Causes, Timeline & Veterans

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On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People's Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. Explore the war's causes, timeline, facts and end.

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There were two sides to this conflict. There was North Korea who invaded South Korea in order to place Communism into the government. Then there was South Korea and the Us who wanted to stop communism from spreading. This conflict never truly came to an end. A peace treaty was never signed and this conflict still goes on today just with no war. This country still stays divided with South Korea thriving and North Korea being truly unknown about. The US goal was not really successful during this war. Their goal was to eliminate communism but that never happened. North Korea today still is communism. The outcome of the war helped build a bond with South Korea to where we have troops and station in their country to help protect them from another possible war. The United States are not alliances or have any relations with North Korea.

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The Korean War began on June 25, 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953.

The Korean War took place on the Korean Peninsula, initially in South Korea, and then later in North Korea as well.

North Korean communist forces called the North Korean People's Army (KPA) under President Kim Il-Sung began the war. Mao Zedong's Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) and the Soviet Red Army joined later. Note - the majority of the soldiers in the People's Volunteer Army were not really volunteers.

On the other side, the South Korean Republic of Korea Army (ROK) joined forces with the United Nations. The UN force included troops from:

Maximum Troop Deployment

South Korea and UN: 972,214

North Korea, China, USSR: 1,642,000

Who Won the Korean War?

Neither side actually won the Korean War. In fact, the war goes on to this day, since the combatants never signed a peace treaty. South Korea did not even sign the Armistice agreement of July 27, 1953, and North Korea repudiated the armistice in 2013.

In terms of territory, the two Koreas returned essentially to their pre-war boundaries, with a demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing them roughly along the 38th parallel. The civilians on each side truly lost the war, which resulted in millions of civilian deaths and economic devastation.

Total Estimated Casualties

South Korea and UN troops: 178,236 killed, 32,844 missing, 566,314 wounded.

North Korea, USSR, and Chinese troops: Numbers are unclear, but American estimates range from 367,000 to 750,000 killed, about 152,000 missing or taken prisoner and 686,500 to 789,000 wounded.

South Korean civilians: 373,599 killed, 229,625 wounded, and 387,744 missing

North Korean civilians: estimated 1,550,000 casualties

Total civilian deaths and injuries: approximately 2.5 million

Major Events and Turning Points

June 25, 1950: North Korea invades South Korea

June 28, 1950: North Korean forces capture southern capital, Seoul

June 30, 1950: US pledges troops to UN effort for defense of South Korea

Sept. 15, 1950: ROK and UN troops confined to Pusan Perimeter, launch counter-offensive Invasion of Inchon

Sept. 27, 1950: UN troops recapture Seoul

Oct. 9, 1950: ROK and UN troops drive KPA back across 38th Parallel, South Koreans and allies invade North Korea

Oct. 19, 1950: ROK and UN capture northern capital of Pyongyang

Oct. 26, 1950: South Korean and UN troops mass along Yalu River, the North Korea/China border

Oct. 27, 1950: China enters war on North Korean side, pushes UN/South Korean troops back

Nov. 27-30, 1950: Battle of Chosin Reservoir

Jan. 15, 1951: North Korean and Chinese troops retake Seoul

March 7 - April 4, 1951: Operation Ripper, ROK and UN push combined communist forces above 38th parallel again

March 18, 1951: UN forces recapture Seoul once more

July 10 - Aug. 23, 1951: Truce negotiations at Kaesong amidst continued bloody fighting

Nov. 27, 1951: 38th parallel set as line of demarcation

Throughout 1952: Bloody battles and trench warfare

April 23, 1953: Kaesong peace talks resume

July 27, 1953: UN, North Korea, and China sign armistice, ending fighting

More Information on the Korean War:

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Timeline and Quick Facts on the Korean War

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The Korean War began on June 25, 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953. The Korean War took place on the Korean Peninsula, initially in South Korea, and then later in North Korea as well. North Korean communist forces called the North Korean People's Army (KPA) under President Kim Il-Sung began the war.