Cold War 1

COLD WAR: VIETNAM AND KOREAN WAR

By Group 3

International Relations – TRI201E

Instructor By Mrs. Nguyen Thu Hang

Foreign Trade University

Hanoi, Vietnam

November 19th, 2018

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Introduction

The United States and the Soviet Union became very powerful after World War II but

they had very different systems of government. The United States has a democratic form of

government, which means their citizens vote for and elect officials to represent them in

government. The United States is a republic and a democracy and they have a representative

form of government. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, citizens did not elect officials to

represent them in government. The Soviet Union had a communist form of government. The

war of The United States and the Soviet Union was not made up of battles. Actually, they did

not fight against each other with weapons but with politics and economics. This was called the

Cold War. The Cold War was a time of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States,

and their respective ideologies, which persisted from roughly 1945-1991. The United States

was against communism. Therefore, they fought two wars against communists, specifically

Vietnam and Korea.

The Korean War began in June, 1950 and ended in March 1953. At that time, Korea

was a divided country which was economically unstable. The United States feared that South

Korea would fall to communism, so they helped to build up South Korea military. When North

Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, U.S. forces entered South Korea under the direction

General MacArthur. Although 15 other countries gave military and monetary support, no

country gave the same support that the United States did. The Korean War ends with no real

winner and Korea is still divided into South Korea with a democratic government and North

Korea with a communist government.

The Vietnam War was from 1955 to 1975. It was the war between North Vietnam,

supported by The Soviet Union and other communist allies and the government of South

Vietnam, supported by the United States other anti-communist allies. However, in the end, the

United States lost. Vietnam is no longer divided and now become a unified communist country
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that trades frequently with the United States. The War ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union

began to break apart and became many smaller countries.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War, between the 1960s and early 1970s, was part of the overall Cold

War confrontation and the American struggle against the spread of Communism in the world.

However, Vietnam War did not involve a direct confrontation between the two superpowers.

At the time, Vietnam was being separated into 2 parts: Northern Vietnam and Southern

Vietnam. After 1954, Northern Vietnam was desired to unify the entire country under a single

Communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China, however, Southern

Vietnam government fought to preserve Vietnam more closely aligned with the West,

especially with the US.

The US justified its military intervention in Vietnam by the domino theory, which stated

that if one country fell under the influence of Communism, the surrounding countries would

inevitably follow. The aim was to prevent Communist domination of South-East Asia. The US

has invested a tremendous amount of money in the Vietnam War, which include a number of

different categories such as economy, military supplies. More specific, America has spent $111

billion on direct military expenditures; $16.138 billion on military aid which include nearly 2

million types of infantry guns, 1.200 jet planes, 600 helicopters, 2.074 armored tanks and

thousands of heavy weapon; $7.315 billion on economic aid for the Republic of Vietnam. At

the same time as the America investment in the Southern Vietnam, Soviet Union and China

poured weapons, supplies, into the North. The cause and casualties of the growing war proved

too much for the America to bear.

On the Soviet Union side, they wanted to expand the world of Communism. The

Indochina region has been playing an important role in the political affair, especially in the
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situation of the cold war between the 2 superpowers. The Soviet Union also wanted to

encourage the Liberation Movement of Colonized countries. The Soviet Union believed that

the Domino Effect when a country is liberated and follow Communism would be followed by

the same action of its neighbor. In the same thought, if Communist Party in the Northern

Vietnam won the war, the Indochina and other South East Asian countries would be more likely

to become Soviet’s allies; the control and power of the Communism side would be expanded

relatively to the Capitalism side. Also, because of the Sino-Soviet split, the Soviet Union also

wanted to limit the influence of China.

During the Vietnam War, besides China, the Soviet Union is Northern Vietnam’s

greatest and most important ally, or more precisely, benefactor. After the military escalation of

the US in Vietnam in 1965, the Soviet Union increased the aids to Vietnam to balance the force

of the 2 sides. This aid included aircraft, radar, artillery, air defense missiles, ammunition, food

and medical supplies. The Soviet Union also sent Soviet military personnel to North Vietnam,

who served in Indo-China as advisers and occasionally as combatants. Jet-fighter pilot,

aircrews, anti-aircraft gunners and military officers of Northern Vietnam were also sent to

Soviet territories for special trainings. The cumulative military and economic aid from USSR

to North Vietnam from 1968 to 1973 exceeded 3 billion USD before adjusting inflation.

In 1973, the US government agreed to sign the Paris Peace Accords to establish peace in

Vietnam and to end the Vietnam War. In 1975, the South Vietnam government surrendered,

Vietnam became a Socialistic country.

The Korean War

At the end of WWII in 1945, Korea was freed from Japanese control. North Korea was

occupied by the Soviets while the South was occupied by American forces. By 1948, the
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country was divided in half at the 38th Paralled with the capitalist South by Syngman Rheea

and the communist North by Kim-il Sung. The Soviets troops withdrew from Korea in 1948

and US. troops withdrew in 1949. However, North and South Korea as enemies of one another

would not accept the border between them as permanent.

The North Koreans attacked South Korea on June 25th, 1950, advancing across the

38th Parallel. Around 75000 troops of the North Korean People’s Army defeated the Republic

of Korea’s Army with success, capturing the capital city of Seoul, then occupying the whole

of South Korea except for Pusan.

This was a problem as President Truman and the United States wanted to contain the

spread of communism by preventing the domino effect. That is, if Korea fell, so would other

countries to the ideology. South Korea appealed for support from US, and the United States

pushed a resolution to the United Nations Security Council. However, the resolution for North

Korea to withdraw its army was ignored. As a result, UN has approved an army made of

international force of 16 nations leading by US to send help to South Korea.

It seems that the Soviet Union intervention in the Korean War is not clear. However, just after

the Soviet Union - American division at the 38th parallel, the Soviet Union supported North

Korea in building and forming the Communist government. On the surface, the Korean War

seems to have no SoViet intervention. In reality, the Soviet Union played a pivotal role in

influencing China's engagement. At the same time, the Soviet Union also secretly participated

in helping the North Korea in air force.

Conclusion

Lasting for 20 years (1955-1975), the Vietnam war took away more than 2 millions

civilians lives, many of whom were wounded and were left orphans. The war caused the

significant collapse of Vietnam’s economy with the expense of production of equipment and
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material losses. However, these economic problems were short-term. On February 1994

President Bill Clinton lifted the trade barrier, and on July 11, 1995. Therefore, both countries

were able to perform trade and international transactions. Environment was also badly

damaged by the American use of high explosive bombs, napalm, chemical weapons, B-52

bombers left behind huge craters contaminated the water source an infected thousands of

marine species. Shot down planes, disused weapons, litter the ground where battlefields once

were. Napalm and Agent Orange destroyed a fifth of Vietnam’s forests and farmlands and also

due to the spraying of Agent Orange, many people were made more likely to contract cancer

and have children born with deformities. This excruciating pain is always a worthy of concern

for either Vietnam and United State.

On the other hand, The Korean war - the “proxy war” between USA and Soviet Union

- caused massive damage in regard to deaths, infrastructure and economy. To be more specific,

according to a huge body of study, in South Korea the number of casualties went up to around

2,000,000, and the figure for the North Korea was about 2,900,000. In addition, the U.N. troops

lost the lives of 150,000 soldiers, and 900,000 for the Chinese soldiers. The economics and

infrastructure were also devastatingly hurt with 60% decrease in industrial production, 78% in

agricultural output, and the losses of 600,000 houses, 5,000 schools, and 1,000 hospitals for

the North and the destruction of 900 factories as well as countless civilians, including war

orphans, being in hunger and despair for the South. Eventually, the whole country was split

into two sovereign states with legitimate government of all Korea (South Korea ended up being

a Communist state) and maintained the 38th parallel boundary. After all, the war had resulted

in hatred and pain in South and North Koreans, making them become each other’s enemy.
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References

Ronald, H. Spector, Vietnam War 1954 – 1975 (updated 11 Jan. 2018) [Online] Available at:

<https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War> [Accessed 14 Nov.2018]

CVCE, The Vietnam War (updated 7 July 2016) [Online] Available at:

<https://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/55c09dcc-a9f2-45e9-b240-

eaef64452cae/5ad21c97-4435-4fd0-89ff-b6bddf117bf4/Resources#ed26829a-7bfe-

4bc3-ae3b-a234ddac2140 > [Accessed 14 Nov. 2018]

J. Llewellyn, “Chinese and Soviet involvement in Vietnam” (updated 2018) Available at:

<https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/chinese-and-soviet-involvement/> [Accessed

14 Nov. 2018]

Stella Young Yee Shin, 2001, No Longer Forgotten: North Korea-South Korea Relations Since

the Korean War [Online] Available at:

<https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297a/North%20Kores%20South%20Kores%20Relati

ons%20Since%20the%20Korean%20War.htm> [Accessed 14 Nov. 2018]

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List of members

1. Bùi Phương Chi - 1611140013

2. Phạm Tiến Đạt – 1611140017

3. Nguyễn Mạnh Dũng - 1614140020

4. Trần Minh Châu - 1611140009

5. Hoàng Diệu Linh - 1611150053

6. Nguyễn Ngọc Thái Bảo - 1615140007

7. Nguyễn Thị Minh Hương - 1611140037

8. Phạm Khải Tú - 1611140085

9. Lê Gia Phú - 1611140067

10. Nguyễn Việt Hà - 1611140028