The costly lessons of America’s
‘Forgotten War’ are being ignored once again.
Two thirds of a
century ago, American lack of understanding of complex Asian
realities coupled with a large dose of military hubris embroiled the
country in a Korean conflict which nearly escalated into a nuclear-enabled World War III.
Responding to a reckless North Korean
attempt to reunify the artificially divided peninsula by force,
President Truman, with United Nations backing, authorized Far Eastern
Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, to defend the South and drive
the attackers back across the 38th Parallel. MacArthur’s
brilliant Inchon landing succeeded in beating back the intruders,
liberating Seoul and re-establishing a pro-Western government in the
South.
General Douglas MacArthur Public Domain-author unknown |
Encouraged by his victories, however, MacArthur pushed well beyond his orders and pressed the attack northward with the goal of destroying the Northern armies and defeating the Communist-dominated State. The effect of his actions, while aimed at reunifying the peninsula in America’s favor, also directly challenged the newly-established Red Chinese government by threatening military action up to and potentially beyond the Chinese border in Manchuria.
Ignoring Chinese warnings as well as
overt directions from more cautious diplomatic and military leaders
in Washington, MacArthur’s miscalculation triggered the surprising
and overwhelming Communist Chinese response which led to an
additional three years of costly and bloody land warfare in
Asia leading the death of more than 36,000 U.S. soldiers—ending with the uneasy stalemate which has existed for nearly
65 years at the same 38th Parallel where the conflict
began.
Bodies of U.S., U.K., and ROK soldiers
before mass burial at Koto-ri,1950
before mass burial at Koto-ri,1950
(Photo by Sgt. F. C. Kerr)
Currently, a newly
energized American leader, without foreign policy experience and with
a tendency to make provocative and aggressive statements ("if China won’t help, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A”)
and also led by generals is currently convinced that the show of and
possible use of overwhelming military force, rather than diplomacy,
will succeed in defanging the rhetorically aggressive and now
nuclear-armed North. In the process, it runs the risk of pushing the
ever more paranoid leadership in Pyongyang toward a point of no
return where the slightest miscalculation, a missile test gone
astray, a nuclear test, a misreading of intentions, may trigger
unintended and disastrous military results.
Once again U.S.
leadership is relying on the tenuous belief that China, Russia or
others will not intervene—even if the United States acts
unilaterally to destroy the North’s capacity to employ weapons of
mass destruction-- or that unanticipated events in a
newly-destabilized region will not widen the conflict well beyond
Korea.
While analysts have been comparing theevolving conflict to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, a much more apt
comparison should be that of Korea in 1950 and 1951, when an
ambitious and arrogant General blundered into a world of trouble
neither he nor the American people ever fully expected or understood.
Les Adler, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of History and
Interdisciplinary Studies
Sonoma State UniversityIf you enjoyed this post, please sign up for email alerts and let friends know about zerospinzone.blogspot.com.
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