World War II

In 1945, when World War II finally came to an end, people all around the world agreed on one thing: never again did they want to see a war of that magnitude. World War II was a bitter and harsh war in which millions of lives were lost. Those who survived the cruelties of war would never be the same. The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union understood the strong desire of all nations to see world peace. Thus, the United Nations was established. Prime Minister Clemet Attlee described the goal of the United Nations as not just the negation of war, but the creation of a world of security and freedom, of a world which is governed by the justice and the moral law. We desire to assert the preminence of right over might and the general good against sectional aims (quoted in Johnson 7). In short, the main purpose of the UN is maintenance of world peace and the avoidance of war. The idea as a whole sounds wonderful in theory. The problems ari! se when the UN itself cannot agree on a course of action or when those that the UN attempts to help resist or even despise the assistance. In instances such as the Korean War and the Bosnian Peacekeeping attempts, the United Nations did not help to keep peace but instead may have contributed to the violence as well as prolonged the conflicts. After World War II, Korea became jointly occupied. The Soviets arose in the territory north of the 38 parallel, and the U.S. took control of the southern part of the country. Neither the Soviet Union nor the U.S. was willing to let Korea fall under the hands of the other. From the start of Koreas liberation, division was prevalent. The Soviet Union wanted to establish a Communist Korea while the U.S. hoped to bring democracy to Korea. By 1947, two different political parties had risen in Korea. Despite these opposing governments, nationalists from both North and South Korea hoped to negotiate a treaty th...