1
Albert Einstein once said, “So long as there are men, there will be war.” The United
States is no stranger to war, it is a country founded upon battling for freedom and democracy.
The United States has made it its mission to spread democracy, fight terrorism, and end
communist aggression in all corners of the earth. This quest has led to a manifest destiny by
spreading democracy to any country that requires support from foreign or internal aggressors.
This has led the U.S. to get involved in wars around the globe whenever there is a threat to this
ideology. Before the Korean War, the U.S. tried its best to avoid conflicts with foreign nations,
allowing other nations to act as they pleased as long as they did not threaten our way of life. U.S.
success rates when it comes to completing missions have taken a turn for the worse following the
failure in Korea. Finally, technological advancements following the Korean War brought about
the biggest change in how wars are fought. The Korean War was a turning point in American
military history and permanently changed how it fought wars.
The Mission Had Changed
Before the Korean War, the United States lived as a relatively secluded nation. Following
the words of the first president, George Washington to avoid dealings with foreign nations and
not make any permanent alliances.1 They would typically only deal with foreign nations for trade
and avoid conflicts unless absolutely necessary. This was the American way until World War I
when submarines began to attack the U.S. civilian ships traveling in the ocean. These acts, as
well as the Zimmerman Telegrams, threatened American lives and forced Congress to issue a
declaration of war. Like every war that came before this, Congress had to be the one to allow the
1 (Washington 1776)
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mobilization of troops into battle. When a declaration of war was presented, the United States
always had a clear mission. Go to a foreign (or domestic) land, neutralize the threat, and bring
stability to the area of interest. However, the Korean War changed this drastically.
For the first time in decades, we had entered into conflict with a foreign nation without a
declaration of war. The power to go to war without an official declaration was given to the
Commander in Chief AKA the president. This would have unforeseen consequences for many
years to come. This small oversight would give the president authority to deploy U.S. troops to
nearly any country to “bring stability” to the region and fight off communism. While this is not
necessarily bad, it diluted the military mission and began to cause confusion about what was
being fought for.
The days of isolationism in the United States would end when the National Security
Council introduced the NSC-68 paper to U.S. officials. This new policy would call for a massive
build-up of the United States military capabilities to oppose the ever-growing communist threat
in Europe. 2 The president's ability to deploy forces combined with the new government policy
led to troops being sent to countries to fight for reasons only known by politicians. This
confusion led soldiers to believe that they were going to war dying for nothing. The civilians
back home shared this confusion, and for the first time, the United States was not unified in its
cause for war.
With the change in mission clarity as well as less support from the soldiers themselves
the United States military began to see a decline in its successes overseas. Before the Korean
War, the American population (for the most part) always supported the fight. In World War I, the
population supported the decision to fight because innocents were being harmed by foreign
2 (Office of the Historian 1950)
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aggressors. In World War II the United States population supported the war because of the attack
on Pearl Harbor. When the United States entered the Korean War there was no clear enemy, the
main objective was to stop the spread of communism.
War of ideology
In 1952 the CIA created a secret document on the subject of ideological warfare, which
would set the tone for warfare in the years to come. In this document, the CIA spoke of the
growing confusion of the communist threat by saying “Yet we are still badly confused about the
true nature of the communist menace, and many of our leaders differ about the character of what
we are fighting.” 3 This quote backs up the thought that the tide of war had changed after
entering the Korean War, stating even military leaders are not sure who the real enemy is. Before
we had the Axis powers, but now the public enemy number one was an idea.
While we (as in the United States) never succeeded in the mission to stop communism,
the tide had changed following the end of the Cold War. A new enemy had entered the stage, and
its name was terrorism. In the 1990s terrorism in the Middle East had begun to rise, distracting
the U.S. from the communist threat. While we did not fully enter into a war against terrorism
until September 2001 with the attack on the World Trade Center, it has its roots in the 1990s
Operation Desert Storm.
The 1990s had a clear enemy with the Gulf War and the early 2000s with Osama Bin
Laden. After both leaders of their organizations were neutralized, it was believed that the War on
3 (CIA 1952)
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Terror was close to an end. But ideological warfare is like a hydra if you cut off one head two
more will take its place. This was apparent when Al Qaeda began to dissipate, and ISIS rose from
the ashes. Unlike the Nazi Party in World War II, which disappeared after the defeat of Hitler,
this new enemy seemed to only multiply when it was close to defeat. This was the direct
consequence of ideological warfare, when there is no clear enemy to be defeated it is impossible
to win. In recent years the U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East has left many soldiers and
civilians what the purpose of the last 20 years of conflict has achieved. This leads back to the
earlier point of the decline of mission success due to confusion about who the true enemy was
following the Korean War.
A New Age
The Korean War was a major turning point for the world, especially when it came to
technology. Militaries around the globe began to develop into terrifying forces, so the United
States had to grow and adapt to this change to stay afloat. One major change the United States
made was the creation of the Air Force. The United States Air Force was created in 1947 by
President Truman. Before the Korean War the “air force” was a section of aviation under the
army, but with the ever-growing need for planes and aerial combat, the section was organized
into the United States Air Force. The most notable change at this time was the replacement of the
F-51 Mustang and F-82 Twin Mustang, which got replaced with the P-80 and F-86 Sabre. These
two jets, unlike their predecessors, were turbine-powered which meant more speed and the
ability to take down enemies more efficiently. 4
4 (National Air and Space Museum 2010)
5
The Air Force was not the only major change the United States had to bring to the table
during the Korean War. This was also the first conflict that saw a fully desegregated United
States military. Squads were no longer bound to the racial restrictions that were present in earlier
wars, men of all colors fought beside each other on the front lines, making the United States
military truly united.
During World War II, the United States developed the atomic bomb which led to the end
of the war after it was used to defeat the Japanese. They were the only country that had
discovered these secrets and were not afraid to use this new power as a form of diplomacy to get
nations to comply. However, this did not last long. At the dawn of the Korean War, the Soviets
had revealed that they too had discovered the secrets to nuclear weaponry, ending the monopoly
that the United States held. In 1949 the Soviet Union demonstrated its first successful detonation
of the atomic bomb. In the years to follow the United Kingdom, France, and China had all
successfully recreated their forms of the Manhattan Project, ushering the world into the Nuclear
Age. 5
The development of foreign atomic weapons was not the only major change that occurred
post-Korean War. As technology continued to advance, the small arms that were used on the
front lines began to change too. The standard issue during World War II was a semi-automatic
rifle, the M1 Carbine or Springfield M1903. This continued to be the status quo up until Vietnam
with the introduction of the M14, then just a few short years later the M16. The M16 was the
most advanced small arms standard weapon that the United States had developed for man-to-
man combat, which carried the military for many years to come.
5 (Office of the Historian n.d.)
6
Changes to war and saving lives
Following the atrocities of World War II, the world came together to ensure that nothing
of this caliber could ever happen again. This led to the creation of the Geneva Convention in
1949. The Geneva Conventions laid the groundwork for the prevention and punishment of war
crimes. Some of these laws pertained to the protection of civilians in war zones, and human
treatment. This essentially became the laws of war, and any nation that would willingly go
against these laws would become an enemy of the United Nations. While not a perfect set of
rules and regulations, through the years it continues to be added to in an attempt to protect
humanity from having to suffer the same way again.
The Geneva Conventions were not the only efforts to save lives from war. The United
States also began to train all of its soldiers, airmen, marines, and sailors in standard first aid. This
training gave normal soldiers the chance to keep battle buddies alive until they could be properly
treated. This change came about during the Korean War, this new training was combined with the
refined technique of MEDEVAC (medical evacuation) via helicopters. This meant more lives
were being saved than ever before. MEDEVAC's capabilities through the years have improved
tremendously with advancements from the Signal Corps and their SINCGARS radio (Single
Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System), larger and faster helicopters, and the 9-Line
MEDEVAC strategy. 6
Conclusion
6 (Army 2024)
7
The Korean War was a turning point in American military history and permanently
changed how it fought wars. America has a long history of war in its short life span as a country,
and throughout these wars, America has been known for its overpowering strength and ingenuity.
This has led the U.S. to become a world police of sorts, making its mission to end communism
and protect countries that do not have the means to do so themselves. Regardless of how the
mission changed, or who the enemy was the U.S. stops at nothing to ensure that freedom and
democracy will reign. In its mission to spread democracy, the United States has created some of
the most destructive weapons this world has seen and permanently altered the course of war
forever. However, with the birth of weapons of mass destruction advancements in saving lives
followed shortly after. Regardless of how the world grew around the States, they changed and
adapted to it. In a world that is constantly changing fighting is evolving with it. No matter how
much the world changes, time has taught us one thing, war never changes.
Bibliography
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May 05, 2024).
CIA. "Idological Warfare." CIA.gov. April 18, 1952.
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0.pdf (accessed May 6, 2024).
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National Air and Space Museum. "Six Decades Since the Korean War." National Air
and Space Museum. June 25, 2010.
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war#:~:text=But%20aviation%20technology%20was%20anything,80%20and
%20F%2D86%20Sabre. (accessed May 06, 2024).
Office of the Historian. MILESTONES: 1945–1952. 1950.
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—. "MILESTONES: 1945–1952 Atomic Diplomacy." Office of the Historian. n.d.
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Washington, George. George Washington's Farewell Address. September 19, 1776.
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Fare
well_Address.pdf (accessed May 05, 2024).
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