Korea was never meant to be split.
Unification was always the main goal.
But as time went along, the idea that the two could reunite seems to have come and went.
When you look at it, the division of Korea is now the last remnant of the Cold War.
Germany and Vietnam were just like Korea:
Divided, but while those eventually came together, Korea didn't.
Now things are so far different decades later Korea is so culturally split;
reunification is a laughable joke.
But what if it wasn't like this?
What if today, Korea was unified?
This whole decades-long split between the two never happened.
Back in the 1950s, one side was victorious in the civil war
and united the country under its own government.
There were times in the war that both sides could have won.
So that's why I'm dividing this video into two alternate scenarios.
One: if South Korea won the war,
and the other, if North Korea won the war.
So what possibly might have occurred?
If you don't really know that much about the Korean War,
then I recommend watching this video to catch you up.
Okay?
Good.
First, what if South Korea had won the war?
In this alternate timeline, it's the 1950s.
The United States and the UN easily push back the North Koreans,
beating the communists back to the 38th parallel.
Wanting to stop any future conflict from occuring,
the decision is made to eliminate North Korea as a threat.
The coalition invades the North, obliterates what little defences they have left,
captures Pyongyang, and chases the communist forces all the way up to the Chinese border.
Now, the only reason why North Korea exists today is because of China.
In our timeline, they were threatened with so many American troops on their border
that they decided to attack.
The Chinese sent thousands of troops into Korea,
pushing the coalition south, and keeping the North alive.
In this alternate timeline,
for some reason,
China simply doesn't fight in the war.
This is, of course, extremely unlikely.
But that's the only way for the Americans to fully defeat North Korea,
if China simply doesn't become involved.
By 1951 the remainder of communist forces surrender to the UN coalition.
North Korea is officially dissolved.
There is no more north or south, it's all under the former southern government,
now the united Korean government.
Glorious leader Kim Il-sung is either
captured, executed or goes into hiding.
This goes for all Communists and sympathizers;
many either flee into China or go underground.
The united government begins a nation-wide purge against suspected Communists all across the country.
Hundreds of thousands, even millions, of suspected Communists are executed.
Secret mass graves covered up by the government.
If this seems a bit excessive,
well,
that's exactly what happened in our timeline as well.
At least 100,000 suspected Communist citizens were killed in the summer of 1950, alone,
by the South Korean regime.
So in this scenario, it's not shocking that once the North surrenders
a large violent purge begins to remove all of Kim Il-sung's influence.
For most, reunification isn't hard at all.
It's only been five years of separation;
the division was bloody, but it would only be seen as a civil war.
The war was short,
but it devastated the country's infrastructure.
This new united Korea is too weak to deal with this themselves.
So, for a while, they're reliant on aid from the Americans
to fuel the weak nation's economy.
For a while it's not sunshine and rainbows,
it's not a place where democracy reigns.
It would be similar to what the South was for much of its history:
authoritarian and unstable.
In our timeline the South suffered regime change after regime change
and this wouldn't be different simply because the country united.
This leaves Korea's fate very unpredictable
and down two very different paths.
One: Korea remains a pretty impoverished state due to lacking leadership,
its economy just never prospers.
Two: Korea is basically the same as today,
but instead, it's all over Korea and not just the South.
This alternate Korean War changes the perception that the Americans have on the fight against Communism.
On the Global Stage this was a slap to the face to the Soviets,
a show of force that the Americans would contain Communism;
almost a text-book example of what could go right
like a 1950s Persian Gulf War.
Korea is less of a major, brutal war
and simply a military action,
but it is used as an example of Western Power over the Soviet bloc.
Korea isn't the 'Forgotten War'
it's a "nice little war."
So most people pretty much forget about the region as a whole
and foreign aid is simply to help the Koreans rebuild.
For China, Korea is now an enemy at its doorstep.
The decision to not attack was a horrible one
and it hurt their already weakening relationship with the Soviets.
They'd be pretty bitter.
The U.S. military understands this and keeps troops in Korea to ward off any Chinese threat.
Switching things around now, to the other alternate timeline.
What if North Korea, instead, had won the war?
The initial invasion plays out just like our own.
The North Koreans invade the South,
not expecting the United States to retaliate or even care about Korea in general.
Kim Il-sung believes that the Americans have other matters
and Korea would mean very little.
Of course, though, he was dead wrong.
But in this alternate timeline, he's actually right.
The United States cares very little about the invasion and doesn't attack.
This is practically impossible to happen considering the Cold War and all,
but this is really the only possible way North Korea could have won.
It's not like they'd win from superior firepower against the Americans.
See a pattern here?
Without American and U.N. commitment the South Koreans are overrun,
the Southern government and military is soon entirely defeated.
The whole country falls to Kim Il-sung.
So,
what now?
The international community can't put sanctions on it
considering China and Russia are both allies who would just ignore the U.N.
and give Korea any supplies it needs.
So, does Kim Il-sung make a glorious Korean regime to take over all of east Asia then eventually the world?
Well, no.
Most of the consequences occur outside Korea,
more specifically, the United States.
Since the United States does nothing to stop the Communists from taking over another country,
this a major embarrassment for President Truman and the U.S.
Keep in mind, at the time, China had just fallen to Communism,
which was also blamed on Truman as well.
So another incident like that leaves the United States even more shaken.
America was meant to at least contain the spread of Communism,
and even if South Korea wasn't extremely important,
it was still under American control
and its loss is a symbolic threat to the global fight against Communists.
The fall of Korea would not be forgotten.
Oh no,
It'd be a fire which would kick start a whole new Red Scare.
Americans and democracy as a whole is seen as on the defensive.
Communist forces literally invading and conquering nations.
The thing about fear is
it turns into policy.
Korea's loss changes the way the United States conducts itself in the 1950s.
It would not want to loose the next conflict;
it would be less likely to give any Communist state
a single inch.
I think you know where I'm going with this:
Vietnam.
We think of Vietnam as a 1960s war,
but the U.S. was deeply involved in it ever since the '50s.
The U.S. helped aid the French, to a limited degree.
But they soon lost to the Viêt Minh and the country was divided into North and South.
In our time line, America didn't fully commit to the French
because of the stalemate that was the Korean War.
Eisenhower had very conflicted feelings.
He wanted to help the French win the war
and the U.S. could have.
He didn't want another Communist state in Asia,
but he worried it'd devolve into another Korea.
With the loss of Korea, however, there is no stalemate,
but there is an urge for revenge.
In this alternate time line the U.S. can't afford to be embarrassed again.
There is high public support for a conflict against the Communist Vietnamese
far before there is ever a North Vietnam.
By the early 1950s the Americans come to the French aid sending in ground troops and bombers.
Imagine the Vietnam War of our time line but far sooner.
This conflict is not limited.
One major reason the United States couldn't conclude the Vietnam War
was because it couldn't simply invade the North with ground forces--
that'd start World War Three.
But since this conflict takes place while Vietnam is a French colony
the Americans can simply roll in.
The United States doesn't need to worry about invading a sovereign Communist north.
That means, in this alternate time line,
the United States and French crush the nationalist / Communist rebellion.
Hô Chí Minh is captured or killed
as the United States invades the North.
By the 1960s the Counter Culture Movement is certainly not as prevalent without Vietnam,
and, in fact, the entire decade is much more like the '50s.
The loss of a tiny country
changes the course of America.
I'll let you imagine the ramifications of that.
Meanwhile, Korea is a Communist state under Kim Il-sung.
They have an extensive cult of personality much like Stalin,
and mass purges occur against Capitalist Koreans.
But for the most part, Korea remains relatively quiet as its under Chinese and Soviet control.
Its history is much of the same up until the 1990s
when the Soviet Union collapses.
Without a war with the Americans Korea doesn't have an enemy to latch onto,
and since South Korea had already fallen by the 1950s,
the United States just considered it a lost cause.
Perhaps by the fall of the Soviet Union
Korea is moderate enough to begin a relationship with the Americans.
There isn't as much of a cult of personality and, instead, the country becomes less Communist
just like China and Vietnam in our time line.
Comparing both scenarios there is one thing that stands out:
whoever wins,
North or South,
allows their dominant country,
either the Soviets or Americans,
to have a significant advantage in the Cold War.
A decisive victory would have been a fantastic political moment for either side.
But since it was just a stale mate
it became an awkward pause that, to this day,
still hasn't been resolved.
This, however, is simply a couple of scenarios.
We'll never truly know what would have happened,
but it's always fun to theorize.
What do you think would have happened?
This is Cody of the AlternateHistoryHub.
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