“We were at the brink of war with the USA and the Western states”. Soviet Union and Armed Conflict Resolution in the Far East, 1953–1954. Part II

The article analyzes the final stages of the Korean War (1950–1953) and the national liberation war against French colonizers in Vietnam (1945–1954; also called the First Indochina War in historiography). The authors emphasize that the courses of both conflicts were intertwined, as both the Korean and Indochina wars were parts of a regional war in the Far East. The conflicts were ultimately resolved at the Geneva Conference in spring-summer 1954. The authors take a close look at the stages of the negotiations on ceasefire in Korea and provide an outline of Soviet military and foreign policy after Joseph Stalin’s death. The article examines the outcomes of the Korean War and the Indochina campaign of winter-spring 1953–1954 and their influence on Asia’s growing military and political significance. Another important aspect of the study is its focus on unwanted escalation, when the actions of the conflicting sides (either one or both of them) further fueled the violence despite their own interests and intentions – exclusively due to a fear of compromises that were deemed as weakness, leading to worse positions in the negotiation process

Conflict resolution · Foreign policy · Military operations other than war · Negotiation · Politics · Soviet union · Spanish Civil War · World War II · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies