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The purpose of this article is to investigate the perception of the Korean War in American society by analyzing the description of the Korean War in the ‘American History’ textbook widely used in American universities. For this purpose, we will review trends in Korean War research in American academia and discuss how academic research is reflected in ‘American history’ textbooks at American universities and what it means.

History of the Korean War in the United States

  Most of the research on the Korean War by American historians focus on the outbreak and origins of the war. The outbreak of war is a question of who is responsible for the preemptive attack. Regarding this, Korean researcher Taewoo Kim said the following in “Changes and Challenges in Korean War Research Trends, 1950-2015” (2015). “Currently, in [domestic and international] academia, it can be assessed that at least there is no longer any debate regarding the origin of the war. No one anymore questions North Korea’s preemptive invasion toward the South.”

  The question of the origin of war refers to the causes of war, and its interpretation can be broadly divided into three types. First, the Korean War is interpreted as part of the international Cold War. In other words, the international communist forces represented by the Soviet Union and China encouraged North Korea to invade the South, and the United States entered the war as part of the UN forces to protect liberal democracy. Second is the Civil War theory in which the Korean War is interpreted as the civil war between South Korea and North Korea continued or expanded after 1945. And finally, third is a complex interpretation that appropriately mixes the Cold War theory and the Civil War theory. In other words, although the Korean War had the characteristics of a civil war, it was planned and executed under an international Cold War system. Whether American scholars emphasized the international perspective or the civil war’s nature, they ultimately studied the causes and outbreak of the Korean War most carefully. In contrast, among the studies published in the United States, there are very few studies on the issue of civilian massacres, which Korean researchers have recently been paying attention to. In addition, studies on the Korean War and women, studies on changes in Korean societal structure and consciousness due to the Korean War, studies on changes in class structure, Korean War and religion, and South and North Korean occupation policies, which are widely studied in Korean academia are also still insufficient in American academia.

  However, in subsequent studies that were not covered in Taewoo Kim’s paper in 2015, the topics have become more diverse. Rather than focusing on the outbreak or origins of the Korean War, it focuses on the international impact of the war or the people who survived the war. The books including Cold War Crucible by Hajimu Masuda, published in 2015, Fearing the Worst by Samuel F. Wells, Jr. and The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War by Monica Kim published in 2019, and Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War(Korea 1950-1953) by Charles Hanley published in 2020 are good examples.

Zinn, Howard.

A People’s History of the

United States (1980), 427-28.

Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation:

A Concise History of the American

People. Eighth Edition 2 (2016),

669-72.

Foner, Eric.

Give Me Liberty!: An American History.

Fifth Edition 2 (2017), 914-16.

Shi, David Emory.

America: A Narrative History.

12th Brief Edition 2 (2022),

1118-1123.

Corbett, P. Scott. et. al.,

U.S. History (2017),

Vol. 2, 831-33.

Locke, Joseph L. and Ben Wright, eds.

The American Yawp (2019),

Vol. 2, 264-65.

Korean War and American History Textbooks at American Universities

  In contrast, American college textbooks still focus on the origins of the Korean War. Besides, most textbooks interpret the Korean War as a complex war mixed with the characteristics of the Cold War and civil war. There is no research within Korea on how the Korean War is covered in American college textbooks. The only similar one is a study analyzing high school textbooks in the UK published by Jaeyoon Jeong in 2020. There is no such study in the United States, and there is only a two-page report conducted in 1990 by American scholars, Dan B. Fleming and Burton Kaufman that analyzed 12 types of high school textbooks being used in Virginia. In analyzing the contents of the Korean War described in American university textbooks, the following textbooks were reviewed.

  The four books written in paperback are widely used except for Howard Zinn’s book. Although Zinn’s book was published a long time ago and has not been adopted by many universities, it has not gone out of print and has been used consistently due to its unique perspective, so it was included for comparison. In addition, the two books published as e-books were published in cooperation with many professors and famous universities, and although they are free, the content is good, so more and more universities are adopting them.

  Descriptions of the Korean War in major American university textbooks have the following formal characteristics. First, the topics covered are almost similar. Most of all, they describe the background and causes of the outbreak of the Korean War and then deal with the development of the war. Even in the development of the war, all books focus on North Korea’s sudden invasion of the South on June 25, 1950, the unilateral defeat of the UN forces up to the Nakdong River defense line, and the UN forces’ counterattack and advance northward through General Douglass MacArthur’s Incheon landing operation in September of the same year, the retreat of the UN forces due to the entry of the Chinese army into the war in mid-November of the same year, the counterattack of the UN forces starting in January 1951, the solidification of the front line centered on the 38th parallel, and armistice negotiations that started in June 1951 and lasted two years, and the armistice agreement

of July 27, 1953.

  Second, the similarity in topic is also due to the small amount devoted to the Korean War in American university textbooks. The book above devoted 1 to 6 pages to the Korean War, with an average of 4 pages. Moreover, considering that all of the textbooks include maps or photos of the Korean Peninsula depicting the progress of the Korean War, the actual description is only 1 to 5 pages.

  Third, although the description of the Korean War is small, all books except Zinn’s book divide the volume almost exactly in half into two subtopics: the outbreak and development of the Korean War. Shi’s book is divided into three pages, Brinkley’s is divided into half pages, Foner and Locke are divided into one paragraph each, and Corbett’s is divided into two paragraphs each. This distribution of volume shows that the most important issue covered in American history textbooks is ultimately the outbreak of war.

Now let’s analyze the contents of the textbooks. First, regarding the background and cause of the outbreak of war, which is the most important issue covered by textbooks, all textbooks accept the basic framework that the Korean War was part of the international Cold War. In addition, most textbooks also accept the civil war perspective that competition and conflict between South Korea and North Korea were one of the factors that led to the outbreak of the Korean War. First of all, all scholars interpret the Korean War as a result of the Cold War. For example, Shi says that North Korea’s invasion of the South was due to the ‘encouragement’ of the Soviet Union and China. Brinkley and Foner interpret the Korean War as the Cold War that started in Europe, expanded to Asia, and broke out into a hot war. In particular, Foner referred to the Korean War as the ‘first battlefield ‘of the Cold War. Moreover, all the titles of chapters dealing with the Korean War in the books of Brinkley, Foner, Shi, Corbett, and Locke contain the word ‘Cold War’.

  Nevertheless, all books also accept Civil War theory to some extent. For example, Brinkely writes that North Korea started the war for the purpose of unifying the Korean Peninsula and that the Soviet Union and China supported it only after the war began. Foner also argued that North Korea started the war for the purpose of unification of the Korean Peninsula, which was divided into North and South. Shi also suggests that tensions between North and South Korea broke out into civil war after 1945.

  Second, textbooks do not cover all the topics of civilian massacres committed by various military forces including the U.S. military, during the Korean War, which Korean scholars have recently considered important. Additionally, new research results, such as changes in Korea’s politics, economy, and society after the Korean War, are hardly reflected.

The Korean War, American college textbooks, and American society

  Through the Korean War described in American university textbooks, the following conclusions can be drawn about how American society views the Korean War.

  First, the Korean War is not very important in American society. In the United States, the Korean War is called the ‘Forgotten War’ along with the ‘War of 1812’. This view can also be seen in extremely small amounts of information about the Korean War described in American university history textbooks. Second, American university textbooks rarely cover issues other than the outbreak and origins of the Korean War.

  Research by professional scholars in the United States is moving to new areas such as the impact of the Korean War on world politics, the problem of prisoners in war, and the survival of civilians during the Korean War, but they have not yet been reflected in university textbooks. Additionally, due to the fundamentally hostile relationship between the United States and North Korea, descriptions focusing on the origin of war can be seen as overwhelming. In order for the descriptions in American university textbooks to change, there must be a fundamental change in the attitudes of the United States and North Korea toward each other.