Korean War Digital History Project
LESSON 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
SUBJECT
TEACHER
GRADE
DATE
AP World History
or Global History and
Geography
Christina Cone
10
May 12, 2016
OVERVIEW
This lesson utilizes veteran accounts and details found at www.kwvdm.org to allow students to practice
the skills of a true historian (research, formulating questions, and analyzing sources).
OBJECTIVES
TEACHER GUIDE
STUDENT GUIDE
New York State Standards:
Students will be able to learn about the causes,
Standard 1 – History of the U.S. and NY
events and results of the Korean War.
Standard 2 – World History
Students will be able to critically interpret
Standard 3 - Geography
primary and secondary sources.
Standard 4 - Economics
Standard 5 – Civics, Citizenship, and
Government
Students will be able to analyze the rationale
behind certain governmental decisions.
Students will be able to hone historical thinking
AP World History Curriculum Framework skills such as comparative evaluations,
Key Concept 6.2 – Global Conflicts and their document analysis, political cartoon and map
Consequences
interpretations, and thesis development.
New York State - Global History and
Geography Framework
10.6 - Unresolved Global Conflict
11.9 – Cold War
Common Core Curriculum Standards:
Reading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10
Writing 1, 2, 4, 8, 9
Students will be able to make judgments based
on facts and support their position.
Students will be able to understand multiple
perspectives.
Students will be able to synthesize learned
material and dialogue with others.
Students will be able to work cooperatively with
their peers.
TEACHER GUIDE
INFORMATION Teacher
ACTIVITY
STUDENT GUIDE
will provide a “do now” activity to
begin the class.
Half of the class will be asked to read Document
A (Gromyko’s statement on American
intervention in Korea) and the other half of the
class will be asked to read Document B (the
report of the UN Commission on Korea). I
recommend either dividing it by one side of the
room versus the other or splitting the roster and
asking those with last names A-M to read one,
N-Z read the other. There are guiding questions
that students could answer or, they could simply
be asked to read and be prepared to answer,
and provide evidence to support their answer, to
the question “According to their document, who
started the Korean War?”
The teacher will give the students “The
Students will follow along and fill in information.
Korean War” handout which is to accompany Students will then be asked to render a
the PowerPoint. The teacher will begin the
hypothesis from the point of view of the United
presentation by providing a little background States as to what caused the Korean War.
and setting up some chronology. The quotes Students can think-pair-share their responses.
and information are from the Korean War
The presentation will continue briefly but once
Digital History Project website. The teacher
again, students will be asked to be active
will intersperse activities to allow the
participants. They will be charged with coming
students to process, reflect and be more
up with a six word description of the “domino
active participants in the learning process.
theory.” Ideas will be shared. Students will then
be asked to analyze a quote of General
MacArthur’s. Students will then be asked to rank
the main causes of the Korean War. Students
will also be asked to examine two differing
viewpoints. One is an excerpt of President
Truman’s News Conference where he refers to
the war as merely a “police action,” and the
other is the account of a private who is on the
ground in Korea. Students are to answer the
accompanying questions and create a
comparative thesis statement. (OPTION: this
could be a homework assignment). Students will
then be asked to evaluate the UN decision to
cross into North Korea. A whole class discussion
of their ideas will follow. The presentation will
2
TEACHER GUIDE
STUDENT GUIDE
continue with a map interpretation question and
then more summary details of the events
transpiring on the ground until mid-1951. A “Did
You Know” will be shared regarding the impact
of the cold weather on those fighting. An
excerpt from an article will be shared to allow
for another opportunity for students to hear the
perspective and experiences of a veteran.
Students will be asked to make a judgement call
and weigh in on the decision to relieve General
MacArthur of his duties. Students will also be
asked to explain the meaning of a political
cartoon. Students will be asked to read accounts
from veterans reflecting upon their return home.
SUMMARY
Teacher will discuss the results of the Korean Students will be asked to reflect on the reasons
War.
why the Korean War has been nicknamed “the
forgotten war” and they will be asked to create
a new, more appropriate nickname.
Students
are
to
be
documents
to
craft
addressing
why
the
charged
a
with
thesis
Korean
War
utilizing
statement
has,
and
continues to have, such a profound impact.
Teachers certainly could have students write a
complete
DBQ
or
even
just
do
additional
required tasks of the AP World College Board
course such as asking students to identify and
explain point of view in the documents, provide
the synthesis explanation, etc.
EXTENSION
Teacher can provide an opportunity for extra Students can do their part to make sure that
credit.
this event in history is not forgotten. For extra
credit, they can interview a Korean War veteran
from the Smithtown community.
MATERIALS
RESOURCES
NOTES
3
 Handout and PowerPoint
 www.kwvdm.org
 Optional for extra credit
portion: audio/video
equipment
 See Below
Resources:

Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial, http://www.kwvdm.org/about.php?p=remarks





Welcoming Remarks
The Road Not Taken
Statistics
U.S. Policy on Korea
Excerpts taken from Goulden, Joseph C. (1982) Korea: The Untold Story of the War, NY:
Times Books

A Letter Home From Korea, "Between the Lines," David J. Lutze, Fri, 5 Sep 1997. Article appeared
in the Racine Journal Times (Racine Wisconsin). http://www.timesdaily.com/news/local/koreanveterans-recall-horrors-of-war/article_592d8fdf-ac4d-5829-ad04-2c96bc681735.html

Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs. United States Department of State
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/NSC68

Truman Library
https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/documents/pdf/10-1.pdf

“The Cold is Still an Enemy for Some Frostbitten Korean War Veterans,” Bor, Jonathan, March 1996,
Baltimore Sun.
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-26/news/mn-8540_1_korean-war

Text of the Korean War Armistice Agreement
http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/korea/kwarmagr072753.html
4
Name___________________________________________ Period __________ Date__________
Aim: Why did both Communist and Non-Communist Forces intervene in Korea?
Document A - Andrei A. Gromyko: On American Intervention In Korea, 1950
Statement by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, July 4,1950
The events now taking place in Korea broke out on June 25 as the result of a provocative attack by the troops of the South Korean
authorities on the frontier areas of the Korean People's Democratic Republic. This attack was the outcome of a premeditated plan.
From time to time Syngman Rhee himself and other representatives of the South Korean authorities had blurted out the fact that the
South Korean Syngman Rhee had such a plan. As long ago as October 7, 1949, Syngman Rhee, boasting of success in training his
army, stated outright, in an interview given to an American United Press correspondent, that the South Korean Army could capture
Pyongyang in the course of three days.
On October 31, 1949, Sin Sen Mo, Defense Minister of the Syngman Rhee Government, also told newspaper correspondents that the
South Korean troops were strong enough to act and take Pyongyang within a few days. Only one week before the provocative attack of
the South Korean troops on the frontier areas of the Korean People's Democratic Republic, Syngman Rhee said, in a speech on June 19
in the so-called "National Assembly" where Mr. Dulles, adviser to the U.S. State Department, was present: "If we cannot protect
democracy in the cold war, we shall win in a hot war."
It is not difficult to understand that representatives of the South Korean authorities could only make such statements because they felt
that they had American support behind them. One month before the present developments in Korea, on May 19, 1950, Mr. Johnson,
chief American administrator of aid to Korea, told the American Congress House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee that
100,000 officers and men of the South Korean Army, equipped with American weapons and trained by the American Military Mission,
bad completed their preparations and could begin war at any time.
It is known that only a few days before the Korean events, the United States Defense Secretary, Mr. Johnson, and the State
Department adviser, Mr. Dulles, arrived in Japan and had special conferences with General MacArthur, and that afterwards Mr. Dulles
visited South Korea and went to frontier areas on the 38th Parallel.
Only one week before the events-on June 19-Mr. Dulles, adviser to the State Department, declared in the above-mentioned "National
Assembly" of South Korea that the United States was ready to give all necessary moral and material support to South Korea which was
fighting against Communism.
These facts speak for themselves and need no comment. . . .
The United States Government tries to justify armed intervention against Korea by alleging that it was undertaken on the authorization
of the Security Council. The falsity of such an allegation strikes the eye. What really happened? It is known that the United States
Government had started armed intervention in Korea before the Security Council was summoned to meet on June 27, without taking
into consideration what decision the Security Council might take. Thus the United States Government confronted the United Nations
Organization with a fait accompli, with a violation of peace. The Security Council merely rubber-stamped and back-dated the resolution
proposed by the United States Government, approving the aggressive actions which this Government had undertaken. . . .
The illegal resolution of June 27, adopted by the Security Council under pressure from the United States Government, shows that the
Security Council is acting, not as a body which is charged with the main responsibility for the maintenance of peace, but as a tool
utilized by the ruling circles of the United States for unleashing war. This resolution of the Security Council constitutes a hostile act
against peace. If the Security Council valued the cause of peace, it should have attempted to reconcile the fighting sides in Korea
before it adopted such a scandalous resolution. Only the Security Council and the United Nations Secretary-General could have done
this. However, they did not make such an attempt, evidently knowing that such peaceful action contradicts the aggressors' plans.
(1) What is implied about the relationship between the South Korean government, the United States
government, and the United Nations in Document A?
(2) According to Document A, why did the United States intervene in Korea?
(3) What descriptive words does the author use to accuse the United States of starting the Korea War?
5
Document B – Report of the United Nations Commission on Korea, 1950
A. Responsibility for the aggression. The invasion of the territory of the Republic of Korea by the armed forces of the North Korean
authorities, which began on June 25, 1950, was an act of aggression initiated without warning and without provocation, in execution of
a carefully prepared plan. This plan of aggression, it is now clear, was an essential part of the policy of the North Korean authorities,
the object of which was to secure control over the whole of Korea. If control could not be gained by peaceful means, it would be
achieved by overthrowing the Republic of Korea, either by undermining it from within or, should that prove ineffective, by resorting to
direct aggression. As the methods used for undermining the Republic from within proved unsuccessful, the North Korean authorities
launched an invasion of the territory of the Republic of Korea.
B. Origin and nature of the conflict. The origin of the conflict is to be found in the artificial division of Korea and in the failure, in 1945,
of the occupying Powers to reach agreement on the method to be used for giving independence to Korea. This failure was not due to
anything inherent in the attitude of the people of Korea themselves, but was a reflection of those wider and more fundamental
differences of outlook and policy which have become so marked a feature of the international scene. This artificial division was
consolidated by the exclusion from North Korea of the United Nations Temporary Commission, which had been charged by the General
Assembly to observe the holding of elections on a democratic basis in the whole of Korea. In the circumstances, it was decided to hold
such elections in South Korea alone. Had internationally supervised elections been allowed to take place in the whole of Korea, and
had a unified and independent Korea thereby come into existence, the present conflict could never have arisen.
It was hoped that, at some stage, it might be possible to break down the economic and social barriers between the two political
entities as a step toward unification. That too proved illusory, as the North Korean authorities persisted ill their policy,' of aiming at the
overthrow of the Republic of Korea. After the consolidation of the division of Korea, propaganda and hostile activities on the part of
the North Korean authorities accentuated tension which, in turn, stiffened the attitude of the Government and people of the Republic of
Korea.
Finally, as the division of the country and the resulting antagonisms were artificial, the Commission believes that, when the conditions
under which they arose disappear, it will be possible for the Korean people of both North and South to come again together, to live in
peace and to build the strong foundations of a free, democratic Korea.
(1) According to Document B, who is responsible for the start of the Korean War? Explain the aggressor’s
motivation.
(2) What descriptive words does Document B use to describe North Korea?
(3) How does the document describe the division of Korea after World War 2?
6
NAME:
___________________________________
Document Based Question: Korean War
Directions: Using the documents provided, craft a thesis statement addressing why the Korean War has,
and continues to have, such a profound impact.
Document One
Source: Korean War Legacy Foundation, http://www.kwvdm.org/war.php?p=statistic
Document Two
“Some 40,000 American troops remain on duty there (Korea) as a trip-wire defense against any North
Korean invasion. And from time to time the new generation of soldiers asks, ‘What am I doing in this
obscure little part of the world?’—exactly what many Americans asked when it all began, in June 1950.”
-
Goulden, 1982: xxvi
Document Three
To simply reference the Korean War as a “turning point” in American history would be an understatement.
The events that took place on the Korean Peninsula immediately after 1945 defined an era of global
interaction, and led to the bifurcation of the world into two spheres. If one really considers the scale and
impact of the Korean War, calling it simply the “Korean Conflict” is not only a misnomer, but an insult to
those who lost their lives on the Korean Peninsula during that time.
7
Jongwoo Han
Project Director
Korean Peninsula Affairs Center (KPAC)
Document Four
At Imjingak, the most northern village in Korea open to all South Korean civilians, a peace park is
dedicated to families separated when the peninsula was divided after World War II. The Freedom Bridge,
connecting North and South, is where 13,000 prisoners of war were liberated in 1953. Colored ribbons
flutter in the breeze, tied to the fence by South Koreans to remember family members still living in the
North, and honoring those who have died.
- NZ Herald
By Donna McIntyre
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11505708
Photo credit, Christina Cone
Document Five
It is dialectical that once Korea was of no interest to the American leadership, it was ignored completely
and divided at the 38th parallel. America is responsible for the Korean division and unwittingly inviting the
North Korean attack; however, America also shed blood and secured freedom for Koreans during the
Korean War. Today, the Republic of Korea as the most substantial and vibrant democratic state in Asia and
the 13th largest economy in the world is impossible to imagine without the contributions made by brave
young Americans.
Jongwoo Han
Project Director
Korean Peninsula Affairs Center (KPAC)
8
Document Six
On October 30, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved
National Security Council Paper No. 162/2 (NSC 162/2). The top
secret document made clear that America’s nuclear arsenal must be
maintained and expanded to meet the communist threat, but at less
cost. NSC 162/2 indicated the growing reliance of the United States
on its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent to communist aggression. Its
approval by the President was a definite sign of a new foreign policy
that depended on more cost efficient nuclear weapons to fight the
Cold War. Limited conflicts with conventional weapons would be
replaced with massive retaliation with the threat of atomic weapons.
Document Seven
Air War
The US may have killed 20% of the population of Korea, said General Curtis Lemay, who was involved in
the US air war on Korea.
For three years, Korea - both South and North - was one single free-fire zone: A UN air assault demolished
most of Seoul; the US Air Force carpet-bombed North Korea with incendiaries and explosives, dropping
635,000 tons of explosive bombs and up to 40,000 tons of napalm. The destruction within North Korean
cities and towns ranged from 40 percent to nearly 100 percent. (9) …North Korea's large dams, which
provided irrigation water and generated electricity, were bombed, some at the onset of the rice-growing
season….
General William Dean, as a POW in North Korea, observed that "most of the towns and villages he saw
were just 'rubble or snowy open spaces.'" Chief Justice William O. Douglas visited Korea in the summer of
1952 and avowed "I had seen the war-battered cities of Europe; but I had not seen devastation until I had
seen Korea…" (11)
The Korean War: Forgotten, Unknown and Unfinished
Friday, 12 July 2013 09:29 By H. Patricia Hynes, Truthout | Historical Analysis
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17533-the-korean-war-forgotten-unknown-and-unfinished
9