Sunday, March 28, 2010,10:14 PM
Analysis of the Cold War
The first question to address is:
Did North Korea and USSR have a good reason for attacking South Korea?
As mentioned earlier, Stalin had hopes of unifying Korea under a communist leadership. The reasons that motivated North Korea to make the first move was the poor government led by Syngman Rhee and the American 'disinterest' in South Korea. The Soviets had the impression that America was disinterested in South Korea when USA Secretary of State Dean Acheson said Korea would not be included in the new defense policy.
However, there was the matter of the NSC-68 document. NSC-68 outlined a theory of perimeter defence in which all American interests were considered of equal importance, no matter what. Due to this, America was forced to defend South Korea when it came under attack.
In this sense, North Korea's reason for attacking South Korea was aggressive rather than defensive, and caused a break in the stalemate of 'peace' in the area, which eventually led to the Korean War, which had great consequences for both sides (though it can be argued that a confrontation between the two sides was inevitable, given their strained relationship). In this sense, the Korean War was started by the Communists, due to the USSR's greed. The start of the USSR is thus the Communists' fault.
Following that, the next question to be asked is:
Did China overreact by intervening in the Korean War?
As mentioned earlier, the main reasons for Chinese intervention in the Korean War were defensive. Every country will feel the need to defend itself when under threat; it is a basic right.
However, one must also note that China had an offensive front too. Not content with driving the US forces back into Korea (which would have been a sign of defence as well as an understanding of the need to maintain peace), they pushed further forward and invaded Seoul. This was born out of their need to assert themselves and prove themselves as a world power. In this sense, China had been aggressive too.
Despite that, all in all, I believe that China would not have made any moves if MacArthur had not pushed the UN forces all the way to the Yalu river. China was financially poor, as Mao was trying to rebuild China after the Chinese Civil War and WWII. She thus did not have much money to commit to an all-out offensive front. Also, relations between China and USSR were poor at that point in time, and thus China would not have agreed to go on an offensive if there ever was any Soviet pressure.
Thus, in my opinion, the Chinese intervention in Korea was justified to a large extent.
-Shahid
