Advancing Past the 38th Parallel
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
U.N. forces captured Kaesong, Wonsan, and Pyongyang. Psychological warfare efforts resulted in many North Korean soldiers surrendering. WARNING! Viewer Discretion Advised. This video contains violent images. The quality of this video may be slightly substandard due to the limitations at the time of filming.
Websites
- Korea and the Thirty-Eighth ParallelThe latitude line passing between the North and the South has separated generations of families
- Why Are North and South Korea Divided?North and South Korea have been divided for more than 70 years, ever since the Korean Peninsula became an unexpected casualty of the escalating Cold War between two rival superpowers: the Soviet Union and the United States.
- 38th Parallel Perspective: A Korean War QuizFind out how much you know about the conflict sometimes called "The Forgotten War" in the United States.
- Statement by the President on the Violation of the 38th Parallel in KoreaI CONFERRED Sunday evening with the Secretaries of State and Defense, their senior advisers, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the situation in the Far East created by unprovoked aggression against the Republic of Korea.
- 38th parallel38th parallel, popular name given to latitude 38° N that in East Asia roughly demarcates North Korea and South Korea. The line was chosen by U.S. military planners at the Potsdam Conference (July 1945) near the end of World War II as an army boundary, north of which the U.S.S.R. was to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Korea and south of which the Americans were to accept the Japanese surrender.
- Korean Demilitarized ZoneOn July 27, 1953, an armistice agreement brought fighting, though not the war itself, to an end in Korea. One legacy of that 50-year-old ceasefire has been the 250-km-long (148-mile) truce line bisecting the Korean Peninsula into northern and southern halves. The armistice provided for a 4-km-wide (2.5-mile) buffer zone running west to east roughly along the 38th parallel. This buffer zone contains river deltas and grasslands toward its western end, but is mostly mountainous terrain in the east.
Online Articles
- "Potsdam Revisited: Prelude to a Divided Korea"Scholarly debate about the reasons for Korea's division at the 38th parallel in August 1945 has not been particularly intense...
- Battle at the 38th Parallel: Surviving the Peace Talks at PanmunjomWhile the first year of the 1950-53 Korean War was marked by major offensives, campaigns, and retreats, the last two years of the war saw fighting along the main line of resistance (MLR...
- Captive of the Cold War: The Decision to Divide Korea at the 38th Parallel...Captive of the Cold War: The Decision to Divide Korea at the 38th Parallel James I. Matray The author is visiting assistant professor in New Mexico State...
- Two Korean Villages: Culture Contact at the 38th Parallel...FALL, 1951 33 Two Korean Villages: Culture Contact at the 38th Parallel* David L. Olmsted** The term applied anthropology has come to refer to at- A little...
- THE U.S. AND THE 1945 DIVISION OF KOREA: MISMANAGING THE 'BIG DECISIONS'.... It never disappeared, even after reshaped by battle after the Korean War. This 1945 division of Korea reflects little United States forethought about Korea's strategic...
Korea's 38th Parallel
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowAfter the war, the 38th Parallel would prove a center of enmity between a paranoid North and an ever-wary South. U.S. troops would be ready for anything at any time. The Korean War cost America 147,000 casualties, including 33,000 deaths.
North of the 38th Parallel: Chinese Response
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowMacArthur believed in a united Korea. He pushed north of the 38th Parallel to the Yalu River. He ignored warnings that Red China would intervene. In November, 300,000 Chinese attack MacArthur's troops. President Truman fired MacArthur. Distributed by A&E Television Networks.