Essay Sample: East Asia and The Cold War

When people hear about The Cold War, they immediately associate it only being a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, but in reality East Asia was also a main contributor to the conflicts of The Cold War. One thing that changed between World War II and The Cold War were the Allies. In World War II, The United States were allies with the Soviet Union and enemies with Japan, but in The Cold War The United States was enemies with the Soviet Union and allies with Japan. Japan, which was still recovering from wartime devastation of its cities and economy, is being occupied by the United States and a large number of United States military troops are based there. Also there was  conflict between the Soviet Union and Japan in which the Soviet Union had also declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945 which was being fought in Manchuria and in Korea.

Also, The United States and the Soviet Union had a prior agreement to occupy southern and northern Korea with the United States in Southern Korea and The Soviet Union in Northern Korea. Which ultimately led to the country of Korea being divided into North Korea and South Korea. Now with tension high, the conflict began rising between the communists of The Soviet Union, Mao Zedong's People’s Republic of China, and Kim Il-Sung's Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and those who were for democracy The United States, Japan, and Syngman Rhee's Republic of Korea (South Korea). “However, the Korean War broke out in June 1950, which was well-known as the onset of the Cold War in East Asia, and the atmosphere in the region changed dramatically. The Truman administration immediately decided to intervene with military measures to protect South Korea and undertook the leadership to diminish North Korea by utilizing the United Nations (U.N.) functions” (Lee, 2021). Which led to a bigger conflict that is still hard to point a finger at even today, who started the war?  “With both sides in Korea insisting that the other started the war, from the outset research on the war was extremely politicized. For decades the central issue debated was who launched the initial attack? In North Korea, the Soviet Union, and China, the official line was that South Korea, acting on instructions from Washington, was the aggressor. But in the United States and South Korea, the generally accepted view was that the North attacked the South, either on orders from the Kremlin or as part of a Sino-Soviet plot” (FT 9, source 1). And with the conflict of who attacked who first going on, Mao Zedong insisted that military action was needed in order to unify North and South Korea. “Mao…stated that if you intend to begin military operations against the south in the near future, then they should not meet officially. In such a case the trip should be unofficial. Mao Zedong added further that the unification of Korea by peaceful means is not possible, solely military means are required to unify Korea. As regards the Americans, there is no need to be afraid of them. The Americans will not enter a third world war for such a small territory” (FT 9, source 2). While Mao said there was no need to fear the Americans because they don’t want to enter a third world war, Joseph Stalin feared a wider war with The United States.

With that in mind, General Douglas MacArthur was adamant that something had to be done concerning communism in Asia, specifically, in China. “While I was not consulted prior to the President’s decision to intervene in support of the Republic of Korea, that decision, from a military standpoint, proved a sound one. As I said, it proved to be a sound one, as we hurled back the invader and decimated his forces. Our victory was complete, and our objectives within reach, when Red China intervened with numerically superior ground forces. While no man in his right mind would advocate sending our ground forces into continental China, and such was never given a thought, the new situation did urgently demand a drastic revision of strategic planning if our political aim was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old” (FT 9, source 4). When General MacArthur said, “our political aim was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old” since he didn't want to send United States ground troops into China, it was believed that he wanted to use our nuclear abilities on China which would most definitely have started a third world war. And Mao was right about The United States not wanting to start a third world war, so President Harry Truman had relieved General MacArthur of his command. “We do not want to see the conflict in Korea extended. We are trying to prevent a world war—not to start one. The best way to do that is to make it plain that we and the other free countries will continue to resist the attack. But you may ask, why can’t we take other steps to punish the aggressor. Why don’t we bomb Manchuria and China itself? Why don’t we assist Chinese Nationalist troops to land on the mainland of China? If we were to do these things we would be running a very grave risk of starting a general war. If that were to happen, we would have brought about the exact situation we are trying to prevent… A number of events have made it evident that General MacArthur did not agree with that policy. I have therefore considered it essential to relieve General MacArthur so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to the real purpose and aim of our policy” (FT 9, source 3). 

In conclusion, The Cold War was not solely between the United States and the Soviet Union, but East Asia also had a huge impact in the Cold War. For example many of the important events that had occurred also included East Asia. Like the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur, the occupation of Japan by the United States, The United States and the Soviet Union's agreement to occupy southern and northern Korea, and Mao Zedong's unofficial meeting with Kim Il-Sung where he state that military action was needed in order to unify Korea as one.

Works Cited

Lawrence, Elizabeth, ed. "Focus Text 9." 2021. 

Lee, Junghoon. “The International Context of the Cold War in East Asia: Processes of Security and Economic Co-Operation between Alliances.” SN Social Sciences. Springer International Publishing, March 1, 2021. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43545-021-00073-1.