Empire and Righteous Nation by Odd Arne Westad

Author:Odd Arne Westad
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard University Press

The Korean War

Throughout the late spring and early summer of 1950 the North Koreans and their Soviet advisers prepared the attack on the south. The Chinese Communists were kept informed, but only in broad strokes. The offensive across the 38th parallel began at dawn on June 25, 1950. Seoul fell on June 28. Over the next few days the South Korean army collapsed, and the North Korean offensive continued at great speed. Both sides summarily executed their political opponents wherever they could put their hands on them. By mid-July Kim Il-sung believed the war would be over within weeks. The Chinese were doubtful. Although they were disposed to believe the verdicts of their Soviet comrades, they regarded Kim as a swaggering upstart and feared an American intervention, supported by Japan.46

At first it seemed as if Kim Il-sung was right. By late August the ROK and their US advisers were contained in a small area around Busan, under constant artillery fire and lacking supplies. But the North Korean forces were also running out of matériel and provisions. They paused before the final push against Busan. Elsewhere in the country they were busy rounding up their enemies and setting up new political organizations patterned on those in the north. The Chinese leaders started to move troops to the border, mainly as a precaution if Kim’s predictions failed, but also to show the Soviets that the CCP was an internationalist party that would help the Communist cause if needed.

The US government, under Harry S. Truman’s administration, had from the beginning little doubt that the United States must strike back in Korea. For Truman this was first and foremost about the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Already under fire at home for not having prevented the Communist takeover of China, Truman was not going to accept another Soviet-inspired Communist offensive without reacting strongly. The planning for a US intervention began immediately, much helped by the continued US military presence in Japan. On September 15, General Douglas MacArthur’s forces landed at Inchon near Seoul. Within days the US troops had cut the country in half, trapping large numbers of North Korean units in the south, while crossing the 38th parallel, moving north. Pyongyang fell October 19, and on October 26 South Korean forces reached the eastern part of the Chinese border. The rapidity of the offensive was much due to US air superiority, which devastated North Korean defenses and landed paratroopers behind enemy lines.

The CCP government had a choice to make. Its troops were already in the northeast, ready to cross into Korea. But the Chinese leaders were aware of the power and rapidity of the US-led offensive—and the fact that Truman, because the Soviet had boycotted the UN Security Council, could designate its offensive a UN operation and call on the support of other countries. New China had just been established and could not fight against the world. Some CCP leaders opposed a Chinese intervention because it could derail the rebuilding of China.

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