Korean War Digital History Project

LESSON 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONSSUBJECT TEACHER GRADE DATE

AP World History or Global History and Geography

Christina Cone 10 May 12, 2016

OVERVIEW

This lesson utilizes veteran accounts and details found at www.kwvdm.org to allow students to practice the skills of a true historian (research, formulating questions, and analyzing sources).

TEACHER GUIDE STUDENT GUIDE

OBJECTIVES New York State Standards:Standard 1 – History of the U.S. and NYStandard 2 – World HistoryStandard 3 - GeographyStandard 4 - EconomicsStandard 5 – Civics, Citizenship, and Government

AP World History Curriculum FrameworkKey Concept 6.2 – Global Conflicts and their Consequences

New York State - Global History and Geography Framework10.6 - Unresolved Global Conflict11.9 – Cold War

Common Core Curriculum Standards:Reading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10Writing 1, 2, 4, 8, 9

Students will be able to learn about the causes, events and results of the Korean War.

Students will be able to critically interpret primary and secondary sources.

Students will be able to analyze the rationale behind certain governmental decisions.

Students will be able to hone historical thinking skills such as comparative evaluations, document analysis, political cartoon and map interpretations, and thesis development.

Students will be able to make judgments based on facts and support their position.

Students will be able to understand multiple perspectives.

Students will be able to synthesize learned material and dialogue with others.

Students will be able to work cooperatively with their peers.

INFORMATION Teacher will provide a “do now” activity to begin the class.

Half of the class will be asked to read Document A (Gromyko’s statement on American intervention in Korea) and the other half of the class will be asked to read Document B (the report of the UN Commission on Korea). I

TEACHER GUIDE STUDENT GUIDE

recommend either dividing it by one side of the room versus the other or splitting the roster and asking those with last names A-M to read one, N-Z read the other. There are guiding questions that students could answer or, they could simply be asked to read and be prepared to answer, and provide evidence to support their answer, to the question “According to their document, who started the Korean War?”

ACTIVITY The teacher will give the students “The Korean War” handout which is to accompany the PowerPoint. The teacher will begin the presentation by providing a little background and setting up some chronology. The quotes and information are from the Korean War Digital History Project website. The teacher will intersperse activities to allow the students to process, reflect and be more active participants in the learning process.

Students will follow along and fill in information. Students will then be asked to render a hypothesis from the point of view of the United States as to what caused the Korean War. Students can think-pair-share their responses. The presentation will continue briefly but once again, students will be asked to be active participants. They will be charged with coming up with a six word description of the “domino theory.” Ideas will be shared. Students will then be asked to analyze a quote of General MacArthur’s. Students will then be asked to rank the main causes of the Korean War. Students will also be asked to examine two differing viewpoints. One is an excerpt of President Truman’s News Conference where he refers to the war as merely a “police action,” and the other is the account of a private who is on the ground in Korea. Students are to answer the accompanying questions and create a comparative thesis statement. (OPTION: this could be a homework assignment). Students will then be asked to evaluate the UN decision to cross into North Korea. A whole class discussion of their ideas will follow. The presentation will continue with a map interpretation question and then more summary details of the events transpiring on the ground until mid-1951. A “Did You Know” will be shared regarding the impact of the cold weather on those fighting. An

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TEACHER GUIDE STUDENT GUIDE

excerpt from an article will be shared to allow for another opportunity for students to hear the perspective and experiences of a veteran. Students will be asked to make a judgement call and weigh in on the decision to relieve General MacArthur of his duties. Students will also be asked to explain the meaning of a political cartoon. Students will be asked to read accounts from veterans reflecting upon their return home.

SUMMARY Teacher will discuss the results of the Korean War.

Students will be asked to reflect on the reasons why the Korean War has been nicknamed “the forgotten war” and they will be asked to create a new, more appropriate nickname.

Students are to be charged with utilizing documents to craft a thesis statement addressing why the Korean War has, and continues to have, such a profound impact. Teachers certainly could have students write a complete DBQ or even just do additional required tasks of the AP World College Board course such as asking students to identify and explain point of view in the documents, provide the synthesis explanation, etc.

EXTENSION Teacher can provide an opportunity for extra credit.

Students can do their part to make sure that this event in history is not forgotten. For extra credit, they can interview a Korean War veteran from the Smithtown community.

MATERIALS RESOURCES NOTES

Handout and PowerPoint Optional for extra credit

portion: audio/video equipment

www.kwvdm.org

See Below

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Resources:

Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial, http://www.kwvdm.org/about.php?p=remarks Welcoming Remarks The Road Not Taken Statistics U.S. Policy on Korea

Excerpts taken from Goulden, Joseph C. (1982) Korea: The Untold Story of the War, NY: Times Books

A Letter Home From Korea, "Between the Lines," David J. Lutze, Fri, 5 Sep 1997. Article appeared in the Racine Journal Times (Racine Wisconsin). http://www.timesdaily.com/news/local/korean-veterans-recall-horrors-of-war/article_592d8fdf-ac4d-5829-ad04-2c96bc681735.html

Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs. United States Department of Statehttps://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/NSC68

Truman Libraryhttps://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/documents/pdf/10-1.pdf

“The Cold is Still an Enemy for Some Frostbitten Korean War Veterans,” Bor, Jonathan, March 1996, Baltimore Sun. http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-26/news/mn-8540_1_korean-war

Text of the Korean War Armistice Agreementhttp://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/korea/kwarmagr072753.html

Name___________________________________________ Period __________ Date__________Aim: Why did both Communist and Non-Communist Forces intervene in Korea? Document A - Andrei A. Gromyko: On American Intervention In Korea, 1950Statement by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, July 4,1950

The events now taking place in Korea broke out on June 25 as the result of a provocative attack by the troops of the South Korean authorities on the frontier areas of the Korean People's Democratic Republic. This attack was the outcome of a premeditated plan. From time to time Syngman Rhee himself and other representatives of the South Korean authorities had blurted out the fact that the South Korean Syngman Rhee had such a plan. As long ago as

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October 7, 1949, Syngman Rhee, boasting of success in training his army, stated outright, in an interview given to an American United Press correspondent, that the South Korean Army could capture Pyongyang in the course of three days.

On October 31, 1949, Sin Sen Mo, Defense Minister of the Syngman Rhee Government, also told newspaper correspondents that the South Korean troops were strong enough to act and take Pyongyang within a few days. Only one week before the provocative attack of the South Korean troops on the frontier areas of the Korean People's Democratic Republic, Syngman Rhee said, in a speech on June 19 in the so-called "National Assembly" where Mr. Dulles, adviser to the U.S. State Department, was present: "If we cannot protect democracy in the cold war, we shall win in a hot war."

It is not difficult to understand that representatives of the South Korean authorities could only make such statements because they felt that they had American support behind them. One month before the present developments in Korea, on May 19, 1950, Mr. Johnson, chief American administrator of aid to Korea, told the American Congress House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee that 100,000 officers and men of the South Korean Army, equipped with American weapons and trained by the American Military Mission, bad completed their preparations and could begin war at any time.

It is known that only a few days before the Korean events, the United States Defense Secretary, Mr. Johnson, and the State Department adviser, Mr. Dulles, arrived in Japan and had special conferences with General MacArthur, and that afterwards Mr. Dulles visited South Korea and went to frontier areas on the 38th Parallel.

Only one week before the events-on June 19-Mr. Dulles, adviser to the State Department, declared in the above-mentioned "National Assembly" of South Korea that the United States was ready to give all necessary moral and material support to South Korea which was fighting against Communism.

These facts speak for themselves and need no comment. . . .

The United States Government tries to justify armed intervention against Korea by alleging that it was undertaken on the authorization of the Security Council. The falsity of such an allegation strikes the eye. What really happened? It is known that the United States Government had started armed intervention in Korea before the Security Council was summoned to meet on June 27, without taking into consideration what decision the Security Council might take. Thus the United States Government confronted the United Nations Organization with a fait accompli, with a violation of peace. The Security Council merely rubber-stamped and back-dated the resolution proposed by the United States Government, approving the aggressive actions which this Government had undertaken. . . .

The illegal resolution of June 27, adopted by the Security Council under pressure from the United States Government, shows that the Security Council is acting, not as a body which is charged with the main responsibility for the maintenance of peace, but as a tool utilized by the ruling circles of the United States for unleashing war. This resolution of the Security Council constitutes a hostile act against peace. If the Security Council valued the cause of peace, it should have attempted to reconcile the fighting sides in Korea before it adopted such a scandalous resolution. Only the Security Council and the United Nations Secretary-General could have done this. However, they did not make such an attempt, evidently knowing that such peaceful action contradicts the aggressors' plans.

(1)What is implied about the relationship between the South Korean government, the United States government, and the United Nations in Document A?

(2)According to Document A, why did the United States intervene in Korea?

(3)What descriptive words does the author use to accuse the United States of starting the Korea War?

Document B – Report of the United Nations Commission on Korea, 1950A. Responsibility for the aggression. The invasion of the territory of the Republic of Korea by the armed forces of the North Korean authorities, which began on June 25, 1950, was an act of aggression initiated without warning and without provocation, in execution of a carefully prepared plan. This plan of aggression, it is now clear, was an

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essential part of the policy of the North Korean authorities, the object of which was to secure control over the whole of Korea. If control could not be gained by peaceful means, it would be achieved by overthrowing the Republic of Korea, either by undermining it from within or, should that prove ineffective, by resorting to direct aggression. As the methods used for undermining the Republic from within proved unsuccessful, the North Korean authorities launched an invasion of the territory of the Republic of Korea.

B. Origin and nature of the conflict. The origin of the conflict is to be found in the artificial division of Korea and in the failure, in 1945, of the occupying Powers to reach agreement on the method to be used for giving independence to Korea. This failure was not due to anything inherent in the attitude of the people of Korea themselves, but was a reflection of those wider and more fundamental differences of outlook and policy which have become so marked a feature of the international scene. This artificial division was consolidated by the exclusion from North Korea of the United Nations Temporary Commission, which had been charged by the General Assembly to observe the holding of elections on a democratic basis in the whole of Korea. In the circumstances, it was decided to hold such elections in South Korea alone. Had internationally supervised elections been allowed to take place in the whole of Korea, and had a unified and independent Korea thereby come into existence, the present conflict could never have arisen.

It was hoped that, at some stage, it might be possible to break down the economic and social barriers between the two political entities as a step toward unification. That too proved illusory, as the North Korean authorities persisted ill their policy,' of aiming at the overthrow of the Republic of Korea. After the consolidation of the division of Korea, propaganda and hostile activities on the part of the North Korean authorities accentuated tension which, in turn, stiffened the attitude of the Government and people of the Republic of Korea.

Finally, as the division of the country and the resulting antagonisms were artificial, the Commission believes that, when the conditions under which they arose disappear, it will be possible for the Korean people of both North and South to come again together, to live in peace and to build the strong foundations of a free, democratic Korea.

(1)According to Document B, who is responsible for the start of the Korean War? Explain the aggressor’s motivation.

(2)What descriptive words does Document B use to describe North Korea?

(3)How does the document describe the division of Korea after World War 2?

NAME: ___________________________________Document Based Question: Korean War

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Directions: Using the documents provided, craft a thesis statement addressing why the Korean War has, and continues to have, such a profound impact.

Document One

Source: Korean War Legacy Foundation, http://www.kwvdm.org/war.php?p=statistic

Document Two“Some 40,000 American troops remain on duty there (Korea) as a trip-wire defense against any North Korean invasion. And from time to time the new generation of soldiers asks, ‘What am I doing in this obscure little part of the world?’—exactly what many Americans asked when it all began, in June 1950.”

- Goulden, 1982: xxvi

Document ThreeTo simply reference the Korean War as a “turning point” in American history would be an understatement. The events that took place on the Korean Peninsula immediately after 1945 defined an era of global interaction, and led to the bifurcation of the world into two spheres. If one really considers the scale and impact of the Korean War, calling it simply the “Korean Conflict” is not only a misnomer, but an insult to those who lost their lives on the Korean Peninsula during that time.

Jongwoo HanProject Director

Korean Peninsula Affairs Center (KPAC)

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Document Four

At

Imjingak, the most northern village in Korea open to all South Korean civilians, a peace park is dedicated

to families separated when the peninsula was divided after World War II. The Freedom Bridge, connecting

North and South, is where 13,000 prisoners of war were liberated in 1953. Colored ribbons flutter in the

breeze, tied to the fence by South Koreans to remember family members still living in the North, and

honoring those who have died.

- NZ HeraldBy Donna McIntyre

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11505708Photo credit, Christina Cone

Document FiveIt is dialectical that once Korea was of no interest to the American leadership, it was ignored completely

and divided at the 38th parallel. America is responsible for the Korean division and unwittingly inviting the

North Korean attack; however, America also shed blood and secured freedom for Koreans during the

Korean War. Today, the Republic of Korea as the most substantial and vibrant democratic state in Asia and

the 13th largest economy in the world is impossible to imagine without the contributions made by brave

young Americans.

Jongwoo HanProject Director

Korean Peninsula Affairs Center (KPAC)

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Document Six On October 30, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved National Security Council Paper No. 162/2 (NSC 162/2). The top secret document made clear that America’s nuclear arsenal must be maintained and expanded to meet the communist threat, but at less cost. NSC 162/2 indicated the growing reliance of the United States on its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent to communist aggression. Its approval by the President was a definite sign of a new foreign policy that depended on more cost efficient nuclear weapons to fight the Cold War. Limited conflicts with conventional weapons would be replaced with massive retaliation with the threat of atomic weapons.

Document SevenAir WarThe US may have killed 20% of the population of Korea, said General Curtis Lemay, who was involved in the US air war on Korea.

For three years, Korea - both South and North - was one single free-fire zone: A UN air assault demolished most of Seoul; the US Air Force carpet-bombed North Korea with incendiaries and explosives, dropping 635,000 tons of explosive bombs and up to 40,000 tons of napalm. The destruction within North Korean cities and towns ranged from 40 percent to nearly 100 percent. (9) …North Korea's large dams, which provided irrigation water and generated electricity, were bombed, some at the onset of the rice-growing season….

General William Dean, as a POW in North Korea, observed that "most of the towns and villages he saw were just 'rubble or snowy open spaces.'" Chief Justice William O. Douglas visited Korea in the summer of 1952 and avowed "I had seen the war-battered cities of Europe; but I had not seen devastation until I had seen Korea…" (11)

The Korean War: Forgotten, Unknown and UnfinishedFriday, 12 July 2013 09:29 By H. Patricia Hynes, Truthout | Historical Analysis

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17533-the-korean-war-forgotten-unknown-and-unfinished

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