The Korean War

The Korean War took place between 2 opposing regimes in 1950: North Korea and South Korea. It started because of the ongoing Cold War between the USA and the USSR. The USA entered the war was to undermine Communism. President Truman believed that the capitalism was in the danger of being superseded.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union occupied the Korean peninsula. The United Nations to resolve the problems of the divided Korea, decided to hold elections. The North Korean Army invaded the South on June 25, 1950. China entered war because they wanted to use North Korea as a buffer zone against possible US invasion. The US wanted to stop the spread the communism whereas the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to increase its dominating power. The armistice ended the war in Korea, it seemed that neither side wanted to give in. However, the conflict was not yet ended, despite border clashes

Effects of the war
The Korean War created many frictions between US and the Soviet Union. The war showed US determination to stop the spread of Communism by USSR. Families were forced to break up due to the cruelty of the war. Furthermore, South Korea became a strategic location for US military. However, the Korean War never ended because of the inability to resolve the differences between South Korea and North Korea. Korean War also brought social damage to Korea, “especially in the North, where three years of bombing left hardly a modern building standing. The war also reinforced the boundaries between the North and the South. North Korea remained a communist nation and South Korea became a free republic. This social difference still brings conflict even today.


The Iran-Iraq War

Causes of the War (1980-1988)
The war started because of various factors such as religious and political differences, border disputes. With the leaders of Iraq from the Sunni branch, and the Iranians, the Shiite. The ruling Ba'ath Party in Iraq was socialist and pro-Soviet, whereas the Iranian shah was anti-socialist (though certainly not democratic) and pro-Western. when Ayatollah Khomeini, who had spent part of his exile in Iraq, began encouraging his former colleagues to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq because his regime was anti-Islamic. This was part of Khomeini's broader strategy of spreading the Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East. Saddam responded as he did to any challenge by a ruthless crackdown on Shiite fundamentalists and by sending aid to Arab separatists in Iran.

Between June and September 1980, 193 clashes occurred along the Iran-Iraq border. On September 17, Iraq abrogated the 1975 treaty. As Iraq mobilized Arab allies, Iran warned the Gulf states they would be overthrown if they supported Saddam. Tensions built, until a series of clashes occurred in early September along the border near Qasr e-Shirin. Each nation blamed the other for the fighting. Saddam threatened to seize territory he said Iran was supposed to transfer to Iraq under an earlier agreement, but Khomeini refused to give up the disputed lands.
Effects of the war
The war lasted for eight years, from September 1980 until August 1988. It ended when Iran accepted United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 598, leading to a 20 August 1988 cease-fire. Casualty figures are highly uncertain, though estimates suggest more than one and a half million war and war-related casualties. Iran acknowledged that nearly 300,000 people died in the war while Iraq suffered an estimated 375,000 casualties.

A variety of unresolved humanitarian issues from the Iran-Iraq War include a failure to identify combatants killed in action and to exchange information on those killed or missing.