Korean War[1950-1953]

Syngman RheeFree South

Kim Il-SungCommunist

North

“*Domino Theory*”- if one country turns communist, then its neighbor will also

“*Domino Theory*”- if one country turns communist, then its neighbor will also

*Korean War*

[1950-1953]

The Shifting Map of Korea[1950-1953]

Why did China enter the war?

• UN forces pushed north to China

• Crossed 38th parallel– Yalu River and border

with China• Mao Zedong already

made it clear that China would not tolerate foreign forces on border

The Korean War Armistice

• Designed to insure an end to warfare and all acts of armed force in Korea until a definitive peaceful could be achieved

• It was signed on July 27,1953

• Covered issues such as - exchange of prisoners of war- location of a demarcation line

• Intended as a temporary measure, but the 38th parallel remains standing even today.

Map of Korea

H-Bomb

• Scientists believed that you could create a hydrogen bomb in which atoms would be fused with a force a 1 million tons

• Truman authorized this project & the U.S. dropped their 1st H-bomb in Nov. 1952

• A year later, the Soviets did the same.

In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.

Americans questioned whether their children were learning to read, write, and calculate well enough to succeed in an increasingly competitive world.

The National Defense Education Act of 1958 provided low-cost loans to college students as well as funding for science and foreign language facilities.

• The fear was that the technology of Sputnik could allow the Soviets to reach the US mainland with an ICBM.

Nikita Khrushchev• He was the head of

the Communist Party in Feb 1956

• Stalin’s successor

• Openly criticized the way that Stalin treated his people

*U-2 Spy Incident (1960)*Col. Francis Gary

Powers’ plane was shot down over Soviet airspace.

angered Khrushchev, hurt US/USSR relations