23 Nov 01

American Dunkirk:

When US Marines stormed ashore at Inchon on the west coast of Korea on 15 Sept 1950 and later at Wosan on 26 Oct, stunned NKPA (North Korean Peoples' Army) soldiers, never believing such amphibious landings to be possible, quickly disintegrated into a disorganized retreat back across the North Korean border. Trucks, small arms, artillery, supplies, and tanks were all hastily abandoned. The NKPA suffered staggering losses in the process. Congruent with the now-familiar Communist model, evidence of mass atrocities were discovered everywhere the NKPA had been.

Alarmed, Communist China's premier, Chou En-lai, warned the US and the UN not to cross the border into North Korea. However, aerial reconnaissance revealed no significant troop concentrations or movements along the Chinese border with North Korea (the Yalu River), so Chou's warnings were regarded as mostly just saber rattling and were ignored. MacArthur was therefore ordered to pursue retreating NKPA troops across the North Korean border without delay.

On a roll and smelling victory, MacArthur was only too happy to oblige. US Army troops and Marines marched relentlessly into North Korea as winter approached. Fifty miles of rugged, snowy mountains lay between them and the Yalu River. Unfortunately, aerial reconnaissance was relied upon almost to the exclusion of every other form of intelligence gathering. Such overdependance upon technology was unwise in the extreme, and MacArthur should have known better.

Self-assured, MacArthur confidently promised American troops that they would all be "home by Christmas." MacArthur's boldness was due, in no small part, to his assumption that the atomic bomb, possessed at the time only by America, could be used to rescue any campaign that went bad. However, he and President Truman had no effective communication on the subject, and Truman, under the influence of the British and other allies, had already decided that the atomic bomb was out of the question. This miscommunication between MacArthur and Truman would lead to disaster. MacArthur's fronts were spread dangerously thin. Flanks were exposed, but no one seemed to be concerned, now that we had "the bomb." The American invasion of North Korea was starting to resemble the Italian invasion of Greece in 1940, and it was to end in similar fashion!

Chou En-lai and his deputy, Mao Zhe-dung, having just driven Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops out of the mainland and onto the tiny island of Taiwan, were concerned that US troops would not stop at the Yalu. Both knew that a land invasion of China by the US would probably be successful and would mean a return to power of Chiang and an abrupt end to their own political careers and probably their lives as well. They had a lot to lose! In their minds, they had little choice but to challenge MacArthur before he reached the Yalu.

In an amazing infiltration operation, thirty-three divisions of CCF (Communist Chinese Forces) infantry, complete with artillery, quietly filtered south and slipped in behind American and ROK units, all without being detected via aerial reconnaissance. All this in spite of the fact that CCF divisions had to cross rivers and snowy hillsides. American units started taking CCF prisoners. This was immediately reported, but, since it didn't fit the "grand plan," the information was disregarded.

On the first of November, CCF units started their offensive. Hoards of Chinese, in human-wave attacks, assaulted astonished American and ROK units who had been told the "police action" was all but over. Close air support, combined with massed artillery, stopped the Chinese momentarily, and permitted many American units to retreat in good order and regroup. However, despite absorbing hideous casualties, the Chinese pressed on with nary a blink.

A stunned and embarrassed MacArthur now confronted the unhappy truth. The entire US/UN front was in bloody, freezing, and dispirited retreat. Somehow, an entire Chinese army group has slipped in behind him without anyone noticing! Many units, including an entire US Marine brigade at the Chosin Reservoir, were cut off. Everyone who could was funneling through Pyongyang and on to the South, along with hoards of refugees. Ever the politician, MacArthur announced that it was "an entirely new war," sheepishly conceded that troops would not be home by Christmas or any time soon, and authorized retreats anywhere they were possible.

The cutoff Marines, commanded by General Chesty Puller, were ordered to fight their way to Hungnam harbor on Korea's east coast for evacuation by sea. Thanks to close air support and aerial resupply, they made it, but in the two weeks it took, frost bight, along with enemy contact, took a frightful toll. It was a heroic accomplishment, however comparisons with Dunkirk were unavoidable.

With North Korea rescued from Americans, CCF commanders saw no need to go further south, but the war would go on for nearly three more years before ending in stalemate, and an uneasy "peace," with which we still live today. MacArthur was relieved of command, never to return to military service or politics again. Truman was a one-term president.

Fresh from WWII, Americans believed that wars do and should end in unconditional surrender. Actually, that is almost never the case. The ending of most wars is far from neat and tidy. Most wars fizzle out inconclusively, ending in muddled and unworkable "treaties" or "understandings" where the parties simply agree to stop fighting. Fighting usually flares up anew within a few years, only to end once more with a new, and equally unworkable, "treaty."

The Korean War fit the usual orientation, as would the Vietnam War two decades later. Fifty years later, the two Koreas, still divided, still bitter enemies, stare at each other across a manufactured "demilitarized zone," and thousands of American troops, at untold cost, have been stationed in South Korea ever since. They remain there today.

This was the first time since 1814 that America's attempt to invade another country had failed! So embarrassing was America's failure in Korea that it was forty-two years before any kind of memorial was erected, and it was only America's ignominious defeat in Vietnam that made Korea look respectable by comparison.

Lessons:

"Poor communication destroys all good intentions!" When commanders are operating on mistaken beliefs, disaster cannot be far behind. People who are afraid to talk frankly, who regard some subjects as too sensitive to mention, will predictably manufacture misunderstandings that will come back and bite them in the butt!

As Wellington put it, "The business of war is to find out what you don't know." An overdependance on technology to accomplish this is always dangerous and ill-advised. There is much that can't be seen or detected in any other way but personal contact. Imperial Rome discovered many centuries ago that, in order to win wars, a country must be willing to put its young men in the mud. Bad news is as valuable as good news! Unfortunately, bad news is often ignored, because someone may not want to hear it. "Danger signs" are almost always present, if we will only see them and them believe what we are seeing!

Patton once said, "The enemy is only impressed when being shot at!" Spreading forces so thin that fires cannot be massed upon an enemy that suddenly appears will likely produce an unimpressed enemy.

"The same sun that melts wax, hardens clay!" Some men are wax. Some are clay.

/John

25 Nov 01

Latest from South Africa:

"You may have heard this already, but a belief has started among the black population here that having sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure aids, as well as a host of other ills. No one knows where this belief got its start, but it is widely held, even though it is patently illogical. As you doubtless know, aids has reached epidemic status in the entire African Continent, particularly in the poorest of areas (many of which are in South Africa). Our 'government' is still in denial.

This belief has led to a number of horrendous sexual assaults on young girls, even babies, some as young as six months! Babies are typically kidnaped, gang raped, then abandoned. Public outcry has been tremendous, but the kidnappings continue, some even on a commercial basis!"

As Thomas Jefferson pointed out, the success of any democracy is based on the assumption of a moral population. Among amoral populations, any "democratic" system will proceed, via a short route, to chaos!

/John