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Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Chinese Intervention in the Korean War

Extracts from Wikipedia on Chinese Intervention in the Korean War:

By 1 October 1950, the UN Command repelled the KPA northwards past the 38th Parallel; the ROK advanced after them, into North Korea. MacArthur made a statement demanding the KPA's unconditional surrender.

Six days later, on 7 October, with UN authorization, the UN Command forces followed the ROK forces northwards. The X Corps landed at Wonsan (in southeastern North Korea) and Riwon (in northeastern North Korea) on 26 October, but these cities had already been captured by ROK forces.

The Eighth US Army drove up western Korea and captured Pyongyang on 19 October 1950. The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team made their first of two combat jumps during the Korean War on 20 October 1950 at Sunchon and Sukchon. The mission was to cut the road north going to China, preventing North Korean leaders from escaping from Pyongyang; and to rescue US prisoners of war.

At month's end, UN forces held 135,000 KPA prisoners of war. As they neared the Sino-Korean border, the UN forces in the west were divided from those in the east by 50–100 miles (80–161 km) of mountainous terrain.In addition to the 135,000 captured, the KPA had also suffered some 200,000 men killed or wounded for a total of 335,000 casualties since the end of June 1950, and had lost 313 tanks (mostly T-34/85 models).

A mere 25,000 KPA regulars retreated across the 38th Parallel, as their military had entirely collapsed. The U.N. forces on the peninsula numbered 229,722 combat troops (including 125,126 Americans and 82,786 South Koreans), 119,559 rear area troops, and 36,667 U.S. Air Force personnel.

Taking advantage of the UN Command's strategic momentum against the communists, General MacArthur believed it necessary to extend the Korean War into China to destroy depots supplying the North Korean war effort. President Truman disagreed, and ordered caution at the Sino-Korean border.

China intervenes (October–December 1950)


Chinese forces cross the frozen Yalu River

From the beginning of the conflict, the People's Republic of China had been preparing to invade Korea if they deemed it necessary. On 30 June 1950, five days after the outbreak of the war, Zhou Enlai, premier of the PRC and vice-chairman of the Central Military Committee of the CCP (CMCC), decided to send a group of Chinese military intelligence personnel to North Korea to establish better communications with Kim II Sung as well as to collect first-hand materials on the fighting. 

One week later, on 7 July, Zhou and Mao chaired a conference discussing military preparations for the Korean Conflict. Another conference took place on 10 July. Here it was decided that the Thirteenth Army Corps under the Fourth Field Army of the PLA, one of the best trained and equipped units in China, would be immediately transformed into the Northeastern Border Defense Army (NEBDA) to prepare for "an intervention in the Korean War if necessary." 

On 13 July the CMCC formally issued the order to establish the NEBDA, appointing Deng Hua, the commander of the Fifteenth Army Corps and one of the most talented commanders of the Chinese Civil War, to coordinate all preparation efforts.

On 20 August 1950, Premier Zhou Enlai informed the UN that "Korea is China's neighbor ... The Chinese people cannot but be concerned about a solution of the Korean question". Thus, through neutral-country diplomats, China warned that in safeguarding Chinese national security, they would intervene against the UN Command in Korea.

President Truman interpreted the communication as "a bald attempt to blackmail the UN", and dismissed it.Mao ordered that his troops should be ready for action by the end of August. Stalin, by contrast, was reluctant to escalate the war with a Chinese intervention.

On 1 October 1950, the day that UN troops crossed the 38th Parallel, the Soviet ambassador forwarded a telegram from Stalin to Mao and Zhou requesting that China send five to six divisions into Korea, and Kim Il-sung sent frantic appeals to Mao for Chinese military intervention. At the same time, Stalin made it clear that Soviet forces themselves would not directly intervene.


Three commanders of PVA during the Korean War. From left to right: Chen Geng (1952), Peng Dehuai (1950–1952) & Deng Hua (1952–1953)

In a series of emergency meetings that lasted from 2 to 5 October, Chinese leaders debated whether to send Chinese troops into Korea. There was considerable resistance among many leaders, including senior military leaders, to confronting the US in Korea.

Mao strongly supported intervention, and Zhou was one of the few Chinese leaders who firmly supported him. After Lin Biao politely refused Mao's offer to command Chinese forces in Korea (citing his upcoming medical treatment), Mao decided that Peng Dehuai would be the commander of the Chinese forces in Korea after Peng agreed to support Mao's position.

Mao then asked Peng to speak in favor of intervention to the rest of the Chinese leaders. After Peng made the case that if US troops conquered Korea and reached the Yalu they might cross it and invade China, the Politburo agreed to intervene in Korea.

On 4 August 1950, with a planned invasion of Taiwan aborted due to the heavy US naval presence, Mao reported to the Politburo that he would intervene in Korea when the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Taiwan invasion force was reorganized into the PLA North East Frontier Force. On 8 October 1950, Mao redesignated the PLA North East Frontier Force as the People's Volunteer Army (PVA).

[...]

On 13 November, Mao appointed Zhou Enlai the overall commander and coordinator of the war effort, with Peng as field commander. On 25 November on the Korean western front, the PVA 13th Army Group attacked and overran the ROK II Corps at the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River, and then inflicted heavy losses on the US 2nd Infantry Division on the UN forces' right flank.

Believing that they could not hold against the PVA the Eighth Army began to retreat from North Korea crossing the 38th Parallel in mid-December. UN morale hit rock bottom when Lieutenant General Walton Walker, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, was killed on 23 December 1950 in an automobile accident.

In the east on 27 November the PVA 9th Army Group initiated the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. Here the UN forces fared comparatively better: like the Eighth Army the surprise attack also forced X Corps to retreat from northeast Korea, but they were in the process able to breakout from the attempted encirclement by the PVA and execute a successful tactical withdrawal. X Corps managed to establish a defensive perimeter at the port city of Hungnam on 11 December and were able to evacuate by 24 December in order to reinforce the badly depleted US Eighth Army to the south.


During the evacuation, about 193 shiploads of UN forces and matériel (approximately 105,000 soldiers, 98,000 civilians, 17,500 vehicles, and 350,000 tons of supplies) were evacuated to Pusan. The SS Meredith Victory was noted for evacuating 14,000 refugees, the largest rescue operation by a single ship, even though it was designed to hold 12 passengers. Before escaping, the UN forces razed most of Hungnam city, especially the port facilities.

On 16 December 1950, President Truman declared a national state of emergency with Presidential Proclamation No. 2914, 3 C.F.R. 99 (1953), which remained in force until 14 September 1978.

China justified its entry into the war as a response to "American aggression in the guise of the UN".[214] Later, the Chinese claimed that US bombers had violated PRC national airspace on three separate occasions and attacked Chinese targets before China intervened.


[...]

Mao Zedong's decision to take on the United States in the Korean War was a direct attempt to confront what the Communist bloc viewed as the strongest anti-Communist power in the world, undertaken at a time when the Chinese Communist regime was still consolidating its own power after winning the Chinese Civil War.


Mao supported intervention not to save North Korea, but because he believed that a military conflict with the US was inevitable after the US entered the war, and to appease the Soviet Union to secure military dispensation and achieve Mao's goal of making China a major world military power. 


Mao was equally ambitious in improving his own prestige inside the communist international community by demonstrating that his Marxist concerns were international. In his later years Mao believed that Stalin only gained a positive opinion of him after China's entrance into the Korean War. Inside mainland China, the war improved the long-term prestige of Mao, Zhou, and Peng, allowing the Chinese Communist Party to increase its legitimacy while weakening anti-Communist dissent.


The Chinese government have encouraged the point of view that the war was initiated by the United States and South Korea, though ComIntern documents have shown that Mao sought approval from Joseph Stalin to enter the war. In Chinese media, the Chinese war effort is considered as an example of China's engaging the strongest power in the world with an under-equipped army, forcing it to retreat, and fighting it to a military stalemate. These successes were contrasted with China's historical humiliations by Japan and by Western powers over the previous hundred years, highlighting the abilities of the PLA and the Chinese Communist Party.

 



17 comments:

  1. peng was treated a traitor during mao cr, n become just another mati katak.

    after the war peng admit that china military is many times inferior, deng thot there is much improvement under his transform program but still kena whack kawkaw by vietnamese. now is bighead xi turn to con mainlander to bully all the small nation to demonstrate ccp strength.

    truman fire mcarthur indicate american never hv intended to expand the war.

    kim initiated the war but ccp propagandist accuse usa n south korea.

    today ccp hv diplomatic relationship with both north n south korea but refuse other nation to establish such relationship with roc twn, a glaring double std.

    everyday tok humiliation similar to umno tok how malay being victimised, tak tahu malu.

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    1. Wakakakaka… still lodging within yr wettest wet dream!

      Peng Dehuai (彭德怀) was mistreated by the gang of 4 (know them? Studied them?) during cultural revolution time. He was one of the first leaders to be posthumously rehabilitated, in 1978.

      In modern China, Peng is considered one of the most successful and highly respected generals in the history of the Chinese Communist Party.

      Mati katak?

      Ooop… liken to those that u live & breadth together within that fart filled well!

      "kena whack kawkaw by vietnamese"!!!??

      After The Sino-Vietnamese War, the Chinese reclaimed occupation of Vietnamese territory along Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn, and the Spratly Islands along maritime borders.

      Did yr DaNang friends forget to tell u that?

      Or like yr usual fart, just created one out from yr wet dream!

      In response to Mao Zedong senting troops to North Korea and warned the United States to keep away from the Yalu boundary unless it wanted full-scale war.

      This was something that President Truman and his advisers decidedly did not want: They were sure that such a war would lead to Soviet aggression in Europe, the deployment of atomic weapons and millions of senseless deaths.

      Truman was more concerned about the failure of cold war with Soviet Union in the European front than boosting the ego of one MacArthur!

      Wakakakakaka… roc Taiwan! 犬养 mfer if u recognized that, then that means Taiwan, as declared by changes, is/was never a separate country like N/S Korea! What double standard r u farting about?

      "xi turn to con mainlander to bully all the small nation to demonstrate ccp strength"

      Do tell which chicken feet nations have Xi bullied & based on what? Taiwan? HK? Xinjiang? Tibet? What a laugh!

      The strength of PLA lies within CCP, anything WRONG? PLA ain't no strawberry army, chook trained navy & kiwi modeled air force of yr Formosa school. Creating them is the biggest disservices that 台毒 morons have done to those Taiwanese parents!

      U know malu ke?

      Then what the f*ck r u fabricating lies after lies to bash China?

      As a nonchinese, do something concrete to prove yr real China bashing lah than just fart within a well & get high on the ego.

      Memang bodoh sombong to the nth. Or maybe liken to yr dangdut pals, shame is defined by u people's standard.

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    2. yes mati katak like those in memali, read how peng died in 1974 n how he suffered since cr started. the thief n pas revive the talk abt those mati katak to attack conman, similarly to what deng did in 1978 with intention to attack mao thought. even a respected general can died due to no doctor dare to treat him, this can only happened in ccp china.

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    3. Ya-loh, honourable man died due to dickheads' fitnah & lies!

      彭德怀's case isn't isolating event within China when there r always turncoats/minions/foreign acolytes trying to work their paymasters' way during that painful cultural revolution era.

      Similar thing happens all over the world. Yr beloved Formosa included!

      Remember the suicide of the Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源). What drove a man to jump? Definitely not bcoz of his pal's been dethroned from the mayorship!

      U want to know WHY such issues arise?

      Simple, bcoz there r mfers like u out there creating fitnah & lies!

      Delete
  2. KT, u miss out a glaring historical fact that the potus mis-used his power by getting involved in the Korean war.

    On June 27 1950, President Truman announced to the nation and the world that America would intervene in the Korean conflict in order to prevent the conquest of an independent nation by communism.

    The U.S. Congress never sanctioned that war, thereby establishing a precedent!

    Subsequently The War Powers Resolution 1973 requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30-day withdrawal period, without congressional authorization for use of military force (AUMF) or a declaration of war by the United States.

    Even then, The War Powers Resolution has been violated many times – for example by President Clinton in keeping the bombing campaign in Kosovo going for more than two weeks after the 60-day deadline had passed.

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    1. In August 1950, the President and the Secretary of State obtained the consent of Congress to appropriate $12 billion for military action in Korea.

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    2. Is a military allocation similar to an act of sanction for war?

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  3. In my book, I called this the CCP Aggression in Korea.

    The UN forces were in Korea with under UN Security Council authorisation, to prevent Korea from being conquered by communist agression.

    The CCP invaded Korea in contravention of international law.

    CCP forces got slaughtered by the Hundreds of Thousands.

    UN forces suffered badly under the sheer weight of the human wave invasion, but the Kill Ratio was massive.

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    1. On 25 June 1950, the United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the North Korean invasion of South Korea, with UN Security Council Resolution 82. The Soviet Union, a veto-wielding power, had boycotted the Council meetings since January 1950, protesting that the Taiwanese "Republic of China" and not the mainland "People's Republic of China" held a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.[155] After debating the matter, the Security Council, on 27 June 1950, published Resolution 83 recommending member states provide military assistance to the Republic of Korea. On 27 June President Truman ordered US air and sea forces to help South Korea. On 4 July the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister accused the US of starting armed intervention on behalf of South Korea.[156]

      The Soviet Union challenged the legitimacy of the war for several reasons. The ROK intelligence upon which Resolution 83 was based came from US Intelligence; North Korea was not invited as a sitting temporary member of the UN, which violated UN Charter Article 32; and the fighting was beyond the UN Charter's scope, because the initial north–south border fighting was classed as a civil war. Because the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council at the time, legal scholars posited that deciding upon an action of this type required the unanimous vote of all the five permanent members including the Soviet Union.

      Within days of the invasion, masses of ROK soldiers—of dubious loyalty to the Syngman Rhee regime—were retreating southwards or defecting en masse to the northern side, the KPA.

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    2. the russian record show stalin wan a war btw usa n prc, thats y the boycott. n stalin promised mao many weapon equipment n army which only arrived at the very late stages q
      when chinese army died in large number, n today the bloody idiot xi n ccp promote warism citing korean war as if ccp won the war against american but no mentioned how many life, chinese life age 18 n less perished.

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    3. Explaining political decisions on international level to these blurred/blinded/biased mfers r a waste of time & effort!

      They r the captured demoNcratic minions, meme-ed on uncle Sam doctrines of " i'm the voice of the free word (??) Thus, i'm right!"

      Yr clarifications SHOULD direct to those other readers, keening to know the truth!

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    4. Ktemoc is just splitting hairs over the Soviet Union's situation vs. the Security Council Resolution 82.
      As with any other organisation Apex board meeting, if you are absent by your own act, you forfeit your vote, for or against the decision. There was definitely a sufficient quorum for a valid UNSC Resolution to be passed.

      Please provide link to your alleged legal scholars position that the vote was invalid without all five permanent members of the Security Countil present.

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    5. "definitely a sufficient quorum for a valid UNSC Resolution to be passed."

      Wakakakakaka…

      Have u read the chapters of the UN?

      What r the roles of the UN Security Council?

      Why the 5 permanent members & their special veto powers?

      Just fart with yr own conjectural understanding!

      Unfortunately, u ain't no formulators of the UN Security Council bylaws.

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    6. 犬养 mfer, lies after lies, even though they r piled on half truths but mostly pure fabrications!

      If u dare to continue fitnah/lies about WHY Soviet boycotted the Council meetings since January 1950, show proof lah!

      Have u ever wonder WHY ROC was never fighting at the Korean war front lines with the UN contingents, even though it was still the permanent members of the security council?

      Truman forbid ROC's active role bcoz Truman couldn't trust chiangks, together with another communism basher like MacArthur, working at a war with CCP China!

      China only got involved with the Korean war, when there were strong indication that the US combatant regiments would ignore Mao's warning of moving beyond the Yalu river by October 1950.

      Knowing MacArthur's intention of crashing communism to reinstate chiangks as the puppet China govt, the CCP China had to fight & defense the homeland, even though they know the state of weaponry & Stalin's treachery.

      The PLA were volunteers, with everyone knowing what's at stake. Defending the homeland with every other possible means w/o exception was the only thing in their mind.

      Due to that harden determination & sheer courage, the Chinese had driven the offenders all the way back to Seoul. Sacrifices were huge but nothing in compare with the preserving of China as a whole!

      The war was indeed won & the Yankee have forever learnt to look at the fighting spirit of the PLA with respect!

      Never has there be anymore physical challenges by the Yankee within China soil even though China then was weaponry weak.

      Nowadays… even less likely for anyone to inflict any physical challenges around the territories of China!

      Those PLA who fought & died were forever remembered as 抗美援朝 英烈. They will not be forgotten!

      But HOW could a demoNcratic dickheads fathom that passion of their remembrance.

      No mentioned? 犬养 mfer, of course their names will never be mentioned inside yr fart filled well. It's an up most disgrace to their sacrifice to have their names heard within yr fart filled well.

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  4. As of today The Hermit Kingdom has zero cases of Covid-19. Even though all its neighbours have plenty....South Korea, Japan, Russia and Bullyland.

    Amazing.

    Long Live Rocket Man.

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  5. Now this is something different. Anyway it was a civil war which lead to international intervention from both blocks fought in Korea.
    We fought the CPM from 1948 to 1989.
    From 1948 to 1963 the British, NZ and Australia helps us. From during LB as US President he then extended us foregn help which includes F5E and Nuri to fight CPM aka PKM.
    CCP were supporting CPM till 1979

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    1. Why don't u talk about how Malaya/m'sia helped/helps the subversion wars of pinoy Moro & the Thai patani up till this day?

      In the spirit of ASEAN too!

      Delete