Korean War Lesson

Due to the recent war in Korea the United States can benefit from the lessons learnt. The U.S. had reasonable goals when entering the war. They wanted to remove the North Koreans from South Korea. This would be achieved with the help of member forces supplied by the United Nations. As time went on, General MacArthur quickly reached success by pushing the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel, or better known as the border, which separates North from South Korea. The United Nations allowed MacArthur to advance into North Korea, despite warnings made by China's leader, Mao Tse-tung. The U.S. forces continued pushing and by October had reached the Yalu River. Now Truman and MacArthur aimed to do more than just drive out North Korean troops from South Korea; they wanted to completely remove Communism from Korea.

This stage in the war could not have been reached without the help of the United Nations. The U.S. was the single biggest contributor to the UN budget. This provided them with some influence over the UN decision especially when they needed it the most; for example when North Korea invaded South Korea, President Truman asked the UN Security Council to condemn the actions of the North Koreans and tell them to withdraw their troops. The United Nations assisted South Korea in restoring international peace and security. They did exactly so by providing troops or support of some kind.

The Chinese stuck with their word and 200,000 Chinese troops, along with USSR supplies, were sent to North Korea in aid. MacArthur underestimated their power. The fighting pushed the UN forces back to the 38th parallel. After this, Truman realized saving South Korea was good enough because Truman's allies in the United Nations saw that MacArthur's idea of attacking China was too risky. They believed it might start a war, in which the USSR could possibly become involved. The attack became ruled out after Truman agreed.

MacArthur and Truman obviously didn't see eye to eye after Truman agreed with the UN. MacArthur blatantly ignored UN instruction to stop attacking and openly threatened attack on China. Truman immediately removed Mac Arthur from his position and brought him back home because he disagreed with MacArthur's aggressive policy towards Communism. General Omar Bradley agreed with Truman and the UN. He believed MacArthur's approach would have "involved America in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy." Even though Truman too was strongly against Communism it is a good thing he was pre-cautious or an invasion into China would cause many new and worse problems for America.

In the end, the price in successfully fighting against Communism was not cheap. Civilian deaths made up a significant portion of the deaths during the war. Now the U.S. can learn a couple of things from the war. First is the United Nations can be depended on as long as the United States has some influence over them, like through the budget. Second is to make sure to control your generals. They will not always listen to your commands especially if they have a history of following their own policies like MacArthur did. Next it is to be cautious and listen to the advice of others before putting your own beliefs ahead. Truman and MacArthur both were strongly against Communism but Truman did what was best for the U.S., UN, and South Korea at the time instead of abusing his power to continuously fight for what he believed in. Then we learn that we must not underestimate the power of our opponent. The Chinese only sent only a portion of their troops and they matched the power of the force of the United Nations. Their whole army would be a larger and definitely more difficult challenge to fight against and overcome. Finally we should learn that liberty comes with a cost. Freedom from Communism is costly in the lives of not only soldiers but more so civilians. It affects everybody. These are the lessons which the United States can learn from the war.