William Stueck

‘An Alliance Forged in Blood’: The American Occupation of Korea, the Korean War, and the US–South Korean Alliance

Abstract The US occupation of Korea from 1945 to 1948 was not notable for its success. The volatile interaction between the occupiers and the occupied provided an important context for its relatively rapid conclusion and for Washingtons ineffective employment of deterrence in the lead-up to the June 1950 North Korean attack on South Korea. This essay describes the volatile interaction between Americans and Koreans on the peninsula and the circumstantial, psychological, and cultural factors behind it. The essay concludes by analyzing the psychological impact of the Korean War on the relationship and how this and later cultural changes have made possible an enduring alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea.

To End the Unending War

The Korean War never has been a “forgotten war” for Koreans who lived through the brutal conflict and still live under the two competing states that it helped to establish as permanent entities. Yet, the experiences of the Korean people often have taken a backseat in the study of the war. This review essay introduces and assesses an important work that challenges this view. Korean scholar Dong-Choon Kim argues that the wartime experience of the Korean people needs serious analysis. By placing the Korean experience at the front and center of his examination, Kim provides a fuller understanding of this unending war.

Remembering the Kwangju Incident

Books reviewed in this article: William H. Gleysteen Jr., Massive Enganglement, Marginal Influence: Carter and Korea in Crisis John A. Wickham, Korea on the Brink: From the “12/12 Incident” to the Kwangju Uprising, 1979–1980

The Korean War: An International History.

This international history of the Korean War argues that by its timing, its course, and its outcome it functioned as a substitute for World War III. Stueck draws on recently available materials from seven countries, plus the archives of the United Nations, to present a detailed narrative of the diplomacy of the conflict and a broad assessment of its critical role in the Cold War. He emphasizes the contribution of the United Nations, which at several key points in the conflict provided an important institutional framework within which less powerful nations were able to restrain the aggressive tendencies of the United States. In Stuecks view, contributors to the UN cause in Korea provided support not out of any abstract commitment to a universal system of collective security, but because they saw an opportunity to influence US policy. Chinese intervention in Korea in the autumn of 1950 brought with it the threat of world war, but at that time and in other instances prior to the armistice in July 1953, Americas NATO allies and Third World neutrals succeeded in curbing American adventurism. While conceding the tragic and brutal nature of the war, Stueck suggests that it helped to prevent the occurrence of an even more destructive conflict in Europe.

The Road to Confrontation: American Policy Toward China and Korea, 1947-1950.@@@The Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947.

The Description for this book, The Origins of the Korean War, Volume I: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947, will be forthcoming.