(Via Milinet)
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-200062622939.htm
June 26, 2000
A war almost 'forgotten'
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Korean War erupted 50 years ago today, drawing over a
million
American troops into a bloody, three-year conflict that raced up
and down
the divided peninsula until it ended in stalemate where it began
- the 38th
parallel.
Prodded by Josef Stalin and aided by China, North Korean
dictator Kim
Il-sung unleashed 70,000 soldiers and 300 T-34 tanks across the
parallel at
4 a.m. on June 25, 1950. Mr. Kim's aim was to forcibly unify
Korea under his
Communist regime, after Russia and the United States ended
Japanese rule in
1945 and split the country into two sectors.
Within a month, the United States came to South Korea's
rescue, at
first sending in Task Force Smith to blunt the shock-wave
invasion. China
and Russia eventually dispatched troops, too. For three years,
Korea was the
scene of horrendous fighting, much of it played out in sub-zero
weather and
mountainous terrain, where frostbite was just as likely as a
bullet to claim
an ear or foot. Washington worried that the warring convergence
of
superpowers might bring on World War III.
But retired Marine Corps. Col. Mike Cerreta, then a
20-year-old private
hauling 100 pounds of weapons and gear as he fought the Chinese,
remembers
one man and one unit trying to survive.
"I had two tours in Vietnam. I've got to say my tour in
Korea was
decidedly more difficult," says Col. Cerrata, 70, of Fairfax.
"When I get in
a dry bed today, I say a prayer of thanksgiving because I go
back to my
experience in the war in Korea and how miserable it was for an
infantryman
living on the ground. When I came back - I was a young man in
good shape to
start - when I came back, I was an old man. I had aged so much
because of
those conditions."
Kim's blitzkrieg nearly succeeded in vanquishing South
Korea. It
gobbled up the capital, Seoul, forcing beaten defenders into a
last-stand in
Korea's southeast corner, the Pusan Perimeter.
In war-weary Washington, President Truman decided to make a
stand
against communist expansion amid a nascent international
face-off called the
Cold War. "By God, I am going to let them have it," the
president told an
aide after rushing back to Washington from Missouri.
The United Nations sanctioned its first war against an
aggressor. The
burden fell on a demobilized United States, whose four divisions
of
occupation troops in Japan were ill-trained and poorly equipped
for the type
of brutal land warfare awaiting them across the Korea Strait.
"That was kind of a ragtag outfit we had," says retired Air
Force Gen.
Russ Dougherty, who recalls flying in American troops one day,
then flying
out many of the same soldiers a few days later -wounded.
Letting U.S. defenses lapse was not the country's only
mistake.
Secretary of State Dean Acheson had provided a "green light" for
Mr. Kim the
previous January, declaring that America's line of defense in
Asia stopped
at Japan.
"We paid the price for intemperate remarks by Dean
Acheson," says
Richard Hallion, chief Air Force historian.
By fall, American forces were pouring into the peninsula.
They reversed
the invasion, then boldly pushed north, all the way to
Pyongyang, the North
Korean capital. Alarmed, China entered the war, sending 200,000
Manchurian-based troops across the Yalu River. United Nations
forces
retreated. Again, Seoul fell. Mr. Truman openly contemplated
employing
nuclear weapons. He then publicly shot down his own trial
balloon, fearing
World War III between the United States and the Soviet Union,
the world's
two nuclear powers.
The alliance regrouped, fought back and retook Seoul. The
enemy
withdrew across the 38th parallel, where the fighting
concentrated for the
next two years in gory battles with names like Heartbreak,
T-Bone and Pork
Chop. The casualty-filled stalemate wore down both sides. The
North agreed
to an uneasy truce on July 27, 1953, signed at Panmunjom along a
demilitarized zone. The armistice - but no permanent peace
treaty - exists
today.
The 'forgotten war'
The U.N. euphemistically labeled the hostilities a "police
action." Critics
lambasted Mr. Truman for waging a "limited war" that avoided
attacks on
Manchuria, the base for Chinese military operations. It later
became the
"forgotten war," overshadowed by the allied defeat of global
fascism in
World War II and by decades of hand wringing over Vietnam.
Still, the Korean War did achieve two major goals: the
South's freedom
and a brake on international communism in one corner of the
world. Today, as
Washington plans a series of events to commemorate the war and
those who
served, South Korea stands as a robust, free-market democracy.
Pyongyang's
continued bellicosity requires the presence of 37,000 American
troops in
South Korea and a Pentagon war plan to annihilate the North
should it invade
again.
During those same 50 years, Mr. Kim instituted a
repressive, isolated
regime. Its military soaked up large shares of a meager gross
domestic
product to build a one-million-man army perched at South Korea's
door. The
strategy produced economic ruin and a famine in the late 1990s
that killed
millions. The country's gross domestic product languished at $14
billion in
1998, according to London's International Institute for
Strategic Studies.
The free-market South's topped $425 billion.
"What we accomplished was we stopped the first real
communist
aggression after World War II," says retired Lt. Gen. Arnold
Braswell, who
piloted what was then the Air Force's new, million-dollar jet,
the F-86
Sabrejet.
"We stopped the first one we had a chance to stop," he
says. "We were
able to protect the South Korean nation and therefore we drew a
line in the
sand for the Cold War. It sort of set the tone for our
containment policy
and determined policies from then on. We saved South Korea,
which eventually
turned out to be a prosperous and democratic nation."
Saving South Korea brought enormous human cost. Over 1.7
million
Americans served in the Korean War theater. Of those, 36,916
died and
103,284 were wounded. Of 7,245 American prisoners of war, 2,806
died in
captivity, some during a Bataan-style death march as North
Korean forces
fled the South. South Korea lost 59,000 troops, with 291,000
wounded.
More than 500,000 Chinese and North Korean combatants died
in action
and over 1 million were wounded.
To judge the war's ferocity, one can compare the death toll
with
Vietnam. In nine years, 47,378 Americans died in battle in
Southeast Asia.
Korea lasted just one-third the time, yet claimed 33,667 "battle
deaths," 70
percent of Vietnam's death count.
Korea marked a number of "firsts" in addition to being the
United
Nations' inaugural war. The U.N. coalition included Americans,
South
Koreans, British, New Zealanders, Australians, Turks and
Canadians.
For the first time, Americans fought against communist
Chinese soldiers
and Soviet pilots. It was the first jet war. It was America's
first war with
racially integrated squadrons, platoons and ships' crews.
In firing Gen. Douglas MacArthur for challenging the White
House's
refusal to attack China, Mr. Truman sacked the first commander
in chief
since Abraham Lincoln took a similar action during the Civil
War.
Retreats, attacks, stalemate
When Col. Cerreta arrived in Korea in April 1951, the war had
bogged down
into a series of "hill battles" along the 38th. The Marine
private joined up
with the 7th Marine Regiment and deployed to a unit that set up
defensive
positions in the mountains to stop enemy incursions.
"I remember we were on this ridge," he says. "We started to
dig in very
rapidly. We didn't know exactly from where the attack was
coming. We heard a
bugle sound. We returned fire. We were just firing at flashes
down the hill
in the dark. The next morning there were dead bodies. Chinese."
The hill battles were preceded by four distinct phases
played out in
lightning-fast invasions and counterattacks that flowed up and
down the
peninsula.
The North's invasion started the war. U.S. troops had
vacated South
Korea after a post-World War II occupation, leaving defenses to
an impotent
indigenous constabulary. Two months after the assault,
Pyongyang's soldiers
had captured Seoul and shoved defenders into a relatively small
pocket
defined as the Pusan Perimeter.
Mr. Kim's land grab thrust upon Mr. Truman his most
important moment
since the decision to drop two atomic bombs on warring Japan and
his move to
bolster postwar Western Europe against a Stalinized Eastern
bloc.
"If the communists were permitted to force their way into
the Republic
of Korea without opposition from the free world, no small nation
would have
the courage to resist threats and aggression by stronger
communist
neighbors," Mr. Truman later wrote. "If it was allowed to go
unchallenged it
would mean a Third World War, just as similar incidents had
brought on the
Second World War."
The United States rushed in reinforcements. Air Force F-84
fighter-bombers targeted supply lines and troops to buy time
while MacArthur
figured out a counteroffensive.
"We were almost pushed off the peninsula," says Gen.
Braswell, now in
his 70s and living in McLean. "We were not well equipped.
Luckily, we had
enough guys with some World War II experience and brave guys who
went in
there and did their best to help stop them."
Retired Army Col. John C. Chapman of Richmond remembers
being among the
first American soldiers to enter Korea from a Japan occupation
force in July
1950 as part of the 25th Infantry Division, an 8th Army
component.
"We basically were just trying to blunt the attack. That
was the best
we could do," recalls Col. Chapman, 76, then a first lieutenant
and forward
artillery controller. "It was just hit-and-run is all we were
doing in the
early days."
"The North Koreans at that time were seasoned veterans. A
lot of them
were veterans of the 'Long March' with the communists in China.
. . . We
hadn't any field training in Japan hardly at all. By 1950,
essentially all
of the people who had been in World War II combat had been
replaced by
draftees in the States, with a few NCOs who volunteered to stay
behind,"
Col. Chapman says.
Gen. MacArthur's grand plan began Phase 2. Commanding
troops from a
Tokyo headquarters, he devised a daring amphibious landing
behind enemy
lines, far north of the fighting, at the port of Inchon, west of
Seoul. On
Sept. 15, 1950, over 260 ships disgorged 70,000 Marines and
soldiers in a
mini-Normandy invasion designed to shock the victorious North
Koreans.
Simultaneously, the 25th Division, now reinforced by the 2nd and
3rd Army
divisions, broke out of the Pusan Perimeter.
The gambit worked. U.N. forces liberated Seoul in vicious
street-to-street fighting. Within two days, Gen. MacArthur's men
drove north
of the 38th parallel.
"The battle for Seoul became a source of lasting
controversy and deep
revulsion to some of those who witnessed it," says historian Max
Hastings.
"It was passionately argued by some correspondents and not a few
soldiers
that the civilian casualties and wholesale destruction could
have been
avoided by an effective enveloping movement, rather than direct
assault,
supported by overwhelming air and artillery support."
At that point, Gen. MacArthur and Mr. Truman, his commander
in chief,
made a momentous decision. They opted to continue the
counterattack all the
way to Pyongyang, to go for an all-out victory that would free
Korea of
communist rule.
The drive brought an unpredicted response from China and
produced
another major turning point in the war in just four short
months. In
October, Beijing entered the conflict in full force. More than
200,000
troops marched over the Yalu, scattering the far-flung U.N.
armies. In all,
China poured a half-million troops into Korea, initially some
front-line
fighters, then young conscripts as casualty rates soared.
American scouts ran across the first trickle of invaders,
but U.S.
intelligence headquarters in Tokyo -in a major war failure -
dismissed those
reports, as well as air reconnaissance that showed Chinese
mobilization. The
result was that U.N. troops deployed all over the North, instead
of
positioning themselves along the Yalu to blunt the impending
attack.
"Our units were in echelons going north, one up in this
valley and
another up that valley," says Col. Chapman, who recalls sitting
in a tank 10
miles from the Yalu when the invasion started. "They weren't
anticipating
running into a force of 500,000 Chinese. . . . Once the units up
north
started getting clobbered, it became pretty much 'get your
vehicle and get
the hell out of here.' "
The Chinese entered an evacuated Pyongyang, where U.S.
soldiers blew up
tons of ammo, creating a spectacular fireworks exit. The 7th
Army Division
and 1st Marine Division attempted a courageous stand at the
Chosin
Reservoir, a hydroelectric facility southeast of Pyongyang. The
U.S.
infantrymen were outnumbered 11-1, but fought valiantly,
destroying 10
Chinese divisions before finally being ordered to retreat back
below the
38th parallel in late December. At one point, the Chinese
surrounded the
Marines, who had to fight their way out.
Korea's Siberian-style winter had set in. Of 12,000 allied
casualties
at the Chosin Reservoir, 3,000 suffered frostbite. At that time,
nearly one
in five GIs hospitalized suffered frostbite. Seoul was again in
communist
hands. MacArthur faced anew the possibility of defeat.
The U.S. military stood unprepared for a war in cold,
rugged Korea.
Some cold weather gear they issued was better suited for
stationary duty in
Alaska, not rock climbing along the 38th parallel. Trucks could
not reach
men with fresh supplies. Only a few helicopters operated.
"In Korea," Col. Cerreta says, "We were on the go all the
time. We
climbed some of the most horrendous mountains you ever saw. You
were bathed
in sweat with all this heavy equipment and clothing. . . . We
went literally
months without a shower. I remember at one point I went down to
a river and
broke the ice just to get the bugs off me. Lice. You get dirty
and dirt
stays on you."
The fourth phase of the fighting began with the appointment
of Army
Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway as top ground commander. A veteran of
the bleak
conditions U.S. soldiers endured during the frozen "Battle of
the Bulge" in
the Ardennes, Gen. Ridgway immediately moved to boost morale. He
provided
soldiers with new weapons and protective clothing. He instituted
field
surgical units known as MASH. Perhaps more important, he
reorganized his
demoralized army for yet another counterattack.
"Ridgway was a much more hands-on commander," says Col.
Chapman, who
remembers seeing the four-star general visiting units. "He was a
field
commander. Ridgway was a paratroop commander in World War II.
One of his
trademarks was he rolled around in a jeep, with two grenades
strapped to his
harness. He was an extremely good field commander."
By March, 1951, U.N. troops again controlled Seoul, the
forth time the
capital had changed hands in eight months. Gen. MacArthur
pressed for
attacks against China and was fired by his president. Gen.
Ridgway, Gen.
MacArthur's replacement as supreme commander, had no desire to
march again
to Pyongyang. He set up a 115-mile coast-to-coast perimeter to
protect the
South.
Fighting against the Chinese and North Koreans remained
fierce. In his
book, "A History of the Twentieth Century," Martin Gilbert
recounts the
heroism of one American.
"On the night of April 24/25 a Japanese-American soldier,
Cpl. Hiroshi
H. Miyamura, from Gallup, N.M., protected his squad from an
attack by vastly
superior numbers of Chinese, killing more than 60 attackers with
his machine
gun and, when his ammunition ran out and he was severely
wounded, resorting
to hand-to-hand combat, with bayonet, thereby enabling his
fellow Americans
to withdraw. His citation for the Medal of Honor described how,
when last
seen, he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number
of enemy
soldiers."
By May, the war's final - and longest - phase began with a
succession
of give-and-take battles near the 38th that would last until the
truce at
Panmunjom on July 27, 1953.
The new Air Force
Korea was a coming-out party for the U.S. Air Force.
Only three years old as an independent service, the Air
Force was given
two main tasks for its new war gizmo, the jet fighter. First,
its fliers
delivered close-air support for forces pinned in the Pusan
Perimeter, and
later bombed supply routes and military targets up north.
And, its first generation of jet aces flew in spectacular
dogfights in
"MiG Alley" between Sukchon and Sinuiju, north of Pyongyang.
Their job:
intercept Russian- and Chinese-piloted MiG-15s out to down
American bombers.
The F-86 Sabrejet was a simplistic machine by today's
standard of
computer guided, supersonic fighters whose avionics can spot and
kill an
enemy plane at long range with launch-and-forget missiles. But
to Korean
aces, the F-86 was the hot new fighter. It was the Air Force's
first
swept-wing jet, enabling the fighter to reach near-supersonic
speeds. And
its six 50-caliber machine guns could chew up a MiG from 2,000
feet.
"I think Korea was extremly important for the Air Force,"
says retired
Lt. Gen. Earl Brown, an F-86 pilot who arrived at Kimpo Air Base
a
24-year-old second lieutenant. "The Air Force doctrine was being
developed
and the doctrine of air superiority as the first requirement of
any battle
was being established. Until you establish air superiority none
of the other
functions of the military services can really be carried out
successfully.
By establishing air superiority in Korea, the Air Force doctrine
was given a
big boost."
The Air Force won its glory in MiG Alley, the scene of
daily dogfights
matching up the world's first operational jet fighters. Groups
of 30 F-86
Sabrejets would leave Kimpo, arrive in the alley 30 minutes
later and wait
for MiGs to enter from Manchuria.
Gen. Brown, now 71 and a resident of Fairfax County, flew
125 missions,
mostly as a wing man, sort of a human radar screen looking for
approaching
MiGs. He got shot up once, but returned to Kimpo safely. He
damaged one MiG,
which got away.
It was an age before cockpit radar, air-to-air missiles and
grounded-based anti-aircraft missiles. The air duels were
strictly mano a
mano, machine-gun fire at close range.
The official Air Force scorecard: 792 fallen MiGs to 78
downed F-86s, a
10-1 ratio.
Pilots soon discovered they enjoyed one big technological
edge: while
the MiG-15 was lighter and more maneuverable, at speeds
approaching Mach 1
(the speed of sound) the Soviet-designed jet was uncontrollable.
The
Sabrejet's hydraulic flight control system held up much better.
"We listened to their radios and we knew when a lot of them
were
getting ready to take off," says Gen. Brown, then a member of
the 4th
Fighter Interceptor Wing. "The principal tactic was to first see
the MiG.
The guys with the best eyes were the ones who could engage and
get the
kills. Second, you had to close and maneuver against the MiG. A
MiG could
outclimb the Sabre but it had a disadvantage at high speed."
While the F-86s flew north, the F-84 Thunderjets flew along
the 38th,
hunting Chinese and North Korean forces.
Gen. Braswell recalls one mission to punish enemy soldiers
hunkered
down on T-Bone ridge. "We put bombs and rockets on communist
Chinese troops
who were occupying the ridge there," he says. "We put a lot of
ordnance
down. We put our rockets in the tunnel. We were later told our
mission was
very successful in causing casualties to enemy troops."
The lack of accuracy in air-to-ground attacks planted the
seeds for the
development of laser-guided bombs used effectively decades later
in the
Persian Gulf and Kosovo.
"We learned we needed precision weapons and bombs," Gen.
Braswell says.
"More bombs missed the target than actually hit the target. It's
not easy
hitting a small target with an unguided bomb."
Gen. Brown went on to fly 100 missions in Vietnam in the
F-4 Phantom,
was one of the Air Force's first black officers to achieve
three-star rank
and retired in 1985 after commanding NATO air forces in southern
Europe.
"It's like a strange lottery," he says today. "We all sit
side-by-side
in the briefing room. Some of us come back. Some of us don't."
Was it worth it?
Korean war veterans, whom the country honors today, talk proudly
of what
they accomplished in Korea. They disagree with historians who
judge the war
a draw.
"I think we sent a message to the Soviets, who were our
principal
adversaries and who were very much involved with our opponents,"
Gen. Brown
says. "There was a line they could not cross without opposition.
They had to
evaluate their plan to dominate that part of the world as well
as other
parts of the world."
Says Col. Cerreta: "The Korean War was the first war we
didn't try to
win. MacArthur tried to win it. MacArthur wanted to win it, but
Truman
wouldn't let him. He fired him. . . . It's absolutely
inexcusable to send
American citizens to fight a war you have no intention of
winning. This is
the highest kind of crime, to command people to go lose their
lives or their
limbs for something you're not intending to win. It's wrong. You
cannot do
that.
"What did we accomplish? We accomplished saving South Korea
from
becoming North Korea. I think that's a pretty big
accomplishment. Look at
South Korea and North Korea today. Does anyone have any doubts
what it would
be like living under the communist regime in South Korea?"
Says Ike Skelton of Missouri, senior Democrat on the House
Armed
Services Committee: "The war told the communists that we would
stand our
ground. It told the communists that we valued democratic
institutions and it
helped create one in South Korea. It was not in vain."
