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VICModern HistoryQuick questions
Unit 2: Change and conflict (The changing world order, 1945 onwards)
Quick questions on The Korean War and the Asian Cold War (VCE Modern History Unit 2)
14short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is soviet support to CCP?Show answer
Stalin handed captured Japanese arms to the CCP. Soviet troops in Manchuria favoured CCP organisation.
What is uS support to KMT?Show answer
Approximately $2$ billion dollars in aid. But KMT was riddled with corruption and lost popular support to land-reform-promising communists.
What is mao's victory?Show answer
October 1949: People's Republic of China proclaimed. Chiang's KMT retreated to Taiwan (Republic of China).
What is uS reaction?Show answer
"Loss of China" became a domestic political issue. McCarthyism (1950 onward) targeted alleged State Department communists.
What is background?Show answer
Korea was Japanese colony 1910-1945. Liberated in 1945; divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (north) and US (south) occupation zones. Two states emerged in 1948: DPRK (Kim Il-sung) and Republic of Korea (Syngman Rhee).
What is outbreak?Show answer
Kim Il-sung's forces, with Stalin's approval and Soviet weapons, crossed the 38th parallel. Pusan perimeter held by South Korean and US forces.
What is uN intervention?Show answer
UNSC Resolution 84 (27 June 1950) authorised military response. Soviet boycott meant no veto. $16$ nations contributed forces; UN command under MacArthur.
What is inchon landing?Show answer
Amphibious landing behind North Korean lines. UN forces drove North Koreans back across the 38th parallel.
What is crossing the 38th parallel?Show answer
UN forces advanced into North Korea, reaching the Yalu River by late November.
What is chinese intervention?Show answer
$300\,000$ "Chinese People's Volunteers" attacked. Pushed UN forces back into South Korea.
What is macArthur's dismissal?Show answer
MacArthur publicly advocated using atomic weapons against China and Manchuria; Truman dismissed him.
What is stalemate and armistice?Show answer
Front stabilised near the 38th parallel by July 1951. Armistice talks dragged until July 1953 (Stalin's death in March 1953 helped). No formal peace treaty; the two Koreas remain technically at war.
What is casualties?Show answer
Approximately $3$ million Koreans (military and civilian), $400\,000$ Chinese, $36\,500$ Americans, $1\,109$ British, $339$ Australians (in $17\,000$ deployed).
What is sino-Soviet split?Show answer
Mao denounced Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation (Secret Speech February 1956); ideological and border disputes deepened through the 1960s. By 1969 China and the USSR fought brief border clashes. The Cold War became three-cornered.