6.2 – THE KOREAN WAR

& THE ARMS RACE Unit 6 – The Cold War

Section 2 – Korean War & Arms Race

Learning Targets & Key Words

The Students Will Be

Able To (TSWBAT):

• Identify the US

response to Cold War

tensions in the 1950

• Evaluate the role of the

US in the Korean War

Key Words:

Arms race

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Central Intell igence Agency (CIA)

Eisenhower Doctrine

Korean War

EQ: What methods did the

U.S. use in its global struggle

against the Soviet Union?

What were the major causes

and effects of the Korean

War?

I. THE KOREAN WAR

Origins of the War

Communist China

• Chinese Civil War (1948-1949)

• Mao Zedong (Communist) vs. Chang Kai-shek (Nationalist) • US supports Kai-shek

• Nationalists lose and are kicked out of China

• Communists win and take over

US Dissolves Relations with China

• US fears communism will spread from China to rest of Asia

• US starts enforcing policy of “containment” – US wants to protect Korea from communism

Korea

• Ruled by Japan from 1920 until

Japan surrenders in WWII in

1945

• US divides Korea along 38th

parallel (Potsdam Conf.):

• US occupies South

• USSR occupies North (under

leadership of Kim Il-sung)

Why is the US even getting involved?

CONTAINMENT!

Origins of the War, cont.

The Basic Facts

• When: June 1950 – July 1953

• Who:

• North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) supported by China & the USSR

VS.

• South Korea (Republic of Korea) supported by the US & the UN

The Korean War

North Korea Invades South Korea

• South Korea calls to US to help

• US invades port of Inchon

• Forces led by Douglas MacArthur

(leader of US-occupied Japan)

• The landing saves South Korea (for

now)

MacArthur then pushes Northern

Korean forces to the Chinese

border

• China invades North Korea to help

their fellow communists

• The war stalemates at the 38th

parallel

The Korean War, cont.

MacArthur wants to use an atomic bomb against China

• This leads to his firing by President Truman

War continues for 2 more years and ends in stalemate in 1953

• North Korea and South Korea sign an armistice (not an official end to the war)

• This is still in place today (the war never technically ended)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/maps/koreatxt.html

Counterattack at

Inchon

Death toll for the Korean War:

-Over 36,000 Americans

-Over 600,000 Chinese

-Over 2 million Korean soldiers

and civilians

Luxembourg - 7

Norway (noncombat role)

South Africa - 20

United States – 37,000

New Zealand - 31

Philippines - 92

South Korea – 137,899

Sweden (noncombat role)

Thailand - 136

Turkey - 721

United Kingdom – 1,078

United Nations - 932,964 troops served

Netherlands - 116 Australia - 339

Belgium - 97

Canada - 516

Colombia - 146

Denmark (noncombat role)

Ethiopia - 122

France - 287

Greece - 194

India (noncombat role)

Italy (noncombat role)

United Nations Forces in Korea: (Nation – Number Killed in Action)

Troops patrol the DMZ

Korean War Primary Source Activity • EQ: Who started the Korean War?

• We are going to look at two different textbook accounts of the start of the Korean War to try to figure out where they came from, and which one offers the most trustworthy account.

• In pairs, read both textbook excerpts (A and B) and answer the questions.

Discussion:

• According to each textbook, how did the Korean War start?

• Which of these textbooks do you find more trustworthy? Why?

• Where else would you look in order to figure out how the Korean War started?

• Which textbook comes from North Korea? Which comes from South Korea?

II. THE ARMS RACE

Review: Creation of Atomic Bombs

•When where they developed?

•Who developed them?

•Where were they used?

The Arms Race Begins

• September 2, 1949:

USSR sets off an

atomic bomb

• US is no longer the lone

world nuclear power

• US and USSR compete

to make & build up

more powerful weapons

Mutually Assured

Destruction (M.A.D.)

• Both nations

stockpiled nuclear

warheads

• Both nations have

weapons so

powerful that they

could destroy each

other, thereby

preventing each

other from attacking

America’s Response to the Fear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-

5jw60

• Calming Society and War

Hysteria: • Duck and Cover

• This seems RIDICULOUS,

by why do you think the

government created this

initiative?

America’s Response, cont.

• Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA)

• Created by Congress

(1947)

• The CIA is an intelligence-

gathering organization that

worked to protect American

interests abroad

Changes in Power

United States

• New Pres.: Dwight D. Eisenhower • 34th pres.

• Terms: 1953-1961

• Party: Republican

• Leader of US forces in WWII

Soviet Union

• Stalin died in 1953

• New Leader: Nikita

Khrushchev

• In Office: 1953-1964

• Communist

Khrushchev & Eisenhower slowly move

toward a “peaceful co-existence”

Eisenhower Doctrine

(1957)

• Eisenhower did

respond to growing

Soviet influence in

the Middle East

• The US will use

force to help any

Middle Eastern

nation threatened

by communism

Eisenhower’s Highway System

• Created to use for

national defense

• Highways set up as

runways for airplanes

and as ways for military

troops to quickly move

supplies across the

country

The Space Race

• Americans had believed US technology was superior to the Soviets

• However, in 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik I, a small satellite sent to space

• US establishes NASA • Organization to coordinate

space-related efforts of American scientists and the military

The Space Race Jigsaw Activity

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4&safe=active

•EQ: How did America get to this point?

Space Race Jigsaw

• We will complete Doc. #1 together

• You will have 5-10 minutes per document with your group to answer the questions