The Korean War, from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953, was a
conflict between communist North and anti-communist South Korea. This was also
a proxy war of a kind between the United States and the Soviet Union. The
United States and the People's Republic of China although many nations sent
troops under the aegis of the United Nations.
The invasion of South
Korea came as a complete surprise to the US, Dean Rusk of the State Department
had told Congress on June 20 that no war was likely. Interestingly a CIA report
of early March had predicted an invasion in June. US officials had previously
publicly stated that America would not fight over Korea.
On hearing of the invasion Truman agreed with his advisors to
use US airstrikes against the North Korean forces and also ordered the Seventh
Fleet to protect Formosa. Without the Soviet veto and with only Yugoslavia
opposed the UN voted to aid South Korea. The US would have fought whatever the
outcome, and MacArthur later told Congress "I had no connection with the
UN whatsoever". US forces were eventually joined during the conflict by
troops from 15 other UN members: Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom,
France, Canada, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, Greece, the Netherlands,
Ethiopia, Colombia, the Philippines, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
Excluding the Marines, the infantry divisions sent to Korea
were at 40% of paper strength and the majority of their equipment was found to
be useless.
The Americans organized Task Force Smith[?] and on July 5
engaged in the first North Korean/American clash of the war.
In initial stages of
the war, North Korea troops overwhelmed South Korean forces and drove them to a
small area in the far South around the city of Pusan. Upon the entrance of US
and UN forces, American general Douglas MacArthur, as UN commander in chief for
Korea, ordered an invasion far behind the North Korean troops at Inchon. United
Nations troops drove the North Koreans back past the 38th parallel and
continued on toward the Yalu River border of North Korea and China. This
brought the communist Chinese into the war.
The communist Chinese had issued warnings that they would
react if the UN forces encroached on the frontier at the Yalu River. Mao sought
Soviet aid and saw intervention as essentially defensive - "if we allow
the US to occupy all of Korea... we must be prepared for the US to declare...
war with China" he told Stalin. Mao delayed his forces while waiting for
Russian help, and the planned attack was thus postponed from the 13th to the
19th of October. The Soviet role was known to the US but they kept quiet as
"the last thing we [the US] wanted was... a more serious confrontation
with the Soviets".
A Chinese assault beginning on October 19, 1950 under the
command of General Peng Dehuai with 380,000 People's Liberation Army troops
repelled the United Nations troops back to the 38th parallel, the pre-conflict
border.
On January 4, 1951
communist Chinese and North Korean forces captured Seoul. The battle of Chosin
Reservoir in winter was a terrible defeat for the United Nation troops, mainly
American Marines. MacArthur was removed from command by President Harry S
Truman in 1951. The rest of the war involved little territory changes and
lengthy peace negotiations.
Korea was officially
a police action not a war in US parlance. 600,000 Koreans had died and perhaps
a million Chinese. US troops suffered about 50,000 fatalities, roughly equal to
the Vietnam conflict but in a much shorter time. However later neglect of remembrance
of this war in favor of the Vietnam War and World War I and II has caused the
Korean War to be called the Forgotten War or the Unknown War.
However the war was
instrumental in re-energising the US military-industrial complex from their
post-war slump. The defense budget was boosted to $50 billion, the Army was
doubled in size as was the number of Air Groups and they were deployed beyond
American soil in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia, including
Vietnam where covert aid to the French was made overt. The Cold War became a
much stronger state of mind for American policy makers.
Japan was a key beneficiary of the war. The US material
requirements were organised through a Special Procurements system, which
allowed for local purchasing without the complex Pentagon procurement system.
Over $3.5 billion was spent with Japanese companies, peaking at $809 million in
1953 and still significant in 1955, other foreign non-military investment was
less than 5% of this. Left-wing organisations were closed down and the zaibatsu
went from being distrusted to being encouraged - Mitsui[?], Mitsubishi and
Sumitomo[?] were amongst the zaibatsu that thrived, not only on orders from the
military but through American industrial experts, including W. Edwards Deming.
Japanese manufacturing grew by 50% between March 1950 and 1951. By 1952 pre-war
standards of living were regained and output was twice the level of 1949. The
1951 peace treaty returned Japanese sovereignty (excluding Okinawa and the
Ryukyu islands) and the non-belligerency clause in the constitution was being
considered a "mistake" by 1953.
