Korean War 70 years later Win Lose and A draw

Hendrik_2000 said:

At 10:50 the guy said Dean Acheson in secret meeting said they want to keep Taiwan separate from China That should rebut Max D guy who said America was ready to return Taiwan to China Yes big lie

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US essentially declared war on China by interjecting into China's unfinished civil war by sending Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait 2 days after the start of the Korean War...on what basis is the US making this intervention?

I never understood why this point was never emphasized. Perhaps because at the time, the PLA had no realistic chance of invading Taiwan anyways, considering the disaster of the Kinmen island operation.

Hendrik_2000 said:

At 10:50 the guy said Dean Acheson in secret meeting said they want to keep Taiwan separate from China That should rebut Max D guy who said America was ready to return Taiwan to China Yes big lie

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It still won't convince him. A mind that's not open will never accept what ever that goes counter to what they believe.

That US would hand over Taiwan to China is a hard argument to make before 49 and After. I believe earlier some one claim McArthur said that Taiwan was part of Japan. This is an unpopular opinion but the three treaty on the subject seem to agree.
The text of the surrender of Japan doesn’t list Taiwan there in referred to as Formosa as part of China. It states that Japanese forces Should surrender to the forces of Chiang Kai-shek as Commander and Chief of the Allied forces in The Chinese Theatre. Not the PRC or ROC. Partition isn’t listed in it.

The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, having directed by his General Order no. 1 that the senior commanders and all ground, sea, air and auxiliary forces within China (excluding Manchuria), Formosa and French Indo-China north of 16 degrees north latitude shall surrender to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

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China (excluding Manchuria) comma Formosa and French Indo-China. So does that mean that French Indo China was supposed to be handed over to the Chinese? No clearly not. The French returned until they were forced out by revolution. What about Manchuria? It was under Russian Occupation was that excluded for the USSR? No the Russians returned it to China who maintained sovereignty over it. So it’s listed as a excluded as it was already under the occupation of an allied force. Formosa then? It doesn’t state that it was China if that was the case then there should be a (Including..) That the nationalist forces were to receive surrender by the forces of Japan for but not the Administration of.

It was the government of China at the time 1945 the Nationalist of the ROC whom occupied Taiwan, the so-called Blanket Army.

It was the 1951 Treaty in San Francisco where in the Japanese renounced all claims to Taiwan, the Spratlys, Paracel and Pescadores Islands. However the treaty doesn’t declare to whom they belong.
That treaty was denounced by the PRC.

It was Chang Kai Shek whom moved the ROC to Taiwan when it was clear the Communist were winning the war in China. In Essence setting up a government in exile. One that had subsumed the local governance as well.

The closest to a deciding document in regards to partition to a Chinese government would be the 1952 treaty with the ROC the Treaty of Taipei, where in Article 10 deems that the inhabitants of Taiwan and the Pescadores as Nationals of the ROC. But it doesn’t state that they are property of China. Nor does it state that the islands are to be handed over to anyone. If anything the way it is laid out in the three documents is a case for self determination.
What is claimed that Dean Acheson said 70 years later doesn’t mean that much. Lie or not. The paperwork is what is supposed to be law.

Based on the statements the US made prior to 1949, I think it is safe to say that the intention was that Taiwan is to be restored to (Nationalist) China. Anyone who has read the book "Formosa Betrayed" by G. Kerr (US naval attache, escorting governor Chen Yi to accept the surrender of Japanese forces on Taiwan in October 1945), will understand that the US policy following the Japanese surrender was "This [Taiwan] is China". Even when they witnessed first-hand the massacre of innocent Taiwanese by the ROC occupiers in 1947, the US position remained: This is China. None of our business.

Several US drafts for the Peace Treaty with Japan clearly stated that Japan shall cede Taiwan to China, including the draft of November 1949:

It cannot be stressed enough that at point in time Taiwan was in no way returned to China. It was technically land still in property of the Empire of Japan. The draft of the Peace Treaty implies this as the accepted interpretation: Japan could otherwise not cede something which does not belong to it.

A declassified CIA report from March 1949 reaffirms this and goes into further detail:


However, it can be strongly argued that the primary motive behind the shift of US position over Taiwan was not the Korean War, but rather the fear of a Communist takeover of the island, which might've led to the Soviet Union operating bases on Taiwan. The same CIA report does raise the point:

It is not for outsider to decide Taiwan fate Only Chinese can decide Taiwan fate and it will be recover in due time which close It was Chinese territory ceded to Japan in un equal Shimonoseki treaty and with Japan losing the war she renounce the illegal occupation of Chinese territory. So by logic it should be return to its former owner

As rivalry with Washington heats up, Beijing commemorates 'victory' in 'war to resist US aggression'

Hong Kong (CNN)Seventy years ago this week, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops began crossing into North Korea, in an intervention that of the and eventually hold United Nations forces to an uneasy detente.

In China, that conflict is known as the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea," and is seen as a great victory, a view shared by Pyongyang, though North Korea failed to make any gains after its initial invasion of the South was rebuffed, and would likely have been defeated but for Beijing's assistance.
Anniversaries of the war have often been used as an opportunity for anti-US rhetoric in China, on relations with Washington: 2000 saw a , coming after the NATO , as anti-US feeling was widespread; while in 2010, then President Hu Jintao oversaw a far 60th anniversary, amid better feeling toward Washington.

This year, Beijing has pulled out all the stops, as amid the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and .

On Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping commemorating China's entry into the war, where he will "deliver an important speech," according to state news agency Xinhua. The ceremony caps a week of events, and jingoistic saber-rattling in Chinese state media and official propaganda.
, Xi said the war was "a victory of justice, a victory of peace and a victory of the people" and should "inspire the Chinese people and the Chinese nation to overcome all difficulties and obstacles, and prevail over all enemies."
In a in the People's Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China's military, the author hailed the "glorious victory" which "left the Americans with the deepest impression that what Chinese people say counts," and to respect "China's red lines."

One of those alleged red lines potentially came close to being crossed this week, as the US State Department on Wednesday sales to Taiwan, over the vociferous objections of Beijing, which has warned Washington that such a sale could "gravely" damage US-China relations and cross-straits stability.

Taiwan has emerged as a major potential flashpoint between the US and China in recent years, as Washington has become more forceful in its approach toward Beijing and China adopted a threatening posture towards the self-ruled island, which it has vowed to seize militarily if necessary.

Here the war as recount by the member of PVA He said the korean war secured peace that China enjoy now. He also said China fight the war with just gun and light weapon against tank and airplane. Fan Hongzhi Korean war veteran. He defused un exploded bomb even though he does not know anything about disabling a bomb what a nerve!


In China's modern history, Dandong has become an icon of Chinese people's struggle because of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. No other place bears witness to that part of the history better than the Broken Bridge that spans over the Yalu River, the border river between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Damaged in U.S. bombing at the early stage of the Korean War, the bridge has only a portion survived. Next to the Broken Bridge is the China-DPRK Friendship Bridge, which was also bombed during the war but was repaired. Today, it serves as a main passage between the two countries, for both tourists and goods transport. It's a big reminder of a vivid lesson – the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in wars. Take a walk down the memory lane with Tian Wei in Holding The Line: War To Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

Hendrik_2000 said:

In China's modern history, Dandong has become an icon of Chinese people's struggle because of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

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Last time a foreign aggresive force reached the shore of Yalu in 1894. The garrison force in Andong fled at once, thus enboldened the Japanese troops to expand the war into China.

That was followed by tens of million death in next 50 years.

For Chinese, an enemy came from sea set boots on Yalu River, equals to more than 35,000,000, 8-10% of population, killed by the invader.

Anyone with conscience really can't blame China have such a deep concern on Korea, the confusing part here is why it seems neglectablefor US gov and military, especially McArthur.

Phoenix_Rising said:

Anyone with conscience really can't blame China have such a deep concern on Korea, the confusing part here is why it seems neglectablefor US gov and military, especially McArthur.

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McArthur fancied himself a new Caesar and wanted to make a name for himself; the US press had just blown up his ego by calling him 'the american shogun' and he became more comfortable exceeding his orders and pushing even to use nukes when he was getting his ass handed to him by Chinese militia forces.

hashtagpls said:

McArthur fancied himself a new Caesar and wanted to make a name for himself; the US press had just blown up his ego by calling him 'the american shogun' and he became more comfortable exceeding his orders and pushing even to use nukes when he was getting his ass handed to him by Chinese militia forces.

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McArthur had already made a name for himself, and even during WW2 held such political sway as to be able to convince Roosevelt to accept his plan for the invasion of the Philippines instead of the alternative plan of invading Taiwan.

He didn't exceed any orders. The orders allowed him to push all the way to the Yalu river. There were some discussions about establishing a buffer zone in the north to reassure China, but none of those were either agreed or communicated to McArthur. I wouldn't lay all the blame on him there.

However, according to Mao's published telegrams, none of these assurances, had they been made, would've dissuaded him. To Mao it was simply unacceptable for American troops to stay in North Korea, regardless of how wide the buffer zone was made to be. Having committed his army, Mao's primary goal was the destruction or expulsion of foreign forces on the Korean peninsula.

As for the use of nukes, now that was batshit crazy. MacArthur asked for about 50 tactical nukes. He intended to drop them on Chinese bases in Manchuria, followed by massive Cobalt poisoning of North Korean land across the border with China so that any Chinese reinforcements crossing would be fatally wounded. At the same time, he planned amphibious landings on both sides of the peninsula south of the Cobalt no-man zone, thereby trapping all Chinese forces in Korea. And he even wanted to commit ROC forces on Taiwan who volunteered to fight in Korea.

MacArthur said:

“The enemy’s air would first have been taken out. I would have dropped between 30 to 50 tactical atomic bombs on his air bases and other depots strung across the neck of Manchuria from just across the Yalu at Antung (northwest tip of Korea) to the neighborhood of Hunchun (northeast tip of Korea near the border of the USSR).

“That many bombs would have more than done the job! Dropped under the cover of darkness, when his planes were in for the night, they would have destroyed his air force on the ground, wiped out his maintenance and his airmen. …

“With the destruction of the enemy’s air power, I would then have called upon a half million of Chiang Kai-shek’s troops, sweetened by two U.S. Marine divisions. These would have been formed into two amphibious forces. One, totaling four-fifths of my strength and led by one of the Marine divisions, would have landed at Antung and proceeded eastward along the road that parallels the Yalu.

“The other force, led by the other Marine division, would have landed simultaneously at Unggi or Najin in the east, hit the same river road, and moved very quickly westward. … [The] forces could have joined in two days, forming a wall of manpower and firepower across the entire northern border of Korea. …

“Now, with the northern border sealed, the 8th Army, spread roughly along the 38th Parallel, would then have put pressure on the enemy from the South. The joined amphibious forces would press down from the North. Nothing in the way of supplies or reinforcements could have moved across the Yalu.

“North Korea, holding not less than one million to 1 1/2 million of the enemy, could not have sustained him. It had been picked clean. The enemy commander would have been starved out within 10 days after the landings. I suggest now he would have sued for peace immediately after learning his air had been taken out and we had spread across his supply routes.

“You may ask what would have prevented the enemy’s reinforcements massing and crossing the Yalu in great strength, as they had before. It was my plan as our amphibious forces moved South to spread behind us—from the Sea of Japan to the Yellow Sea—a belt of radioactive cobalt. It could have been spread from wagons, carts, trucks and planes. It is not an expensive material.

“It has an active life of between 60 and 120 years. For at least 60 years there could have been no land invasion of Korea from the North. The enemy could not have marched across that radiated collar I proposed to put across Korea’s neck.

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