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Introduction to the Korean War
On June 25, 1950, the North Korea Army - organized, equipped and abetted by the Soviet Union - lunged across the 38th Parallel to subdue its countrymen to the south. This flagrant action impelled President Harry Truman to commit U.S. armed forces - unprepared as they were - to the defense of South Korea.
The United Nations Security Council simultaneously called upon member states to do likewise. Twenty other nations would heed the call, 15 sending combat troops, five providing medical support. For the first time in its history, the UN authorized establishment of a multi-national force, flying the UN banner, to repel communist aggression, and requested the United States to provide a commander for the force. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was appointed Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command.
The North Korean offensive drove the defenders to the southeast corner of the peninsula. There, the Pusan perimeter was established and, reinforced by U.S. armed forces divisions, held in bitter battle after bitter battle. The stout defense made possible a brilliantly conceived amphibious landing at Inchon, which enveloped the over-extended North Korean Army and recaptured the capital city of Seoul.
UN forces advanced north to compel capitulation of the aggressor and set the stage for the long-delayed reunification of the Korean people. Sadly, these laudable aims would be denied.
Massive intervention of the Chinese Communist Forces in November 1950 profoundly altered the nature of the war. Savaged by vastly superior numbers and ill-equipped for combat in sub-zero weather, UN forces retreated to a line well south of Seoul, regrouped and, by March 1951, had fought back to the 38th Parallel. In April and May, Chinese launched successive major offenses to drive UN forces from the peninsula. The offensive was repelled at staggering cost to the Chinese.
With the battle line again astride the pre-invasion boundary, proof that aggression had failed, negotiations were initiated to terminate armed hostilities. Opposing forces remained locked in combat, at great loss of lives, for the next two years while the Military Armistice Agreement, effective July 27, 1953, was forged.
President Eisenhower declared, "We have won an armistice on a single battleground, not peace in the world," capturing the sense that the Korean War was the beginning of a longer Cold War. In the absence of a political settlement, the agreement still regulates the de facto boundary between two Koreas.
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Korean War History
The invasion of South Korea by North Korea came as a complete surprise to the US; Dean Rusk of the State Department had told Congress on June 20 that no war was likely. However, a CIA report in early March had predicted a June invasion. US officials had previously publicly stated that America would not fight over Korea, and that the country was outside of American concern in the Pacific. This attitude may have encouraged the North or given Syngman Rhee in the South a motive to gain US support.
On hearing of the invasion, Truman agreed with his advisors to use US airstrikes, unilaterally, against the North Korean forces. He also ordered the Seventh Fleet to protect Formosa. The US gained a United Nations mandate for action because the Soviets were boycotting the Security Council while the (Nationalist controlled) Republic of China held the Chinese seat. Without the Soviet veto and with only Yugoslavia abstaining, the UN voted to aid South Korea.
The US would have fought whatever the outcome, and Douglas MacArthur later told Congress "I had no connection with the UN whatsoever". US forces were eventually joined during the conflict by troops from fifteen other UN members: Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, Greece, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, Colombia, the Philippines, Belgium, and Luxembourg. (Truman would later take harsh criticism for not obtaining a declaration of war from Congress before sending troops to Korea. Thus, "Truman's War" was said by some to have violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the United States Constitution.)
The US forces were suffering from demobilization which had continued since 1945. Excluding the Marines, the infantry divisions sent to Korea were at 40% of paper strength, and the majority of their equipment was found to be useless.
The Americans organized Task Force Smith, and on July 5 engaged in the first North Korean/American clash of the war.
In initial stages of the war, North Korea's troops overwhelmed South Korean forces and drove them to a small area in the far South around the city of Pusan. This became a desperate holding action called the Pusan Perimeter. Upon the entrance of US and UN forces, American General Douglas MacArthur, as UN commander in chief for Korea, ordered an invasion far behind the North Korean troops at Inchon. United Nations troops drove the North Koreans back past the 38th parallel and continued on toward the Yalu River border of North Korea and China. This brought the communist Chinese into the war.
The communist Chinese had issued warnings that they would react if the UN forces encroached on the frontier at the Yalu River. Mao sought Soviet aid and saw intervention as essentially defensive. "If we allow the US to occupy all of Korea... we must be prepared for the US to declare... war with China", he told Stalin. Zhou Enlai was sent to Moscow to add force to Mao's cabled arguments.
Mao delayed his forces while waiting for Russian help, and the planned attack was thus postponed from 13 October to 19 October. Soviet assistance was limited to providing air support no nearer than sixty miles (96 km) to the battlefront. The MiG-15s in PRC colours were an unpleasant surprise to the UN pilots; they held local air superiority against the F-80 Shooting Stars until the newer F-86 Sabres were deployed. The Soviet role was known to the US but they kept quiet as to avoid any international and potentional nuclear incidents.
A Chinese assault beginning on October 19, 1950, under the command of General Peng Dehuai with 380,000 People's Liberation Army troops repelled the United Nations troops back to the 38th parallel, the pre-conflict border. The Chinese assault caught US troops by surprise, as war between PRC and the United States had not been declared. The United States XX Corp retreat was the longest retreat of a US unit in history. The Marines, on the northern side of the pennisula, faired better, mainly due to better training and discipline.
On January 4, 1951, communist Chinese and North Korean forces captured Seoul. The battle of Chosin Reservoir in winter was a terrible defeat for the United Nations troops, who were mainly American Marines. The situation was such that MacArthur mentioned that atomic weapons may be used, much to the alarm of American allies.
MacArthur was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman in 1951. The reasons for this are many, and well documented. They include MacArthur meeting with Chiang Kai-shek in the role of a US diplomat. MacArthur also was wrong at Guam when President Truman asked him specifically about Chinese troop buildup near the Korean border. Furthermore, MacArthur openly critized the Commander in Chief during press conferences. He also was rude, and flippant when speaking to Truman.
The rest of the war involved little territory change and lengthy peace negotiations (which started in Kaesong on July 10 of the same year). A cease-fire established a demilitarized zone (DMZ) around the 38th parallel, which is still defended today by North Korean troops on one side and South Korean and American troops on the other. No peace treaty has yet been signed, fifty years later. Newly-elected US President Dwight D. Eisenhower on November 29, 1952 fulfilled a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what could be done to end the conflict.
Korea was officially a police action, not a war, in US parlance. 600,000 Koreans had died and perhaps a million Chinese. US troops suffered about 50,000 fatalities, roughly equal to the Vietnam conflict, but in a much shorter time. Later neglect of remembrance of this war, in favor of the Vietnam War, World War I and II, has caused the Korean War to be called the Forgotten War or the Unknown War.
The war was instrumental in re-energising the US military-industrial complex from their post-war slump. The defense budget was boosted to $50 billion, the Army was doubled in size, as was the number of Air Groups, and they were deployed beyond American soil in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia, including Vietnam, where covert aid to the French was made overt. The Cold War became a much stronger state of mind for American policy makers.
Japan was a key beneficiary of the war. The US material requirements were organized through a Special Procurements system, which allowed for local purchasing without the complex Pentagon procurement system. Over $3.5 billion was spent with Japanese companies, peaking at $809 million in 1953, and still significant in 1955. Other foreign non-military investment was less than 5% of this.
US Aid Counterpart Funds gave Japan, by 1956, the most modern shipyards in the world and a 26% share in lauched tonnage. Left-wing organizations were closed down, and the zaibatsu went from being distrusted to being encouraged - Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo were amongst the zaibatsu that thrived, not only on orders from the military but through American industrial experts, including W. Edwards Deming. Japanese manufacturing grew by 50% between March 1950 and 1951.
By 1952, pre-war standards of living were regained and output was twice the level of 1949. The 1951 peace treaty returned Japanese sovereignty (excluding Okinawa and the Ryukyu islands) and the non-belligerency clause in the constitution was being considered a "mistake" by 1953.
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