An expert explains why the U.S. was not afraid of nuclear escalation during the Korean War, emphasizing that it shouldn't be compared to the situation in Ukraine.

The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was already strained, and new nuclear threats only heightened the interest in why the USA was willing to escalate tensions despite the risk of a potential nuclear war.

According to AdAstra analyst Anton Ganotsky, one of the factors that led the USA to maintain its troops on the Korean Peninsula was the strategy of containing communism, which was actively promoted after World War II. In 1949, China became communist, causing the USA to worry about the possibility of a "domino effect" – the spread of communism throughout Asia. Thus, even though plans were in place to withdraw American troops from Korea before the war, the situation changed when the USA realized that the fall of South Korea could lead to a global expansion of Soviet influence.

The Korean People's Army, led by North Korea, successfully occupied Seoul, and it was only through the rapid intervention of UN forces, which included American troops, that the advance was halted. Interestingly, the arrival of Chinese volunteers in October 1950 drastically changed the course of the conflict. The large-scale intervention by China, with an army of 300,000 to 1 million soldiers, raised questions about the future of the war.

Historians still debate why Stalin did not resort to direct military support, but one theory is that the USSR was concerned about the possibility of the USA using nuclear weapons. Instead, the Soviet Union limited itself to supporting North Korea through arms supplies and instructors.

The analyst concludes that it is not appropriate to compare the Korean War with the ongoing situation in Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting independently, without the support of UN forces against a nuclear state. The main proponent of a "Korean scenario" for ending the war in Ukraine is China, which promotes the idea of freezing the front lines and engaging in negotiations. However, the negotiations during the Korean War did not lead to significant agreements beyond a ceasefire and prisoner exchanges, Ganotsky adds.

Source: The Page