The Great Korean War

No, not the one you’re thinking of. The Chinese Civil War was still going on when the Chinese Communist Party decided to test the limits of the United States and launched a Korean War. This was in response to South Korea being established as an American puppet state. This was also in response to the U.S. not allowing CP China to be admitted to the UN. <br><br>Later on, America extended the war by crossing the 38th parallel and invading North Korea. This was a huge mistake. This was the one thing that, according to Chairman Mao himself, was the crimson line that noone was to cross. <br><br>Mao was right. <br><br>The U.S. crossed the 38th parallel all the way to the Chinese border, but was forced to retreat and the Chinese were able to chase the Americans all the way back to the 38th parallel and back to where they were when the war first began. <br><br>The Chinese had tripled their military in the course of 3 years. It’s, of course, a long shot, but the crimson line was that China would be invaded. Which is what nearly happened. <br><br>China used the Korean War to get their UN seat, their economy doubled (America’s economy was 20x bigger than China’s, in 3 years it became 16x), and they were able to get America to sign the Taiwan strait treaty, which made Taiwan a part of the People’s Republic of China. <br><br>No war has ever changed the course of human history as dramatically as Mao’s war. The Korean War was the first war that the CCP ever won. It also destroyed America’s international reputation, being the first war they ever lost. The Korean War was also where nuclear war was first threatened. <br><br>The Korean War was huge. <br><br>Later on, China was able to fill the power vacuum that the Korean War created, and when the Korean War ended in 1953, Vietnam declared independence. <br><br>The CCP would eventually go on to create a Chinese-led communist bloc that would go on to win the Cold War in 1991. This, of course, would not have been possible, had the Korean War not happened.