Free Response 2: Korea

               For my second open response, I will be talking about American ideas gained or lost from the Korean War.  To begin with, this was a war that highly controversial, and was largely caused by the United States' cold war with the USSR. It began as the Soviets supplied the Northern half of Korea with weapons to invade the Southern democratic half. It wasn't until North Korea took almost all of South Korea, that the United States felt that it was necessary to step in. Eventually after multiple years of fighting, the originally boundary was eventually reassigned (the thirty-eighth parallel). The main issue that the United States feared was the fact the given a common goal, the communist countries will bind together to form a unified force. The Chinese and the Soviets both supported the communist North Korea during this war.
             I feel that the most important issue with this war was the effect it had on our government and our home front. First, our government was effected. Truman, the president, had an issue regarding McArthur's opinions. This led to a conflict that ended in Truman firing his most prized general. This reinforced the president's power as the commander and chief. Also, the government learned that we need to contain communism because it was a threat to spread. Second, the Korean war created a real issue on the Home front. The real problem was that we started to distrust each other. People were labeled as possible communists, when they really were not. This created conflict within the country.