10 Things Everyone Should Know About The Korean War

There are some things about the Korean War that people should know, and some people don't know anything about the Korean War. Here are some facts anyone should know about the War.

1. During the cold war, Communism was spreading and the US thought that the Communists were trying to take over the world when Nationalist China fell to the Soviets in September of 1949.
2. Korea wasn't always split into North and South; at the end of WWII, the Russians controlled above the 38th parallel, and we controlled the rest. The Soviets saw their opportunity to spread their way of government, so they made North Korea a Communist nation.
3. The Korean war was the North Koreans invading South Korea 1n 1950 and trying to take it over to get the rest of their nation back.
   
4. The UN sent in troops (mostly US troops) in June of 1950, and from then on the conflict was called the Korean War.
5. The Security Council appointed Douglas MacArthur to be the commander of all the UN soldiers in Korea. He also commanded troops and tanks in WWII.
6. The UN soldiers were being beaten badly, they had been pushed to the southernmost tip of South Korea. MacArthur said that retreat was not an option, and he sent boats of soldiers to attack and capture Inchon, a city right near the first border.
   
7. As we pushed the Koreans back, China saw this advance as a danger to the safety of their style of governing. They thought that we would take the war to them after we wiped out Communism from North Korea.
   
8. Chinese leaders demanded a halt of UN troop advancement, but we ignored them. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers joined in the war with the Koreans, and we had a serious chance of losing because of that infusion of new troops.
   
9. MacArthur wanted to do things his way then, and his way was all out war with China. He wanted Atomic bombs dropped on them, but Truman opposed this plan very much because it might bring the USSR into the fight, and it could start a world war.
   
10. Peace talks began in 1951, and Dwight Eisenhower was elected in the middle of them. They agreed to a cease fire in July of 1953. The new border was very close to the old one, so the war didn't gain anything for either side.