Korean War Lessons

Dear Mr. Eisenhower,
There are many lessons that can be learned from the war, which are that the UN will be forced to help if other countries go out of line. This shows that this group is better than the League of Nations which just let Italy and Japan invade other countries without using military force against them. Also, it shows that the US should pick its generals more wisely and make sure that they agree with the idea of containment or whichever policy the president approves rather than having a general that has a different goal and agenda than the president.
The US aims in Korea were to keep it from becoming communist. The support of the UN helped because they were able to condemn the actions of the North Koreans and tell them to withdraw, and when this did not happen, and so the UN was now committed to using member forces to drive the north Koreans out of South Korea. The US achieved its aim of getting the North Korean Communists out of South Korea, but MacArthur wanted to take North Korea as well but Truman believed in containment. MacArthur should not have been allowed to invade North Korea, because Trumans policy of containment was working fine, and we only needed to keep South Korea anti-communist. The point of the invasion was not to change the communism in North Korea, but to repel the communists from South Korea in order to “contain” communism. MacArthur was removed because he openly threated a war against China and Truman had already ruled out an attack on China because it would also involve the USSR and at this time that was too risky. We did not want to get into another war, and MacArthur was openly threatening and saying that we would. The military and civilian costs of having another war are too great. Also, the fact that most of the troops that were sent into Korea by the UN were americans shows that we would be the country that would have to provide most of the military if there was a war.
The policy of containment did succeed because we were able to keep the communists out of South Korea and contain them in North Korea. The main point of containment was not to take back North Korea from communism, but just to make sure that it did not make South Korea communist, and this goal was achieved.

War in the Pacific

1. What was the importance of the Battle of Midway?
The American's repelled the Japanese assault, destroying over 200 Japanese planes, 4 aircraft carriers, and a cursor. It also marked a turning point in the war in the Pacific because afterwards the Allies, began island hopping towards Japan.

2. What strategy did the United States adopt in fighting Japan?
The United States adopted the strategy or island hopping. This was when they would advance towards japan island by island slowly pushing the Japanese people back toward japan.

3. Why did the Japanese fight so hard on Iwo Jima?
Th Japanese fought so hard on Iwo Jima because it was the japanese's last defense from the Americans attacking Okanawa, which was the last island they had to attack before they would be at the mainland, Japan. Also, they had created tunnel systems in the island and mountains, and so they were very hard to flush out.

4. Why did the Allies believe Okinawa was a foretaste of an invasion of Japan?
The Allies believed that Okinawa was a foretaste of the invasion of Japan because of the fact that the japanese fought so hard at Iwo Jima, which showed they would rather die than surrender, and this was because they were 2 islands away from Japan, and so they were wondering how they would defend the actual homeland. They knew they would fight harder than they did at Iwo Jima.


5. What was the Manhattan Project?
The Manhattan Project was the project to build the Atomic Bomb, and this was created because we did not want to invade Japan.


6. Ultimately, why did President Truman decide to drop atomic bombs on Japan?
President Truman decided to drop the atomic bombs on Japan to save the lives of the millions of Americans that would die assaulting Japan.