IndexThe Japanese Colony and the Beginning of the WarThe Inchon LandingThe Chinese WhistleNo Points for the WarThe Forgotten WarA war was started in an unknown country and cost over 50,000 soldiers and many other civilians. The country remained in ruins and the war did not improve anything. The war was a struggle for communist or capitalist dominance. This is the Korean War. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an 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, while the north by the Soviet Union. The North Korean leader was Kim Il Sung, while the South Korean president was Seung Man Rhee. Both leaders wanted to reunify the separated country into one, but with a difference. The South Korean leader wanted to rule both Koreas with capitalist control, but Kim Il Sung wanted to rule both Koreas but with communist control. Finally disaster struck. At around 4 am on June 25, 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 completely. In 3 days, North Korean armies took Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and ROK (Republic of Korea) troops fled to Pusan. The Inchon Landing The West and its allies thought this was a dangerous growth of communism in the world. Then, the United States took the lead in convincing the United Nations to help South Korea. But, with the absence of the Soviet Union, the vote was approved, and for the first time, the United Nations entered the war . 21 nations 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 hoped that American troops would improve the situation. But the American troops did not improve the situation, since the soldiers were not veterans of the Second World War, they were ill-equipped and inexperienced soldiers. Now, American and South Korean forces were surrounded in the port of Pusan, a spit of land in the southern part of the country. General Douglas MacArthur (the man responsible for the entire war) was gathering his forces in Japan, but first he sent a task force called task force smith, which was full of inexperienced and ill-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 reach enemy lines. By this time, the North Korean military was already in the southern part of South Korea. US military leaders met and talked about the risks. Inchon was so dangerous that Commander Arie Capps said, "We made a list of all the (possible) natural handicaps and Inchon had them all." First, Inchon was guarded by an island called Wolmi-do. Furthermore, the port was narrow. So if one ship sank, that ship could pin all the others behind it. But above all, the most dangerous part was the tide. At low tide, the mud would ground the landing craft. However, with these risks, US officials allowed MacArthur to attack/land at Inchon. First, MacArthur gathered good troops (most of them were World War II veterans) and called his group the X (Tenth) Corps. It consisted of 70,000 men, including the 7th Infantry Division and ROK (Republic of Korea) Marines. So, on the 15thSeptember 1950, the landing craft went and landed at Wolmi-do. The ships began naval bombardment and the marines fought and easily secured Wolmi-do. Then, they secured Inchon and the capital, Seoul. X-Corp surrounded the North Koreans in the South. The North and South Koreans fled, and the armies of the United States and South Korea were able to invade North Korea. The Chinese Whistle The leaders thought the war was almost over with their victory. But the South Korean president wanted to reunify Korea. President Truman agreed, but feared that the Chinese would see him as a threat. Meanwhile, the Chinese saw this as a threat and sent troops to help the North Korean army. Without knowing it, Truman ordered that only ROK troops could move into the area near the North Korea-China border. So, on October 1, the South Korean president sent the first ROK troops into North Korea, followed by US troops. This led to the fact that MacArthur was sure that the UN had won, since they had crushed the North Koreans and would invade North Korea. He therefore decided to divide his forces into small, unorganized groups, and this was a mistake. But despite the divided forces, they captured Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, on October 19, and General MacArthur and President Truman agreed 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 on the Korean Peninsula and were already attacking 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, as they were veterans of the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese were sure to go unnoticed, and launched a huge attack on Unsan, and the UN and American forces were confused with the sounds of the whistle. The whistles were used to coordinate the attack of the Chinese warriors. The Chinese soldiers kept tearing apart the UN and moved on. Then something strange happened. The Chinese stopped attacking. MacArthur thought this was a signal for the Chinese to retreat, but what he didn't know is that the Chinese were planning their largest attack yet. But MacArthur was planning a new offensive and, even with his commanders worried in private, he told reporters that the soldiers would be home by Christmas. Finally, on November 23, 1950, the soldiers celebrated a thanksgiving dinner and marched into disaster the next day. The Hundred Year Winter On November 24, 1950, the day after Thanksgiving, the troops once again marched forward, but the Chinese rallied and attacked with the largest group. The Chinese attacked with 100,000 men, forcing the Allied forces to retreat and encountering their new enemy, Winter. It was the coldest winter in 100 years on the Korean Peninsula and temperatures regularly dropped below freezing. The cold made the retreat of the troops even more difficult. Furthermore, this was more of a problem because it dulled the soldier's senses, the wounded died because they couldn't be kept warm, the vehicles wouldn't start, the batteries died, the grease on the weapons froze so the soldiers couldn't shoot. To make matters worse, the Chinese were comfortable in the cold. Allied soldiers reportedly found dead Chinese soldiers barefoot in the snow. Meanwhile, there were two bases along the Chosin Reservoir, called Haga ru ri and Yudam ni. Yudam ni was the most heavily defended base and had around 15,000 soldiers. But Haga ru ri was a small base with cooks, engineers and little defense. 6 Chinese units (if together there were 60,000 Chinese), attackedYudam ni, and the troops in Yudam ni had to retreat to a port city in Hungnam, and Haga ru ri had to defend his retreating troops from the Chinese. General Smith, the leader of the two bases, ordered Haga ru ri engineers to finish the air base so 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 the second wave did not. They would collect the weapons of 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. This was one of the most remembered battles of the war and is called Frozen Chosin. After escaping into the Chosin Reservoir, the troops marched into the mountains, heading towards Hungnam. As they did so, US air transports cleared the way to Hungnam and dropped much-needed troops. Navy ships evacuated refugees and troops and rescued over 300,000 tons of supplies and 17,000 vehicles. But the hope that the soldiers would return home by Christmas had long since disappeared, as the war was now right where it had started. The 38th parallel. War makes no sense. So, the day before Christmas Eve 1950, the most devastating thing happened. General Walker, the general who led the entire army into Pusan, died when his jeep collided with an ROK truck and ended up in a ditch. By early 1951 ROK troops were pushed back and retreated to the 37th parallel, south of the 38th. At this point the troops were in complete desperation. The new general, General Ridgway, changed his battle strategy and thought that the artillery was not fully utilized. Also, this was a good time to attack, as the cold winter was causing the same problems for the Chinese, and the further into South Korea the Chinese got, the longer supply routes were for the Chinese. Furthermore, the Chinese had no planes to deliver supplies, many Chinese were unarmed, and they had little or no medical care for the wounded. But the UN soldiers had MASH soldiers, or army surgeons. Thousands of Chinese have been killed by the waves in the last two months and Seoul has been retaken. Since the Chinese abandoned Seoul, the capital of South Korea has returned to the control of the United Nations after changing the flags of North and South Korea four times. Subsequently, while the United Nations troops were road and were approaching 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 as one nation. For a long time MacArthur protested President Truman's limited war, for not being able to bomb China. But what MacArthur didn't know was that President Truman was afraid that the Soviet Union would get involved in this too. On March 20, President Truman released a draft for a ceasefire plan. But, after MacArthur noticed this, he published his own words in the document and threatened the Chinese that UN troops would expand and go beyond the North Korean border if the Chinese did not surrender, without informing his leaders to Washington. , D.C. After MacArthur wrote this, he was relieved of Korea and sent back to the United States. But this hurt President Truman even more, since MacArthur was a hero in World War II and had over 7 million people to welcome him home. By this time, President Truman's interest rate was 26%, as Americans had lost interest in the victims and.