The Korean War
Learn about the Korean War (1950–1953) — the first major proxy war of the Cold War that divided the Korean peninsula and set the template for superpower confrontation.
The Korean War (1950–1953) was the Cold War's first major hot conflict and one of its bloodiest. When North Korean forces, backed by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, the United States led a United Nations coalition to defend the South. The war that followed killed approximately 2.5 million civilians and soldiers and devastated the Korean peninsula.
The conflict saw dramatic reversals: the North's initial near-total conquest of the South, General MacArthur's daring Inchon landing that reversed the tide, China's massive intervention that pushed UN forces back, and the grinding stalemate that eventually settled near the original border at the 38th parallel. MacArthur's public advocacy for expanding the war into China led to his dismissal by President Truman — a pivotal moment for civilian control of the military.
The Korean War established patterns that would define the Cold War: proxy conflict between superpowers, the risk of escalation to nuclear war, the limitations of military power, and the human cost of ideological division. The armistice of 1953 was never followed by a peace treaty, and the Korean peninsula remains divided — the world's most heavily militarized border separating two countries that were once one.