W.Minh Tuan

Part 1: North Korea attacks.

Korea was invaded by Japan, and in 1945, at the end of World War II, Japan lost the battle, Korea was temporarily divided into North and South Korea, awaiting reunification.

North Korea was occupied by the Soviet Union, and was handed over to Kim Il Sung.

South Korea was occupied by the United States and was assigned to the Korean pro-American government.

This is exactly like the two countries East Germany and West Germany after the end of World War II: East Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union, so it was handed over to the socialist government of Mr. Eric Honecker. West Germany was occupied by the United States and assigned to the Germany pro-American liberal-democratic government.

But if Mr. Honecker of East Germany did not seek to unify Germany by force, Kim Il Sung  wanted his groly to come faster, so he wanted to take over the South by force for quickly, because nobody know when the unification will be implemented by peaceful way.

Therefore, in early 1950, Mr. Kim Il Sung, flew to Moscow-Soviet Union, and to Beijing-China, to consult on the military reunification of Korea.

At that time, all weapons and ammunition of the North Korean army were helped by the Soviet Union. In addition, the North Korean army has its own traditional Taekwondo martial art, which is also quite powerful, not inferior to judo, Japanese karate, British boxing, and Chinese Shaolin.

On October 1, 1949, communist China took over the government and drove the government of Mr. Chiang Kai-shek to the island of Taiwan. And since then, communist China has also supported Kim Il Sung in terms of military, weapons, and ammunition. China’s weapons and ammunition were mainly American weapons that helped Chiang Kai-shek, now Chiang has fled to Taiwan, so many of those weapons were left in the hands of Mao Zedong. (In Vietnam, when fighting the French and fighting at Dien Bien Phu, also received help from China with these abandoned American weapons).

That is, the North Korean army is supported by two big countries, the Soviet Union and China, so it is quite large, compared to the South Korean army supported by the US.

At that time, Mr. Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, thought that the US would not get deeply involved in North Korea, because Mr. Stalin thought that North Korea was not of great strategic significance to US interests, so the Soviet Union was not too worried for America involvement, and then perhaps Soviet Union will not dealing with America. Second, if the Soviet Union succeeds in supporting North Korea, then Soviet influence in Asia will grow beyond that of the United States.

Therefore, Mr. Stalin supported Kim Il Sung’s proposal, but on the condition that China also support North Korea militarily when necessary.

Mr. Kim flew to Beijing to consult Mao Zedong. China at that time had just won the government after the difficult Long March, everything was lacking. So at first, Mr. Mao was also afraid if the US would intervene.

But then, Mao supported Kim, for two reasons: first, if China supported North Korea, the Soviet Union would support China.

At that time, China desperately needed economic and military aid from the Soviet Union. Second, Mao also wanted to be great, victory in Korea would help strengthen Mao’s image in China, becoming the greatest leader of all time.

So when Kim returned to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, both the Soviet Union and China sent military personnel with extensive combat experience to North Korea to help train the North Korean army, and at the same time sent more weapons and ammunition to Mr. Kim.

Kim Il Sung immediately had his army secretly plan an all-out offensive across the 38th parallel to annex South Korea, in a strategy intended to take only a few months to complete.

Dawn of June 25, 1950, was set up by Kim’s army as the opening day of the surprise attack across the 38th parallel.

At that time, the situation in South Korea was very bad, tragic.

The state of South Korea is a free, multi-party state, so the parties only care about fighting each other for power. In a war to defend the homeland, there should be a strong and unified State, free from internal factional fighting. In such a war situation, a dictatorial one-party state would be more effective than a free multi-party state.

As a result, North Korea concentrated on building an army of more than 200,000 men, with 210 fighters, 280 tanks, helped by the Soviet Union and China. Meanwhile, South Korea only cares about partisan struggles, doesn’t worry about building an army, so it only has an army of more than 98,000 people, poorly trained, without both tanks and anti-tank guns, and no cannons, only 22 training and communication aircrafts, not fighter aircraft.

And out of these 98,000 men of South Korea, at the beginning of the war, only 22,000 were engaged in combat, the rest were deserters, or were on leave, traveling, holiday,,,.

And this situation is exacerbated even more, because no one in South Korea is paying attention to watch out for movements from North Korea.

Even the US CIA branch in South Korea, although noticing the unusual situation of troop movements from the North, only subjectively considered that these were just “defensive actions” of North Korea.

In the early morning of June 25, 1950, the North Korean army of about 100,000 troops simultaneously attacked the entire border along the 38th parallel. The South Korean army was completely taken by surprise, resisted weakly, and fled in chaos.

The US military had a 24th division stationed in South Korea to support the South Korean army, but was also defeated because of being caught by surprise and was not prepared for war.

Two days later, on June 27, the South Korean government fled the capital Seoul, which is located only about 50 kilometers from the border. On August 28, the South Korean army fled to the south, and mined, destroyed the bridge across the Han River, to block the North Korean advance, when 4000 people were running across the bridge.

What’s more, during the 3-year Korean War of 1950-1953, both South and North Korea carried out brutal massacres, killing tens of thousands of Koreans who were believed to be followers of opposite side.

During the Vietnam war, there were also killings by one side of the other, and many people were killed unjustly, but there were no large massacres of thousands, tens of thousands of people were killed to avenge each other like in the two regions South-North Korea.

On the very first day of the attack on June 25, 1950, the United Nations held a meetingh, voted to condemn North Korea’s offensive actions, and commissioned the armies of the Allies to assist South Korea.

US President Truman at that time thought of the previous war against Hitler. When Hitler began to attack European countries, the US remained silent, neutural, and did not intervene, causing the second world war to spread. Therefore, this time, Mr. Truman was determined to let the US military intervene in Korea immediately, so as not to let the war spread. The US military is supported by the militaries of other countries that are mandated by the United Nations.

President Truman ordered General Mac Arthur, the commander-in-chief of the US military in the Pacific, based in Tokyo, Japan, to be the commander-in-chief of the Korean War.

While US President Truman and General Mac Arthur were struggling to mobilize troops to send to South Korea, the South Korean army, and the 24th division of the US army already in South Korea suffered heavy losses.

American forces of 24^th division encountered North Korean forces for the first time at the Battle of Onsan.

On July 5, the US task force Smith (led by lieutenant Snith) of the 24th division of 540 men ambushed the North Korean army. Although this task group had prepared the ambush site three days in advance, and the North Koreans were completely taken by surprise, this task group was defeated, lost and scattered.

The reason is that the US military underestimated the force and weapons of the North Korean army. This team doesn’t think the North Koreans have tanks. When North Korean tanks appeared, the US troops discovered that they were not carrying anti-tank weapons. North Korean troops hiding behind tanks attack. American troops used submachine guns and machine guns to shoot at tanks, just like scratching scabies. As a result, 180 American soldiers were killed, more than 200 American soldiers were taken prisoner, and a few escaped.

Then, from July 14 to 21, 1950, the Battle of Taejon took place. The entire 11,000 men of the 24th Division fought against 15,000 North Koreans. It can be said that the number of such numbers is not very different. If with a good commander, these 11,000 American troops can completely defeat the slightly larger number of North Korean troops, almost insignificantly outnumbered.

We know that King Quang Trung of Vietnam commanded 100,000 Vietnamese troops and defeated 200,000 Qing troops in 1789 in just one week.

But during the Korean War, the commander of the US 24th Division, General William F.Dean, was extremely incompetent.

After the battle of Smith’s team, the American army knew the North Korean army’s forces, methods, and weapons, and had 10 days to prepare the battlefield. But Major General Dean has no specific plan, just sitting, eating, drinking, talking and waiting passively for the North Koreans.

And the so called talented American general Mac Arthur, who was the commander-in-chief of the US army against North Korea, sat in Tokyo, puffing on a cigarette, to command the battlefield in Korea.

Mr. Mac Arthur did not check the defensive preparations of General Dean, leaving Mr. Dean to take care of himself, and Mr. Dean did not take care of himself at all, just sipping whiskey every day.

As a result of the Battle of Taejon from July 14 to 21, the American army lost 3602 people and was taken prisoner, 2962 people.

General Dean was also taken prisoner by the North Koreans, without them at first noticing. After the North Koreans discovered that among their prisoners had General Dean, they treated him quite well, befitting his position, and returned him fat and healthy at the end of the war.

This was the first time, and also the only time, that the US army was taken prisoner by a general, division commander.

Thus, the twenty-fourth American division was wiped out. The responsibility for the failure rests with two generals: Major General, Division Chief Dean, and General, Commander-in-Chief Mac Arthur.

By September 1950, after defeat of 24^th division, the US army had sent 100,000 troops to Korea, plus 80,000 South Korea, to be strong 180,000 troops, compared to the North Korean army only 100,000.

However, the initial situation was not very good. 180,000 American and South Korean troops fought hard against 100,000 North Koreans, but was not so successful.

And the reason, again, is at the command level of both the US and South Korea.

The commander-in-chief of 180,000 American and South Korean troops directly in Korea was 3-star General Walton Walker, a subordinate to General Mac Arthur, who only sat in Tokyo to command.

Mr. Walton was also a mediocre general.

Commander-in-Chief Mac Arthur is a good general, but he is very subjective, bureaucratic, and has a movie star personality, always has a big pipe in his mouth, likes to pose for journalists to take pictures of him.

He sat in Tokyo to command the war in Korea. So it can be said that he commands on the clouds and on the wind only, with no any real, true information from the battlefields in Korea.

When he needed to make a battle plan, Mr. Mac summoned his generals from Korea to fly to Tokyo, stay at a 5-star hotel, to discuss a plan to fight.

Therefore, Mr. Mac Arthur did not equip the Smith task force with anti-tank guns, and there were no specific instructions for the incompetent general Dean, and for the incompetent general Dean’s superior, Walker. So the entire 24th division was wiped out.

As for the North Korean army, they weren’t a very good army either. They only have the element of surprise, and have tanks, cannons, and planes, while the US and South Korean armies in the beginning did not have those weapons.

Therefore, in the first three months, from June 25 to September 1950, the North Korean army won a great victory, moving south like a storm.

Since September, the US and South Korean troops are nearly twice as large as the North Korean troops, and have been reinforced with heavy weapons, including tanks, aircraft, and cannons, so the war situation has gradually changed.

When the situation of the war changed, the North Korean army did not change the way of fighting, only kept the old way of fighting, that is, they kept rushing to attack, without a plan, a smart way to fight, so they began to fail miserably, and began to flee rapidly northward.

At that time, General Mac Arthur decided to land troops behind the North Korean army, at the port of Incheon, on September 15, in order to form a two-pronged position, the North fought down, the South attacked up to the north to the North Korean army.

To this day, many military experts continue to discuss the significance of this landing. Mr. Mac Arthur said that thanks to this landing, the war situation changed, the North Korean army lost quickly.

But there are many criticisms of this invasion, that it is only meant to reinforce Mac Arthur’s adventurous personality and movie actor. Because after venturing into Incheon, the amphibious troops stationed at Incheon, and advanced very slowly to the South, lasting more than 10 days to advance, so it did not help the army that was advancing from the South. That is, there is no way to create two pliers, only 1 pincer.

But this successful landing made a very strong psychological impact on the North Korean army, which Mr. Mac Arthur was right. The North Korean army was really panicking when they learned that the port of Incheon behind them was occupied by American forces, which could cut off their way of retreat.

On October 7, 1950, American and South Korean troops began crossing the 38th parallel into North Korea.

At this time, China warned that if the US crossed the 38th parallel, China would intervene in Korea to protect North Korea.

American General Mac Arthur made a very subjective assessment, that if Chinese troops entered North Korea, they could only bring in about 60,000 troops at best. These troops could not fight with 180,000 American and South Korean troops, plus some Australian, British, French,,,, of United Nations troops.

After that, Mr. Mac Arthur also added with a very military savvy, that if the Chinese troops were larger than that number, on the march in to Korea land, they would be prey for the most powerful bomber force in the world of the United States, stationed on the carriers of the 7th Fleet, off the Pacific Ocean.

Then Mr. Mac Arthur also had a very heroic action, a straw hero, was to climb on his own plane, to fly to scout. From the plane, the general directly looked down at the ground, and did not detect any moving troops. He landed, and was very proud, saying, “There, I have no bureaucracy at all, I, the general, the commander-in-chief, have directly scouted, seen with my own eyes, nothing at all. I don’t see any sign of Chinese troops entering North Korea.”

Then Mr. Mac Arthur flew back to Tokyo to drink sake, eat ramen, chat, smoke a pipe, pose for journalists to take pictures.

On October 19, 1950, 600,000 Chinese troops, ten times more than General Mac Arthur’s prediction, began to cross silently the Yalu River to enter North Korea. When entering North Korea, the Chinese army only marched at night, with strict rules of secrecy, so Mr. Mac Arthur could not find out.

Part 2: China attack.

Comrade Mac Arthur could not have known that the Chinese army entered North Korea with a very secret and very rudimentary way of marching, like moving troops thousands of years ago, that is on foot, carrying weapons, food on the shoulder, went at night away, rested at day. There are no troop transport trucks. 7pm start marching, 3am stop, keep troops stationary, move minimally, don’t cook steamed rice, all food is pre-cooked, when was in China, already-cooked-food is kept for week, such as rice balls, dried food, dried vegetables, meat, dried fish, dried cakes, dried fruits,,,.

If it was necessary to move during the day, when there was an American plane, the whole army stopped immediately and lay down, not moving, camouflage leaves covered, so American spy planes, and General Mac Arthur flying in the sky a few hundred meters above the ground could not  detect.

The US military, and the US intelligence agency CIA did not know how to send reconnaissance groups on the ground to cross streams and forests to detect Chinese troops, but mainly relied on spy planes flying high in the sky. American scouts have begun to be lazy to do field reconnaissance by foot, but have been infected with scouting by plane, car, leisurely, not hard, not dangerous, like general Mac Arthur .

This way of reconnaissance, and this way of fighting of coxcombs, and this coxcombs fighting the Americans later continued to develop on the battlefield of Vietnam, by helicopters.

On the evening of October 19, 1950, when it started to get cold, 4 Chinese infantry corps and 3 more artillery divisions quietly crossed the Yalu River River into North Korea. The cannons were removed and carried on the shoulders, so there were absolutely no trucks towing guns on the road, so American planes could not detect them.

On October 25, after a week of quietly entering North Korea, the Chinese began to clash with the United States and the United Nations forces. At that time, China had about 200,000 troops into North Korea, and the United States and the United Nations Union troops also had about 200,000 troops. But the Chinese side has an element of surprise, the US and UN troops were completely taken by surprise. The US and United Nations troops felt that the Chinese troops seemed to fall from the sky, they were extremely panicked, and responded very passively.

General Mac Arthur was still sitting in Tokyo puffing on a cigarette to command.

After only about 10 days, the US and UN forces were pushed back more than 50 km to the south.

The Chinese continued to take advantage of the advantage of surprise attacks like storms on all fronts, and with reinforcements continued to advance into North Korea.

By November 1950, the number of Chinese troops entering North Korea amounted to about 400,000, while that of the US, 8th Army, and UN troops numbered about 280,000.

But suddenly the Chinese retreated in all directions, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared.

General Mac Arthur was so subjective that the Chinese army had run out of breath, so he immediately smoked a cigarette in Tokyo while organizing a counter-attack campaign called: “The Home-by-Chrismas Offensive–” The counterattack will quickly to complete, and army can go home for Christmas.

The US and UN troops were greatly encouraged by this Christmas go home counterattack, so the fighting spirit was extremely sluggish, there were many soldiers who threw away their heavy weapons, carrying only light weapons, and when marching, they also smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol with all their joys, and looked down on the Chinese army like garbage.

Then suddenly Chinese troops appeared again quickly from all directions as if falling from the sky, and Mac Arthur’s Christmas go home campaign failed miserably, all US and UN troops fled in chaos.

Because they were passive and did not prepare for the battlefield, the US and UN troops had only one way to fight and withdraw to preserve their forces. Sometimes the retreat turned into a panic, leaving all weapons and ammunition in the hands of the Chinese. During this scattered flight, the commander of the US 8th Army was killed in a traffic accident. The jeep carrying him fled panicked and crashed into a car pulling artillery from the opposite direction, killing him immediately.

In this fight and escape, sometimes the American army also tried to bravely intercept the Chinese, but lost miserably because of the very clever, very new, never seen before way of the Chinese.

The American and Western media often say that China and Vietnam have human sea tactics.

No way.

The human sea strategy is just the imagination of journalists, filmmakers, and stupid commanders who want to justify their failure.

Only an ignorant child would think of a human sea strategy, the whole forest of people rushed forward to attack stupidly, there was no method of fighting at all.

On the other hand, the Chinese army has 400,000 men, the US army and the United Nations have 300,000 men, the difference is not much, so where can you go with the sea of ​​people to attack.

When attacking, the Chinese army usually divides into several small groups, each group about 200 people, attacks from different points, supports each other, divides the enemy, has a front attack group, has a left flank attack group, then on the right flank, then there is a group to block the enemy’s retreat, then there is a group to block the enemy’s reinforcements, there is a second group to support the previous group, if the former group has difficulties.

So the Chinese army is always proactive, coordinating with each other very smoothly, like an orchestra with a good conductor, and very skilled musicians.

Chinese soldiers were well trained in these tactics of dividing, encircling, flanking, and rearing. When the attack was difficult at this point, they immediately changed their attack direction to another, so the US and UN troops did not know which direction was the main direction, always reacting passively.

The US X corp consisted of about 30,000 and the 1st corps of South Korea also included the same amount of soldiers tried to organize an interception of the Chinese troops at the Battle of Choshin Lake, but were defeated miserably after 17 days of fighting, more than 15,000 casualties, and had to flee.

General Mac Arthur at this time proposed to use atomic bombs to be thrown behind the Chinese troops to save the US and UN troops.

If so, it is likely that the Russian side will also join the war, and the third world war with atomic bombs may happen. The whole world can be destroyed, just because of the subjectivity, and ignorance of General Mac Arthur.

President Truman at this time could not stand the subjective and contemptuous general Mac Arthur any more, so on April 11, 1951, President Truman dismissed Mac Arthur, appointing General Ridway to replace him.

Since General Ridway took over as commander-in-chief of the US army against the Chinese, the war situation changed rapidly, in favor of the US and its UN ally.

First, General Ridway changed the way the army was organized, appointed good commanders, replaced bad commanders at any level of army, met soldiers, talked openly, not bureaucrats like Mr. Mac Arthur.

The army’s sluggish, pessimistic, and depressed fighting spirit was immediately changed to excitement and confidence.

Second, General Ridway organized reconnaissance groups to directly climb passes, wade through streams, and cross forests to get deep behind the Chinese troops and get intelligence on the Chinese, not using aircraft like Mr. Mac Arthur .

Third, General Ridway relied on that real intelligence to organize counterattacks, very methodically, not passively. And American soldiers also learned how to deal with Chinese fighting tactics very quickly. American soldiers also divided into groups, also pushed back, flanked, and especially not to allow the Chinese army to separate the US troops, the armies must be able to communicate with each other, support each other, and prevent the Chinese troops from entering the middle.

Fourth, the US army has God’s help, that is, the Chinese side has begun to reveal their weaknesses, that is, their logistics and supplies can no longer use bare feet and shoulders. They must have cars to carry ammunition, guns, clothes, food supplies for the huge army.

From this point on, America’s bomber advantage began to come into play.

The Chinese could not afford to organize armies of thousands of carts, bicycles  carrying rice and weapons for the battlefield, as the Vietnamese army did at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

So the Chinese began to lose more, and began to retreat.

By the end of May 1953, the Chinese and North Korean troops retreated across the 38th parallel, about 50 km from the capital Soun.

But President Truman and the United Nations did not want to prolong the war any longer, so they ordered General Ridway to stop his troops at the 38th parallel, not to attack North Korea.

Since then, the two Koreas, South and North Korea, were formed as they are today.

If then, President Truman allowed General Ridway to advance into North Korea and attack to the Yalu River, at the border with China, then there would not be two countries North Korea and South Korea as today.

The story of two American generals, Ridway, and Mac Arthur, adds another proof of the world’s famous maxim:

“There are no bad soldiers, only bad commanders.”

The same American soldiers, under the command of General Ridway, they won a landslide victory. But those same American soldiers, under the command of General McArthur, they lost in shame.

On the Chinese side, they revealed the disadvantage that they were unable to organize a solid and long-term logistical supply route, such as making the Ho Chi Minh trail like that of Vietnam, so they lacked serious supplies.

At the end of the war, their army deep inside Korea did not have enough winter clothing, food, ammunition, and weapons.

In addition, they could not organize the way of fighting “clinging to the enemy’s belt to fight” like Vietnam’s, so they were destroyed by strong American fire. During the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese communist army was also far behind the American army in firepower, artillery, and aircraft. But the Vietnamese army practiced a brave and smart way of fighting by getting close to the US troops, like “clinging to the enemy’s belt to fight”, so the US troops did not dare to bomb and fire artillery at the Vietnamese army, for fear of shooting. mistaken into the US army, so the US army could not take advantages of their firepower during the Vietnam War.

The Chinese couldn’t do that, so they lost and ran to the 38th parallel.

If U.S President Truman had not ordered a halt at the 38th parallel, the Chinese and North Koreans would have to run away to the Yalu River, the Chinese border, and there would be no present day North Korea.

President Truman must also bear some of the responsibility before history for this long-standing strategic mistake. ///