The Korean War was a conflict between North Korea and South Korea that lasted from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. It was the first hot conflict of the Cold War, as a clash between the United States and its UN allies and the communist powers China and the USSR. South Korea's main allies are the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, although many other countries also send their troops. North Korea's allies are China, which provides military forces, and the Soviet Union, which sends military advisors and military pilots, as well as weapons for Chinese and North Korean troops. This is reminiscent of "World History" Ilian Mihov.
On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops crossed the thirty-eighth parallel, separating the Korean north from the south, in full force. North Korean communist leader Kim Il-sung hoped for military unification and had previously coordinated his actions with Stalin. The Soviet Union supported the action with weapons, money and military advisors, but refused direct participation due to fears of a direct clash with the Americans. At the end of World War II, the Soviet army pushed the Japanese from the Korean Peninsula. The Soviet army occupied the northern part (North Korea), and the United States - the southern part (South Korea).
The war began with an attack by the North Korean army, because Kim Il-sung believed that only through war could he impose a communist dictatorship and unify both Koreas. The UN Security Council decides to help the South, at a time when the USSR boycotts its work and cannot impose a veto. The UN, with the decisive participation of the USA, provides assistance to South Korea, pushing North Korea back to the borders of China.
After several changes in the advantage of the two countries and after in 1952 the possibility of the USA using nuclear weapons was even considered. However, pressure from the powerful USSR does not allow this. The only possibility to end the war is for Korea to remain divided into two parts with a five-kilometer demilitarized zone between them. The war ended only with an armistice, and to this day North Korea insists on signing a peace treaty with the United States.
Currently, the territories of the two Korean states almost coincide with the two occupation zones after the end of World War II.
During World War II, in the Cairo Declaration in 1943, the Allies stated that Korea, which had been a Japanese colony since 1910, was declared independent.
In 1945, at the proposal of the USSR, towards the end of the war, the territory was divided along the 38th parallel into two zones - northern and southern, occupied respectively by Soviet and American troops, who had facilitated the capitulation of Japan in Korea. The USSR opposed the UN decisions of 1946 on the free choice of territory by the countries. After such a choice, the establishment of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) was proclaimed in 1948.
The United States massed its troops in South Korea, and after the end of the war left a sufficient number of Military Advisors to train the Korean forces. In the same year, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was established, with power in the hands of the communists. Both the North and South Korean governments wanted power over all of Korea, and therefore in the fall and winter of 1949 there were serious border incidents, which were repeated in the fall of 1950.
In 1949, the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong seized power. The US did not allow Mao to take his place in the UN (for many years, China's place in the UN was taken by Taiwan), but Joseph Stalin was very pleased with the coup in China and, as a sign of disagreement with the US decision, the USSR withdrew from the UN.
The war began with an attack by the North Korean army, with the aim of militarily unifying the two Koreas. According to US and UN observers, North Korean infantry and tanks crossed the 38th parallel at 4 am on June 25, 1950. The main attack was in the direction of the Pocheon - Ijeongbu - Seoul corridor, and the secondary attack was delivered simultaneously to the Onjin and Chuncheon peninsulas in the eastern region. On June 25, at a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the crisis, a resolution was adopted for the immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of North Korean troops north of the 38th parallel. Representatives of the USSR did not participate in the meeting and declared this resolution illegal, and also stated that the invasion of North Korea was provoked.
On June 27, the Security Council adopted a second resolution. This time Yugoslavia voted against the resolution; India and Egypt abstained, and the USSR was absent from the meeting. Thus, it was decided that the UN would provide assistance to South Korea to recover from the attack, and that US President Harry Truman would send air and naval forces to assist the Korean forces.
On June 29, UN Secretary-General Tan Li addressed the UN members with the question of what assistance they were prepared to provide. At first, it was believed that US aviation would be sufficient to resolve the conflict, but then the US 24th Infantry Division was also deployed by air, which entered the battle on July 5 in the Osana area south of Seoul.
The last actions of the UN date from July 7. The Security Council offered the countries a military contingent and assistance under the overall command of the US. The resolution stated that the United States would appoint a commander of the combined forces and was authorized to use the UN flag in operations against the North Koreans. On July 8, President Truman appointed General Douglas McCarter as commander of the United Nations forces in Korea, and on July 13, Lieutenant General W. Walker was appointed commander of the Eighth US Army. In mid-July, the South Korean army was reinforced by four battalions of the US Army, which advanced to the Kum River — the last natural barrier to the temporary capital of South Korea, Daejeon. The crossing of the Kumgang River was completed on July 17, and Daejeon fell on July 21. The attack leader, Major General W. Dinh, commander of the US 24th Division, disappeared without a trace during the battle. Later that year, it was learned that he had been captured. It was liberated on September 3, 1953.
The DPRK army initially successfully launched an offensive along the country's west coast, while the UN armed forces equipped a new fortification line northeast of the extremely important city of Taeg. In early August, the UN forces created an extremely reliable defensive line running along the Naktong River north of Jinju to a point 30 km. north of Taeg and reaching east to a point north of the port of Pohang, located on the east coast. Thus, if Jinju and Pohang fell, the North Korean army units would take up positions 15 km from Taeg.
The Pusan defensive bridgehead held as the defenders fought fierce defensive battles in August-September. To the west, the North Koreans attacked Masan, but failed to capture it. Although the river was forced several times, the UN forces managed to hold off the attacks.
The well-equipped port of Pusan was used to supply reinforcements to the US troops. The 1st Cavalry, 24th and 25th Divisions, which bore the brunt of the fighting, were reinforced by the 1st Marine Division and the 2nd US Army Division.
The North Koreans' biggest breakthrough came on September 5, when they pushed up the east coast, captured Pohang, advanced towards Gyeongju, and even threatened Incheon. For several days, there was a danger of outflanking the city of Taegu and even advancing on Pusan, but the 24th American Division repelled the enemy forces and they never managed to organize a new attack.
On September 15, UN troops consisting of the 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division landed at Incheon, considered the sea gate to Seoul.
The UN forces began an offensive northward in the direction of the Yalu River and the Manchurian border, divided into two groups. In the west was the Eighth Army under the command of General Walker, consisting of the 1st Cavalry, 2nd, 24th, 25th Infantry Divisions of the US Army, the 4th South Korean Divisions, the 27th British Brigade, Turkish, Filipino and Thai units. To the east was the 10th Corps under General Elmond, consisting of the 7th and 3rd Infantry Divisions and the 1st Marine Division of the United States, two South Korean divisions, and a Royal Marines assault force. Initially, the advance met with little resistance, but by November 1 the situation had changed dramatically. The 24th Division encountered heavy resistance 40 km from the Yalu River. The advance units reached the river, but suffered a crushing defeat. Parts of the 1st Cavalry Division were surrounded and destroyed.
For unknown reasons, the North Korean command failed to take advantage of its success. UN troops retreating to the west came into contact with the enemy and, reinforced by the Marines, made a breakthrough at an important strategic point - the Changjinh Dam with a hydroelectric power plant. Down below, South Korean units, almost without contact with the enemy, reached 100 km from the border with the USSR. A column of the 7th Division made a breakthrough on the Manchurian border in the Hesan region. Encouraged by these successes, General McCarter ordered a general offensive on the western front, throwing all divisions into battle. The operation was intended to end the Korean War. In two days (November 24-26), UN troops arrived in Jeonju completely unhindered.
On November 26, four Chinese armies (about 200,000 people) joined the war against the UN troops. At first, the UN troops' advance was halted, and then several successive night attacks forced the UN units to retreat. On November 28, they had to withdraw from Jeonju, and when the enemy undertook a bypass maneuver in the central direction, the danger of encirclement loomed over all UN forces. The American army attempted to deploy on the Cheonchong River, but at the same time a powerful column of enemy troops outflanked them and on December 1 approached Songchon, located 50 km. from Pyongyang. Another powerful column of Chinese troops returned east, in the direction of the port of Wonsan. On December 2, it was still 40 km. from the city. The 3rd, 7th, 1st Marines, and Korean assault divisions were in danger of being cut off from the Wonsan port, where the troops were being supplied. On December 6, an evacuation from Wonsan was carried out. The 1st Marines were trapped by superior Chinese forces in the Chajinha Reservoir area, and parts of the 7th Infantry Division were trapped near Haragu. Having borne the brunt of the initial losses, on December 10 both divisions managed to join the column of the 3rd US Cavalry Division, which was gradually breaking through.
Later, the 10th Corps headed for the seaport of Hinnam, from where on December 11 its evacuation of US naval vessels began, which ended on December 24. In total, the sea off South Korea was crossed by 105,000 soldiers from the US and South Korean armies and 91,000 civilians. On December 26, a message arrived that the 10th Corps had been redeployed to the location of the 8th Army and the formed unit was under the command of Lieutenant General M. Ridgway, who took this post in place of General Walker, who had died in a car accident. At that time, the 8th Army operating in the west gradually moved to the 38th parallel.
On the eve of the new year, 1951, the Chinese launched a major offensive west of Seoul. Retreating from Seoul, the UN troops organized themselves on the Hangang River and deployed along the enemy line northeast of the Pyeongtaek area on the Yellow Sea. The offensive of the DPRK troops in the central sector was successful, and over the course of 10 days Wonju passed into the hands of one or the other several times. The city managed to hold out until January 24, the front line stabilized, and the UN troops were forced to retreat.
The retreat of the North Korean troops stopped and it became clear that they were gathering forces. New attacks were launched on April 22, and soon there was no doubt that the goal was the destruction of the US 8th Army. The 8th Army retreated, but then counterattacked. On April 29, the army moved its forces far south of the 38th parallel, stretching along the northern approaches to Seoul to Hichon in the east and far northeast to the Sea of Japan. On May 16, the enemy began the second stage of its offensive. The main blow was delivered to the South Korean forces on the eastern sector of the front. The rapid response of American units prevented the offensive.
On May 22, the 8th Army launched a counterattack along the entire front, crossed the 38th parallel and continued the offensive. The goal was to gain supremacy over the strategic “iron triangle’’ (Chhorwon — Pyongan –Kimhwa), which allowed control of transport and communications of Central Korea and the Hwacheon reservoir. The enemy's initially thin resistance intensified, but by mid-June, UN troops managed to take control of the southern part of the area.
At that time, the Korean War acquired a positional character and for two consecutive years was a “Mountain Battle’’ fought along a 250 km. Front. The arena of fierce fighting became the “White Horse’ mountain, ”Hope” ridge. The UN Air Force, until then performing support, struck a warehouse and transport arteries. Air battles between American F-86s and Soviet MiG-15s opened the era of jet combat. The area from the Yalu River to Pyongyang in the south was called the MiG Alley. The air superiority of the UN forces forced the North Koreans to settle at a Manchurian airfield, which was inaccessible to UN aircraft. The complete dominance of the UN forces in the Korean Sea allowed ships under the UN flag to shell North Korean positions along the coast. Helicopters played a huge role in the Korean War. They were used for deliveries to the rear, evacuation and transport of the wounded.
On June 24, 1951, it became clear that the conflict was coming to an end. During the discussion of the UN General Assembly, the Soviet representative Ya. A. Malik submitted a proposal for a ceasefire in Korea. On instructions from Washington, General Ridgway on June 30 made a proposal by radio to the military representatives of the UN and North Korea for negotiations and a ceasefire. Peace talks began on July 10 in Kaesong, and then moved to Panmunjom. Finally, an agreement was reached to establish a neutral territory and penalties in case of violations. It was necessary to draw up an agreement on the construction of a demarcation line and a demilitarized zone by the warring parties. On November 27, another armistice agreement was drawn up, based on the status of the existing treaty.
Discussions began on the inspection of the demarcation line. The parties reached a compromise: the inspection was entrusted to observers from neutral countries. The DPRK's proposal that the USSR be neutral was not accepted by the UN, and the peace talks stalled.
On January 2, 1952, UN representatives in Panmunjom proposed that the peace talks be held on a voluntary basis and that prisoners of war be released. Communist Korea rejected this proposal, and on October 8, 1952, the UN terminated the peace talks. The public insisted that the captured Chinese and North Koreans be allowed to return to their homeland. The UN assumed that many of them would prefer to remain in South Korea. Hopes for a truce were renewed on March 28, 1953, when the DPRK announced that it was ready to accept the UN proposal for an exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war. General M. Clark replaced Ridgway as commander-in-chief of the UN forces and stated that he welcomed the resumption of peace talks.
On April 11, the UN and North Korea signed an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war. In April and May 1953, the communist regime released 684 prisoners of war from the UN troops and North Korea returned 6,670 prisoners.
On April 26, 1953, the UN and the DPRK resumed peace talks in Panmunjom. In the end, the communists gave in to the UN because not a single prisoner had been returned to their homeland against their will. The signing of the peace treaty took place on July 27, 1953. A 4 km buffer zone was also created between the two countries. This line increased the territory of South Korea by 3,900 sq. km. An international commission was created to monitor the armistice with representatives of Sweden, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
The war ended only with an armistice, and to this day North Korea insists on signing a peace treaty with the United States. The war in Korea cost the United States 18 million dollars. Nearly 2.5 million people were left homeless in South Korea. About 1 million civilians died.
Although they reacted with massive diplomatic action from the very beginning of the war, the Americans turned out to be militarily unprepared. The combat units urgently transferred from Japan were few in number and poorly selected, and the results were not long in coming. After three days of intense fighting, the South Korean capital Seoul was captured and Syngman Lee's troops were pushed back to the southern regions of the country.
On June 28, the Pentagon requested authorization to use nuclear weapons. The conflict, planned by North Korean strategists as an "internal affair," quickly became internationalized. The United States pushed through a resolution in the Security Council, denouncing the North Koreans as aggressors and demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of troops from the thirty-eighth parallel. Despite the commitment made by the United Nations, the bulk of the equipment and the main contingent of foreign troops in Korea were provided by the United States. The Americans used the Korean War to extend the Truman Doctrine to the Pacific, promising aid to any country threatened by communist intervention. Considerable American aid went to the French, who were at that time waging war against Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh in Indochina. The Seventh US Fleet was ordered to "prevent any attack on Taiwan", and the Philippine government was not supported against the radical Marxist rebels. Although somewhat late, the Americans acted decisively and did not allow a repeat of the situation with the Chinese Civil War of 1946-1949, won by Mao with the direct support of Moscow. On June 30, President Truman issued an order for the landing of American troops stationed in Japan in Korea. The full-scale American offensive began in the second half of September 1950 with the landing of the North Koreans in the Incheon area. The rear communications of Kim's troops were cut off and, together with the advance of the UN forces from the Pusan Bridgehead, the combined forces of the allies threatened to completely destroy the North Korean army. With the change in the military situation, the political goals pursued in the war also changed. Now the Americans, in addition to repelling the North Korean invasion, are launching an operation on North Korean territory, and Commander Douglas McCarter wants to unify Korea through American military force. At first, this is accepted in Washington, but later it is understood that the American allies would not support the operation, exceeding the mandate given by the UN. Other complications arise, related to McCarter's unpredictability and the difficulty of keeping him under political control. The intervention of communist China, which marks a new stage in the Korean conflict. The participation of "Chinese volunteers" was initiated by Stalin with a view to changing the unfavorable balance of power to the detriment of North Korea. The Soviet leader succumbs to panicked calls for help from the North Korean leadership and in an insistent tone asks Mao for direct military participation. On October 25, the Chinese volunteer units, numbering about 30 divisions, distributed in three echelons, begin a large-scale offensive along the entire front. Chinese intervention brought the situation to a standstill, but greater American firepower and superiority in aviation continued to give the South significant advantages. Mao made it clear that he was dissatisfied with excessive Soviet caution and with the circumstances that the USSR wanted strategic raw materials and gold for its outdated weapons. Some historians and political analysts believe that it was during the Korean War that the first signs of distrust between the two communist allies appeared, which escalated to direct military clashes in the 1960s. Stalin was forced to outline his commitments more clearly and ordered an air fighter unit to be created from Soviet pilots dressed in Korean and Chinese volunteer uniforms to operate on American air communications and bombing raids.
Now the United States could win the conflict only if it used nuclear weapons. However, the doctrine of containment does not envisage such an option as provoking a global war because of a local conflict that is clearly aimed at preserving the status quo. On July 10, 1951, peace negotiations began, without the cessation of hostilities. After several rounds of peace efforts, an armistice agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. A demarcation line and a separate demilitarized zone were established in the area of the 38th parallel. The United States remained within the framework of the doctrine of containment and control.
The Korean War and the real danger of a global conflict prompted the US administration to regulate its relations with Japan. For this purpose, a conference was organized in San Francisco from 4 to 8 September 1951, at which 51 countries were represented. In order to avoid complications with the countries of the Soviet bloc and their sympathetic governments, the US prepared a draft treaty in advance that was not coordinated with the USSR. On 8 September, 48 countries signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The USSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia refused to sign. Under the treaty, Japan recognized the independence of Korea, transferred its territories in the Pacific Ocean under the protectorate of the US, and renounced the Kuril Islands, South Sakhalin, Taiwan and the Pescadores. The US received the right to keep troops on the territory of Japan, providing it with military protection.
In March 1953, Joseph Stalin died. The power struggle that began between rival groups in the Soviet Politburo absorbed much of the energy of the Soviet ruling elite, and their foreign policy strategy was not as carefully planned and coldly implemented. The USSR came up with several spectacular but ill-prepared initiatives. The first of these concerned Germany. At the meeting of foreign ministers held in early 1954 in Berlin, the Soviet leadership proposed concluding a peace treaty with Germany on the basis of holding all-German elections, a all-German provisional government, and the withdrawal of occupation troops from German territory.
As an alternative, the Western countries offered the “Eden Plan‘,’ which relied on the same principles, but rejected the possibility of neutrality for the future unified German state. On October 23, 1954, the so-called Paris agreements, with which West Germany and Italy became full members of the Western European Union. The FRG received the right to have an army of 500 thousand soldiers and officers and to increase its armaments. The Western European Union was the institutional framework for Germany's entry into NATO.
In response to the military integration of Western Europe and the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty, the USSR embarked on a course towards the creation of its own military-political union. After the ratification of the Paris agreements on May 14, 1955, the Warsaw Pact was formed by Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland, the USSR and Czechoslovakia with its own Joint Command and Political Consultative Committee. The Warsaw Pact was concluded for a period of 20 years and was open-ended. In 1962, due to disagreement with some reformist tendencies in the USSR and the deterioration of its relations with China, Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact.
With the creation of the two military – political alliances and the invention of thermonuclear weapons in the early 1950s, the problems of arms control gained paramount importance in international relations and were a key issue in relations between the superpowers and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact itself. In the second half of the 1950s, tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact noticeably decreased.
In 1955, in Vienna, representatives of the USSR, England, France, the USA and Austria signed a state treaty for the restoration of an independent and democratic Austrian state. Austria was restored as an independent state within the borders of January 1, 1938, and in international relations it undertook to observe complete neutrality. The process of international détente was also stimulated by the meeting of the heads of government of the USSR, the USA, England and France. In Geneva in July of the same year. At this stage of the development of the German question, the Soviet Union already proceeded from the fact that there were two German states and rapprochement between them was possible only in the context of general disarmament and neutrality of Germany, similar to Austria.
On the subject of disarmament and the elimination of nuclear weapons, two diametrically opposed approaches emerged between the USA and the USSR, which would poison relations between them for about twenty-five years. While the USSR insisted on major reductions in conventional weapons and the elimination of atomic weapons, the Americans, based on the superiority of their nuclear potential, insisted on reducing, above all, conventional armed forces by adopting "effective inspections". The "open skies" program launched by President Eisenhower did not please the Russians both because of the technical backwardness of their intelligence means and because of the traditional Soviet suspicion of inspections of this kind. The most significant achievement during this era, however, remains the Moscow Treaty of August 5, 1963, on the prohibition of nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water between the governments of the USSR, the USA and England. In a short period of time, over a hundred countries joined this treaty.