Korea and the World in 1950 Crossing the 38th parallel. United Nations forces withdraw from Pyongyan, the North Korean capital, 1950. United States Information Agency photograph. Korea's liberation from Japanese occupation at the end of World War II was short lived, as the United States and the Soviet Union each sought post-war influence in Korea. To administer the surrender of Japanese troops in Korea, American and Soviet negotiators hastily agreed, in August 1945, to an administrative division of the peninsula at the 38th parallel. As tensions between the two superpowers intensified, the administrative division hardened into a political division of the peninsula. In the north, Soviet-educated Kim Il Sung was installed as the leader of a provisional government; while in the south American-educated Syngman Rhee was elected president of the Republic of Korea. By 1948 the nation was divided between two opposing political systems, each claiming to represent all the Korean people. In 1949 American combat forces were withdrawn from the peninsula, leaving behind little more than a poorly-equipped Korean defense force. By contrast, to the north a well-trained army grew, supplied and trained by the Soviet Union. The seeds of civil war had been planted, but the tragic drama would be played out on the world stage against the backdrop of Cold War maneuverings among the major powers of China, the Soviet Union, and the United States. "During a meeting on August 14, 1945, Colonel Charles Bonesteel and I retired to an adjacent room late at night and studied intently a map of the Korean peninsula. Working in haste and under great pressure, we had a formidable task: to pick a zone for the American occupation. . . . Using a National Geographic map, we looked just north of Seoul for a convenient dividing line but could not find a natural geographic line. We saw instead the 38th parallel and decided to recommend that. . . . [The State and War Departments] accepted it without too much haggling, and surprisingly, so did the Soviets. . . . [The] choice of the thirty-eighth parallel, recommended by two tired colonels working late at night, proved fateful." Dean Rusk Sections within the exhibit include:   Exhibit Introduction Korea: One People, Two Nations Korea and the World in 1950 The President's Private War Not Home for Christmas: The GI's in Korea An Uneasy Truce: The Two Koreas, 1953-2003

Week By Week Accounts & Official Documents Week of Decision: June 24 - July 1, 1950 Establishing a Position: July 2 - July 21, 1950 Holding the Line: July 22-September 12, 1950 How Far to Go: September 15-October 6, 1950 Wake Island Photographs Korean War Photographs Educational Activities Banning Letter Oral History and Memorials The Division of Korea Using Korean War documents Sound Clips Address on the situation in Korea. July 19, 1950 Radio Report to the American People on Korea and on U.S. Policy. April 11, 1951 President Truman regarding the firing of General MacArthur, October 21, 1959. Oral Histories Korean War Oral Histories External Links U.S. Forces, Korean War History Web Page U.S. Marine Corps Korean War Commemoration 50th Anniversary of the Korean War Remembering the Korean War U.S. Air Force Museum: Korean War 50th Anniversary