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The Korean War

Background

1910 - 1945

  • Korea had most prominent communist groups and activists
  • worked underground to re-establish Korean independence when Japan occupied Korean Peninsula in 1910-1945

Post-WW2 Occupation

  • Korea occupied by USSR in north and USA in south in 1945
  • chosen 38th parallel also used to separate Japan and Russia in early 20th century

Causes

Kim Il-Sung

  • heroic guerrilla commander as 33-year-old Soviet Army captain
  • Soviets made him head of provisional government for North Korea in early 1946
  • made premier of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on September 9th, 1948

Progression & Economy

  • Kim bought into Korean nationalism and independence with the Korean People’s Army
    • 2 million acres of land redistributed in under amonth
    • women guaranteed equality under the law
    • political action cells educate population
  • North Korea advanced under Kim’s rule
  • USA and USSR left peninsula in June 1949

Syngman Rhee

  • educated and became Christian in US in early 1900s
  • campaigned for Korean independence and was in provisional government
    • attended Treaty of Portsmouth and Washington Naval Conference
    • Roosevelt did Treaty of Portsmouth
    • Tried to go to Versailles negotiations in 1919
    • opposed trusteeship negotiations between USA and USSR
  • elected president of Republic of Korea July 20, 1948
  • used torture, extralegal police measures, and assassination to repress left

Kim Il-Sung & Syngman Rhee

  • wanted to rule an independent Korea
  • opposed to Korea becoming a trusteeship
  • chose sides in the Cold War
  • needed outside help to defeat the other

The Cold War

  • Truman Doctrine - USA would lend aid to anti-communist countries
  • Domino Effect - Truman thought that if Korea fell to communism, then major trading partner Japan will follow
  • Stalin wanted to indirectly beat the US so he support the spread of communism as long as it did not result in a war with America
  • Stalin especially wanted to prove USSR’s worth after humiliation of Berlin Blockade

US Ambivalence

  • Sept. 1947
    • JCS assessed that US had little interest in maintaining military in Korea
  • Apr. 1948
    • NSC recommended withdrawing forces but providing $150 million in non-military aid
  • Jan. 1950 - Pacific Perimeter Speech
    • Secretary Acheson described Pacific Sphere without including Korea
    • House of Representatives narrowly reject Korean Aid Bill

United Nations

  • General Assembly recognizes Korea’s independence in Nov. 1947
  • UNTCOK to supervise elections
  • Soviets wouldn’t allow UNTCOK in North Korea
  • North Korea makes Democratic People’s Republic of Korea earlier in September
  • escalated border skirmishes and guerrilla activity in the south
  • June 27, 1950: UNSCR 83 declare North Korean actions were a breach of peace
  • July 7, 1950: UNSCR 8 authorized US to run a unified command of military forces from UN member states
  • UNC formed under MacArthur command
  • Rhee places all ROK forces under UNC command

Cheju 4.3 Incident

  • Apr. 1948 in Cheju-do Island
  • leftist South Korean Labor Party demonstrations for unification
  • Jeju march turn to chaos when police opened fire on a crowd and killed 6
  • escalated to coast and lasted the duration of the war
  • 30,000 died

Sung Courts Allies

Stalin

  • recent documents reveal that he wanted to convince Stalin to back an invasion after the faltering covert insurgency
  • Politburo considers military action by September 1949
    • Chinese Civil War
    • Soviet atom bomb
    • Establishment of NATO
    • Perceived US commitment to Korea
    • Soviet security in the East
    • Rhee
    • China
  • Stalin’s 3 demands
    • Decisive victory
    • Conflict will not escalate
    • no direct Soviet intervention

Mao

  • Mao is amenable
    • only military action would unify Korea
    • US won’t concern itself with Korea
    • Mao would “lean to one side”

South to Busan

  • North Korea invades June 25, 1950
  • Stalin gave the NKPA lots of tanks, artillery, and small arms
  • organized as conventional CCP army with many Chinese Civil War veterans
  • ROK army under-trained and under-equipped
  • Major-General Chae-Pyongdok rejects plan to withdraw south
  • Kaesong falls in 4 hours with typical NKPA tactics
    • T-34 disease - soldiers run away from the sound of the tank
  • Chunchon holds for 3 days but rest of the front collapses
  • fleeing refugees
  • Han bridge hastily blown up
  • ROK routed and Seoul falls June 28, 1950
  • Delays reduce ROK to Busan Perimeter and area around the southeast coast

US 8th Army

  • T-34 armored brigades overran Task Force Smith
  • Bazookas and M-26 Pershings (famous general in WW1) return assault

Incheon Landing

  • Sept 15, 1950
  • Kim neglected sea power so Britain and USA could control it with impunity
  • difficult landing involving an amphibious assault and urban warfare
  • successful - cut North Korean logistical lines and divided their forces
  • captured Wolmi-do airstrip
  • Gen. Walker breaks out of Busan Perimeter
  • Battle of Naktong Bridge at Busan Perimeter saw annihilation of NKPA

To the Yalu

  • October 7, 1950
  • UN allowed MacArthur to cross 38th parallel to unite all of Korea
  • MacArthur ignored Chinese warnings
  • Chinese and Soviets feared America on their borders
  • Mao saw Americans as arrogance
  • 8th Army and UNC push on diverging lines of advance
  • Pyongyang captured October 20, 1950

First Phase Offensive

  • UNC and 8th Army push through North Korea with NKPA rout
  • 180,000 CPV soldiers over the border
  • MacArthur overextends his forces and falls into Gen. Peng Dehuai’s trap
  • poorly equipped CPV (even with Soviet help) has many advantages:
    • veterans
    • night fighters
    • good at deception
    • high morale

Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

  • during Second Phase Offensive
    • started Nov. 25, 1950
  • IX CVP Corp attempt to encircle X US Corp
  • Chinese fighters in mountains fired at road-bound Marines on all sides
  • F4U fighter-bombers supported the defense
  • Marines retreat back to 38th parallel
  • Biggest battle of the Korean War
  • first phase of the war ends

“Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.”

  • MacArthur wanted total victory
    • unite Korea
    • remove PRC threat to Asia
    • worked before, but not during, the era of nuclear warfare
    • Nuke them
  • JCS wanted to avoid escalation
  • MacArthur outline plan to the press
    • he did this to try to become president
    • got fired on Apr. 14, 1951
    • General Ridgway takes his command

Old Iron Tits

  • Ridgway understands that the war can’t escalate
    • warfare changed since WW2
    • against nuclear weapons
    • advocates attrition
    • “the meatgrinder”
      • try to kill more of them over minimizing your casualties
  • called “Old Iron Tits” because he carried grenades around his neck
  • Institutes front reforms
    • officers lead from the front
    • Strong logistical support
    • deploy units into hills and off the roads to avoid Marines getting killed
    • attrition is operational doctrine
    • “Find them! Fix them! Fight them! Finish them!”
    • “Fix them” means to surround them to keep them there and prevent them from escaping or leaving
  • Third Phase Offensive forces Ridgway out of Seoul
    • CPV supply lines stretched to breaking and Peng had to withdraw

MiG Alley

  • MiG 15s established control between Chongchon and Yalu Rivers in the northwest corner of Korea
  • Operation Strangle
    • US FEAF mission was interdiction of North Korean lines
  • but they are losing a lot of people in MiG Alley
  • Jul-Nov 1951 - NKPA swept from air and North Korean industrial centers strategically bombed
  • Cold War understanding develops with CPV in Korea
    • Communists wouldn’t bomb Japan, South Korea, UNC Naval forces
    • No UNC aircraft within 3 miles of China
    • NO UNC aircraft within 20 miles of USSR
  • Planes used:
    • North American F-51 Mustang
    • Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star
    • Republic F-84 Thunderjet
    • Boeing B-29 Stratofortess
    • Gloster Meteor
    • Martin B-26 Invader
    • F-86 Sabre
    • only USAAF swept-wing jet
    • countered MiG 15
    • Tough and fast
    • easy to fly
    • outmaneuvered the MiG 15 at high speed
    • 6.50 caliber machine guns
    • MiG 15 ‘Fagot’
    • Dominated Korea until the Sabre
    • Climbed faster than the Sabre
    • flew higher than F-86
    • Cannons had better stopping power than F-86
    • Less experienced pilots
    • more MiGs
  • air offensive by Communist forces at the end of 1951 forced draw in air war
    • MiG Alley would belong to MiG-15
    • Superfortress daylight bombing into North Korea and FEAF Fighter-bomber operations here permanently abandoned
  • Vought F4U Corsair
  • Grumman F9F Panther
  • Douglas A-1 Skyraider
  • Sikorsky HO3S-I
  • Helicopters in warfare now

The War of Attrition

  • fighting continued along 38th parallel for the rest of the war
    • made to force Communists to bargain
    • trench warfare like WW1
    • Prefigured later wars of attrition
  • Item Four of the cease-fire negotiations proved intractable
    • Communists feared mass defections would erode utopia of their ideology
    • May 7, 1952 - Koje-do pro-communist POWs rioted and captured the prison commandant
    • China and North Korea used the riot to prove UNC demand as unfounded
  • more American apathy
    • “Why die for a tie?”
    • understated “police action”
    • Republican Congress said concept of limited war was appeasement
    • Omar Bradley attacked this in testimony during MacArthur Hearings
      • said that fighting Red China would be the wrong fight at the wrong place and time with the wrong enemy
      • we don’t understand limited wars but that’s how most wars are fought
  • war starts to die down

Operation Showdown

  • Acting CPV commander Deng Hua decided on ‘Active positional defense’ doctrine resembling Ridgway’s methods
  • See-saw battles to decrease casualties
  • Battle of Kumsong Bulge
    • Van Fleet’s defense suffered 9,000 casualties
    • Chinese suffered 11,500
    • even losses

End of the War

The War Ends July 27, 1953

  • reasons
    • Chinese and North Koreans could no longer sustain the war
    • Eisenhower was elected
    • Stalin dies
  • Little Switch
    • Progress made on proposal by chief negotiator Clark to exchange sick adn wounded soldiers
    • during negotiation, China gave in on repatriation and compromised with Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission
  • Both sides continued fighting in this process
    • NSC 147 codified escalation if China did not give in
  • Rhee refuses to sign until US promises military and financial support
  • China and the USSR
    • China paid for most of the war
    • did bring them closer together
    • but China galled at Stalin insisting that China pay for the aid
  • Klausewitz observed that the war is fought until it comes to an end

The Korean War Armistice

  • made to insure end to warfare and all armed force acts in Korea until definitive peace occurred
  • covered issues like
    • POWs exchange
    • demarcation line located
  • Provided
    • suspended open hostilities
    • fixed demarcation line with 4 km buffer zone of demilitarization
    • mechanism for POWs transfer

The Death of Total War

  • Atomic weapons multiply warfare’s destructiveness and opponent may resort to them when facing major defeat
  • conventional warfare itself is expensive and exhausting
  • Cold War’s zero-sum game meant any conflict could involve the superpowers
  • maybe the biggest disaster is that intellectuals and foreign-policy experts like Derek Leebaert in his book Magic and Mayhem said that the war was an American victory after the war of attrition