Free example term paper on Cold War:
Communist power and influence became world threatening by 1950. The Russians exploded their first atomic weapon in August 1949. In China, a bitter civil war was brought to an end with the Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong driving the Nationalist forces under Chiang Kai-Shek off the mainland to set up a U.S. backed government on the island of Taiwan. More than 500 million people came under communist rule as a result of the defeat. A Cold War hallmark was a U.S. foreign policy to support and defend the Republic of China (Nationalist) government against any attack by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), by basically stationing the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet in the Strait of Taiwan.

Korean War
The Korean War was the first “hot” confrontation of the Cold War. Korea had been invaded and occupied by Imperial Japan for 30 years. When American and Soviet troops accepted the Japanese surrender, an arbitary dividing line for occupation zones was set at the 38th parallel. The Soviets set up a communist government under Kim II Sung in the North while the U.S. backed the government of Syngman Rhee in the South. In a bid to reunite the country under the communist banner, the North, equipped with Soviet weapons, invaded the South in June 1950.

In response, the U.S. led a United Nations sanctioned military force under the command of famed World War II American hero General Douglas MacArthur to counter the North Korean advance. The mainly American UN forces could not stop the invasion. UN forces were pushed all the way down the Korean peninsula where they held a perimeter around Pusan. The perceived readiness of U.S. ground forces was called into question. In September 1950 MacArthur executed an amphibious landing behind enemy lines at Inchon, on the Korean west coast. Simultaneously, the UN forces were able to break out of Pusan. Steadily the North Koreans were pushed back up the peninsula. By October 1950 UN troops had advanced as far north as portions of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. Feeling obviously threatened by a United States presence on their border, Communist China counterattacked in November 1950 throwing over half a million soldiers across the river causing a United Nations forces rout. But by the Spring of 1951 UN troops had rallied from the retreat and fought their way back north to a position slightly above the 38th parallel. (read full text…)