Commentary of 8/8/2013
the forgotten war
sacrificed their lives for the chance
of a democracy that eventually
(1)
On June 25, 1950, the
would make their descendants free
Korean War began when some
and see companies like Hyundai
75,000 soldiers from the North
and Samsung enrich the world.
Korean People’s Army poured
Over a half-century later, the most
across the 38th parallel, the
blessed generation in Korea’s
boundary between the Soviethistory still worries that its capital
backed Democratic People’s
[Seoul] could be engulfed in flames.
Republic of Korea to the north
. . . by December 1950 the soand the pro-Western Republic
called accordion war was considof Korea to the south. This invaered lost — and a united commusion was the first military action
nist Korea a near certainty.
of the Cold War. By July, Ameri Seoul exchanged hands five
can troops had entered the war
times in less than a year. The
on South Korea’s behalf. As
war was almost lost in its first few
far as American officials were
weeks.
concerned, it was a war against
the forces of international
communism itself. After some
early back-and-forth across
the 38th parallel, the fighting
stalled and casualties mounted
with nothing to show for them.
Meanwhile, American officials
worked anxiously to fashion
some sort of armistice with the
North Koreans. The alternative,
Only at the
they feared, would be a wider
11th hour had the Americans surwar with Russia and China–or
vived a supposed last stand at their
even, as some warned, World
toehold in Pusan. Despite racing
War III. Finally, in July 1953, the
all the way to the Chinese border
Korean War came to an end. In
after Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s
all, some 5 million soldiers and
brilliant September 1950 landcivilians lost their lives during
ing at Inchon, by winter of that
the war. The Korean peninsula
year the war was again declared
is still divided today.
almost lost. More than 200,000
Why should we care to know
soldiers of Mao Zedong’s People’s
this? Because so many of our
Republic of China had crossed the
own soldiers suffered and died to
North Korean border in the initial
protect liberty in this forgotten war. wave. They completely surprised
World War II has been glorified, the MacArthur’s thinly dispersed troops
Vietnam War has been vilified, and at the Yalu River. . . .
the Korean War has been largely
. . . From distant Tokyo, Macignored. The Wall Street Journal
Arthur seemed more interested
honored the 60th anniversary of the in shifting blame for the looming
end of that war with some articles
American defeat to appeasers
that I found most interesting. Here back home than in finding a way to
are excerpts from two of them.
salvage victory.
. . . Gen. Matthew Ridgway arrived near the end of December to
The Forgotten Maverick take over . . .
General Who Saved
Most assumed that the newly
South Korea
appointed Ridgway, in good
by Victor Davis Hanson,(2) from
bureaucratic fashion, would bring
the Wall St. Journal, 7/26/13.
order to the American retreat and
Sixty years ago on July 27, the
oversee redeployment from Korea.
Korean War ended as it had started The defeatism Ridgway found
more than three years earlier. . . .
upon landing in Korea appalled
Nearly 37,000 Americans and him. American troops were poorly
a half-million South Koreans
outfitted for the bitter cold. Mail and
hot food were infrequent. Gloom
(1)
from History.com
(2)
Mr. Hanson is a historian and senior fel- infected the officer corps, too many
of whom were ensconced far from
low at the Hoover Institution. His latest
book, “The Savior Generals,” is just out
the front. The “bug out” from the
from Bloomsbury Press.
north had turned into the greatest
retreat in American military history.
Seoul would be lost for a second
time days after his arrival. And
there were no plans for counteroffensives — only contingencies
for regrouping at Pusan or
evacuating to Japan.
In the frigid mess, Ridgway
sprung into action. He exuded
optimism and demanded
reassignments for defeatist
officers. Food, supplies and
mail immediately improved. He
published manifestos explaining to the troops why
they were fighting . . .
The war, he believed,
would soon revert to
America’s advantage. . . .
In a series of integrated offensives
— Ridgway called them
Roundup, Killer and
Ripper — American air
and artillery tore apart
North Korean and Chinese lines. Ridgway crisscrossed
the fluid front. “Old Iron Tits” — a
live grenade and medical kit hung
from Ridgway’s chest — won the
hearts and minds of his soldiers.
“By March, with a new American
army and a rebuilt South Korean
military, Ridgway retook Seoul.
Fewer than 100 days after he had
arrived in Korea, U.N. forces were
at or back across the 38th Parallel.
. . .The wonder is not that Korea
is still divided, but that there is even
a South Korea today — a nation
saved only because of the long ago
appearance of a maverick general
when there were no others to be
found. . . .
Why ‘Chesty’ Still
Inspires the Marines
by Amanda Foreman, from
the Wall St. Journal, 7/26/13.
The Korean War rarely
gets a mention these days.
Sandwiched between the epic
struggle of World War II and the
moral carnage of Vietnam, the
conflict has suffered by comparison. . . .
The 2½-mile-wide demilitarized zone that separates North
and South Korea was officially
established on July 27, 1953.
To some . . . it is an emblem of
the hard-won peace that has
since endured — a peace that
was achieved with the help of
men like Lt. Gen. Lewis “Chesty” Puller, . . .
Puller was in his early 50s
when the Korean War began
and already a legend in the
Corps. He was old-style, the
kind of soldier who insisted on
leading his men from the front.
In November 1950, Chesty
was given command of the 1st
Marine Division and dispatched
to a remote area in North Korea
known as the Chosin Reservoir.
As related in Jon T. Hoffman’s “Chesty,” the Marines
barely had time to set up
base camp when the Chinese
People’s Liberation Army
attacked their position. The embedded journalists immediately
confronted Chesty, demanding
to know his plan. Calmly he
replied: “We’ve been looking
for the enemy for several days
now. We’ve finally found them.
We’re surrounded. That simplifies our problem of finding these
people and killing them.”
At Chosin, the heat of action
was around the base perimeter.
When a frightened major dared
to ask about the line of retreat,
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Chesty radioed the base’s artillery commander and ordered
him to fire on any soldier who
abandoned his position; then he
turned back to the unfortunate
officer and said, “That answer your question? There
will be no withdrawal.”
The “Chesty effect” on the
division was palpable. A battalion commander recalled:
“Puller gave us pride in
some way I can’t describe.
...
On Dec. 6, 1950,
Chesty was ordered to break
out of Chosin Reservoir
and open an escape route to
Hungnam port. . . . By now the
temperature had dropped to 25
degrees below zero. Fighting
every step of the way, Chesty
succeeded in not just bringing out the wounded and the
dead but also every vehicle and
piece of equipment worth saving. Behind him, spread out for
miles, lay the broken remnants
of seven Chinese divisions.
In his inimitable way, Chesty
refused to call the retreat a
defeat, let alone a retreat. As
the general waited to board
his ship, he ordered reporters
to “Remember, whatever you
write, this was no retreat. All
that happened was we found
more Chinese behind us than
in front of us. So we aboutfaced and attacked.” The Navy
rewarded Chesty for Chosin
Reservoir with his fifth Navy
Cross.
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