How far was the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 'made in Moscow'?

(2004)

That the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 was ‘made in Moscow’ is to assume that the Korean War was essentially an extension of the Cold War and not locally driven. Since the Soviet Union was the only other superpower to challenge the United States of America in the Cold War period following the end of the Second World War in 1945, it would not be erroneous to connect the interests of Moscow to with the Cold War motivations of the Soviet Union.

The above statement, though, while suggests that the origins of the Korean War is found in the Cold War rivalry, does not preclude the possibility that local factors such as rivalry between national leaders might have blown the scale of war as to escalate the Cold War tensions between the two superpowers. However, one must also note that in stopping the buck at the Soviet Union alone, there is a danger that the US stake or even interests in the war would not be accounted for, hence painting a lop-sided view of the situation. Nevertheless, in terms of the beginnings, it is fair to focus the attention on the Soviet Union, which frankly gave the first go-ahead sign to the invading North Koreans, who otherwise would probably not have charged ahead, or at least not then.

The central issue here would be to determine whether the Korean War was kick-started primarily as a civil conflict or as a result of the decision of one of the Cold War factions, hence attributable to the ongoing superpower confrontation.

The Korean War was, in fact, a culmination of a civil strife, regional tensions as well as a Moscow-induced, therefore, superpower confrontation. In order to decide which best describes the outbreak of the war, we will examine the motives behind the different direct and indirect parties of the war. It would also be useful to consider how the involvement of external parties escalated the situation. By and large, though, it is to a great extent true that Moscow had the most determinant role to play in the outbreak of the Korean War.

At this juncture, it is important to recognize the complexity of positions of both Moscow and Washington when it came to the Korean peninsula. The understanding of the outbreak of the Korean War should also be brought into the context of the implications of European conflicts and consequently the superpowers’ priorities. This would hopefully preclude any naïve conclusions about the roles of the superpowers engaged in the Cold War.

It is in most ways, appropriate to put the greatest weight of responsibility to Moscow for having sparked off the Korean War. For starters, both North and South Korea lacked the military capabilities to invade the other on a full scale. For some time prior to the actual outbreak of the war, both sides had been conducting raids across the 38th parallel drawn by the superpowers at the downfall of Japan and the withdrawal of its forces from the peninsula in 1945.

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Neither Korean leader could mount a full-fledged invasion on its own and therefore each would need to persuade his superpower sponsor to provide the necessary equipment and support. Thus the crucial question leading up to just before the war broke out was whether the USSR or the US would vet an attempt to reunify Korea by military means. Although after repeated attempts, Kim from the North finally got a green light from Stalin in early in 1950, while all Rhee from the South gathered from Washington were “yellow lights shading over into red” according to John Lewis Gaddis.

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