CANADA HISTORY - War

Stalemate

After years of fighting and tens of thousands of causalities, the front line was roughly along the 38th parallel where it was before the war broke out. The North Koreans could not mount an attack to break the United Nations and the South Korean lines. They had the solders but no the support and equipment to break through and win. The UN forces were now aware that to pursue the objective of total victory and the invasion and of defeat of North Korea would probably widen the war into an Asia conflict.

The political policy of containment which the Western powers had adopted only required that no further expansion of the communist power take place and hence the maintenance of South Korea as an independent democratic power was the objective of the UN policing action. The problem was how to negotiate and end to hostilities without giving up to much to the other side. Canada's unconditional support of the doctrine of containment required that Canadian troops would be required to stay on until some sort of resolution of the hostilities was determined.