To what extent was the Korean conflict of 1950 to 1953 a 'turning point' in the Cold War
To what extent was the Korean conflict of 1950 to 1953 a 'turning point' in the Cold War? The beginnings of the Cold War, the period between 1945 and 1949, were fraught with a mutual tension and distrust sustained chiefly by the bold, economically expansionist policies of the USA and the defensive, albeit retaliatory, responses of the Soviet Union. Until 1950, America had relied upon her own currency in curtailing what she perceived as the spread of communist influence. The start of the Korean War, however, saw the revampment of American policy and the globalisation, as well as the exacerbation, of the existing superpower tension. As such, to a large extent, the Korean conflict was a departure from previous trends in the American-Soviet conflict. In reaffirmation of my stand is the fact that the battlefield had expanded beyond the borders of continental Europe into the environmentally hostile regions of Korea, and that the participants of this 'new' Cold War were no longer confined to the superpowers themselves. At the same time, though only to a slight degree, the Korean War was still reminiscent of the old, European Cold War, as manifested by Truman's citing of the Domino Theory in the face of an invasion of South Korea by the communist North, a typical instance of American failure to fully grasp the situation with which they are dealing. Of foremost importance to the
