Was the Korean war necessary?

Answer 1

No war is necessary if one is willing to accept being forced to live under an oppressive regime without resisting and if one is willing to accept the injustice of tyranny.

The Korean War could possibly have been avoided had the breaking up of the Japanese Empire after World War II been handled better. Unfortunately a partition of Korea into two countries was allowed, one under Russian influence, the other under American. Believing that the United States would do little to prevent it, North Korea attempted to force the reunification of the two Koreas by invading the South in summer of 1950.

This might have been prevented had it been made clearer by both the U.S. and the United Nations that a forceable attempt by one Korea or the other to reunify the country would not be allowed.

The North Koreans were greatly encouraged by the fall of Nationalist China to the Communists in 1949. I believe once the North Koreans had invaded South Korea the war was necessary and that failure to act would have been disastrous. It would have threatened Japan, Taiwan and much of the Far East.

In these respects, action in Korea was clearly necessary. I do not believe the later American involvement in Vietnam was as clearly justified, although our intentions were good at the time. As in Korea, the war in Vietnam could have been avoided if the Post World War II events had been better handled.

Answer 2

Absolutely!.

It was the first major test for the new United Nations. It proved that naked aggression, as displayed by North Korea and its Communist Chinese allies, could no longer succeed against the combined forces available to the United Nations, acting in concert, against any aggressor.