This first truly international history of the Korean War argues that by
its timing, its course, and its outcome it functioned as a substitute
for World War III. Stueck draws on recently available materials from
seven countries, plus the archives of the United Nations, presenting a
detailed narrative of the diplomacy of the conflict and a broad
assessment of its critical role in the Cold War. He emphasizes the
contribution of the United Nations, which at several key points in the
conflict provided an important institutional framework within which less
powerful nations were able to restrain the aggressive tendencies of the
United States. In Stueck's view, contributors to the U.N. cause in Korea
provided support not out of any abstract commitment to a universal
system of collective security but because they saw an opportunity to
influence U.S. policy. Chinese intervention in Korea in the fall of 1950
brought with it the threat of world war, but at that time and in other
instances prior to the armistice in July 1953, America's NATO allies and
Third World neutrals succeeded in curbing American adventurism. While
conceding the tragic and brutal nature of the war, Stueck suggests that
it helped to prevent the occurrence of an even more destructive conflict
in Europe.