The Korean War

Recall that the communists took over China in 1949, and it has remained communist ever since.

On June 25, 1950, communists in nearby North Korea invaded South Korea.^[5] The United States was alarmed that the communists from China were expanding and would take over the entire Korean peninsula and its millions of people. The United States reacted immediately by sending troops to defend against the invasion, and other countries in the United Nations also sent troops to a lesser extent. But the North Korean army was quick and powerful, and the conflict took much longer to resolve than anyone expected.

The North Korean army quickly conquered South Korea's capital (Seoul), which fell in a mere four days. Despite the disapproval by the rest of the world and the mobilizing of troops by the United States and members of the United Nations, the communists made it clear that they were not going to back down. The North Koreans continued to defeat and push back troops of the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) and the Americans. By early September the ROK, American and United Nations troops were trapped into the southeastern corner of the Korean peninsula (where the town of Pusan is on the map on the next page).

General Douglas MacArthur, who like George Patton had been homeschooled, was the leader of the American troops in the Pacific during World War II and remained in charge to handle this Korean War. General MacArthur then made one of the most daring military decisions in world history. All of his advisers were against it, thinking it was too risky.

General MacArthur devised a plan to bait the North Koreans into the peninsula while he secretly attempted a massive amphibious operation that would land further north at Inchon, from where he could drive inland to Seoul and trap the North Koreans in the southern peninsula. His advisers felt the sea was too treacherous for this, with 30-foot tides there among the highest anywhere and with low tides leaving mudflats that prevented landing. MacArthur pressed ahead with his brilliant idea, and hydrographers informed him the best time would be on September 15th, between when the morning high tide was around 7 a.m. and the evening high tide around 7 p.m.

MacArthur called on the U.S. Marines to execute his plan, now known as the "Inchon Landing" (see the U.S. military diagram above). They landed on September 15th, overcoming enormous obstacles, and then quickly defeated 2,200 North Korean troops that formed the outermost defense of Seoul. Fighting intensified against stronger defenses on September 16th, but by September 28th the Marines had defeated the communists around and in Seoul, and liberated the city. MacArthur then personally escorted the Republic of Korea President Syngman Rhee to return to the cheers of throngs of Seoul residents. Meanwhile, the North Korean army was trapped on the southern peninsula, and their lines of communication and supplies were cut off by the Marines.

Communist China then intervened openly, with the communist Soviet Union also lending support to the North Koreans. In early 1951, General MacArthur and the American troops had contained the Chinese army and it was in retreat. By mid-1951, freedom for South Korea would be restored to where it was before the war started: up to the 38th parallel.

But just as superiors to General George Patton were jealous of him, President Truman was unhappy with General MacArthur's successes and his desire to engage and defeat the intervening Chinese troops. President Truman insisted that the war remain limited to the Korean peninsula and did not want it to expand into a broader conflict with other nations. On April 11, 1951, President Truman as Commander in Chief fired Douglas MacArthur. The American people were outraged at Truman, and his popularity nosedived. But as was Truman's nature, he stuck with his decision despite declining approval ratings.

From mid-1951 to mid-1953, without MacArthur in charge, fighting continued in Korea without progress. A final communist offensive in 1953 was defeated, and the leadership in the Soviet Union changed, enabling a peace agreement to be reached that kept North and South Korea divided at the 38th parallel. It remains divided to this day, and Americans still have troops there.

54,000 Americans died in this war.