6.2 – THE KOREAN WAR
& THE ARMS RACE Unit 6 – The Cold War
Section 2 – Korean War & Arms Race
Learning Targets & Key Words
The Students Will Be
Able To (TSWBAT):
• Identify the US
response to Cold War
tensions in the 1950
• Evaluate the role of the
US in the Korean War
Key Words:
Arms race
Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
Central Intell igence Agency (CIA)
Eisenhower Doctrine
Korean War
EQ: What methods did the
U.S. use in its global struggle
against the Soviet Union?
What were the major causes
and effects of the Korean
War?
I. THE KOREAN WAR
Origins of the War
Communist China
• Chinese Civil War (1948-1949)
• Mao Zedong (Communist) vs. Chang Kai-shek (Nationalist) • US supports Kai-shek
• Nationalists lose and are kicked out of China
• Communists win and take over
US Dissolves Relations with China
• US fears communism will spread from China to rest of Asia
• US starts enforcing policy of “containment” – US wants to protect Korea from communism
Korea
• Ruled by Japan from 1920 until
Japan surrenders in WWII in
1945
• US divides Korea along 38th
parallel (Potsdam Conf.):
• US occupies South
• USSR occupies North (under
leadership of Kim Il-sung)
Why is the US even getting involved?
CONTAINMENT!
Origins of the War, cont.
The Basic Facts
• When: June 1950 – July 1953
• Who:
• North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) supported by China & the USSR
VS.
• South Korea (Republic of Korea) supported by the US & the UN
The Korean War
North Korea Invades South Korea
• South Korea calls to US to help
• US invades port of Inchon
• Forces led by Douglas MacArthur
(leader of US-occupied Japan)
• The landing saves South Korea (for
now)
MacArthur then pushes Northern
Korean forces to the Chinese
border
• China invades North Korea to help
their fellow communists
• The war stalemates at the 38th
parallel
The Korean War, cont.
MacArthur wants to use an atomic bomb against China
• This leads to his firing by President Truman
War continues for 2 more years and ends in stalemate in 1953
• North Korea and South Korea sign an armistice (not an official end to the war)
• This is still in place today (the war never technically ended)
Counterattack at
Inchon
Death toll for the Korean War:
-Over 36,000 Americans
-Over 600,000 Chinese
-Over 2 million Korean soldiers
and civilians
Luxembourg - 7
Norway (noncombat role)
South Africa - 20
United States – 37,000
New Zealand - 31
Philippines - 92
South Korea – 137,899
Sweden (noncombat role)
Thailand - 136
Turkey - 721
United Kingdom – 1,078
United Nations - 932,964 troops served
Netherlands - 116 Australia - 339
Belgium - 97
Canada - 516
Colombia - 146
Denmark (noncombat role)
Ethiopia - 122
France - 287
Greece - 194
India (noncombat role)
Italy (noncombat role)
United Nations Forces in Korea: (Nation – Number Killed in Action)
Troops patrol the DMZ
Korean War Primary Source Activity • EQ: Who started the Korean War?
• We are going to look at two different textbook accounts of the start of the Korean War to try to figure out where they came from, and which one offers the most trustworthy account.
• In pairs, read both textbook excerpts (A and B) and answer the questions.
Discussion:
• According to each textbook, how did the Korean War start?
• Which of these textbooks do you find more trustworthy? Why?
• Where else would you look in order to figure out how the Korean War started?
• Which textbook comes from North Korea? Which comes from South Korea?
II. THE ARMS RACE
Review: Creation of Atomic Bombs
•When where they developed?
•Who developed them?
•Where were they used?
The Arms Race Begins
• September 2, 1949:
USSR sets off an
atomic bomb
• US is no longer the lone
world nuclear power
• US and USSR compete
to make & build up
more powerful weapons
Mutually Assured
Destruction (M.A.D.)
• Both nations
stockpiled nuclear
warheads
• Both nations have
weapons so
powerful that they
could destroy each
other, thereby
preventing each
other from attacking
America’s Response to the Fear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-
5jw60
• Calming Society and War
Hysteria: • Duck and Cover
• This seems RIDICULOUS,
by why do you think the
government created this
initiative?
America’s Response, cont.
• Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA)
• Created by Congress
(1947)
• The CIA is an intelligence-
gathering organization that
worked to protect American
interests abroad
Changes in Power
United States
• New Pres.: Dwight D. Eisenhower • 34th pres.
• Terms: 1953-1961
• Party: Republican
• Leader of US forces in WWII
Soviet Union
• Stalin died in 1953
• New Leader: Nikita
Khrushchev
• In Office: 1953-1964
• Communist
Khrushchev & Eisenhower slowly move
toward a “peaceful co-existence”
Eisenhower Doctrine
(1957)
• Eisenhower did
respond to growing
Soviet influence in
the Middle East
• The US will use
force to help any
Middle Eastern
nation threatened
by communism
Eisenhower’s Highway System
• Created to use for
national defense
• Highways set up as
runways for airplanes
and as ways for military
troops to quickly move
supplies across the
country
The Space Race
• Americans had believed US technology was superior to the Soviets
• However, in 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik I, a small satellite sent to space
• US establishes NASA • Organization to coordinate
space-related efforts of American scientists and the military
The Space Race Jigsaw Activity
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4&safe=active
•EQ: How did America get to this point?
Space Race Jigsaw
• We will complete Doc. #1 together
• You will have 5-10 minutes per document with your group to answer the questions