ABSTRACT
In the Western Pacific Basin in 1950 the US faced a major communist advance in Korea, an increasingly difficult French struggle to suppress the communist-led insurgency in Vietnam and the growing Iiuk rebellion in the Philippines. To allow a complete Chinese victory would threaten the whole American policy to contain communist expansion in the Western Pacific Basin and might induce a loss of Japanese confidence in the US. The influences of the Korean War along the East Asian rim of the Pacific Basin were profound. In reality, the Korean War was no part of a Soviet grand plan for mastery of the world. Stalin's initial response to American intervention in the Korean War was surprise and alarm. American negotiations with the Chinese began on 10 July 1951 at Chinese-held Kaesong on the 38th parallel and soon shifted to the nearby village of Panrnunjom. America's relations with China were greatly influenced by the Korean War.
