The American Military - A Narrative History

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  As the Chinese pulled back to the Yalu, MacArthur directed UN forces to regroup and to renew the drive. American troops paused for a Thanksgiving meal on November 24, when the “fanatical hordes” struck them again. As many as half a million Chinese engulfed the ROKA, the Eighth Army, and X Corps. Outclassing the American F-80 Shooting Stars, Soviet MiG-15 jet fighters also appeared in the skies over Korea. “We face an entirely new war,” MacArthur reported to Washington D.C.

  Most of MacArthur's command retreated hundreds of miles during the “Big Bug-out.” After the Battle of the Chongchon River, Walker's withdrawal of the Eighth Army left behind stores of supplies and equipment. The 2nd Division fought a delaying action on the road from Kunuri to Sunchon, where they suffered almost 5,000 casualties while screening the retreat. Already weakened by several days of combat in frigid weather, soldiers staggered southward through a gauntlet of enemy fire that decimated units. Abandoning Pyongyang to the communists, Walker established a new position north of Seoul. Tragically, he perished after his jeep collided with a truck on December 23.

  Elsewhere in Korea, Almond's X Corps narrowly avoided complete disaster. Near the frozen Chosin Reservoir, the 1st Marine Division under General O. P. Smith faced China's IX Army Group. Temperatures dropped below zero in late November, while snow and ice covered the ground. Loading weapons, operating machinery, and digging foxholes became almost impossible. In arguably the worst combat environment ever experienced by the American military, the Marines made a heroic stand in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. Though outnumbered 10 to 1, they demonstrated great individual courage and exceptional small-unit leadership. Marine Colonel Lewis “Chesty” Puller allegedly snarled that “we can shoot in every direction now.” During their breakout from November 27 to December 11, they lost 561 dead, 182 missing, 2,894 wounded, and thousands more injured by frostbite. “Gentlemen, we are not retreating,” Smith remarked at Hagaru, but “merely advancing in another direction.”

  Smith grew insubordinate toward Almond, who foolishly dismissed the capabilities of “a bunch of Chinese laundrymen.” Leading 2,500 men from the Army’s 7th Division, Lieutenant Colonel Don C. Faith directed Task Force Faith on a retrograde maneuver near the Chosin Reservoir. While Faith died after striking a roadblock, no more than 400 of his men recovered from the Chinese thrust. Finally, MacArthur ordered Almond to withdraw to a beachhead around the east coast port of Hungnam, north of Wonsan. On Christmas Eve, the remainder of X Corps boarded ships at Hamnung and sailed for Pusan.

  By the end of the year, all UN forces had backpedaled to the 38th parallel. The communists drove them from Seoul during the New Year's offensive, but the battle lines stabilized near Suwon. General Matthew B. Ridgway assumed command of the Eighth Army and launched a counteroffensive known as Operation Thunderbolt on January 25, 1951. In the Battle of Chipyong-ni, American troops not only defeated Chinese infantry but also revived their own flagging morale. While inflicting high casualties with heavy artillery and air strikes, Operation Killer led to the reoccupation of the Han River. That March, Operation Ripper resulted in the recapture of the South Korean capital. With their long and vulnerable supply lines exposed, the Chinese and the NKPA withdrew northward under a barrage of massive firepower.

  MacArthur wanted to take full advantage of massive firepower, but the Truman administration insisted upon a limited war. To fight communists in Korea, the supreme commander asked for 34 atom bombs and proposed air strikes on Manchuria. In addition, he suggested a blockade of China by the Navy as well as an invasion of the mainland by Taiwan. With the Joint Chiefs promising no more reinforcements, he complained “off the record” to correspondents about the restrictions imposed upon his command. Civilian authorities desired a negotiated settlement based upon the prewar boundaries, but he publicly remarked that “the concept advanced by some that we establish a line across Korea and enter into positional warfare is wholly unrealistic and illusory.” Disregarding the decisions of Washington D.C., he issued an ultimatum for China to make peace or to face an attack. Finally, the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives read aloud a letter from MacArthur, who stated in a defiant tone that “there is no substitute for victory.”

  On April 11, Truman relieved one of the nation's most renowned military figures from command. “I could no longer tolerate his insubordination,” wrote the commander-in-chief. Marshall, now the Secretary of Defense, agreed to the sacking. Bradley also supported it, later testifying that “taking on Red China” would involve the U.S. in “the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong enemy.” Eight days later, MacArthur made his last public appearance before a joint session of Congress. After delivering his farewell address, a long and distinguished career in uniform came to an end.

  Stalemate

  Ridgway, who succeeded MacArthur as the supreme commander of UN forces in Korea, demanded that Americans show “a toughness of soul as well as body.” He wore grenades on his webbing, which became his personal hallmark when appearing before troops and reporters. During the spring of 1951, he turned over command of the Eighth Army to General James A. Van Fleet and departed for his headquarters in Tokyo.

  As Ridgway called upon UN forces to “stand and fight,” the communists focused their attacks on a demarcation north of the 38th parallel known as the “Kansas” line. In the Iron Triangle between Chorwon, Pynongyang, and Kumhwa, the 1st Marine Division bent but did not break. Nearly 25 miles to the west, a British brigade delayed several Chinese crossings in the Battle of the Imjin River that April. Next, Van Fleet regained a few miles of rock during Operation Piledriver. The opposing sides stalemated at the “No Name” line.

  With casualties mounting, the stalemate pressured all sides to arrange peace talks. As Ridgway continued to pound communist forces that June, the Soviet delegate at the United Nations proposed a ceasefire along the 38th parallel. After China and North Korea responded favorably, Secretary of State Acheson endorsed the general concept. Representatives of the belligerents initially met in the communist-held town of Kaesong on July 10. The hosts claimed that their foes came to surrender, even seating Admiral C. Turner Joy of the UN delegation in a lower chair at the table. In one session, negotiators stared silently at each other across the table for over 2 hours. When the North Korean General Nam Il claimed that UN forces had attempted to murder his delegation, the peace talks abruptly ended.

  UN forces renewed their battle for the Hwachon Reservoir, which provided water and electricity to Seoul. Almond's X Corps assailed a group of nearby hills and ridges that Americans dubbed “the Punchbowl.” By the fall, the 2nd Division had finally secured Heartbreak Ridge and Bloody Ridge. With the communists losing ground, they retreated farther north of the 38th parallel. At the neutral site of Panmunjom, peace talks resumed on October 25.

  While the parleys at Panmunjom accomplished nothing for months, the boots on the ground fortified the “main line of resistance” – the MLR. Their forward positions featured barbed wire, minefields, trenches, and bunkers. Fighting involved patrols, raids, and skirmishes, which Ridgway termed “active defense.” Outposts and checkpoints ensured that refugees remained clear of the battlefield, though some prostitutes plied their trade in “rabbit hutches” a few hundred yards away. Less than 20 miles from the front, a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or MASH, provided emergency medical care to the sick and wounded. Although most arrived at units via ambulances or jeeps, the use of helicopters for medical evacuation contributed to lower fatality rates. During the second year of the war, the Marine Corps began using “choppers” to transport infantrymen around the MLR.

  In the skies over Korea, UN forces achieved almost undisputed superiority. F-84 Thunderjets conducted thousands of air strikes. B-29s dropped conventional ordnance to “strangle” the communists, but areas north of the Yalu River remained off limits. Interdiction missions racked up long lists of destroyed targets, including bridges, roads, trucks, trains, rails, dams, and hydroelectric plants. The n
orthwestern corner of the peninsula formed “MiG alley,” where aerial “dogfights” occurred regularly between the Soviet jet fighters and the American aircraft such as the new F-86 Sabre. In fact, the Air Force downed 810 MiGs while losing only 78 Sabres. Among the most famous American “aces,” Captain Joseph C. McConnell counted 16 “kills” in fighter combat. Naval and Marine attack squadrons delivered close air support, but U.S. commanders did not regard the sortie rate as sufficient to break the stalemate on the ground.

  Given the limitations of their operations, U.S. commanders awaited the results of negotiations at Panmunjom. After abandoning their demands for territorial concessions, both sides quarreled about exchanging prisoners of war. The UN delegation insisted upon the return to freedom of all combatants held by the communists. Furthermore, they objected to the forced repatriation of Chinese and NKPA prisoners. Conversely, the communist delegation produced a dubious prisoner list that left unaccounted more than 8,000 Americans. They also claimed that thousands of ROKA soldiers in their custody were slain in air raids or were unavailable. With the impasse over prisoner exchanges, the negotiations stalled.

  Communists began infiltrating UN prison camps, which held some 170,000 Chinese and NKPA combatants. Surrendering to UN forces on the battlefield, subalterns carried orders to organize prison riots and to discipline potential repatriates. While interned on the island of Koje-do, some captives attempted to create a “second front” during 1952. To the delight of propagandists from Peking to Moscow, the casualty lists that emerged from the prison camps became the focus of an international controversy.

  The controversy served to deflect attention from the systematic brutality of communist prison camps. Of the 7,140 American POWs, 2,701 perished in captivity. Though noted for massacring prisoners immediately, the communists interned most captives in Manchuria. Dysentery, pneumonia, starvation, and abuse took a terrible toll, which contributed to what survivors dubbed “give-upitis.” Amid the filth and squalor, a few drowned in latrine pits. Owing to the indoctrination program behind the wire, “brain-washing” techniques became the subject of American novels such as The Manchurian Candidate (1959).

  Weary from a war that nobody seemed able to win, Americans paid for the stalemate in blood and treasure. The size of the armed forces doubled prewar levels, reaching 3.6 million personnel in 1952. Although the Selective Service system and the reserve call-ups addressed most of the manpower needs, the Truman administration worked with governors to activate more than 1,000 National Guard units during the war. Citizen soldiers reinforced defenses in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, while the 40th and 45th Divisions entered combat against the Chinese and the NKPA. Overall, the American military maintained eight fighting divisions in Korea – one Marine and seven Army. Outfits generally observed the “one winter rule,” that is, no man was expected to endure more than a season of cold at the front. To dampen complaints about deployment, the Pentagon instituted an individual rotation policy with long-term implications. Rather than remaining on active duty for the duration, American troops earned points to rotate out of service in Korea.

  Figure 13.3 Fighting with the 2nd Infantry Division north of the Chongchon River, November 20, 1950. Integration of Armed Forces in Korea, U.S. Army, http://www.army.mil/media/32791/

  Under the banner of the United Nations, American troops persevered in a “forgotten” war. Whenever the Chinese and NKPA attacked the forward positions, UN forces conducted delaying actions. Once they paused, a counterattack began. The counterattacks rarely involved tanks, because the slopes and knots of the rugged terrain made them ineffective. Instead, infantrymen maintained constant contact with the enemy and directed massive firepower against them. They fought night and day in places named Old Baldy, White Horse, Triangle Hill, Hill Eerie, Outpost Harry, and the Hook. They battled with bayonets, knives, grenades, and rifles – even their bare hands. Their only relief from the frigid winters and sweltering summers was a cold shower in the rear or “R&R” in Japan. Despite occasional breaches, neither side made significant advances beyond the MLR in Korea.

  As a presidential candidate during 1952, Eisenhower pledged to “go to Korea” if elected. Soldiers knew war best and hated it most, or so he claimed. With frustration feeding a “Red Scare” nationwide, he offered to resolve the unpopular conflict as soon as possible. On November 5, the U.S. elected Eisenhower to the presidency.

  Less than a month later, Eisenhower fulfilled his campaign promise by visiting Korea for three days. Upon his return to the U.S., he cryptically remarked: “We face an enemy whom we cannot hope to impress by words, however eloquent, but only by deeds – executed under circumstances of our own choosing.” After his inauguration, the Joint Chiefs recommended direct air and naval operations against Manchuria. John Foster Dulles, the new Secretary of State, communicated a back-channel threat to China regarding the possible use of an atom bomb. At a meeting of the National Security Council, the commander-in-chief suggested that Kaesong in North Korea represented “a good target” for tactical nuclear weaponry. While the Eisenhower administration rattled sabers, the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, appeared to increase the odds for peace.

  Unfortunately, peace talks at Panmunjom deadlocked over the fate of the prisoners of war. As a “gesture of peace,” the UN agreed to a Red Cross proposal for the exchange of the sick and wounded. With pressure from Moscow, Peking and Pyongyang finally consented to Operation Little Switch. Accordingly, the opposing sides exchanged a limited number at Panmunjom from April 20 to May 3. When the delegations restarted their negotiations at the table, they disagreed about procedures to “quarantine” those refusing to repatriate. By early June, they worked out an agreement in principle that placed most in the hands of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission. However, Rhee attempted to disrupt the agreement by suddenly releasing over 25,000 prisoners – many of them South Koreans previously impressed into service by the NKPA. Eventually, he relented to an armistice upon receiving assurances of more economic and military assistance from the U.S.

  As the belligerents finalized an armistice, the Battle of Pork Chop Hill raged on the MLR. General Maxwell D. Taylor, who took command of the Eighth Army in February, pulled his troops back after the Chinese attacked the high ground. Nevertheless, he soon ordered them to retake it. Back and forth, the combatants exchanged the position multiple times. With an armistice imminent, he finally abandoned Pork Chop Hill on July 11. The firing ceased within weeks, but the weaponry remained locked and loaded.

  At 10:00 a.m. on July 27, the UN and communist delegations met at Panmunjom without a word or a gesture to one another. In less than 12 minutes, each affixed signatures to documents and exited the building on opposite sides. General Mark Clark, who succeeded Ridgway in command of UN forces in Korea, signed nine blue-backed copies of the armistice a few hours later at Mansan-ni.

  To fulfill the armistice terms, Operation Big Switch commenced inside a demilitarized zone on August 5. The UN sent 75,823 prisoners northward, while the communists reciprocated by releasing 3,597 Americans and 7,862 South Koreans. Of the 22,604 prisoners of the UN handled by the Repatriation Commission, only 137 agreed to return to their homeland. Whatever their motives, 325 South Koreans, 21 Americans, and one Brit adopted the nations of their captors. “We went away to Glenn Miller,” noted an American POW after returning to the U.S., and “came back to Elvis Presley.”

  From an American perspective, the war in Korea represented one of the nastiest conflicts in the twentieth century. During 37 months of fighting, the U.S. sent 1.3 million service members to the peninsula. While 33,629 of them were killed in action, another 105,785 suffered wounds. The ROKA reported 415,000 fatalities and 429,000 wounded. Though estimates varied, NKPA and Chinese losses reached as many as 2 million. Few doubted that the American military saved South Korea from doom.

  No More Koreas

  While maintaining close to 30,000 troops in Korea, the U.S. began to refine the containment strategy of the Cold War. Given
the likelihood of future confrontations with the Soviet Union, national security experts anticipated that 1954 would be the “year of maximum danger.” For years, the Soviets appeared to ready their forces for an impending nuclear attack against the continental U.S. The threat of a swift but fatal blow raised doubts about the capabilities of the United Nations to deter communist aggression. Unwilling to fight another indecisive war, the American military wanted “no more Koreas.”

  The Eisenhower administration concluded that the costs of fighting in hot spots such as Korea actually represented a threat to national security. Worried that military expenditures undermined American affluence, the president and Congress agreed to reduce appropriations for conventional forces. Beginning in 1954, the Army downsized from 20 to 15 divisions. Furthermore, the Navy and the Marine Corps reduced their personnel lines. Over the course of the decade, the defense budget fell from 64 percent of federal spending to 47 percent. Since 10 reservists in uniform matched the expense of one full-time soldier, the reserve component actually expanded in order to save money. Attempting to balance the demands of the armed forces with the constraints of fiscal discipline, Eisenhower called for “security with solvency.”

  At Eisenhower's behest, policymakers in Washington D.C presented a strategic framework known as the New Look. The Joint Chiefs agreed to reductions in end strength as long as atomic and hydrogen bombs enabled the nation to counter aggressors. In Project Solarium, teams of analysts came to the White House to thoroughly review strategic alternatives while underscoring the concept of deterrence. Moreover, an internal document known as NSC 162/2 offered guidelines for a nuclear option in either a general or a limited war. “The basic decision,” Secretary of State Dulles held forth, “was to depend primarily upon a great capacity to retaliate, instantly, by means and at places of our choosing.” Essentially, the New Look offered a way to deter Soviet-sponsored wars around the globe with a credible bluff.