Should we have fought harder in the Korean War?

[Minimalist]

The US may have fought longer to save Europeans.  I doubt it would have made any effort to save Koreans.  This is 1953, you know.

The proxy war with the Commies (Russia) was not working out so well.  That was our only concern.

[CapnAwesome]

Yeah, but should we have? I mean look at what happened. Also was the Korean war worth fighting? I'm having a hard time saying that it wasn't right now.

The South Korean regime wasn't that much better than the North Korean one at the time in question. As usual, it was mainly the civilians suffering, with millions of casualties and cities razed to the ground.

What if isn't a valid question in history, as you well know. Kim the older could have overstretched himself by swallowing the whole peninsula and his regime could have fallen sooner. On the other hand, China would have backed him, no matter what. The questions to be asked has two aspects. What would have been better for the Korean people at large? And what would have been better for the West?

Okay, so it has two aspects, although I'm mostly talking about for the Korean people.

[abaris]

Okay, so it has two aspects, although I'm mostly talking about for the Korean people.

Who knows? They might have vanished entirely, since Mc Arthur wanted to drop the bomb. If Truman hadn't stopped and removed him, he would have gone through with it.

It all depends on what you mean by tried harder and even then it's too many of unknowns to form an opinion. The country was already in ruins and both sides only negotiated because they were exhausted. The South recovered, the North never did. It's also worth considering that the North has become a pseudo religious feudal system since then. Which it hadn't been in the early 50ies. With China as their only supporter and no enemy left, since (what if), the South had been defeated, it might have taken the same course as China. Stalin had already lost interest and died before the war was finally over. His main interest had been to bind as many western troops as possible anyway. Kind of like the West and Afghanistan, some 25 years later.

[vorlon13]

[Cato]

I would have preferred non-intervention resulting in a world that was never exposed to this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=mIQToVqDMb8

[Catholic_Lady]

I don't have an answer. But if anyone is interested in some toilet bowl reading here's an interesting article about North Korea written by one of my favorite bloggers:  http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/20-things-...as-in.html

Some pretty crazy/bizarre stuff going on over there.

[Minimalist]

But if anyone is interested in some toilet bowl reading

You can be very strange.

[vorlon13]

I don't have an answer. But if anyone is interested in some toilet bowl reading here's an interesting article about North Korea written by one of my favorite bloggers:  http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/20-things-...as-in.html

Some pretty crazy/bizarre stuff going on over there.

Like building a hotel, over 1000 feet tall, with 7 revolving restaurants on top in a country that does not allow visitors and has no food ??

[Catholic_Lady]

But if anyone is interested in some toilet bowl reading

You can be very strange.

But you love it, gramps.

[Minimalist]

You're quite funny.