The Origins of the Korean War

On June 25^th, 1950, the military forces of the People's Republic of Korea crossed the dividing line between North and South Korea intending to carry out an invasion. (msnencarta.com) Technically, this move began what is now known as the Korean War. However, one of the reasons that this is also called the Unknown War is because there were many factors that contributed to this use of force. Today, we can try to find out the various interpretations of what the origins of the Korean War were. The orthodox interpretations involve Joseph Stalin initiating portions of the conflict with China as the so-called junior partner.

The revisionist interpretations involve the North Korean viewpoint of the American oppressors, a conspiracy by General Douglas MacArthur and Syngman Rhee of South Korea, an internal struggle mainly in South Korea, and an international war theory. And ultimately the post-revisionist interpretation consists of the plotting of Kim Il-Sung. There are many different ways of explaining these origins and there also will be some interpretations that seem more unlikely than others, but that is exactly why there are so many. It is up to the knowledgeable public to deduce each possible explanation to eventually come to what seems to be the closest to truth. (paratext)

The orthodox interpretations begin with one of the most widely circulated theories; the Stalin initiation theory. This theory asserts that the Korean War was initiated by Joseph Stalin according to the soviet expansionist agenda and the puppet North Korean government carried out an invasion that was completely unprovoked by South Korea. (paratext) "Late in 1949, according to the memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, later premier of the Soviet Union, Stalin approved Kim Il Sung's request to invade South Korea. Recent scholarship base on Soviet archives makes clear Stalin's central role in planning North Korea's invasion and the ensuing war.

Stalin may have hoped that Pyongyang could win control over all Korea and provide a counterweight not only to the United States and Japan but also to Mao's China." (promises, 57) These actions were also encouraged by ambiguous statements made by American leaders that excluded Korea and implied that it was of little importance to the region. (promises, 57) This theory seems to be one of the most likely scenarios because of the newly disclosed information and the tendency of Stalin to plan this particular roundabout way. Stalin might have also been ready to exploit weaknesses to expand his sphere of influence. (paratext)

The pressure dispersion theory centers on the role of the United States' military. A war in Korea would divert the increasing American military pressure away from the European front through the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that is also known as NATO. However, the far eastern strategy theory shows much more interest in the possible signing of a peace treaty with Japan but without the participation of the Soviet Union. (paratext) There are other articles that see an alternate view of Japan by the Soviet Union.

"It is clear, therefore, that the Soviet government keenly appreciated the history of Korea as a focus of great power competition in northeast Asia and as a springboard for Japanese expansion onto the Asian continent. Moscow consequently considered it vital for the security of the Soviet Far East that Korea not be in hostile hands. The report does not advocate annexation of the peninsula but rather that the government established there have "friendly and close relations" with the USSR. It should be noted that the authors mention U.S. and Chinese interests in Korea but continue to view Japan as the primary threat." (wwics.si.edu, 12) This asserts that the Soviets were not only concerned with the United States but that they saw Japan as a primary threat.

An abbreviated orthodox theory asserts that Stalin might not have been the mastermind of the Korean War but certainly did not object of its consequences for other countries. "Three documents in the foreign ministry archive dated September 1945 indicate that at this time the Soviet government did not have a clearly delineated plan for a political settlement for Korea, but regarded the proposed trusteeship as a useful means of countering American gains in the Pacific and of fortifying the Soviet position in Manchuria. The Soviets primary concern with regard to Korean territory was with securing control over three strategically important regions: Cheju Island and the ports of Pusan and Inchon." (wwics.si.edu, 14) This might have gone along with the fact that the Soviets basically modernized the North Korean military with many transfers of heavy artillery between 1949 and 1950. (paratext)

One of the most believable theories is the Stalin Mao conspiracy theory. This theory plays on the fact that China and Mao was the Junior partner to Stalin. "Other scholars have granted a more central role for the Soviet Union in the outbreak of the Korean War but have focused on Stalin's relations with Mao as the determining factor in Soviet policy. Marshall Shulman, for example, concluded that Stalin probably approved the war plan because "the Chinese were prepared to drive ahead with or without the Russians. This put the Russians in a painful dilemma: even if they preferred to be cautious they would lose whatever influence they hoped to exercise over the Chinese revolution and, specifically, they would lose their dominant position in North Korea." (wwics) A summit meeting between Stalin and Mao in early 1950 could be one of the key planning sessions for their South Korean invasion strategy. (paratext) "Kim II Sung and his delegation spent almost all of April 1950 in the Soviet Union.

The first issue on the agenda was: ways and methods of unification of Korea through military means. Stalin gave his approval to an invasion of the South and outlined his view on how the war had to be prepared. Unfortunately, memorandums of conversations between Stalin and Kim in April 1950 have not been found as yet in the Russian archives." (alternativeinsight.com)

The revisionist interpretations begin to shift the blame off of Stalin and begin to challenge the high moral ground of South Korea and the United States. One of them is that South Korea invaded the north in order to save the Syngman Rhee regime of political collapse. (paratext) "The most important revisionist account, Bruce Cumings' monumental two-volume study of the origins of the Korean War, concluded that the question remains open whether it was in fact the DPRK or the ROK that initiated the military action on 25 June 1950. Cumings argued that it is possible that the North was responding to a provocational attack from South Korea, as the DPRK has consistently maintained." (wwics.si.edu, 7)

Another conspiracy theory is that General MacArthur initiated the Korean War because of political ambitions to become a more popular general than Eisenhower which would eventually lead to the oval office. The comments by the general during the war indicate his discontent by the decisions being made by Washington. "MacArthur, meanwhile, pushed his proposals in media interviews and wrote a prominent Republican congressman complaining of the restraints imposed on him by the white house. "Here in Asia...the communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest," MacArthur stormed. "Here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats there fight it with words." (promises, 60) The conspiracy also involved South Korea's Rhee in that he would eventually become the president of a unified Korea.

A much more realistic theory pointed towards the rising nationalism in Korea which in some circles could be called a civil war. The north wanted to be the liberator of the south and the north needed to be unified with the south. There were riots and strikes including a railway strike that eventually killed 1,000 Koreans including some policeman. (paratext) However, these riots occurred mostly in the south. "According to U.S. records, approximately 1,600,000 persons moved into the southern zone during the fall of 1945; about 500,000 came from northern Korea, the rest from Manchuria." (wwics.si.edu, 13)

Another popular revisionist interpretation is the international war theory in which a terrible cycle between international and domestic forces erupted during the war. The war could basically have been a metaphor for the struggles between the democracies and the communists. The geo strategies of the United States, the Chinese government, and the revolutionary Soviets all combined and forced their initiatives on North and South Korea. (paratext) Korea was a mask for each of the major countries because China and the Soviet Union did not have strong public relations with North Korea and the United States was technically fighting under the flag of the United Nations.

However, the goals of each country could be transparent, "compensate for the setbacks the Soviet Union had encountered in Europe, and they would counter increasingly obvious American efforts to bring Japan within its system of postwar military alliances. A particular advantage of this strategy was that it would not require direct Soviet involvement: the North Koreans and the Viet Minh would take the initiative, operating under the pretext of unifying their respective countries. And the Chinese, still eager to legitimize their revolution by winning Stalin's approval, were more than willing to provide backup support, if and when needed." (warchronicle.com)

Finally, the post-revisionist interpretations center on uncertain partners theories. North Korea's Kim Il Sung could have played a much more major role than anyone previously suspected. He might have been able to manipulate both Stalin and Mao into endorsing his invasion under false pretences and rampant overestimations. (paratext) "With regard to the Soviet role, Cumings depicted the Soviet influence over the DPRK as minimal, far less important than that of the Chinese Communist party. He contended that Soviet controls over the DPRK were "flimsy," and that Kim Il Sung could have acted independently of Moscow, since the DPRK "was by no means reliant solely on Soviet arms." He furthermore called it "nonsense" to suggest that Stalin would have approved the invasion because he thought the United States would not intervene." (wwics.si.edu, 7) This theory is also one of the most curious as it will definitely be hard to ever know what actually conspired.

The interpretation that most comports my critical analysis of the origins of the Korean War leans towards the revisionist interpretations. The domestic roots theory seems especially realistic but doesn't take into account the international forces that were indelibly involved. That is why I see the international war theory as being the particular assertions tat stand out. The fact of how stubborn and against each other the major powers were has a great effect on the regions; this also translates to the international theory. I believe that the Korean War can be seen as a metaphor for the international struggles that were going on during that time period. The United States was basically expanding the motives of the Truman doctrine, the Soviet Union was at least in part exercising its expansionist agenda, and the Chinese definitely did not want a unified democratic Korean regime right in front of them. This was a power play of the worst kind, eventually ending up where both sides claim victory but all basically act as if they lost. And the worst part is that American soldiers are still stationed in Korea today, now safeguarding against the offspring of the ideals of Kim Il Sung.

Works Cited

Paul S. Boyer. Promises to Keep. 3^rd Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. (promises to keep)

Canedy 3^rd, Charles R. (compiler). AUCW 212 Coursebook. A volume in the Paratext series, 2004.

(paratext)

"Soviet Aims in Korea and the Origins of the Korean War, 1945-1950: New Evidence from Russian Archives". Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. November 1993

(wwics.si.edu)

"Korean War". MSN Encarta. 2006

(msnencarta.com)

"The Origins of the Korean War". Alternative Insight. June 2000 http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Korean_War.html

(alternativeinsight.com)

Origin of the Korean War. 2005 http://www.warchronicle.com/korea/origin_war.htm

(warchronicle.com)