U.S. and Soviet Policies in August–December 1945

Abstract

According to Dean Rusk, the division of Korea along the 38th parallel was proposed during a meeting of the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (SWINK or SWNCC) on August 14, 1945. The ex-U.S. secretary of state, who was then a colonel on the staff of the elite Operations Division (OPD) of the U.S. War Department General Staff in Washington, notes in his memoirs that the state and war departments held different opinions on where and when American forces should accept the surrender of Japanese forces. While the State Department desired to accept the surrender as far north on the mainland of China as possible, including key parts of Manchuria, the army did not want to accept responsibility for areas where it had no or few forces. “In fact, the Anny did not want to go onto the mainland at all,” Rusk writes. Rusk then goes on to relate how the drawing of the 38th parallel took place: