Post on 26-Dec-2015
Korean Conflict 1950-1953
Players
Peninsula size of Mississippi & Indiana together
Altitude from sea level to hills and high mountains
Borders China and what was then Soviet Union
Sea of Japan separates from Japan
Warm water harbors
Annexed by Japan in 1910
During closing days of WWII Soviets and US divided Korea along 38th parallel
UN resolution called for free elections and unification
Instead, war came.
1949 after elections in South Korea, US troops left.
Two Koreas threatened each other.
June, 1950 North crossed 38th with Russian tanks and poured into South
North Koreans & Tanks
UN Resolution
• That North Korea should retire north of the 38th Parallel
• If not, UN would authorize member nations to take steps to restore peace to the south
• Russia boycotted the Security Council during these votes.
• 19 Member nations contributed to war effort• US supplied 4/5s of the troops• MacArthur was put in charge.• Called “Truman’s War” back in US Congress
US Troops Defending Pusan“These unprepared soldiers often fought with the possibility of retreat cut off, for the favorite enemy tactic was to attack frontally to hold the Americans while other columns slipped around the flanks to cut off escape. Men who wished to avoid capture, then, were forced to drift through the mountains, or worse, through those filthy, stinking rice paddies which tormented them with myriads of stinging, disease-bearing insects and which sometimes sucked off their very boots…When the sun shone, the Korean countryside steamed and stank like a giant diaper pail. Reluctantly fighting somebody else’s war in somebody else’s land, where the climate was an alternating hell of heat and cold and where the people were not only generally indifferent to the outcome but also inclined to regard the American savior as more alien than the northern enemy.” –Robert Leckie
Inchon Landing
Beginning of Chapter 12: Sacrificial Lamb of the Cold War
By Young Sik Kim
"Americans are half-ape, half-human and have long thick hair all over their body, yes, even their women grow hair all over their
body, just like female dogs. Their body order is unbelievably foul and make you sick. They have huge sex organs about the size of
a bang-chi and copulate with anybody, men and women, including their own mother and kids. We should not let these animals in our
town and defend Japan to death."My Japanese school principal, Kapsan, Korea, 1945
My First American EncounterAs the US 1st Marine Division moved to Hamhung from Wonsan
and the ROK I Corps moved out on October 24, 1950, I saw US soldiers for the first time. One day I was playing in the street in front of my house when I spotted two strange looking figures coming over the hilltop. We stopped playing and watched the two strangers with some apprehension. We anticipated some sort of dramatic meeting. Well, to my disappointment, there were no uplifting words, no ruffles and flourishes. Apparently unaware of the peeping eyes focused upon them, those two pulled down their pants, squatted down and relieved themselves. Thus, my very first sight of the Americans was “earthy”.
Up to this moment, my knowledge of America was based on what the Japanese taught
Chinese Communist Forcespoured across the Yalu
Choisin Breakout
Main Line of Resistance (MLR)
Static, Trench Warfare
Hootch behind MLR
View of Chinese MLR from UN side.
July 1951 Peace talks began.
July 1953
Armistice Signed
American Losses
• Dead 54,246 (33,629 KIA)
• Wounded 103,248
• MIA 8,142
• Captured 3,746
Total 169,365
Korean Service Ribbon
Korean Service Medal