Peter Lowe - The Origins of the Korean War

From the reviews of the First Edition:

"In examining the deeper origins of the conflict, Lowe looks at the internal developments in North and South Korea after the end of the Second World War, the significance of a Japan 'locked into the system of western strategy directed against the threat of Soviet expansion', the relevance of the American views of Chinese communism complicated by the position of Taiwan, and the overall framework of the emergence of the Cold War in Europe. Offering this wide canvas, The Origins of the Korean War should prove useful to anyone interested in contemporary history."

Ritchie Ovendale, TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT

"Dr Lowe has written a concise and clearly argued study of the war's origins. His two major themes - the social and political evolution of Korea concentrating on the period between 1945 and 1950, and the motivations and policies of the major powers involved in the events on the peninsula - hold the narrative together firmly 1 lookforward to using this direct andfirmly-argued book in undergraduate courses concerned with this turning point in the Cold War."

Rosemary Foot, ASIAN AFFAIRS

"Lowe's excellent book should prove a comprehensive and lucid introduction to its subject, and is particularly welcome given the growing interest in the Cold War at undergraduate level."

John Young, THE ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW

" this perspectivefrom within the context of Asia and within Korean society, provides a valuable corrective to the traditional viewpoint from Washington which has generally been presented in earlier studies of the Korean War."

Peter G. Boyle, AMERICAN STUDIES

"Peter Lowe has provided an excellent summary of the complicated series of events, blunders and intrigues that led to the outbreak of the Korean war. His research has been thorough, and as complete as is possible, granting the difficulty of access to sources in China, the Soviet Union and Korea itself"

C.S. Burchill, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

"Another of the excellent Origins of Modern Wars series, Dr Lowe's thorough examination of events in Asia, Europe and North America is very well done and extremely well organized."

ACADEMIC LIBRARY BOOK REVIEW (US)

"the careful and well documented analysis by Peter Lowe "

Michael Howard, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

Lreneral editor: Harry Hearder

Titles already published:

THE ORIGINS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS
T.C.W. Blanning

THE ORIGINS OF THE CRIMEAN WAR
David M. Goldfrank

THE ORIGINS OF THE ITALIAN WARS OF INDEPENDENCE
Frank J. Coppa

THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Brian Holden Reid

THE ORIGINS OF THE WARS OF GERMAN UNIFICATION
William Carr

THE ORIGINS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 1899-1902
Iain R. Smith

THE ORIGINS OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
Ian Nish

THE ORIGINS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (Second Edition)
James Joll

THE ORIGINS OF THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR
Geoffrey Swain

THE ORIGINS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN EUROPE
P.M.H. Bell

THE ORIGINS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Akira Iriye

THE ORIGINS OF THE GREEK CIVIL WAR
David H. Close

THE ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN WAR
(Second Edition)
Peter Lowe

THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM WAR
Anthony Short

THE ORIGINS OF THE ARAB-ISRAELI WARS
(Second Edition)
Ritchie Ovendale

THE ORIGINS OF THE PRESENT TROUBLES IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Caroline Kennedy-Pipe

Second Edition

Peter Lowe

First published 1986 by Addison Wesley Longman Limited
Seventh impression 1995
Second Edition 1997

Published 2014 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Peter Lowe 1986, 1997

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ISBN 13: 978-0-582-25147-2 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lowe, Peter, 1941
The Origins of the Korean War / Peter Lowe. 2nd ed.
p. cm. (Origins of modern wars)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-582-25147-8
1. Korean War, 1950-1953. 2. KoreaHistoryAllied occupation,
1945-1948. 3. World politics1945-1955. I. Title. II. Series.
DS18.L68 1997 96-29698
951.904'2dc21 CIP

Set by 31 in 10/12pt Baskerville

The war with whose origins Dr Peter Lowe is concerned in the present volume differs from wars previously considered in the series in that one - but only one - great power was fully engaged in it in a military sense. Communist China, so recendy emerging from a hard-fought civil war, was not yet a great power. Only the American government among major powers believed that the war required the employment of very considerable armed forces. Dr Lowe therefore concentrates much of his analysis on American policy, and his dissection of the disagreements between American military men and diplomats, the Pentagon and the State Department, MacArthur and Truman, and finally between Washington and London, makes fascinating reading. But he sets the study of American policy firmly within the context of a divided Korea and of the Cold War in the world at large.

One factor in the present volume reflects an identical one in Ritchie Ovendale's Origins of the Arab-Israeli Wars: the electoral preoccupations of the American President. But there is a difference. In Dr Ovendale's story an appreciable section of the American public the Jews and especially the Jews of New York - felt direcdy involved in the Middle Eastern crises. In Dr Lowe's account there is no similar specific group in the USA directly concerned, but Harry Truman was obviously aware that to involve a considerable number of American servicemen in a war so soon after the Second World War was a heavy responsibility which would be assessed with absorbing interest by the public'. On the other hand the Republican opposition would be ready to charge the administration with failing to resist communism if they had the chance so to do, and there was the added complication that General MacArthur was himself considering accepting nomination for the presidency in the next elections. Public opinion was thus playing a very strong role in influencing American policy, but unfortunately, if inevitably, the American public was even more naive and green in its understanding of world politics than were its political and military leaders. The point brings with it the reminder that public opinion, usually because of the aggressive and myopic nature of the media, is often more belligerent than the political government, although in the case of American policy since 1945 the Washington Post and the New York Times have been honourable exceptions to the rule.