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