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Essay / The Role of the Korean War in History
Table of ContentsJapanese Colony and the Beginning of the WarThe Inchon LandingsThe Chinese WhistleNo Reason for WarThe Forgotten WarA War Began in One Country unknown and cost more than 50,000 soldiers and many more civilians. The country was in ruins and the war did not improve anything. The war was a fight for the communist or capitalist regime. It's the Korean War. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Japanese Colony and the Beginning of the War From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a forced colony of Japan. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the victors divided the Koreas along the 38th parallel. The south was conquered by the United States and the north by the Soviet Union. The North Korean leader was Kim Il Sung and the South Korean president was Seung Man Rhee. Both leaders wanted to reunite the separated country into one, but with a difference. The South Korean leader wanted to rule both Koreas under capitalist control, but Kim Il Sung wanted to rule both Koreas but under communist control. Finally, disaster struck. On June 25 around 4 a.m., 130,000 North Koreans invaded South Korea. The North Koreans were equipped with Soviet tanks and heavily armed, which forced the South Korean army to retreat. Within 3 days, North Korean armies captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and ROK troops fled to Pusan. The Inchon Landing The West and its allies believed this was a dangerous growth of communism for the world. So the United States took the initiative to convince the United Nations to help South Korea. But in the absence of the Soviet Union, the vote passed and, for the first time, the United Nations entered the war. 21 countries from around the world sent men and equipment to Korea. The first allied troops were American and landed in the port of Pusan. The generals wanted American troops to improve the situation. But the American troops did not improve the situation, since the soldiers were not veterans of World War II, but poorly equipped and inexperienced soldiers. Now, U.S. and South Korean forces are surrounded in the port of Pusan, a pocket of land in the south of the country. General Douglas MacArthur (the man in charge of the entire war) was gathering his forces in Japan, but first he sent a task force named Task Force Smith, which was full of inexperienced and poorly equipped soldiers. Meanwhile, General MacArthur was planning to attack the North Koreans with a risky plan. His plan was to land troops at Inchon, a port city about 20 miles from Seoul, to get behind enemy lines. At that time, the North Korean army was already present in southern South Korea. U.S. military leaders met and discussed the risks. Inchon was so dangerous that Commander Arie Capps said, “We made a list of every (possible) and natural handicap – and Inchon had them all.” First, Inchon was guarded by an island called Wolmi-do. In addition, the port was narrow. So if a ship sank, it could block all other ships behind it. But the most important thing was the tide. At low tide, mud blocked landing craft. However, in the face of these risks, U.S. officials authorized MacArthur to attack/land at Inchon. First, MacArthur gathered some good troops (the majority of whom were World War II veterans) and he called his group the X(Tenth)Corp. She wasconsisting of 70,000 troops, including the 7th Infantry Division and the Republic of Korea Marines. So, on September 15, 1950, the landing craft went and landed on Wolmi-do. The ships began naval bombardments and the marines fought and easily secured Wolmi-do. Then they secured Inchon and the capital Seoul. The X-corp has surrounded the North Koreans in the South. The South's North Koreans fled, and the U.S. and South Korean armies were able to attack North Korea. The Chinese whistle The leaders thought the war was over. Their victory was almost over. But the South Korean president wanted to reunify Korea. President Truman agreed, but he feared that the Chinese would see it as a threat. Meanwhile, the Chinese viewed this as a threat and sent troops to aid the North Korean army. Unknowingly, Truman ordered that only ROK troops could move into the area near the North Korea-China border. Thus, on October 1, the South Korean president sent the first South Korean troops to North Korea, followed by American troops. Which led to the fact that MacArthur was sure that the UN had won, since they had crushed the North Koreans and were going to invade North Korea. So he decided to divide his forces into small, unorganized groups, and that was a mistake. But even with divided forces, on October 19 they captured Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and General MacArthur and President Truman decided to meet on Wake Island. They talked about how the Chinese might attack. But what the two didn't know was that the Chinese were already in the Korean Peninsula and they were already attacking the X-corp with their huge army. The X-corp of 70,000 soldiers was nothing compared to the Chinese. The Chinese attacked the divided forces one by one, and the Chinese were strong, since they were veterans of the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese were sure to be unnoticed, and they launched a huge attack on Unsan, and the UN and American forces were confused by the sounds of the whistle. Whistles were used to coordinate the attack of Chinese warriors. Chinese soldiers continued to slash at the UN and advanced. Then something weird happened. The Chinese stopped attacking. MacArthur believed this was a sign of retreat for the Chinese, but what he did not know was that the Chinese were preparing their largest attack yet. But MacArthur was planning a new offensive, and although his commanders privately worried, he told reporters that the soldiers would be home by Christmas. Finally, on November 23, 1950, the soldiers celebrated a thank you dinner and the next day they were in for disaster. The Hundred Years' Winter On November 24, 1950, the day after Thanksgiving, the troops marched forward again, but the Chinese gathered together and attacked with the largest group of men. The Chinese attack with 100,000 men, forcing the Allied forces to retreat and face their new enemy, winter. It was the coldest winter on the Korean Peninsula in 100 years, and the temperature regularly dropped below freezing. The cold made the task even more difficult for the retreating troops. Additionally, it was more of a problem because it dulled the soldiers' senses, the wounded died because they couldn't be kept warm, vehicles wouldn't start, batteries failed, gun grease froze and the soldiers could not shoot. To make matters worse, the Chinese were doing well in the cold. Allied soldiers found dead Chinese soldiers barefoot in the snow. During thisAt one time, there were two bases along the Chosin Reservoir, named Haga ru ri and Yudam ni. Yudam ni was the base with the most defenses and had around 15,000 soldiers. But Haga ru ri was a small base with cooks, engineers and little defense. 6 Chinese units (if combined there were 60,000 Chinese), attacked Yudam ni, and Yudam ni's troops had to retreat to a port town of Hungnam, and Haga ru ri had to defend his retreating troops from the Chinese . General Smith, the head of both bases, ordered engineers from Haga ru ri to complete the air base so that bombers could help. Then he stationed each man on top of a hill to defend his retreating troops and keep the Chinese away from them. A marine at the time said: “The first wave of Chinese had weapons. But this is not the case with the second wave. They were recovering weapons from the first wave. Then the third wave, and so on. Haga ru ri managed to escape, and all of Yudam ni's marines escaped as well. It was one of the most memorable battles of the war and it is called Frozen Chosin.After the escape into Chosin Reservoir, the troops marched through the mountains towards Hungnam. Meanwhile, American airlifts cleared the way to Hungnam and airdropped much-needed troops. Navy ships evacuated refugees and troops and saved more than 300,000 tons of supplies and 17,000 vehicles. But the hope that the soldiers would have returned home by Christmas was long gone, as the war was now where it began. The 38th parallel. War serves no purpose So, on Christmas Eve 1950, the most devastating thing happened. General Walker, the general who led the entire army in Pusan, died when his jeep hit a South Korean truck and went into a ditch. From the beginning of 1951, the troops of the Republic of Korea were pushed back and retreated towards the 37th parallel, south of the 38th. By this time, the troops were completely desperate. The new general, General Ridgway, changed his battle strategy and believed that the artillery was not being fully utilized. Additionally, it was a good time to attack, as the cold winter was causing the same problems for the Chinese, and the deeper the Chinese went into South Korea, the longer the supply routes became for the Chinese. Then the Chinese had no planes to drop supplies, many Chinese were unarmed, and the Chinese had little or no medical care for the wounded. But the UN soldiers had MASH soldiers, or military surgeons. Thousands of Chinese have been killed in the waves over the past two months and Seoul has been reconquered. Since the Chinese abandoned Seoul, the capital of South Korea was back under UN control after four flag changes, the North Korean flag and the South Korean flag. After that, as UN troops fought their way in and closed in on the 38th parallel, President Truman thought it was a good time for peace talks. This angered MacArthur, as he wanted the complete victory of unifying Korea into one nation. For a long time, MacArthur protested President Truman's limited war, which failed to bomb China. But what MacArthur didn't know was that President Truman was afraid that the Soviet Union would also be involved in this project. On March 20, President Truman released a proposed ceasefire plan. But after MacArthur saw this, he published his own words in the document, and he threatened the Chinese that the UN troops would expand and exceed the.