Korean War
The Korean War was a major conflict on the Korean peninsula lasting from 1950 to 1953, between the communist forces of North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, and the democratic forces of South Korea, supported by a multinational United Nations force.
Contents
Prelude
A Japanese territory until the end of World War II, Korea was then divided by the Yalta agreement into two administrative zones in 1945, along the 38th parallel, occupied by the Soviet Union and the United States. In both zones competing government organisations were created to rule a unified Korea, and military forces raised.
August 31, 1946, Harold J. Noble wrote an article in the Saturday Evening Post entitled, "Our Most Dangerous Boundary." The author pointed out that the Soviet Union had garrisoned North Korea with a larger force than the Americans possessed in Japan and Manchuria. The Communists were disposed to invade at a moment's notice. Where the U.S. had a squad near the border commanded by a corporal, the Soviet Union had a battalion, commanded by an officer, equipped with motor transport, ninety per cent of which came from America. The Soviet Union had established a police state in North Korea and suppressed every political organization except the Communist Party.
In 1947, General Albert Wedemeyer made his report on China and Korea. The Korean part was suppressed. Wedemeyer said:
- "American and Soviet forces . . . are approximately equal, less than 50,000 troops each, [but] the Soviet-equipped and trained North Korean People's (Communist) Army of approximately 125,000 is vastly superior to the United States-organized constabulary of 16,000 Koreans equipped with Japanese small arms. The North Korean People's Army constitutes a potential military threat to South Korea, since there is strong possibility that the Soviets will withdraw their occupation forces and thus induce our own withdrawal."[1]
Wedemeyer warned that this would take place as soon as "they can be sure that the North Korean puppet government and its armed forces . . . are strong enough . . . to be relied upon to carry out Soviet objectives without the actual presence of Soviet troops." General Lyman L. Lemnitzer said that before June 1950, when the attack occurred, no aid had been sent but a few hundred dollars worth of bailing wire.[2]
Comintern propagandist Owen Lattimore writing in the leftist New York Compass said that the U.S. should give Korea a "parting grant" of $150,000,000 and "let South Korea fall but not to let it look as though we pushed it."[3]
Conditions inviting the North Korean attack were created by the United Nations which issued a resolution for withdrawal of both Soviet and American troops. Troops began withdrawing September 15, 1948, leaving only about 7500 Americans lightly armed. This left in South Korea 16,000 Koreans and 7500 Americans, both groups lightly armed, against 150,000 fully armed North Korean Communists. General Roberts, head of the U. S. Military Mission said the South Koreans were not permitted to arm adequately.
Outbreak
In the summer of 1950, North Korean forces under Kim Il Sung, 135,000 strong and supported by 200 aircraft, thrust southwards. The 95,000 strong South Korean army, created under US control, was unmotivated, inefficient and had been deliberately denied heavy weapons; within hours most formations had fled south, often abandoning their equipment. After a week, almost half of the South Korean army had disappeared.
A United Nations resolution, passed in the absence of the USSR, condemned the attack and demanded the withdrawal of the North Korean forces. The United States, wanting its half of Korea back, was the most enthusiastic in pursuing these demands.
Pusan perimeter
By September, the surviving South Korean forces, and the US Eighth Army which had been sent to assist were confined to a small enclave around the Southern city of Pusan behind the Naktong river. It had taken months to assemble more than a handful of American troops; American air units had made some ineffectual sorties; and the suggestion that North Korea should be nuked was not taken any further.
Inchon landings
With the situation in the south finally stabilised, in September, 70,000 UN troops under General MacArthur, with massive support, landed at Inchon, near Seoul, surprising the exhausted North Koreans. The landings were an extremely risky operation; if any significant resistance had been encountered, the landing craft would probably have been stranded by the extreme tides of the landing zone, leaving the forces landed vulnerable to complete annihilation. However, they were lucky and only two days after the capture of Seoul from the 20,000 North Korean defenders was announced, it was actually achieved.
China joins the war
MacArthur struck north immediately, intent upon destroying the North Korean forces, and captured the North Korean capital Pyongyang in mid-October. China, feeling threatened by these developments, sent hundreds of thousands of well-motivated, veteran troops south from Manchuria, supported by Russian built MiG fighters that were superior to any of the UN aircraft. By November the UN offensive had been halted, and by December it was mostly in ignominious retreat. In January the Chinese forces recaptured Seoul.
Stalemate
In March 1951, a UN operation recaptured Seoul. In April, General MacArthur, disagreeing with President Truman's concept of limited war, suggested publicly a massive nuclear bombardment of the whole of northern China and was sacked by President Truman. The subsequent Chinese spring offensive was halted, but only after the Battle of the Imjin River, where the British 29th Brigade, whose situation had been misunderstood by the American sector commander, was surrounded and partially overrun, suffering many unnecessary casualties. (The situation had been reported as being "a bit sticky", which is British Army terminology for "extremely dangerous")
Aftermath
By June the communist forces had had enough and called for a ceasefire, although it took until 1953 before an armistice was signed. As several participants have never formally made peace, the conflict remains technically active today, even though there has been no major combat since 1953; the ceasefire line (Demilitarized Zone) remains heavily fortified and militarized to the present day.
Air War
The Korean War was the first conflict in which jet aircraft fought each other. (Both the Luftwaffe and the RAF had operational jets in WWII, but they never came into direct conflict.) Most jet battles took place near the Yalu River, in the airspace over north-western North Korea known as "Mig alley." The UN forces generally retained air superiority throughout most of the war.
Participants
UN Multinational Forces
- South Korea
- Australia
- Belgium
- Canada
- Colombia
- Ethiopia
- France
- Greece
- Luxembourg
- The Netherlands
- Philippines
- South Africa
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- United States
