Before we started this project we did not know or think much about the Korean War. After doing our interview and doing research on the Korean War we found it to be a pretty interesting topic.
The Korean War started because of the division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea after World War II (which lasted from about 1939-1945). Efforts to reunify Korea into one country failed. The north still wanted the countries to be non-separate. In 1948 the South proclaimed the republic of Korea and at the same time, the North made the People’s Republic of Korea. Fighting that broke out between the North and the South caught the United States eye. On June 27, 1950 when North Korea’s troops crossed the dividing line and invaded the South, the United States took action. Defending the South America With the United Nations banner shipped their forces into South Korea.
Northern Korea received help from China who wanted the United Nations out of Korea. However, when president Truman heard that South Korea was attacked he started to ready American forces, troops were being deployed to Korea as fast as they could possibly move, but, unfortunately, there was no time to properly deploy them. As soon as they arrived in the country, they were deployed. The troops did little to stop North Korean troops. They would wait for the arrival of North Korean troops. When they would open fire, the Koreans would stop and send infantry to flank the Americans, and they would be forced to withdraw. The Korean’s strategic battle moves were sometimes called trench warfare. There was hope that the Communists could be stopped at the Kum River, but the North Koreans rapidly bypassed the American defenders and forced a withdrawal.
On the morning of September 10, 1950 the United States Head General of UN troops, General MacArthur sought to take the city Inchon, which was about 20 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. MacArthur believed to take the city he would have to use flanking hit and run assaults on the North Korean troops. On September 15, a whopping fleet of about 230 vessels set off from Japan aimed to take Inchon. Then on September 16 the American fleets and forces took over the City with little deaths. On the North Korean side they lost a big number of 1,300 troops on the day.
American Marines moved inland quickly and advanced many miles. North Korean tanks were destroyed time and time again by UN forces.
On November 24-25th Chinese forces finally caught up with UN forces. UN general, William Walker and the 8th division army were moving east through South Korea when Chinese forces suddenly surrounded them. The UN army was expecting a 100,000 Chinese troops, but to the UN’s surprise the Chinese had almost 300,000 troops.
This sent the 8th army and General William Walker on the retreat they looked for and eventually found a path to retreat a month later. This retreat path a long narrow stretch of road was called “The Path”. Months later Head commander MacArthur was fired.
On December 22, 1951 General Walker was killed by a roadside accident. Called to be the new General for The UN was General Matthew Ridgeway. Early on during Ridgeway’s command he stabilized UN troops. He also weakened Chinese troops rapidly, and he became a strong and confident leader and had respect of all the UN forces. And U.S. president Harry Truman.
Soon after General Ridgeway launched Operation Ripper, whose main objective was to move UN troops all the way to the 38th parallel. The operation succeeded under reenergized troops. As a result, the large City of Seoul was once again liberated and the UN forces looked strong.
Questions started to rise, debating if the UN troops should cross the 38th parallel…
This was all starting to lead towards a stalemate because the Chinese had more than a half a million troops behind the 38th parallel. And the U.S. knew they had made long strides to start an agreement with North Korea, but knew there was not much left to fight for. The UN realized that they had nothing left to do in Korea except start peace talks with North Korea and China.
We have learned a lot of info that we never have even thought about after researching the Korean War. I know that I now have respect for what American troops did for us by not allowing a world war III to start.