The Korean War

Front 1

Why is the Korean War such a significant conflict?

Back 1

It is the only time two superpowers (USA and China) have met on the field of battle since 1945.

Front 2

How many casualties were there during the Korean War?

Back 2

Estimates state that the United Nations had 142000 casualties during the war, whereas Koreans had at least a million.

Front 3

Describe the first conflict between America and North Korea?

Back 3

Task Force Smith was the first of several small US units sent into Korea with the mission to take the initial "shock" of North Korean advances, to delay much larger North Korean units, and buy time to allow more U.S. units into Korea. The Task Force lacked both anti-tank guns and effective infantry anti-tank weapons and had been equipped with obsolete rocket launchers and a few 57 mm recoilless rifles. These weapons could not destroy the tanks used by the North Koreans that were provided by the Soviet Union. Also, most of the soldiers of the Task Force were teenagers with no combat experience and only eight weeks of basic training. Only a third of the officers in the task force had combat experience from World War II,and only one in six enlisted soldiers had combat experience.

Front 4

What happened to South Korea in 1945?

Back 4

In 1945, the US began its occupation of South Korea, overtaking the Japanese occupation that had been in place since 1905. This was known as Operation Blacklist.

Front 5

Why did the US care so much about South Korea?

Back 5

American control of SK was to stop too much Russian influence. They separated NK and SK with the 38th parallel line. There was no inherent value for either side. If Russia did not agree with the terms of this separation, there was little the US could actually do.

Front 6

Who was the US Supreme Commander of SK and why was his first decree unsuccessful

Back 6

McArthur was the Supreme Commander and he demanded that the Japanese officials in charge of Korea be removed from office. However, they maintained their power, as Japanese was the only way for the US contingent to communicate. This upset the Korean nationalists, as they hated any Japanese collaboration.

Front 7

How did the US try and manipulate the first SK election?

Back 7

The US tried their hardest to install an anti communist leader. They took a hard line against anyone remotely socialist. They installed an 11 man council to decide on a new leader, but only 1 member was politically left leaning.

Front 8

Describe the first president of SK.

Back 8

Syngman Rhee's government was characterised by authoritarianism, limited economic development, and in the late 1950s growing political instability and public opposition. Soon after taking office, Rhee enacted laws that severely curtailed political dissent. There was much controversy between Rhee and his leftist opponents. Allegedly, many of the leftist opponents were arrested and in some cases killed. His government also oversaw several massacres, including the suppression of the Jeju uprising on Jeju island.

Front 9

Why was the Soviet Union more successful with NK than the US was with SK?

Back 9

While the US supported a right leaning government, they neglected to provide SK with adequate resources or military. However, NK was provided a large arsenal by Russia. Korean culture is also naturally left leaning anyway.

Front 10

How did China become Communist?

Back 10

Where Nationalist forces continued to be weakened from engagements with the Japanese, communist forces grew in size and support from the more rural parts of unoccupied China. Guerilla attacks by the CCP against the Japanese gave the perception that they were a more effective option. By the end of the war, the CCP enjoyed popularity in large parts of China. By the time the Japanese forces in China surrendered on September 2, 1945 the two groups were ready to resume a full-scale civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists. The Communists won.

Front 11

Why was it a mistake for NK to invade SK?

Back 11

There was no pretext or fake cause for NK to invade SK. If they wanted a united nation, they should have just waited. Instead, the invasion gave SK moral legitamcey and a just cause. They also believed it was not an important issue to the US.

Front 12

Why were the US forces so ineffectual against the NK army's advance?

Back 12

The under equipped US force fell back without orders, and had to bunker down in an inadequate position instead of using hit and run tactics. This was a major disappointment to high command. The troops were not well trained and lacked any motivation like they had with Pearl Harbour.

Front 13

Why were the North Koreans so terrifying to fight.

Back 13

Often the Communists did not take prisoners and executed soldiers. They also dressed as civilians, attacked while faking surrender, and used tactics like moving at night and using cowbells to disguise themselves as herders

Front 14

Why was the Battle of the Pusan so important?

Back 14

If the North Koreans could reach Pusan, the Americans would be encircled with little chance of escape. Walker was able to rush units of the 25th Division down to Masan with hours to spare, to block the advance. By now, Eighth Army’s commander knew that both his men and the North Koreans had run out of room for grand manoeuvres. The defenders must stand and fight. On the high ground behind the great loop of the Naktong river, they would command positions of great natural strength.

Front 15

How did the battle of the Pusan Perimeter play out?

Back 15

The US forces outgunned and outmanned the communists, but they did not believe so at the time due to NK's suicidal tactics. But again and again, the communist gamble came close to success. Enemy attackers broke through Walker’s line, began pushing forward to open a chasm in the front, and were halted only by the last-ditch movement of one of his handful of reliable ‘fire-brigade’ units to stop the gap.

Front 16

Why were the amphibious landings at Inchon so important?

Back 16

First, the landing could open happen on certain dates at certain times and within three hours before the coast became to much of a quagmire. However the US was able to land a force and recapture Seoul and eventually push the North Koreans back north.

Front 17

What were the conditions that dictated the US invasion into North Korea?

Back 17

The US were worried that a counter invasion would cause the Russians to intervene, however they might not want to risk a larger war. It was decided that any attack should be led by South Korean forces and not to get too close to the Chinese or Russian border. McArthur completely dismissed the notion that the Chinese would get involved.

Front 18

What was China's response to the UN invasion into North Korea?

Back 18

First they fired 'warning shots' which went ignored. Then they began attacking.China’s initial force in Korea comprised four armies, each of three 10,000-man infantry divisions, a regiment of cavalry, and five regiments of artillery. They crossed the Yalu bridges by night. Their first objective was to establish a wide enough bridgehead on the south bank to give themselves room to deploy. This all went completely unheeded by US Intelligence, as the Chinese used a combination of superb fieldcraft and camouflage, together with their lack of use of any of the conventional means by which modern military movement is detected – wireless traffic, mechanised activity, and supply dumps

Front 19

What happened after the initial Chinese retaliation strike?

Back 19

After the disaster to the 8th Cavalry and the crumbling of so many major ROK units, the UN Command was briefly sufficiently disturbed by the situation to consider a major withdrawal. Yet it was found that it was the communists who were disengaging all along the front. After ten days in which they had dramatically seized the initiative and forced back UN forces in a succession of battles, they chose to break off the action

Front 20

Why was the initial Chinese push so confusing to the American forces?

Back 20

There were frequent occasions where some

where some Americans (who might easily have been killed) were taken prisoner then turned loose to return to their own lines. American officers returning to command posts that had been overrun discovered that nothing had been touched by the enemy. It was theorised that the Chinese were testing the resilience of their enemy, and became more aggressive as the war continued.

Front 21

What was the major disadvantage to the Chinese army?

Back 21

While the Chinese deployed immense numbers of infantry, well supported by mortars, they possessed virtually no artillery. The predicament of the UN forces would have been incomparably worse, had their enemies possessed the normal support weapons of a modern army.

Front 22

How did the civilian population of Korea react to the war?

Back 22

They frequently abandoned the very old and very young in order to escape. The people of Korea seem to draw their character from the harsh environment in which they live. This kind of decision was commonplace in hundreds of thousands of Korean families, and created the legions of starving orphans and infant beggars that hung like flies around every UN camp, supply dump and refuse tip.

Front 23

How did the Chinese manage to advance so far on limited resources?

Back 23

The force of the Chinese advance could only be sustained into 1951 by the vast captures of arms and supplies on the drive south. Thousands of Chinese picked up new American weapons, learned to eat C-rations and handle some American heavy weapons.

Front 24

Why were the US troops of such poor quality during the war?

Back 24

Because the American instinct for war favours a technological, managerial approach, far too many of the ablest men are diverted to technical and managerial functions. The most talented section of America’s young manhood remained in colleges at home, as a result of the workings of the Selective Service Act. In addition, the terrain and the circumstances of the enemy made it difficult to employ technology and firepower anywhere near as effectively as upon a European battlefield, against a European enemy.

Front 25

Why should the Chinese army have tried to force a truce early?

Back 25

Had China accepted a negotiated end to the struggle with its own armies victorious, China’s military standing for a generation to come would have been immense. Instead, however, by continuing the war, the communists gave time for the West to reassert its own military might, to demonstrate that even the greatest peasant army could be repulsed and defeated.

Front 26

Why didn't the US directly attack China?

Back 26

The US could have launched a bombing campaign against China or blockaded the mainland at any time. However, any of these options created a real danger of Soviet intervention. If this took place, the Pentagon was doubtful whether American forces in the Far East could hold their ground, or even whether a third world war could be avoided. Also, any major initiative against China by the United States would cost Washington the support of the United Nations – more serious, that of the Western Allies.

Front 27

What was the new goal for US forces after the Chinese attack?

Back 27

There was no longer either hope or expectation of achieving a unified non-communist Korea. Washington’s hopes now centred upon exerting sufficient military leverage to cause Peking and Pyongyang to negotiate upon the basis of a return to the pre-war division of Korea.

Front 28

What happened when the US forces recaptured Seoul?

Back 28

On 14 March, the victors recovered a devastated city, a metropolis of ruins and corrugated iron, in which only the Capitol and the railway station survived, of the principal buildings.

Front 29

Why was General McArthur eventually removed from his position as Supreme Commander?

Back 29

McArthur was publicly suggesting a direct attack on China. He intimated multiple times that his policy is not the stated policy of his government, not subject to the control of his own government, and whom his own government is unwilling and unable to discipline. By his public utterances, he has weakened public confidence in this country and in Western Europe in the quality of American political judgement and leadership.

Front 30

Describe the conduct of Syngman Rhee during the conflict.

Back 30

Throughout the war, Rhee conducted his own dictatorship without reference to Allied sensibilities, as if the war did not exist. The National Assembly fought a long series of political battles with him, and lost all of them. The last came in May 1952, when the Assembly voted to overrule Rhee and lift martial law in the Pusan district. The Assembly building was surrounded by military police. Some 50 Assemblymen in shuttle buses were towed by army trucks to a military police station. Four were jailed, although their arrest in mid-session was blatantly illegal. Rhee then wielded power as if the legislature did not exist. ‘Spontaneous’ demonstrations were organised in his support. Coercion of the anti-Rhee Assemblymen became outrageous. Eighty were dragged into the Assembly hall under police guard to prevent their escape. None were allowed to leave until constitutional amendments had been passed, placing all effective power in South Korea in Rhee’s hands. Thus armed, he called a presidential election on 5 August, at which he was declared elected with 72 per cent of the vote. Thereafter, official corruption in Korea ran entirely unchecked, and meaningful political debate was at an end. The United States and her allies were deeply embarrassed.

Front 31

How did the CIA benefit from the war in Korea?

Back 31

Korea put the CIA on the map. Its principal officers were eager, ruthless, and ambitious for their organisation. They acquired control of forty old C-47s in the markings of CAT – ‘Civil Air Transport’, a forerunner of Air America and Air Continental which they sponsored in Vietnam. Their network of offices and bases extended throughout Japan and Korea.

Front 32

How did aircraft technology develop during the Korean war?

Back 32

The first MiG-15 jet fighters appeared in Korea in November 1950. The Soviets, like America’s allies, used Korea as a proving ground where their pilots could be rotated in and out, to gain experience of the new shape of air warfare. The American B-29 bombers started to suffer a steady drain of losses to fighter attack, coupled with the impact of radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns. A struggle for air superiority began over North Korea, which continued until the end of the war. For the first few weeks after the MiGs’ arrival, the available American fighters in the theatre, notably the F-80 Shooting Stars, were disturbingly outclassed. But then came the Sabre, the F-86 which became the principal weapon of the UN. The Korean War and the shock of discovering the communists’ possession of the MiG stimulated the United States to an extraordinary programme of technical innovation and aircraft development which continued long after the conflict had ended.

The Korean War and the shock of discovering the communists’ possession of the MiG stimulated the United States to an extraordinary programme of technical innovation and aircraft development which continued long after the conflict had ended.

Front 33

What was Operation Strangle and why wasn't it a success?

Back 33

Operation STRANGLE was a systematic attempt to cut off the communist ground forces in the front line from their supplies, by the sustained exercise of air power. It began with a campaign of bombing the road network in North Korea, and in August 1951 was extended to bombing the railways. The only means by which STRANGLE might have been made effective was to match the bombing of supply routes with intense pressure on the ground, to force up communist consumption of supplies. The will for this – or rather the will to accept the UN casualties involved – never existed.

Front 34

What percentage of American POWs died during the Korean War?

Back 34

Nearly 40% died in captivity.

Front 35

What was different about Korea's conduct toward POWs and what were the consequences?

Back 35

Korea became notorious as the first major modern conflict in which a combatant made a systematic attempt to convert prisoners to his own ideology. The Chinese success in this may be partly measured by the statistics: twenty-one Americans and one Briton refused repatriation at the end of hostilities. By 1959, the Americans claimed to have identified seventy-five former prisoners in Korea as communist agents. The most serious case was that of George Blake, former British vice-consul in Seoul, who was seized and interned in June 1950, and remained in communist hands until 1953. A decade later, Blake was unmasked as a key Soviet agent inside the British Foreign Office

Front 36

What was one amusing story regarding prisoners at a Chinese prison camp?

Back 36

The Chinese were delighted to discover that American attitudes had improved, as more men were volunteering for wood retrieval. Yet it was not wood that called the men, but the discovery of marijuana. First identified by some of the Mexican prisoners, it grew wild on the hills. Through the next two years it became, for some men, the only means of making captivity endurable. It caused some excesses which puzzled the Chinese – sudden exuberant sing-songs from groups of black prisoners; one morning a helplessly stoned figure racing around the compound screaming: ‘The Indians are coming! The Indians are coming!’ But the Chinese were told that he was shell-shocked. Curiously enough, in two years they never appeared to grasp the truth.

Front 37

What happened to the American prisoners treatment during the second half of the war?

Back 37

In the summer of 1951, there was a dramatic change in Chinese policy towards the prisoners-of-war. It was determined that if possible, they should be permitted to live. Conditions in all the camps improved markedly. Thereafter, the number of deaths among prisoners declined to a trickle. 99% of all American prisoner deaths took place in the first year of the war. The Chinese realised that they needed some survivors if their propaganda about “the lenient treatment” was to have any meaning.’At last, they were given the means to delouse themselves, and prisoners found themselves receiving sufficient food to sustain life

Front 38

Why did Japan become successful during the Korean War?

Back 38

Japan's rise to success was made possible by the wealth the Korean War poured into the country, when it served as aircraft carrier, repair base, store depot, commissariat, hospital, headquarters and recreation centre for the United Nations forces in the Far East.

Front 39

What was the process for American soldiers being rotated out of the combat zone

Back 39

According to the American points system, a man needed thirty-six points to go home; on line, he earned four a month; in the combat zone, three; in country but beyond reach of enemy action, two. Thus, most men serving with an American combat formation might expect to go home after about a year in Korea, while support personnel served eighteen months. It was a discipline which earned intense dislike among professional soldiers and commanders, because it caused men to become increasingly cautious and reluctant to accept risk as they grew ‘short’, and approached release date. It militated strongly against the unit cohesion the British achieved, by shipping men in and out of Korea by battalions, because each soldier focused upon the schedule of his own tour in country. Yet the system persisted in Vietnam throughout the sixties, with equally negative effects upon the US Army there.

Front 40

What were some of the difficulties of transferring prisoners after the Korean War?

Back 40

According to Chinese and North Korean records, there were more than 8000 American prisoners unaccounted for in less than a year. The Chinese claimed this was due to escapes, air raids, or released at the front. In addition to this, only 53% of North Korean prisoners accepted repatriation. There was no possibility that such a situation could be accepted by the communist governments.

Front 41

Describe the events that occured at Koje-do prison camp.

Back 41

In the first months of the year, there was growing evidence of ideological and military activity inside the compounds. Prisoners manufactured dummy rifles, uniform caps headed with bottle-top badges bearing the red star, flags, banners. Openly, by squads and companies, they began to drill inside the wire. Their commissars harangued them. The first evidence of ruthless internal discipline appeared: prisoners were badly beaten up, even murdered within the wire. Yet in the face of all this, their custodians did nothing. The inmates were left undisturbed. The prisoners’ leaders began to make increasingly strident demands for improved conditions: writing paper, better food, changed routines. They were probing, testing the will of the Americans. It was found wanting. One morning, a crowd of prisoners began hurling cans of sardines and salmon back over the wire. The food was unsuitable, they proclaimed. They wanted fresh fish sent from Japan. The prisoners staged strikes in support of their demands. Their custodians sought earnestly to appease them. An extraordinary psychological situation developed, in which it was the prisoners behind the wire who held the initiative. To this end, the fanatics within the compound were able to inspire or intimidate thousands of their wretched fellow-prisoners to hurl themselves, often under suicidal circumstances, upon the guns of their captors. Those responsible for the camps now faced the worst of all possible worlds. In their fear, they made absurd concessions to the prisoners and allowed their leaders ludicrous liberty to create an ideological hell within the perimeter

Front 42

What finally sped up the peace talks at the end of the war?

Back 42

In the spring of 1953, the Russians and Chinese were persuaded that the new American Administration was willing to use nuclear weapons if the United States was denied an honourable escape from Korea. After so many months of deadlock, the talks at Panmunjom suddenly began to move with remarkable speed.

Front 43

What was the final decision on the prisoner exchange and what was Syngman Rhee's reaction to it?

Back 43

The UN delegation was to agree that Koreans, as well as Chinese, who refused repatriation should be handed over to the Indian neutral supervisory commission. Rhee’s rage, when this news was broken to him, brought relations between Washington and Seoul to their lowest ebb since the war began. The Korean threatened to withdraw his army from the UN Command. Before the arrangement could be finalised, 25000 North Korean prisoners at Pusan and three other compounds who refused repatriation were released. Seoul radio warned escapees to beware of American soldiers seeking to apprehend them. Seoul’s soldiers and police gave the men clothing, and directed them towards shelter. By 22 June, only 9,000 North Koreans remained in captivity, out of a total of 35,400. Only 1,000 of those who had gone were rounded up.

Front 44

Why was the Korean War unique compared to other American wars?

Back 44

This was the first time Americans had ever accepted a no-win war.

Front 45

What did North Korean and Chinese prisoners do when freed?

Back 45

Thousands of North Korean and Chinese prisoners stripped off their clothes and boots and hurled them away on to the road. They chose to return naked to their own people, uncontaminated by the contemptible handouts of capitalism.

Front 46

How did the Korean War change the UN's response to war?

Back 46

UN forces might be granted an international mandate to carry out policing and peace-keeping tasks around the world. But never again was it conceivable that such a mandate would be granted for a military commitment, in pursuit of ideological and political objectives.

Front 47

What did Communist forces learn from the Korean War?

Back 47

Without a simple casus belli, it seems highly doubtful that the Korean War could have been fought to an acceptable finish. This message the communists surely absorbed: never again should they provide the West with so unclouded and comprehensible a reason to resist.

Front 48

What was the outcome of Syngman Rhee's rule?

Back 48

Syngman Rhee was deposed in 1960, when the United States publicly withdrew its support from the old dictator after he had rigged one election too many. A generation after his fall, a procession of more or less repressive military, or military-influenced, governments ruled from Seoul.