The excerpt below describes the creation of Korean occupation zones by two U.S. Army officers in 1945. About midnight, 10-11 August 1945, Colonel Charles H. Bonesteel and Major Dean Rusk began drafting part of a general order that would define the zones to be occupied in Korea by American and Russian forces. They were given thirty minutes to complete their draft.... The only map immediately available was a small-scale wall map of the Far East, and time was pressing. Bonesteel noted that the 38th parallel passed north of Seoul and almost divided Korea into two equal parts. He seized on it as the proposed zonal boundary. This 38th parallel had never been the subject of international discussions among the war time leaders. Thus are the fates of nations determined. Source: National Defense University Press/Public Domain Which conclusion can be drawn about the long-term consequences these U.S. officers' action had on Korea? Korea became the site for a clash of cultures based on opposing historical beliefs that became part of a regional conflict. Korea became involved in a civil war based on competing foreign ideological systems that became part of superpower rivalry. The U.S. public questioned the role the U.S. government played in world affairs and increasingly distrusted political authority. The U.S. public questioned the influence the U.S. military had in shaping foreign policy and increasingly distrusted military decision making.