Author Description

This text states that the division of Korea in 1945 was a cause of the later Korean war, which resulted in further partitioning of the country in 1953. The book concludes that Korea was a victim of the superpower rivalry after World War II. Although the Koreans are sometimes blamed for the division and the Korean war because of their factional wrangling, the author states that they had not been given sufficient autonomy to decide their own future. Their power to govern themselves was entirely ignored by the major powers from the beginning. The main objectives of foreign powers involved in Korea was both to prevent the dominance of Korea by an adversary and to avoid dominating the peninsula themselves, thereby creating another crisis.