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

Naval Air War

• 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