How far should the outcome of the Korean War be seen as a triumph for the USA?

A-Level: History

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The question of whether the Korean War was a triumph for the USA is a complex one. From very early on in the cold war, going right back to the Truman doctrine, the USA was clear that they would contain communism where ever it rose in the “free world”. In broad terms they achieved this in Korea, because they managed to contain communism within North Korea, and prevent it expanding in to South Korea. However later in the NSC68 document Korea was not listed as being a priority. This was important because Kim Il Sung invaded South Korea because he thought that the USA would not get involved, if Korea was included in the NSC68 the Korean war could have been avoided. Furthermore, the USA changed their policy towards Korea before and during the war. Before the war it was not considered a priority to defend. The USA then entered the war backed by the UN with the aim of “containing” Communism by pushing the North Korean forces back to the 38th parallel, after the USA were winning the war they then changed the policy to defeating communism by taking over North Korea and uniting it with the south under an American-friendly capitalist regime. After the Chinese entered the war and pushed the UN forces back to the 38th parallel the USA then changed the aim again back to “containing” Communism and installing the border between North and South Korea at the 38th parallel. This constant change of aims of the war for the USA makes it very difficult to judge whether the war was a success at all for the USA. Moreover, the war lasted for over 3 years, over a very small amount of land, in which just before the war started the USA had considered not worth defending. These factors coupled with the large lose of life made the war deeply unpopular in America, and many thought that the war was not worth fighting
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