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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Vogue obamb here. On June fifty, North

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Speaker 1: Korean tanks rolled across the thirty eighth Parallel, the line

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Speaker 1: that separated communist North Korea from US backed South Korea.

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Speaker 1: As a now declassified US intelligence cable from Tokyo to

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Speaker 1: Washington concluded, the incursion wasn't just a mirror raid. Quote.

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Speaker 1: The size of the North Korean forces employed, the depth

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Speaker 1: of penetration, the intensity of the attack, and the landings

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Speaker 1: made miles south of the Parallel on the east coast

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Speaker 1: indicated that the North Koreans are engaged in all out

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Speaker 1: offensive to subjugate South Korea. It was the start of

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Speaker 1: a war that is still not ended a full seven

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Speaker 1: decades later. The Korean War, which ultimately would pit the

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Speaker 1: U S against China in the first ever confrontation between

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Speaker 1: the two superpowers, would claim the lives of an estimated

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Speaker 1: two point five million military members and civilians, including nearly

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Speaker 1: thirty four thousand Americans. The DT would cease with an

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Speaker 1: armistice on July nineteen fifty three, but the Geneva Conference

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Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty four failed to produce a peace treaty,

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Speaker 1: and the North and South remained tense enemies, and that's

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Speaker 1: the way things have pretty much continued. Though. In eighteen,

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Speaker 1: North Korean dictator Kim Jong un and South Korean President

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Speaker 1: Mun Jaen announced that they would work together toward a

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Speaker 1: peace treaty, but after the collapse of a February summit

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Speaker 1: between US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim

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Speaker 1: Jong Un, those tensions seemed likely to remain for a

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Speaker 1: while longer. In the US, the Korean War is sometimes

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Speaker 1: called the forgotten War because it's overshadowed by the conflicts

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Speaker 1: that came before and after it, the stirring victory of

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Speaker 1: World War Two and the lengthy, painful ordeal of the

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Speaker 1: Vietnam War. We spoke with Edward Rhodes, a professor on

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Speaker 1: the faculty of the shar School of Policy and Government

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Speaker 1: at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, who is an

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Speaker 1: expert in American foreign and national security policy. He said,

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Speaker 1: modern Americans don't think about it much. Vietnam was more

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Speaker 1: traumatic and World War Two was more of victorious. Nevertheless,

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Speaker 1: the overlooked conflict has exerted a powerful influence that still

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Speaker 1: felt today. According to Rhodes, the war forever changed the

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Speaker 1: course of US foreign and national security policy, compelling the

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Speaker 1: US to accept a permanent military involvement around the globe

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Speaker 1: even in peace time. It also helped drive the creation

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Speaker 1: of a vast US nuclear arsenal to deter possible Communist aggression,

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Speaker 1: with the threat of annihilation, and a global nuclear arms

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Speaker 1: race still continues. All this happened, according to Rhoads, after Korea,

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Speaker 1: a nation that had been occupied by the Japanese from

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Speaker 1: nineteen ten to nineteen forty five, was split into two

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Speaker 1: by the U S and the U S s R.

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Speaker 1: After World War Two. He explains, it was a practical matter.

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Speaker 1: There were Japanese armies that had retreated into Korea from

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Speaker 1: Manchuria and they needed to be disarmed. We split that

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Speaker 1: large task with the Soviet Union, with the understanding that

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Speaker 1: the Soviets would disarm the Japanese in the north and

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Speaker 1: we would do it in the south. But as the

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Speaker 1: Cold War developed between the US and its European allies

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Speaker 1: and the Soviets, the temporary partition turned into a permanent

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Speaker 1: one with the formation of a communist regime headed by

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Speaker 1: Kim Eel sung in the north and an authoritarian pro

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Speaker 1: American government headed by Sing Man e in the South.

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Speaker 1: Each regime saw itself as the real government of Korea

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Speaker 1: and its rival as illegitimate. Kim eel sung decided to

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Speaker 1: settle the matter by invading South Korea, and in May

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty finally obtained reluctant approval from his patron, the

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Speaker 1: Stalin regime. About a month later, Kim launched a surprise attack,

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Speaker 1: which initially had devastating results. The South Korean forces essentially

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Speaker 1: dissolved the U n Security Council, taking advantage of a

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Speaker 1: Soviet boycott of the body, then passed a measure calling

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Speaker 1: for member nations to assist the belaggered South Koreans. That

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Speaker 1: mandate enabled US President Harry Truman to respond militarily without

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Speaker 1: having to go to Congress for a declaration of war.

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Speaker 1: Up until that point, the U s hadn't seen South

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Speaker 1: Korea as having much strategic importance, a road said, but

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Speaker 1: when the North Korean tanks rolled across the border, the

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Speaker 1: image that flashed in Truman's mind was that this was

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Speaker 1: a repeat of what the Nazis did. His response is

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Speaker 1: to stand up, thinking that if we had stood up

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Speaker 1: to Hitler early on, the world would have been a

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Speaker 1: better place. An outnumbered contingent of UN forces formed a

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Speaker 1: desperate line of defense around the only part of South

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Speaker 1: Korea not yet captured by the Communists, and managed to

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Speaker 1: hold off the invaders for two months. That gave General

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Speaker 1: Douglas MacArthur, who had been placed in overall command of

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Speaker 1: the U N forces, enough time to make an audacious,

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Speaker 1: amphibious landing at Incheon, near the South Korean capital of Seoul,

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Speaker 1: on September fifteenth, nineteen fifty, cutting off the over extended

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Speaker 1: North Koreans. McArthur's forces chased the invaders back north across

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Speaker 1: the thirty eighth Parallel, and by mid October had captured

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Speaker 1: the North Korean capital of Kyongyang, but MacArthur, over confident,

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Speaker 1: kept pushing the North Koreans back to the Yalu River,

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Speaker 1: the border with China. China then responded with a massive

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Speaker 1: counter attack of between thirteen thousand and three hundred thousand troops.

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Speaker 1: This time it was the UN forces who were driven back.

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Speaker 1: A bloody stalemate on the ground developed as the US

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Speaker 1: pounded North Korea from the air. MacArthur eventually was relieved

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Speaker 1: of his command by Truman and replaced with General Matthew Ridgeway.

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Speaker 1: The US abandoned the idea of a total victory and

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Speaker 1: shifted to a holding action against the communist forces. Rhodes

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Speaker 1: said MacArthur embraced the idea that there's no substitute for victory.

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Speaker 1: You beat the enemy and they surrender. But Rhodes explained,

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Speaker 1: after the Chinese intervention, quote, We're still in a situation

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Speaker 1: where there's got to be a substitute for victory, because

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Speaker 1: how are we going to fight the manpower of China.

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Speaker 1: There's a realization that we can't fight this war to victory,

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Speaker 1: and it's hard for the American people to accept. The

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Speaker 1: longer the war stretched on, the more unpopular it became

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Speaker 1: back in the US. Many of the soldiers sent to

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Speaker 1: Korea or reservists who had served in World War Two.

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Speaker 1: Rhodes explained, They've got homes and families and jobs, and

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Speaker 1: then they were called up and sent to fight another war.

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Speaker 1: There was a feeling that this wasn't fair. Eventually, truman successor,

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Speaker 1: President Dwight Eisenhower, ran on a promise that he would

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Speaker 1: go to Korea and seek an end to the conflict.

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Speaker 1: Actually did that a month before his inauguration in three

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Speaker 1: but though Eisenhower had ended the fighting, the Korean War

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Speaker 1: still shaped his policies. Rhodes said Eisenhower looked at this

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Speaker 1: as the wrong war at the wrong time, using the

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Speaker 1: wrong weapons. He reaches the conclusion that with the Cold

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Speaker 1: War going on with the Soviets, we have to plan

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Speaker 1: for the long haul. We're going to sustain this kind

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Speaker 1: of military deterrence. That led to resources being pumped into

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Speaker 1: the development of a massive nuclear deterrent that could be

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Speaker 1: used to contain the Soviets. Additionally, Eisenhower began attempting to

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Speaker 1: form alliances with more and more countries in an effort

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Speaker 1: to create a unified front to hold off Communist aggression.

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Speaker 1: We also spoke via email with Charles K. Armstrong, the

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Speaker 1: Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences

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Speaker 1: at Columbia University. He said the US was forced to

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Speaker 1: take China more seriously as a military power after fighting

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Speaker 1: to a stalemate in the Korean War. General MacArthur had

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Speaker 1: severely underestimated the Chinese military's willingness to confront the US

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Speaker 1: in capacity to fight, leading to a bad route for

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Speaker 1: UN forces In the initial months after China entered the war.

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Speaker 1: China's participation in the Korean War also consolidated Mao's rule

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Speaker 1: and dashed the hopes of sub Americans that the communist

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Speaker 1: regime could be rolled back and replaced by Schangkai Shek's nationalists.

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Speaker 1: Armstrong said a Mao's willingness to support the North Koreans directly,

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Speaker 1: as opposed to Stalin's reluctance, helped solidify China North Korean

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Speaker 1: relations and caused the North Koreans to be more distrustful

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Speaker 1: of the Russians. For the US, China was seen from

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Speaker 1: the Korean War onward as the primary ally of North

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Speaker 1: Korea and the primary great power there was an enemy

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Speaker 1: of the US in Korea. The Armistice ended the fighting,

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Speaker 1: but North Korea, now backed by the Chinese, remained as

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Speaker 1: a belligerent enemy to South Korea. The ongoing threat meant

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Speaker 1: that U S forces couldn't just withdraw and come home.

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Speaker 1: Armstrong notes the North Korean invasion in the emerging Cold

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Speaker 1: War convinced American policymakers that the US needed a permanent

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Speaker 1: military presence in Asia and Europe in order to contain

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Speaker 1: communist aggression. I Additionally, the Korean war helped set the

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Speaker 1: table for another even bloodier and more painful future conflict.

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Speaker 1: According to Armstrong, Korea led directly to the U. S

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Speaker 1: decision to help the French against communist led insurgency in

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Speaker 1: colonial Vietnam, and then, after the French defeat, to intervene

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Speaker 1: in support of an anti communist regime in South Vietnam,

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Speaker 1: which blocked an election called for by the nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: four Geneva Conference that helped set the stage for the

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Speaker 1: Vietnam War. Armstrong said the most lasting legacy of the

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Speaker 1: Korean War for the US was the establishment of a

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Speaker 1: global military presence over the long term and a commitment

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Speaker 1: to confront communism throughout the world during the Cold War

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Speaker 1: and for Korea in East Asia, ideological and military confrontation

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Speaker 1: that has lasted seven decades. That included a U. S

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Speaker 1: force stationed in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea,

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Speaker 1: which in turn has a massive array of long range

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Speaker 1: artillery and rockets equipped with chemical and biological weapons aimed

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Speaker 1: at Seoul. That's in addition to the nuclear weapons and

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Speaker 1: ballistic missile arsenal. The Trump so far has been unable

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Speaker 1: to persuade the North Korean regime to give up. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger and produced by

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Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio's

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of

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Speaker 1: other topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com,

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