Given the protracted conclusion of the war, who would you consider its winners in 1953? How about 2017?

In 1953 the only clear winner I see from the situation is Red China as she proved that she is a force to be reckoned with. As Fehrenbach writes, even nationalist Chinese were excited at the fact that the Far Eastern power was winning against the US in the spring/summer of 1951. Following the Korean War, China would use this victory to project itself on the global stage and would offer itself self confidence that would blossom into becoming one of the world’s greatest military and economic powers in the twenty first century. In regards to the Republic of Korea the nation suffered casualties in the millions and would now have to work to rebuild its infrastructure and people’s quality of life. On the other hand, they had now developed a strong ally in the United States and the West in general which would prove to be highly effective as the country would undergo a vast expansion in technology and wealth throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. A growth that many determine to be unprecedented in terms of change and time. The US and its UN allies had a slight victory in 1953 atleast politically as they now no longer had to send American boys to Korea to be killed in a stalemate war that effectively began in early 1951. On the other hand, it knew that it had only returned to Korean peninsula to the status quo but overall it was a victory for the American people especially its young men.

In terms of today’s perspective I believe China gained a lot of influence due to the conflict and since the conflict has risen to be a global competitor in all aspects. Today she still deals with the issue of North Korea who continues to act out of its grasp sometimes in conflict with how it would prefer it to act. While the DPRK remains a puppet of Communist China, recently the nation has almost become too much for China to handle and while this is frustrating for Beijing it continues to keep US forces below the 38th parallel. In terms of the ROK the nation continues to deal with the communist state to the North which at these time does not present an immediate threat but one that certainly uses its military might for political purposes. All in all the ROK is in my opinion worse off for the armistice as a future war, at some point in time, is inevitable and will be very costly to both sides of the 38th parallel. In terms of the US, we now find ourselves in an interesting situation that could have been avoided had Truman heeded the words of MacArthur although we never would have known what that action would have developed. US is certainly overall a “loser” here in modern times as our White House now has a rational actor immediately North of 20,000 troops with some kind of nuclear capability in his grasp or at least shortly within grasp. Because the US has mostly avoided the North Korean problem over the last 50 years we are now faced with an interesting predicament that only has a number of options all of which are not good.