In 1950, North Korean leader Kim Il-sung launched a war against South Korea, seeking to swallow the South. The United Nations passed a resolution to intervene, and troops from 16 countries, led by the United States, were sent to Korea. With Stalin’s support, Mao Zedong decided to send Chinese troops to fight in the war under the banner of “Resist America, Aid Korea,” despite opposition from other CCP leaders. This decision resulted in casualties numbering in the millions and severely weakened China’s national strength. The Chinese Communist regime mobilized all its propaganda machinery to promote anti-American sentiment, sowing deep-rooted hostility toward the United States. To this day, Mao’s responsibility has not been fully exposed; instead, he is often credited for his role in the Korean War, and this anti-American mindset has been passed down from generation to generation.

The war’s impact on the United States

On July 27, 1953, an armistice agreement was signed. The two sides ceased hostilities and exchanged approximately 90,000 prisoners of war, who were allowed to choose whether to remain where they were or return to their homelands.

The Korean War inflicted enormous devastation on the Korean Peninsula, with about two million people losing their lives, including many civilians.

In March 1969, border clashes broke out between China and the Soviet Union in the Zhenbao Island area of the Heilongjiang River. Mao Zedong launched mass demonstrations denouncing “Soviet revisionism.” Hardliners within the Soviet Union advocated “once and for all eliminating the Chinese threat,” preparing to use medium-range ballistic missiles deployed in the Far East, armed with multi-megaton nuclear warheads, to carry out “surgical nuclear strikes” against key Chinese military and political targets.

At the same time, the Soviet Union tentatively proposed to the United States a joint strike to deliver a devastating blow against China’s still-primitive nuclear facilities. After June 1969, clashes along the Sino–Soviet border continued unabated. On August 13, 1969, more than a hundred Soviet infantry troops, supported by tanks and armored vehicles, crossed into China’s Xinjiang border region, triggering the Tielieketi incident, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 40 Chinese soldiers.