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O-Level Paper 2: The Cold War reaches past Europe

the war in Korea, 1950 to 1953

What the syllabus expects

What unfolded in Korea once the Second World War had ended
Scope: The occupation after the war, the splitting of Korea in two, and skirmishes along the dividing line
How communist China came to the fore
Scope: The widening of a communist bloc together with the alliance between the Soviets and China
How the war in Korea began
Scope: What each main party did: the North and South of Korea, the Americans, the United Nations, plus China and the Soviets
The armistice that halted the Korean fighting and what came right afterward
Scope: The zone stripped of troops, the shift it forced in American policy toward Asia, and mounting friction between the Warsaw Pact and NATO
Weigh the effect the Second World War had on Europe in its immediate wake
Look at the ways Cold War friction showed itself inside Europe
Weigh what the contest between the Americans and Soviets did in the aftermath of the Second World War
Weigh how communist China's rise reshaped the strains of the Cold War
Weigh what set off the wars in Korea and Vietnam and what followed each of them
Judge the degree to which the superpowers took part in civil wars and the effect of that, drawing on Korea and Vietnam
Look at the immediate fallout of the Korean and Vietnam wars on how the Cold War developed
Key concepts: Proxy war, Bipolarity, Containment, Cold War, Command economy, Democracy, Communism, Capitalist economy, Civil War, Superpower rivalry