‘The main reason why the United States entered the Korean War was in order to defend the South Korea.’ Explain why you agree or disagree with this view.
Whilst, the impression that the US gave in attempting to defend South Korea seems plausible, however that is not the only main reasons. Ever since, the loss of China to communism, this heavily effected the US to be involved in the Korea war. The mindset of Truman and Eisenhower was truly to contain communism, the pressure of McCarthyism in the US, then the detonation of Atomic Bomb by the USSR and the Sino-Soviet treaty that prompted the US to enter the Korean War, which is why I disagree with the view.
When Truman and Eisenhower’s passionate strive towards combating communism was also present, which was one of the reason why the US was involved in the Korean War. Ever since Truman emerged in 1945 as the president, he developed the ‘hard-line’ approach towards communism. His policy of containment, the domino theory and fear of monolithic communism was continued in Eisenhower’s arrival in 1953. Eisenhower further strengthened the approach to communism as he introduced the ‘roll back’ policy to put communism into extinction. The US pushed back the North Koreans beyond the 38th parallel line, located in the Yalu River, which would be pushing back towards border of China. The outcome of the containment and the roll back policy ultimately meant that the US was looking to expand capitalism in Asia, which was the main motivating factor for the US in getting involved in the Korea War rather than merely wanting to defend South Korea. But Truman was not completely motivated just by his nature of combating communism as he was influenced by domestic event at home.
The age of McCarthyism was very prominent from the late 40s and throughout 50s in resulting the US to get involve in the Korean War. McCarthyism was the era of anti-hysteria towards communism, so the fear of monolithic communism, along with the domino theory was further perpetuated by it. As a result this directly affected Truman, who was accused of being ‘soft’ on communism, thus this pushed him to use the Korean War to prove himself as a firm anti-communism. The combination of McCarthyism, and the president’s attitude towards wanting to battle communism remained a persistent factor in engaging in the Korean War. The US always believed themselves to be a global power of the world, however that was no longer the case by 1949, which played a huge role in influencing the US to participate in the Korean War.
For the US, defending the South Korea was never the real reason for being in the Korean War, as it mainly about desperately maintaining their status of be...
