THE CONTEXT

The Korean War (1950-1953) - World War II divided Korea into a Communist, northern half and an

American-occupied southern half, divided at the 38th parallel. The Korean War (1950-1953) began when the

North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. As Kim Il-

sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea, the United States came to

South Korea's aid. General Douglas MacArthur, who had been overseeing the post-WWII occupation of Japan,

commanded the US forces which now began to hold off the North Koreans at Pusan, at the southernmost tip of

Korea. Although Korea was not strategically essential to the United States, the political environment at this

stage of the Cold War was such that policymakers did not want to appear "soft on Communism." Nominally,

the US intervened as part of a "police action" run by a UN (United Nations) international peace- keeping force;

in actuality, the UN was simply being manipulated by US and NATO anti-Communist interests.

Vietnam War (1954-1973) - The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the

communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.

The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the

dead were Vietnamese civilians. Opposition to the war in the United States bitterly divided Americans, even

after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. Communist forces ended the war

by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

the following year.