Odd idea 2 South Korea invding North Korea first

In OTL North Korea launched the most blatant piece of aggression post WW2 except for the invasion of Kuwait.

However the South Korean government circa 1950 was fairly far to the right and not exactly a Democracy.

Is it possible that either South Korea could have fired the first shots prior to 1950 or that North Korea might have been told by saner Soviet leadership not to play with fire.


I cannot imagine that the South would have got overt support from the US in such an event (was there anyone who might have won in 1952 who might have covertly nodded and slipped tanks and planes ot South Korea)
 
If the South Koreans were strong enough and the North Koreans were weak enough then they'd definately do it. And I'm sure most American presidents would back them.
 
In OTL North Korea launched the most blatant piece of aggression post WW2 except for the invasion of Kuwait.

However the South Korean government circa 1950 was fairly far to the right and not exactly a Democracy.

Is it possible that either South Korea could have fired the first shots prior to 1950 or that North Korea might have been told by saner Soviet leadership not to play with fire.


I cannot imagine that the South would have got overt support from the US in such an event (was there anyone who might have won in 1952 who might have covertly nodded and slipped tanks and planes ot South Korea)

I read a great book called The Hidden History of the Korean War by I.F. Stone that speculates about who invaded who. He points out that the South Korean government was very corrupt and unpopular. The opposition to President Rhee had control of the legislature and that seemed likely at the time that Rhee would be thrown out of office and that Rhee had more of a motive to start a war since, he could use the war to stay in office. Both Korean governmetn had launched raids accross the 48th parralel before the war started and both governments claimed sovereignty over all of Korea. The Korean War was a civil war that the U.S. got involved in. As far as I know, their was never an official investigation into who started the war, and the only reason that the North was declared the aggressor was that at the time, pro American states and the Soviet Union didn't veto the resolution since they were boycotting the Security Council over the refusal of the U.N. to seat Communist China.
 

HJ Tulp

Donor
If the South Koreans were strong enough and the North Koreans were weak enough then they'd definately do it. And I'm sure most American presidents would back them.

Eh? It were the Americans who kept arms from flowing into South Korea exactly because they were afraid Rhee would make a push northwards.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Both Korean governmetn had launched raids accross the 48th parralel before the war started and both governments claimed sovereignty over all of Korea.

Well, if all those other raids were just the same as the one that supposedly gave Rhee a reason to cry foul, then why didn't the US Army get involved in those too? Obviously the NKPA offensive south in 1950 was dramatically larger than anything that may or may not have come before it if the US forces on the peninsula were dealing with tanks and whatnot. I'm pretty sure if things like that had happened before, then the US Army would've sent some message back to Washington to the effect of, "Give us bazooka rounds, now!"
 
Well, if all those other raids were just the same as the one that supposedly gave Rhee a reason to cry foul, then why didn't the US Army get involved in those too? Obviously the NKPA offensive south in 1950 was dramatically larger than anything that may or may not have come before it if the US forces on the peninsula were dealing with tanks and whatnot. I'm pretty sure if things like that had happened before, then the US Army would've sent some message back to Washington to the effect of, "Give us bazooka rounds, now!"

I think he is trying to point out that both parties were probing each other across the 38th parallel, so it isn't unreasonable to extrapolate that the South was considering an advance. i agree with you that the actual invasion of the south was orders of magnitude larger than the attacks that preceded it, but the fact is that both governments raided across the border, and both governments believed the other to be illegitimate.
 
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