How did miscalculations contribute to the outbreak of the Korean War?
Miscalculations of opposing sides are very often what lead to conflict. In fact, if opponents could accurately predict the actions of the others, conflict would be increasing avoidable as it is often the lease desired alternative. In the case of the Korean War, each of the involved countries made miscalculations of commitment which lead to the outbreak of the Korean War. In 1949 the United States withdrew its occupation forces from South Korea in an effort to remove itself from a potential Civil War between North and South Korea. The United States miscalculated that North Korea would gain the support of both China and Russia in its bid to gain control of the entire Korean …show more content…
In 1973, the US Army was just beginning to address the strategic and organizational effects of the Vietnam War. As the US Army began to lay out how it would regain its position as the primary tool to win wars the fourth Arab-Israeli War turned that plan on its head. The Arab-Israeli War of 1973 shaped the US Army’s thinking by demonstrating that the Soviet Union was more advanced than US anticipated and required an update to US Army equipment and doctrine. From 1961 to 1973 the US Army fought in the jungles of Vietnam, absent heavy armored tanks and precision weapons. When the investigative team deployed to study the effects of Soviet weapons on Israeli equipment they were stunned. The Soviet weapons employed by the Arabs had had disastrous effect on the NATO equipment employed by the Israeli Defense Forces. As a result of these findings, the US Army determined that it needed to update its Main Battle Tank, infantry fighting vehicle, attack helicopter, and missile launch vehicle to increase their survivability and lethality against the newly developed Soviet weapons