Korean War

            On June 25 1950 North Korea crossed the thirty-eighth parallel, officially invading South Korea, and marking what has been recorded historically as the beginning of the Korean War. Traditionally, many have viewed this war as democracy versus communism, the United States against Russia, and as the fight to stop the flow of the "Red Tide". Much of the information regarding the origins of the Korean War is obscure, cloudy, and vague at best, but many scholars have recently begun to draw different conclusions and hypotheses based on their research. This different stance argues that the Korean War was more of a Korean civil war, which has its roots in circumstances on the Korean Peninsula that began at least five years before the official dates that the conflict began. Many facts and much evidence seem to point that this is in fact the case, but the truth may not be discovered until more of the confidential information on the war is released to the public. One such piece of evidence comes from a letter from Syngman Rhee, an exiled Korean conservative, written in the summer of 1945 to President Truman. The letter is a warning that there " is a possibility of a civil war developing between the communist and nationalist factions in Korea (Lee 2001:6).
             In this light, the factors that helped lead to the Korean War are: First, the division of North and South Korea post World War II along the thirty-eighth parallel with Russia overseeing the North and the United States overseeing the South. Second, the development of Korean People's Committees following their liberation from Japanese rule, and the different treatment of these committees in the North and in the South. Third, the National Assembly elections in May 1948 in South Korea that led to the establishment of a Republic of Korea and the election of Syngman Rhee as president; followed by a countermove in North Korea with the establishment of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and the appointment of Kim Il Sung as premier.