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Abstract
Between 1953 and 1957, the United States cultivated a major military partnership with the Republic of Korea (ROK) as part of Cold War strategy in Asia and the Pacific. Before the Korean War (1950-53), the United States did not have a defense burden in the ROK. Intervention of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in Korea in late 1950, however, led to the evolution of U.S. strategy in the Far East and the reshaping of U.S.-ROK relations. The Eisenhower administration (1953-61) responded to Communist Chinas military threats to noncommunist Asia by implementing the New Look, with its emphasis on massive retaliation. By combining U.S. nuclear weapons and indigenous Asian forces, and expanding regional security arrangements, the Eisenhower administration sought to prevent further Communist expansion in East Asia without exhausting the U.S. economy. Not only did the U.S.-ROK alliance buttress ROK security under the Korean armistice, it also emerged as a main component of the U.S. defense system against the Communists in East Asia. Meanwhile, U.S. allies in Europe remained largely noncommittal toward ongoing Sino-American hostilities after the Korean War. For both economic and security concerns, Japans contributions to the defense of noncommunist Asia also fell short of U.S. expectations. Faced with growing Soviet military threats to the free world after the mid-1950s, the Eisenhower administration was determined to prevent military tension in Korea from escalating into general war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Therefore, the United States attempted to separate Japan from ongoing military conflicts in mainland Asia, and this led to increased reliance on the American partnership with the ROK to cope with North Korea and the PRC. By the end of 1957, the United States had dissolved the Far East Command (FEC), moved the United Nations Command (UNC) from Tokyo to Seoul, and decided to send tactical nuclear weapons to Korea. With the deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons in Korea, the U.S.-ROK alliance, prompted in 1953 by the ROKs urgent security problem, had evolved into a strategic partnership of mutual interests in a joint, long-term struggle against the Communist bloc in Asia and the Pacific.