Korean War #26: United We Stand

Within this episode we continue to surge ahead with our narrative of the Korean War through the lens of that body. We look at how it coped with the progress of the North Koreans throughout the summer, and how its members were eventually persuaded to pass a few important resolutions, and to send armed delegations of their own. In this episode, we see collective security come to life, and it is a fascinating sight to behold.

We also touch on several things that we'll investigate in more detail in the future, such as MacArthur's meeting with Truman on Wake Island on 15th October, MacArthur's insistence on pushing forward to the Yalu in spite of the warnings, and MacArthur's shock at the situation changing so completely upon the Chinese intervention. All of these are points which we will tackle later on, but to demonstrate in a neat little bundle how the UN came to have such an impact on the Korean War, either through its Security Council or, following the return of the Soviets to that body in August, the publication of critical debates in the General Assembly.

It would be the General Assembly that took the most active role in discussing and developing a negotiated end to the conflict, but in the last half of 1950, this first phase of the conflict was far too back and forth for anyone to guess where it would end. For now, those members of the United Nations that pledged troops did so for their own reasons, safe in the knowledge that such an act would endear their interests to the Americans, as much as it would validate the hopes of the UN and prove that collective security COULD work, so long as all involved could remain united and stand together in the face of aggression.

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Music used:

"It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo" by the International Novelty Orchestra in 1926. Available: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/International_Novelty_Orchestra/Antique_Phonograph_Music_Program_04282015/It_Aint_Gonna_Rain_No_Mo_-_International_Novelty_Orchestra

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