To what extent was the Korean conflict of 1950 to 1953 a 'turning point' in the Cold War

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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 turning point of the superpower enmity is the implementation of NSC 68. As aforementioned, before the conflict extended to Asia, the USA had capitalised upon its financial power by channelling economic aid to client states in combating Soviet communism. This policy of economic expansion was no longer adhered to in Korea, as demonstrated by the NSC 68 which marked the militarisation of the Cold War in essence. Under internal pressure, the Truman administration propounded an expansion of American military forces and atomic stockpile, as well as the hastened development of a thermonuclear bomb to remain a step ahead of the Soviets in the nuclear field. This new policy of 'rollback' is evident from the period of 1950 to 1953, during which the USA had increased its military output sevenfold and was in a state of
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preparedness for war. Believing in the necessity for the US military to outnumber or be on par with the large Soviet army in terms of number, Truman advocated an increase in military spending and managed to extract billions of dollars from Congress to be spent on the expansion of American armed forces, the rendering of military succour to potential allies, and the development of the hydrogen bomb. The president's belief in the importance of armed and nuclear supremacy also resonated with Washington as a whole. In addition, in response to North Korean invasion of the democratic South, Truman had called ...

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