From: seo@capone.ccsm.uiuc.edu (Jong-Wook Seo)
Subject: Re: questions of the Korean War
Organization: Microelectronics Lab - Univ. of Illinios
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 01:47:40 GMT

In article  <1ehlrfINNbm@gaia.ucs.orst.edu>, wenz@ucs.orst.edu (Wen 
Zongyao) writes :

Actually, lots of stories about the Korean war haven't been told or 
unknown yet in Korea.
Maybe, we need to wait till the reunification of Korea to talk about much 
of them.
Anyway, let me tell you something I have learned.

>Dear netters,

>I recently saw a program of the Korean War.
>I wonder why the U.S. didn't get a victory
>in that war.
I think US didn't want to, or at least wasn't prepared to get a complete 
victory in that war.
I think US didn't know what kind of feeling the new Chinese communist 
regime had against the advancing American army.
They didn't feel safe about the presence of the US military force along 
their border since they had the bad memory of American involvement after 
the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
General McArthur openly spoke words threatening the newborn Chinese 
communist regime.
If they really wanted to win the Korean war, they probably made the 
Chinese regime to convince their security.

>  The U.S. troops are much stronger
>than North Korean and Chinese troops by the
>mean of equipments.  The same force with the 
>same general, General McArthur, defeated Japanese
>troops in the Pacific, but were frustrated by
>North Korean and China.
However, the American army in Korean didn't have any motivation to fight.
They just believed that they could finish the war by the Christmas.
But, once the winter came, every thing went wrong.
They also overestimated their military capability.
They overlooked the fact that the equipment is not the only one they need 
to win a war especially in a cold foreign country.

>Which side did most Korean people support?
This is one of the hardest thing to say for a Korean (at least yet).
However, let me tell you something I think to be objective.
According to a CIA report, over 50% of the military personnel recruited by 
the occupying North Korean army in Seoul volunteered.
In addition, it is not only due to the superior military equipment of 
North Korean army which brought such a fast collapse of the South Korean 
army.
I am not saying that the people in Korea preferred the communist 
government, but they were sick of the situations in the South.
Terrorism by the right wing and pro-Japanese mobsters made the people to 
turn around.
Even the police, which re-employed most of the pro-Japanese collaborators, 
backed them.
(The police even arrested many people who had sacrificed their lives 
for the independence movement.
Of course, the police claimed them to be communists.)
The US military government also supported them since they misunderstood 
many of the active Korean political organizations to be led by communists. 

>Was the conflict between General McArthur and
>President Truman(spelling ?) a big cause of
>the non-victory ending?
I don't think so.
The situation of the war was already getting worse at that point.

>Did the U.S. force fight as hard as they did
>in the WWII?
It is not easy for me to compare them directly.
However, I can imagine that they were less interested in what they were 
doing since it was just after a big war.
Furthermore, the American public didn't pay any attention to the war.

>Did North Korean and Chinese forces push the 
>U.S. force back by vast number of troops?
Although, the Chinese army was badly equipped, they overwhelmed the US 
army because they outnumbered the US side, and they were more familiar 
with the environment including the weather.
Do you know how cold it is in Korea in winter?
Above 36 degrees altitude, even big rivers are frozen.
Trucks can cross them without any bridge.

>Should or shouldn't the U.S. enter the war if the UN
>didn't make a decision to help South Korean?
It was not the UN which decided to enter the war, but the US like last 
year for the Gulf War.

>Should or shouldn't China enter the war?
It depends on the angle of looking.
However, I think they got much less than they paid from the involvement of 
the Korean War.
But, as I mentioned before, they feared the advancing American army, and 
they also needed Soviet for economic support, I guess.

>What was the reason of North Korean's invasion at
>the beginning of the war?  
If you look back the political situation in the South Korea at that time, 
you may get an idea why they convinced their victory.
Actually, it was almost proved.
Korea in 50s was much different from that of today.
They also misjudged the international politics at least that of America.
They underestimated the American domination of international politics in 
the western block after WWII.

>The program I saw called the Korean War a forgotten
>war.  What do you think is the biggest reason
>that most Americans don't talk about this war so much?
I think it is mainly because the war was in between two big wars, WWII and 
Vietnam war.
Another thing is that most of the Korean war veterans are WWII veterans.
So, who cares.

>Thank you for your attention.

>Wen Zongyao


Jong-Wook Seo
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean