Essay on How Did the Korean War Mark a Turning Point in the Cold War

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The two articles contrast each other on several points in which I came up with the assumption to explain the significance of the Cold War and its consequences. Disagreeably, the article I misprinted on how the Cold War occurred in East Asia and other regions. It only addresses the actions and ideology of superpowers and the irrelevance of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, to argue with the first one, article II, agreeably, comprehensively notes the misperception of the previous article and recognizes the role of nuclear weapons in maintaining stability. East Asia is significant to describe the production and relations which has been shaped by the Cold War until nowadays.

To these extents, I set out to explain accordingly what the first article overlooks; 1.) Cold War significantly took place in East Asia. 2.) Conventional War that stemmed from Superpowers’ policy, and 3.) the existence of nuclear weapons that made the Cold War never find its end. Cold War largely explained the severe tension between the United States and the Soviet Union in influencing its proxy states. Article I significantly notes that there are merely 3 significances taking into account of Cold War; Superpowers (US and USSR), Ideologies, and Nuclear weapons. However, first off, East Asia too was one of the regions that suffered from the brunt of the Cold War, being divided on the line of alliances to side with two hegemon powers. China, Japan, and North and South Korea interacted with one another in a way that they were politically, ideologically, and economically compiled into an alliance until nowadays. In China, the solidarity of the Communist world was concerned in East Asia at the very beginning of the Cold War by the Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Although communism in China and the USSR are defined differently due to interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism, namely the Sino-Soviet split, they are still put in a similar category of the communist bloc. During the period of the Cold War, the Chinese involvement in the Korean peninsula in the early 1950s marked the beginning of several decades of unfriendly confrontation between the Chinese communist regime and the United States. The two countries were also on opposing sides in Indochina during the 1960s when the US tried to prevent losing Southeast Asian countries to the Communist camp through the domino effect. Aside, the US also supported the Kuomintang government that retreated to Taiwan after it was defeated by Communist forces on mainland China. The tension of the communist bloc against the US arose not only with the USSR but also with China. Moreover, after losing in World War II, Japan acted by the US in implementing the capitalist and democratic regime. The system also allowed access to the American market and other economic benefits to US allies in the region. During the Cold War era, Washington’s approach to regional security was based on an alliance system with bilateral security treaties between the US and key allies in the Asia-Pacific region, mainly in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Japan was pulled indirectly into the Cold War as a US supporter. Markedly, following to Korean War in 1953-1955, Korea was most affected by the Cold War. The main concerns of political, economic, military, and ideological contest between the Soviet Union and the United States of America, intervened in the Korean War. The Soviet Union and China backed North Korea, while the United States allied the performance of the United Nations (UN) to support the South. And, with both superpowers possessing nuclear weapons, the outcome of the Korean War determined the United States to maintain large military forces to constrain communism. Therefore, without finding a compromise, Korea was divided into North and South, implementing each ideological legacy, communism, and democratic capitalism, as the result of the Cold War.

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Second, the article only addresses the ‘Cold tension’ between the superpowers but fails to look at the proxy states, which were having the conventional war, or hot war, inside their lands. With the prospect of nuclear annihilation, the Cold War was only fought in proxy form in peripheral nations, including Korea. The only considering superpowers were only operating with the policy and possibility, for themselves, to gain victory by tactics. Both the US and USSR launched the Brinkmanship as a risk-taking policy in which during the Cold War, the nuclear weapon was used as an escalating measure whether it would utilize the threat of a nuclear attack or not. On the US side, the Truman Doctrine assisted in politics, economics, and military to any nation resisting the threat of communism, while, in the USSR view, it supported the ally by supplying material needs. An attempt to prevent the spread of the Soviet Union's ideology also occurred along with the use of a Containment policy to keep communism from spreading to other places. These are the ways of collecting alliances between the two blocs, which the proxy states, then, were made to be a battlefield for a conventional war, or the supply lines as well as supporters for these two powers to prevent the massive retaliation between US and USSR that could end up with a use of nuclear weapons on a massive scale. Thus, Korea was proxied to the Hot War.

Third, Nuclear weapon is still a vastly relevant part that occurred from the Cold War and it is made to the endless arms race between states until the 21st century. The cold war continues. Started with the launch of a bomb in Japan by the Americans, nuclear weapons were recognized as to operating arms race between the USSR USA, and another country. Nuclear weapons made states realize that they too need to hold one for stability and security. For China, its nuclear development started as the US claimed to be its hostility and Russia became its unsure friend, so, to hold on to a strong position in the Asian region, Nuclear weapons are necessary. Meanwhile, when North Korea began to own weapons of mass destruction, South Korea too needed to develop its nuclear program to not prevent the North from easily threatening. Several times, North Korea took aggressive action in the experiment of nuclear proliferation to fear other neighboring states. This creates huge provocative threats not only to South Korea but also to Japan. This made Japan start to raise the concern for its nation to hold the nuclear weapons – the nuclearization in East Asia then took place. As such, nuclear weapons have importantly built serious tensions among countries, which continues the arms race and nuclear dominoes in East Asia.

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Essay on How Did the Korean War Mark a Turning Point in the Cold War. (2024, February 28). Edubirdie. Retrieved December 14, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-how-did-the-korean-war-mark-a-turning-point-in-the-cold-war/
“Essay on How Did the Korean War Mark a Turning Point in the Cold War.” Edubirdie, 28 Feb. 2024, edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-how-did-the-korean-war-mark-a-turning-point-in-the-cold-war/
Essay on How Did the Korean War Mark a Turning Point in the Cold War. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-how-did-the-korean-war-mark-a-turning-point-in-the-cold-war/> [Accessed 14 Dec. 2024].
Essay on How Did the Korean War Mark a Turning Point in the Cold War [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2024 Feb 28 [cited 2024 Dec 14]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-how-did-the-korean-war-mark-a-turning-point-in-the-cold-war/
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