The Diplomacy of War: The Case of Korea

In 1945, following the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered and ended its brutal 50-year occupation of Korea. But it left the country in utter disarray, with no functioning government to begin the difficult job of rebuilding. In 1948, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to split the country in half. Each side aggressively sought reunification; the eruption of civil war was only a matter of time. In 1950, North Korea launched an offensive, that began a three-year war. But for two of the three years that the war was under way, both sides were actually trying to negotiate a peace.

Written with the help of Soviet and Chinese sources, which became accessible after the Cold War; as well as U.S., Soviet, and Chinese archival sources, memoirs, and secondary literature, this book examines the course of that war from the perspectives of all the players, including the role of the Commonwealth and the United Nations. In particular, it concentrates on Korean War diplomacy and deals with issues which affected multiple countries and had long-term implications.

One of those implications, which became obvious as Mount proceeded with his research, was U.S. policies toward Canada. Despite oft-repeated platitudes about a “special relationship,” what is striking, he argues, is the great extent to which American policy toward Canada conforms to U.S. policy toward the rest of the world. In order to compensate, Canada turned to multinational organizations, wherein they could join forces with like-minded countries to prepare a common front. What this has meant for Canada, and its potential influence in the world in the 21st century, is yet one more effect of this “Forgotten War” examined here.

Graeme Mount teaches history at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario. He is author of Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies Toward Canada During the Cold War and Chile and the Nazis.