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Is the Korean War the cold war?

Updated: 8/23/2023
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Wiki User

13y ago

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It depends who is being asked.

One could say that these two wars are one and the same because an armistice, ending the fighting, was signed in 1953, but the conflict that sparked the Korean War was still very alive and continued on. The United States wanted to contain communism and the Soviets wanted to spread it through Europe. The Cold War is often referred to beginning immediately after WWII, and ending in 1991, but that wasn't decided until later. Leaders could not have forseen the longevity of this Conflict. Today, the Korean War can be considered the "Young Cold War" because Kim Il Sung and North Korea was Stalin's first attempt to put his ideas into action. The Cold War Conflict truly was a war, it was just a type the world was unfamiliar with because both sides could have made use of nuclear weapons. Leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States were afraid of the destruction that would be brought to the world, in addition to the risk of starting WWIII.

Some historians believe that the Cold War began with the Bolshevik revolution.

Another view . . .

No, the Korean War was not the Cold War. The Cold War was the term used to describe the situation between the United States and the Soviet Union which was marked by hostile intentions but no actual hostilities. The Korean War was an undeclared war with actual hostilities and military action. The Korean War was partly a result of the Cold War in that South Korea and the United States (and the United Nations allies) fought militarily against North Korea and the Soviet Union and Communist Red China. Absent the backdrop of the Cold War, the Korean War might not have occurred at least with the participation of the super powers engaged in the Cold War.

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13y ago
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10y ago

Simple answer: YES.

The Cold War is a general term for a series of proxy conflicts betweenthe United States and the Soviet Union along with their allies . Both sides had overwhelmingly powerful armaments (like long range bombers and nuclear missiles) so they couldn't directly fight each other without destroying the entire world. Instead, they tried to reduce the power of the other nation by having other countries side agaist their enemy, which led to "weaker" countries being used as a means of fighting.

The Korean war broke out because communist North Korea invaded South Korea, which led to a US-USSR conflict where China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union squared off against the the United States, South Korea, and several U.N. members.

Vietnam War was basically a war initiated by the United States and South Vietnam (the reasons are controversial) against North Vietnam and its allies, the Soviet Union and China.

There are other series of important conflicts in the era of cold war such as the Soveit Unions' invasion of Afghanistan.

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13y ago

The Vietnam War was a proxy war that was fought as during the Cold War as a part of the policy of containment. The USSR was supporting Ho Chi Minh's communist regime in Northern Vietnam and the USA did not want communism to spread farther than the USSR itself and so they fought against them on the side of Southern Vietnam.

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Q: Is the Korean War the cold war?
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