HIWD375 Final

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Kyle Powell HIWD375: East Asian Warfare 05/09/2024

The Korean and Vietnam wars were confusing to the American population for numerous reasons. The American population was left wondering what the point of fighting was before, during, and after each respective war. However, the Christian community had different concerns about these wars. How did they hold up to the tenets of Christian Just War? While no war will completely stand up to these tenets, the Korean and Vietnam wars were especially controversial. These wars had prime examples of Jus Ad Bellum and Jus in Bello. Each war shared the jus ad bellum of just cause and competent authorities. Likewise, both wars a jus in bellos by having a high civilian death rate. However, the Vietnam War violated more tenets of war by not utilizing the Last Resort, as well as chemical weapons. While neither war was perfect, the Vietnam War conflicted more with Christian Just War tenets. Korean War jus ad bellum The Korean War satisfied most, if not all, and the Christian just war tenants of jus ad bellum. At the beginning of this proxy war, North Korean and Soviet forces crossed the 38 th parallel and invaded South Korea. When the Soviets decided to invade, they cast the first proverbial stone and justified the United States entering the war. This action alone would satisfy most of the just war criteria, starting with Just Cause and Right Intention. The United States had the goal of stopping communism and protecting South Korea when they entered into the war. These two noble goals lined up perfectly with the previously mentioned rules of war. When President Truman decided to enter the conflict he acted within the tenant of Competent Authority, which stated that the proper authorities must be the ones to wage war. On June 25th and June 27th, the United Nations called for a ceasefire and for all member nations to assist the South Koreans and satisfy the Last Resort rule. 1 With four rules accounted 1 (Truman Library n.d.)

for it left only a few, these being Comparative Justice, Probability of Success, and Proportionality. The presence of communist aggression in Korea is enough to fulfill comparative justice as well as proportionality, leaving only the probability of success. The probability of success is arguably the only law that was not met during this time because the United States did not consider this to be a full-out war. The President’s decision to not declare war showed that he believed this would not be a long fight, leading his men to be ill-prepared for this war. While this in itself is not a violation of the code, the mobilization of troops was not as aggressive as it was just a few years before in World War II. Korean War Jus in Bello While the Korean War met a good deal of jus ad bellum, it failed to meet standard when it came to jus in bello. With that being said the first laws that were broken were the distinction and proportionality laws. While it is difficult to determine civilian causalities during the war, it is estimated that there were 500,000-1,000,000 civilian fatalities. 2 This was due to careless bombings, or blatant attacks by Allied forces. The Korean War had no shortage of failures, the biggest failure of all was the lack of regard for the Lord’s will and the preservation of human life. As bad as the Korean War was, it paled in comparison to the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Vietnam War Jus Ad Bellum The Vietnam War, much like the Korean War, began with the United States intervening in a conflict to stop the spread of communism. Once again this was not a typical war that the U.S. had seen in the past, it was a proxy war that was being fought by politicians. The U.S. population 2 (World Peace Foundation 2015)

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