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Korean War
The communist-democratic war
over Korea took root during World War II, when the United
States, Great Britain and China decided to make Korea independent
of Japanese rule. President Roosevelt suggested a trusteeship
that would place the US, Soviet Union, Great Britain and
China in governance over Korea until the country could elect
its own leader. While Roosevelt hoped that a joint trusteeship
between the US and Soviets would encourage peace between
the two countries, relations began to diminish as the Soviets
began to claim more of its neighbors as territories.
After the Japanese surrender
on August 14, 1945, the US feared that the Soviet Union
would claim Korea as its territory. In response, the War
Department and the State Department proposed to divide Korea
in half, with the Soviets occupying North Korea and the
Americans in the south. This proposal established the division
that still exists today. In December 1945, the US, Soviet
Union and Great Britain created the Joint Soviet-American
Commission at the Moscow Conference, seeking to initiate
a temporary democratic government for Korea; however, the
Soviets rejected the plan. The US then sought assistance
from the United Nations in 1947.
The next year the UN General
Assembly proposed the election of a Korean national assembly.
South Koreans participated in the election in May. By July
Korea had a new constitution ratified by the new National
Assembly, and the new Republic of Korea had Dr. Syngman
Rhee as its new president. North Koreans could not participate
in the election. They held a separate election in 1948,
creating the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with
Kim II Sung as its president.
Once Korea was established
as a democratic nation, the US withdrew its defense. In
addition, the success of the atomic bomb had drawn the US
government's attention away from its ground forces. Aware
of these weaknesses, Kim II Sung proposed a strike against
South Korea to bring it under his control. On June 25, 1950,
his army penetrated the border to South Korea.
As President Truman called
US armed forces to defend South Korea in response to North
Korea's attack, the UN Security Council passed a resolution
to cease hostilities and withdraw North Korean forces back
to the 38th parallel, the boundary between North
and South Korea. In July the UN passed a second resolution
requesting the US to quell the North Korean takeover. Under
the command of General Douglas MacArthur, the US and 20
other countries drove the offensive back north and reclaimed
Seoul.
In November 1950 Mao Tse-tung
of China committed the Chinese Communist army to battle
the UN forces. Now grossly outnumbered and unprepared for
the harsh Korean winter, the UN forces withdrew but reestablished
the northern boundary by spring. Eager to end what appeared
an interminable and bloody struggle, the Soviet UN delegate
requested negotiations for peace in June 1951. Although
a cease-fire was instituted in 1953, relations between North
and South Korea were still tense, as were North Korea's
relations with the US. During the war, thousands of Christians
were killed and thousands more escaped to South Korea. In
1992, former President Richard Nixon called the Korean border
the most dangerous place on earth.
The Grahams' Involvement
North Korea was significant
to the Grahams for a couple of reasons. First, Ruth Bell
Graham attended high school in Pyongyang in 1933, nearly
20 years before the Communist takeover of North Korea. Second,
Reverend Graham had a special interest in speaking there,
primarily to attempt to bring some reconciliation between
North and South Koreans, many of whom were families split
apart by the hostilities between sides. After several attempts
to discretely plan a trip there, including an unsuccessful
attempt by Pope John Paul II to arrange a visit, Billy enlisted
the help of Dr. Stephen Linton, a scholar at Columbia University's
Center for Korean Research. Dr. Linton arranged for him
to meet North Korean's ambassador, Ho Jung, and Billy and
Ned Graham later had a special and unprecedented meeting
with President Kim II Sung, founder of North Korea and the
US's primary adversary during the war. Billy's visit there
may have paved the way for former President Jimmy Carter's
1994 meeting with President Kim, who by that time was eager
to mend relations with his former enemies. In addition,
Billy's visit preceded President Kim's invitation of the
leaders of the Protestant and Catholic associations to his
annual New Year reception, the first time he had ever recognized
those associations at all.
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