Why Did America Fight the Korean War?
Economy | Information | History | Online | Facts | World | Global | Money
What was the Korean War? And why was America involved in such a faraway conflict? Was the United States' sacrifice--35,000 killed, over 100,000 wounded--worth it? Historian Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, shares the fascinating story of a transformative war that many have forgotten. Donate today to PragerU: http://l.prageru.com/2eB2p0h Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. VISIT PragerU! http://www.prageru.com You can support PragerU by clicking here: https://www.classy.org/checkout/donation?eid=60079. Free videos are great, but to continue producing high-quality content, contributions--even small ones--are a must! FOLLOW us! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/ JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: https://www.prageru.com/student-ambassador-program For Educators: https://www.prageru.com/educators Sponsor a Student: https://www.prageru.com/become-pragerforce-sponsor Script: Mention the Korean War today and most people will look at you with a blank stare. At the time it was fought, just five years after World War II ended, everyone recognized it as a world-shaping conflict, a stark confrontation between the forces of democracy and communism. It began on June 25, 1950 when Soviet-backed communist North Korea crossed the 38th parallel and invaded its US-backed anti-communist South Korean neighbor. Within weeks the communists had nearly absorbed the entire country. The United States at first was confused over whether it should—or even could—respond. America had slashed its military budget after the end of World War II and was short both men and equipment. It still had not awakened fully to the expansionist threat of Soviet Russia. The Soviets—buoyed by their own recent development of an atomic bomb and Mao Zedong’s communist victory in China—sensed America’s lack of resolve and encouraged the North’s aggression. Yet within weeks President Harry Truman rushed troops to save the shrinking Allied perimeter at Pusan on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. And by late September, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur had successfully completed the Inchon landings and launched counter-attacks. He quickly reclaimed the entire south and sent American-led United Nations forces far into North Korea to reunite the entire peninsula—only to be surprised when hundreds of thousands of Chinese Red Army troops crossed the Yalu River at the Chinese border and sent the outnumbered Americans reeling back into South Korea. Thanks to the genius of General Matthew Ridgeway, who arrived to assume supreme command in South Korea in December 1950, over the next 100 days US led UN forces pushed the communists back across the 38th Parallel. The fighting was fierce. Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, exchanged hands between communist and US led forces five times before it was finally secured. During the years 1952 and 1953, the war grew static, neither side able to deliver a knockout blow. Eventually the conflict ended with a tense armistice in July 1953. For over the next 60 years, a cold war persisted between the Stalinist North and what, by the 1980s, had evolved into the democratic, economic powerhouse of South Korea. Over 35,000 Americans died in the Korean War. The war marked the first major armed conflict of the Nuclear Age, and one in which the United States had not clearly defeated the enemy and thus not dictated terms of surrender. Was fighting the Korean War and restoring the South—without uniting the entire peninsula—worth the huge cost in blood and treasure? The natural dividend of saving the South was the evolution of today’s democratic and prosperous South Korea that has given its 50 million citizens undreamed of freedom and affluence—and has blessed the world with topflight products from the likes of Hyundai, Kia, LG and Samsung. South Korea is a model global citizen and a strong ally of the U.S.—and stands in sharp contrast to the communist regime in the North that has starved and murdered millions of its own people and caused untold mischief in the world community. Had it not been for U.S. intervention and support to the South, the current monstrous regime in Pyongyang would now rule all of Korea, ensuring its nuclear-armed dictatorship even greater power and resources. The American effort to save South Korea also sent a message to both communist China and the Soviet Union that the free world, under U.S. leadership, would no longer tolerate communist military take-overs of free nations. The resulting deterrence policy helped to keep the communist world from attempting similar surprise attacks on Japan, Taiwan, and Western Europe. For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/courses/history/why-did-america-fight-korean-war
Comments
-
why is democracy represented by an American flag? wasn't it invented in ancient Athens?
-
As a South Korean myself, I owe my life to these men and everyone who fought for freedom in the Korean War.
-
This video is an example of 100% lies and propaganda from the Western viewpoint. The only people that benefit from anything derived from the West and the U.S. is one tenth of one percent of the super wealthy, by design. Everyone else is oppressed, impoverished, and murdered, by design. This by no means is meant to exculpate or elevate other countries/governments, which are not much better, the same, and worse. Government is the prime tool of the tyrant(s). It must be made to go by violent Guerilla Warfare. It is not possible to have a government that is not a 100% corrupt, totalitarian, authoritarian-police-state, that is controlled by the few, by design, for their benefit alone, and for the detriment and death of everyone else.
-
Nauseating
-
Just a mention that Prager U isn't a university, it's a pissy rich old mans YT channel...
-
And Samsung still screwing Apple. Wake up, people! These Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and others as such eyes are the same ungrateful, shameless greedy parasites.
-
That was a DECISIVE US loss in the war. In fact NONE of the US targets was achieved and was a total loss.
-
USA is global leader for human's peace,freedom,equality,etc. USA spread them for my country. i wish USA and korea good friend forever. let's fight with north korea and china.
-
I love your voice
-
0:18
Already bias.
The forces of captalisim and communisim would not only make you appear less bias, but would be way more accurate, has captalisim =|= democracy. -
LONG LIVE COMMUNSIM!!!!
-
Another Korean War is going to begin because of North koreas evil dictator that threaten to nuke the world
-
i thank everyone who fought in this war. Without them i'd be trapped in a communist Korea.
-
Why is communism so bad? In Communist Cuba, they have free healtchcare, free housing and free education! Looks pretty good to me!
-
happy to see these americans stand into two sides and get into fights themselves even before the imaginable WW III breaks out between China and the US.
-
Just waiting for North Korea to invoke us again so we can finally wipe them out for good.
-
"forces of democracy and communism" maybe capitalism and communism would be better
-
Because it looked easy
-
Helping korea was gaining a strategic location in Pacific
-
Yet South Koreans live in constant fear of civil war. He is saying "look at the difference of n and s now!" That's a consequence of the war! If the north regime does not have "imperial America and its puppet in the South" scare tactics, how do you know it can retain control like it does today? My guess is a unified communist Korea would have become more like today's Vietnam, not so prosperous like S Korea today, but geopolitically more stable and economically much better than the north. But the US benefits from its military base there as a vital link to encircle china and create power balance between China Japan with South Korea swinging in between so from their perspective the war is worth it. That is, an imperial, but nevertheless real political perspective.
4m 53sLenght
7501Rating