Following the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, the United States requested the Soviet Union to enter the war against Japan for an early end to the war and minimization of its own casualties. Furthermore, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Soviet Union pledged to enter the war against Japan within three months of the defeat of Germany. Subsequently, on June 18, President Truman approved a plan to not participate in any military action on the Korean Peninsula, citing the massive sacrifice of American troops that would ensue. However, on August 11, the day after the Japanese government first announced its intention to surrender, President Truman ordered a direct landing on the peninsula. The State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee and the Joint Chiefs of Staff soon decided that the 38^th demarcation line would be the dividing line between the Korean occupation of United States and the Soviet Union. The U.S. decision to draw the 38th parallel was influenced by the issues of postwar handling of Poland, distribution of Italian colonies, distrust of the Soviet Union that had accumulated during the negotiation of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, and development of the atomic bomb by the United States. The purpose of demarcating the 38^th parallel was to facilitate the implementation of the international trusteeship of the Korean Peninsula after the war, which had already been agreed upon by the Allies. The demarcation of the 38^th parallel was a means of forcing the Soviet Union to implement the international trusteeship and did not mark the beginning of a U.S.-Soviet confrontation or the Cold War.

I. 서론
II. 군사적 희생 최소화를 위하여: 미국의 한반도 不進攻 결정
III. 폴란드의 전후처리 문제를 둘러싼 미·소 갈등
IV. 포츠담회담과 미국의 원폭실험 성공
V. 중소협상과 미국의 38선 획정 결정
VI. 결론
참고문헌
Abstract