Korean War - Effects

Effects of the Korean War on nations:
United States and the Soviet Union:
The US lost approximately 36,516 men, and had over 15,000 men missing in action or taken as POWs, a small yet significant number. The US nearly risked drawing the USSR and PRC into a total war, but UN and US efforts prevented this. Following the Vietnam War, the American public forgot about the war. It is our opinion that the war, as the US’ first post-WWII conflict, alerted the US to the presence of military threats overseas. There was also a sharp spike in American military expenditure and conscription thereafter. The US also set up a chain of military bases worldwide, including in Asia, as part of its containment strategy. Thus in our view the US became more militarised as a direct result of this war.


(painting by an American artist)

We believe the war had mixed consequences for the USSR. As to its benefits, the USSR had sacrificed nearly nothing in the war. However it failed to expand Communism’s reach to cover all of Korea. It had brought the PRC and the US to a clash without its direct involvement. The war diverted US attention from post-war Europe to Asia, relieving American pressure on the USSR in Europe. The war gave the USSR time to develop cutting-edge weaponry to catch up with the US. Soviet jet pilots were also some of the aid that the USSR sent to aid China in Korea – this allowed the USSR to train its pilots in war. The US staunchly believed that it was the USSR that had masterminded the war – in secret. The US tripled its military budget following the war, mainly to defend against the USSR, and we think this was bad for the USSR as the US concentrated more on acting against the USSR and the Communist bloc after the war. The USSR was forced to expend even more resources to counter US threats thereafter.

North Korea and South Korea:
Having been extensively bombarded during the war, North Korea’s economy was affected adversely; it remains moribund today. South Korea’s economy was also heavily battered, which razed across most of the ROK; however, their economy has improved vastly since the 1960s.

North Korea’s gross domestic product (purchasing power parity) and gross domestic product per capita as compared to South Korea’s, are: $40 billion to $1.354 trillion, and $1800 to $28,000 (2008 figures, US dollars).

Syngman Rhee, whose authoritarian style and various actions earned him a poor reputation amongst many in the ROK, continued to pursue national unification and ignored economic development in his quest to rearm ROK for another war with the DPRK. He also rejected attempts to have peace with the DPRK and to allow a North-South split of Korea, as he held hopes of ruling the entire Korean peninsula. After his forced resignation over rigged elections in April 26, 1960, inter-Korean relations continued to be tense, and especially so during the Blue House Raid and Silmido incidents. South Korea’s politics reflect anti-Communism, and to our contextual knowledge South Korean administrations have mostly held the DPRK at arm’s length. South Korea has also had extensive military and economic ties with the US since the war.


( sentry on the 38 parallel on the north Korea's side)

China’s extensive trading and political relationship with North Korea ever since the war may have been caused partly by China’s aid to the North in the Korean War, which established good mutual relations.

China and others:
The war caused PRC involvement in the Korean peninsula, which continues today; it also proved China to be a military power that the US and the world could not afford to ignore. However, it worsened China’s relations with the outside world, especially with the Soviet Union, which it argued with during the war.

Other nations such as Turkey, Australia and New Zealand cooperated extensively with the UN Command and the US, which gained them more recognition as allies. The US was also more eager to include them in its treaties and alliances thereafter.

The Korean War also made the UN more active and authoritative in participating in future global issues.

Effect on the overall balance of the Cold War:

Our stand is that the Korean War ended well, as no side had achieved any significant military victory over the other, and the Cold War balance was largely unshaken: the DPRK-ROK borders had barely changed. Communism’s borders had not expanded into Asia, and the ‘status quo’ was kept. The war was a necessary show of strength by the US, and a good opportunity for the US and USSR to ‘compete’. However the war also caused the Cold War to escalate, with both America and the Soviet Union spending more on their armies and arsenals. Our observation is that the world’s polarization was visible back then. As states gathered to lend their support to either North or South Korea, they aligned themselves with their allies. The USSR and PRC supported the North, whereas the UK and other UN member nations, both large and small, backed the US and the ROK. Nations were thus aligning themselves with either the US or the USSR.

The Korean War largely turned the US from using nuclear weapons. In its subsequent “limited wars” the US was careful to use only conventional weapons and not to allow the use of nuclear weapons – although it did make many of these as a deterrent. It learnt in the Korean War, where it had avoided using the atom bomb on the PRC, that conflicts could be resolved without nuclear weapons.