Ch. 27, Section 2Korean War and Red Scare

Communists win China

• After the Japanese were defeated in WWII the Communists and Nationalists continued their civil war

• The US backed the anti-communist Nationalists

• The Communists led by Mao Zedong won the civil war in 1949

• The Nationalists were forced to flee mainland China and went to the island of Taiwan’

• The US refused to recognize the communist govt. of China and continued to recognize the Nationalists

TAIWAN

Korea at end of WWII• At the end of World

War II the Allies divided Korea at the 38th Parallel

• The Soviet Union controlled the northern part and set up a communist govt.

• The US controlled the southern part and set up a democratic govt.

Korean War Begins

• In June 1950 Soviet-backed North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea

• US President Truman asked and received support from UN

• The USSR was absent because boycotting Security Council until seat given to Communist China

Why was the US compelled to fight in the Korean War?

• After China fell to communism the US feared the rest of Asia may fall to communism (“domino theory”)

• Containment policy dictated that we stop the spread of communism anywhere

• US allied with democratic South Korea

• At the start of the war the North Koreans pushed the South Koreans back to the SE corner of the peninsula

• Even with US-led UN forces there the war seemed like it could be lost

Tide Turns in Korean War

• General Douglas MacArthur led forces on a landing at the city of Inchon behind enemy lines

• The UN forces then attacked from both sides and routed the North Koreans

• Afterwards UN forces pushed them back to near the Yalu River

China Joins the Fight

• As UN forces attempted to unify Korea China sent 300,000 soldiers across the border

• In brutal fighting in below freezing weather the UN forces slaughtered Chinese soldiers, but were overwhelmed by their numbers and were forced to retreat

Truman Fires MacArthur• General MacArthur

suggested air strikes on China and the use of atomic bombs

• Truman refused, hoping to avoid WWIII

• MacArthur publicly criticized the President

• Truman fired MacArthur• MacArthur returned

home a war hero

Korean War Ends

• The war became a stalemate near the original 38th parallel

• Republican candidate for president, Dwight Eisenhower, promised to end the war if elected

• When Eisenhower won, he negotiated a cease fire to end the war in 1953

Korea Since the 1950s

• The border between North and South Korea is the most heavily defended border in the world (called the DMZ – de-militarized zone)

• thousands of US soldiers have been stationed there for 60 years

• South Korea remains democratic and North Korea remains communist

North Korea Threat Today

• North Korea has built tunnels to allow for another invasion

• North Korea is building a nuclear weapon program

• Dictator Kim Jong Il passed away in 2011 and turned over power to his son Kim Jong Un

House Un-American Activities

Committee (H.U.A.C.)

• This Congressional committee was set up originally to fight Nazi spying, but switched to an anti-communist stance after WWII

• In 1947 it held famous hearings to find communist influences in the film industry

• The Hollywood Ten were the first of over 300 writers, actors, and directors that were found guilty in these hearings and were blacklisted, which banned them from working

Soviets Explode Atomic Bomb• On August 29, 1949 the

Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb

• US experts claim that the USSR couldn’t have developed this weapon on their own without having stolen US atomic secrets

Picture of the 1st Soviet atomic bomb, nicknamed the “Joe I” by the U.S.

Ethel & Julius Rosenberg

• Members of the U.S. scientific community who were also members of the communist party, who were convicted (1951) and executed (1953) for passing secrets about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union

• This ended the U.S. status of being the only nation to have the atomic bomb, denying the U.S. the ability to use it during the Cold War

The Rosenbergs during their trial

The Rosenberg’s two young sonsread the newspaper before the

execution of their parents

McCarthyism• Wisconsin Senator Joseph

McCarthy began in 1950 to claim he knew the names of communists in the US govt.

• This led to a series of accusations that fueled Red Scare fears

• Eventually he was exposed as having no evidence when he appeared before hearings with the Army that were televised nationally

Hydrogen Bombs• In 1952 the United States successfully detonated the

world's first hydrogen bomb, on an island in the Pacific Ocean.

• The 10.4-megaton thermonuclear device instantly vaporized an entire island and left behind a crater more than a mile wide.

• Three years later, on November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb on the same principle of radiation implosion.

• Both superpowers were now in possession of the so-called "superbomb," and the world lived under the threat of thermonuclear war for the first time in history.

Sputnik

• The Soviet Union successfully launched the satellite Sputnik

• This scared the US as it proved the Soviet Union’s rocket program was more advanced than the US, and they had a rocket that could deliver a nuclear warhead to the other side of the planet

Effects of Sputnik• Arms race between USSR

and US begins as both powers stockpile nuclear weapons

• School children trained to duck and cover

• Families built backyard bomb shelters

• NASA space program begins• US increases research and

spending on education in math and science

brinkmanship • US foreign policy supported by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles under President Eisenhower in the 1950s

• The policy stated the US’s willingness to go to the brink (or edge) of war to oppose communism

• It included the threat of using nuclear weapons

Suez Canal Crisis• Egypt nationalized (took over)

control of the Suez Canal• Great Britain and France who

relied on the canal for world trade, along with neighbor Israel, attacked Egypt to regain control of the canal

• The Soviet Union threatened to help Egypt in the war

• The US would have been forced to join GB and France

• This would have led to WWIII