Korean War #45: The Culminating Factors

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

Phd, International Relations, Korean War, European History, 17th Century, 18th Century, Politics, 20th Century, Thirty Years' War, History, 19th Century, War, First World War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2018

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our endless flurry of Korean War content continues as we pave the way towards the Versailles Anniversary Project! Stay tuned!

Episode 45: The Culminating Factors brings several threads of our story together, as we count down towards the establishment of peace amidst the political climb of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would be elected President of the US and wave goodbye to the Truman administration. The story of how Eisenhower got there, and why he decided that “I will go to Korea” is a fascinating one which we examine here. At the same time, we look at what the departing Truman administration meant for American foreign policy. Was Truman sad to leave, or did he believe that he had done his duty for American security, and left a lasting legacy on that office?

In addition to examining these aspects of the story, we look as well at the coercive diplomacy used by Eisenhower. Was Eisenhower’s diplomatic approach, as the historical consensus suggests, sprinkled with several sticks and threats, in a bid to force the communists out of the war? A great deal of evidence exists to suggest that the Eisenhower administration did engage in a great deal of coercive, even nuclear, diplomacy, from 1953. However, while this does fit quite nicely with the idea that NSC68 made America more powerful and thus better positioned to actually lob threats at its rivals, we will see in future episodes that the reality is not so straightforward.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Last minute party, what will I bring them something unexpected?
0:06.2	Let's play scratch cards.
0:09.3	Trying to find something a bit different.
0:11.4	Why not add some play to Christmas?
0:13.2	With scratch cards from the National Lottery.
0:15.4	Pick them up in store now.
0:16.6	Please gift responsibly. Rules and procedures apply.
0:18.5	Players and gifters must be 18 or over.
0:55.9	Thank you. Please gift responsibly. Rules and procedures apply. Players and gifters must be 18 or over. Hello and welcome history friends, patrons, patrons all, to episode 45 of the Korean War.
1:01.1	Last time we looked at the torrid negotiations, which followed the agreement by both sides to sit down and talk about peace. From the 10th of July 1951 to the 27th of July 53, these talks
1:08.4	would continue and in the two-year span of time, Korea would descend from a strategically important conflict to a political bargaining chip, to a political talking point, to a topic which many people wished would just go away.
1:22.8	Korean weariness was already making itself felt by the time the Allies sat down to talk with
1:27.7	Nam Eel's delegation at K-Song on the 10th of July 1951. But for the next 24 months, this
1:34.6	weariness would only increase, reaching its apex at the time of the critical political junction
1:39.7	in the United States, the 1952 presidential election. On that occasion, it was Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ike, who had given up his command of NATO's
1:49.6	forces in April of 1952 that acquired the Republican ticket.
1:54.9	While Eisenhower's campaign did not revolve around Korea, it was one of the so-called
1:59.0	four seas of his campaign, which referred to corruption,
2:02.5	crime, communism and Korea? Clever, isn't it? Well, whether Ike knew how to fix the Korean problem
2:09.7	or not, he did manage to make one thing very clear. On the 24th of October, 1952,
2:15.6	Eisenhower said those now famous words,
2:18.2	I shall go to Korea. Indeed, he may well take a month-long vacation in Korea,
	...

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