The Korean War was fought for three years, one month, and two days, from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. Losses in the conflict were high. American dead numbered 36,616. Nearly twice that number were wounded. More than 5,000 Americans were declared missing. Korean losses were much higher. At least 1 million people died. Loss of life among the Chinese also was substantial, though difficult to estimate precisely.
How the war began can be traced to the defeat of Japan in 1945. Throughout its history the island nation had coveted its neighbor, finally annexing Korea as a colony in 1910. With the end of World War II the peninsula was divided arbitrarily along the 38th Parallel. To the north lay the Communist regime of Kim Il Sung, a totalitarian state established and supported by the Soviet Union. This Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was a disciplined, efficient society in which devotion to the nation and its leader outranked individual choice. To the south lay the Republic of Korea (RoK), a country recognized by the United Nations and led by Syngman Rhee, a fiery Korean nationalist educated in the United States. America backed Rhee’s regime as a bulwark against Communism, hoping that he might eventually improve the economic conditions of a people still suffering from years of harsh Japanese occupation.
Kim Il Sung was ruthless, cruel, and ambitious. Syngman Rhee was corrupt, devious, and intolerant. Both men saw themselves as the legitimate ruler of the entire Korean peninsula. Each was intent on destroying the other.
Kim Il Sung struck first. Early on Sunday morning, June 25, 1950, after a thunderous barrage of artillery, the North Korean army—some ninety thousand troops—crossed the border. Kim’s goal was a quick victory before assistance to Rhee could be rendered. A worker’s paradise would be imposed on a largely agrarian south. Well trained and well equipped, especially with Russian T-34 tanks, the North Koreans overwhelmed their outnumbered RoK counterparts, who, in most instances, fought poorly. What began as an assault soon became a rout. Seoul, South Korea’s capital, was captured in three days. Rhee’s army lacked competent generals. It also lacked heavy artillery and tanks, purposely so, for the United States feared that a well-armed Syngman Rhee would start World War III by attacking Stalin’s puppet regime in the north. To the contrary, as the North Koreans pushed farther south, Kim’s goal seemed within reach.
By June 27, the Americans in Seoul had been evacuated. Most left by ship via Inchon, a port city just south of the capital, on the western coast of Korea. They sailed to Japan, from where U.S. Air Force planes soon flew missions in support of the disintegrating South Korean army. Leaders in Washington saw the North Korean attack as an assault on Western democracy orchestrated by the Soviet Union. The object, they believed, was either to test American resolve or to stretch American military resources, thereby making conquest in Europe much easier. So, as President Harry S. Truman was reviewing options, consideration was given to nuclear strikes on Soviet air bases in the northeast, where the border of Korea met that of Russia. The president chose a less drastic approach. He ordered U.S. ground troops into Korea.
Truman’s decision was made easier by a United Nations resolution authorizing member states to provide military assistance to the Republic of Korea. This passed the same day the Americans left Seoul and was made possible by the absence of the Soviet Union in the Security Council. Stalin’s regime was protesting the exclusion of the Chinese Communists from the U.N. Most Americans supported the presidential decision. Those that did saw the need to confront Communism when challenged. Those that did not thought that Korea simply did not matter. After all, had not Secretary of State Dean Acheson in a speech on January 12, 1950, excluded Korea from areas vital to American interests?
The first American ground troops in Korea were a small combat team of 450 men. Named Task Force Smith, after its commander, the team arrived on the peninsula on July 1, 1950, and soon engaged the enemy. Task Force Smith has since become legendary, but for unhappy reasons. To the shock of many, the North Koreans quickly disposed of the Americans. Smith’s bazookas could not stop T-34 tanks. More important, his soldiers were not the equal of Kim Il Sung’s. With many casualties, the team withdrew, joining the RoK forces in full retreat. For the Americans the news would get worse before it got better. Additional U.S. troops were thrown into battle. These too failed to do well. One unit in particular, the army’s 24th Division, performed miserably, with its commander, a major general, allowing himself to be captured. The reality was that in 1950 the U.S. Army was hardly the armed force that had defeated Hitler’s army. American soldiers in the Far East were occupational troops, ill-suited for combat.
As the situation in Korea deteriorated, the United States sent in more troops. Among the arrivals were U.S. marines and soldiers willing to fight. These were joined by a brigade of British troops. As other nations provided small, symbolic contingents, the U.S. effort became, and called itself, a United Nations command. Still, the bulk of the forces opposing the North Koreans were American, specifically the United States Eighth Army, led by Lieutenant General Walton Walker. He was an experienced combat commander, having been one of George Patton’s senior officers during World War II. By early August, Walker’s men had been pushed back to a small perimeter surrounding Pusan, a port at the southeastern top of the peninsula. Expulsion from Korea was a distinct possibility. For six weeks fierce fighting took place. Mindful of Walker’s call to “stand or die,” the Americans repulsed determined North Korean attacks. The perimeter held. Pounded by U.S. aircraft and U.S. artillery, the Communists were unable to reach the sea. There would be no Dunkirk in Korea.
Despite the successful defense of the Pusan perimeter, the reputation of the American military had suffered. North Korea had defeated the U.S. Eighth Army though not destroyed it. Yet at the moment of greatest danger to Walton and his troops, the United States would conduct an audacious maneuver that would shatter the overextended North Korean forces, reminding the world of how capable America’s military was.
The maneuver was an amphibious landing at Inchon, well up the western coast of Korea, deep behind enemy lines. Conceived by General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of U.N. and U.S. troops, the operation was considered risky by the American Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. Indeed, as British historian Max Hastings has pointed out, among U.S. amphibious specialists opposition to the venture was widespread. Yet the general prevailed. His reputation was such that the operation took place as planned. On September 15, 1950, U.S. marines and the army’s 7th Division landed at Inchon, carried there by an armada of 260 ships. Together, they constituted X Corps, a force MacArthur kept independent of Walker’s Eighth Army. The Inchon operation was a complete success. Hastings called the landings “MacArthur’s master stroke.” By September 27, Seoul had been retaken. In the south, the day after the landing, Walker’s army attacked. Now outnumbered, the North Koreans gave way. The Eighth Army advanced, linking up with the Inchon forces on September 26. Badly beaten, though still intact, Kim Il Sung’s army retreated, crossing back over the 38th Parallel, from where, four months before, it had started the war.
Now came a decisive moment. Would the U.N. forces cross the parallel seeking to destroy Kim’s army and with it his regime? The original purpose of the largely American effort had been met. The Republic of South Korea had been saved. Crossing the 38th meant expanding the war.
MacArthur wanted to proceed north. He argued that if the North Korean forces were not destroyed they would be in a position to attack once again. Moreover, he believed the war to be a part of a Soviet-led Communist conspiracy to destroy the West, an assault on democracy that must be stopped.
Syngman Rhee also wanted U.N. forces to cross the parallel. He viewed the conquest of North Korea as a means to unify the country under his control. Many people believed that Korea should be a single entity, though not everyone thought Rhee should be its ruler.
America’s allies were torn. They worried about further casualties, but they worried more about the reaction of the Chinese government in Peking (now called Beijing), which had warned against an American “invasion” of North Korea. But the allies wanted to show support of the United States. In Europe and in the Pacific, they were dependent on America in countering the political and military threats posed by the Soviet Union. Abandoning the Americans in Korea was hardly the way to secure American backing elsewhere.
At the time, MacArthur, his troops, the allies, Syngman Rhee, and the leaders in Washington were caught up in the euphoria occasioned by the success at Inchon. A great victory had been achieved. The North Koreans were in disarray. The war would soon be brought to a successful and definitive conclusion. The troops would be home by Christmas.
Late in September, MacArthur received permission from Washington to cross the 38th Parallel and to continue with the destruction of the North Korean army. Pointedly, he was told to watch for evidence of Chinese or Russian intervention. Under no circumstances was he to advance beyond the Yalu River into Manchuria or the Soviet Union. Having vast influence at the United Nations in 1950, the United States was able to secure passage of a resolution supporting what MacArthur wished to do, in effect approving a military advance into North Korea.
On October 9, 1950, the Eighth Army moved north. That it had been preceded by RoK troops mattered little. The United Nations was now committed to the liberation of North Korea. A momentous chapter in the history of Korea was about to be written. And the U.S. Army would soon receive a most unpleasant surprise.
At first the campaign went well. While meeting resistance, the Eighth Army nonetheless readily advanced along the western side of the peninsula. By October 19 the army captured Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Earlier, Kim Il Sung had fled to Sinuiju, a city on the Yalu River, across from the Chinese city of Antung. By November 1, Americans were eighteen miles south of the river. In the east, U.S. X Corps also proceeded north. Additionally, U.S. marines landed at Wonsan and, with army troops, proceeded north to the Chosin Reservoir. The army’s 7th Division reached the Yalu itself, from where it could peer into Manchuria.
However, Chinese troops in large numbers had deployed into North Korea. The regime in Peking was alarmed by the approaching “imperialist” forces. Four field armies had been sent across the Yalu and were in position, soon to be joined by two additional armies. Remarkably, approximately two hundred thousand Chinese soldiers went undetected. MacArthur and his officers did not believe the Chinese would enter the war. The evidence that they had was ignored. Moreover, the Americans believed that if the Chinese were to join the battle, the United States easily would defeat them.
On October 25, 1950, the Chinese struck. At first they attacked RoK troops. Six days later they hit the U.S. troops. Both the South Koreans and the Americans were vanquished, and easily so. Loss of territory, though, was limited. Surprisingly, the Chinese soldiers did not follow up these initial victories. Instead they withdrew to the hills and waited.
Why did the Chinese not continue? Were they sending a message to General MacArthur and President Truman? Were they warning the United States not to remain up north, near to the Yalu? If so, the Americans did not listen. They chose an alternate message. MacArthur believed the Chinese had made a face-saving gesture. He expected them to withdraw. He thought they had done their best and no longer were a threat. Rarely has an American commander been so out of touch with reality.
On Thanksgiving Day 1950, Americans throughout Korea enjoyed their traditional turkey dinner. The next day General Walker, in command of troops in the west, launched an offensive he and others believed would soon end the war. The Eighth Army moved out expecting to finish off the North Koreans and any Chinese they encountered. However, the Chinese were the better soldiers. In late November and early December, they inflicted a humiliating defeat on Walker and his men. A few units fought well. Most did not. The U.S. Army’s 2nd Division failed totally. Only the marines at the Chosin Reservoir upheld the honor of American arms. They retreated, but the formation brought their dead with them and were evacuated by the navy at Hungnam.
By December 5, the Chinese had recaptured the North Korean capital. A month later, they had retaken Seoul. North Korea no longer was in U.N. hands. Both the Eighth Army and X Corps had been routed. American soldiers, to use the phrase of the day, had bugged out. One American officer called the army’s performance against the Chinese “a moment of complete disgrace and shame.” But the Chinese advance, extensive as it was, began to run out of steam, hampered by now lengthy supply lines. It came to a halt just south of the Han River, roughly along the 37th parallel.
Two days before Christmas Walton Walker was killed in an automobile accident, his jeep colliding with a truck. His replacement was Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway, a soldier with a distinguished combat record in World War II. Ridgway energized the U.N. command. He rebuilt the Eighth Army. He commanded all troops in Korea, which Walker had not. American troops in the east, X Corps, had been commanded by Major General Edward Almond, a favorite of MacArthur. Most important, Ridgway brought to Korea skill and leadership, attributes that in Almond and Walker had been lacking.
When Ridgway’s forces attacked late in January 1951, they were well prepared. The troops soon pushed the Chinese back across the Han. In the east, the Chinese themselves launched an attack. But this time, the Americans held, with the reconstituted 2nd Division redeeming itself. Supported by massive airpower, the U.S. soldiers shattered four Chinese divisions.
