The Korean war

North Korea shouldn't start the war in the beginning, especially from a chinese perspective. because china was preparing its forces in the south to invade and take back taiwan. then all of sudden korean war happened and US intervened, so now china has two options: 1) keep preparing for the invasion of taiwan and take it back before caring about korea, and 2) get the army into korea as soon as possible to prevent north korea from completely dominated by US. China at that time does not have the capability of fighting a two front war (it still doesn't) in korea and in the taiwan strait, especially because china didn't really have a navy. so china chose option #2 and helped korea because at the time it seems to be the best option since china didn't have a navy strong enough at that time anyway, might as well wait for further modernization and stop US from coming too close in the mean time.

if china had chosen to continue the plan on attacking taiwan, then there can be two outcomes: 1) taiwan would be taken back and there wouldn't be and crisis in the taiwan strait today, of course north korea might not exist either and US would have a military base right on the boarder. or 2) PLAN fails to sail across the strait completely and get totally destroyed by the ROC navy, as well as a US military base just outside the door. out of these two outcomes, the second one is more likely to happen since the PLAN didn't have that many ships and all their ships are crap compared to the ROC navy. plus Mao didn't have much experience in naval battles. (the strait is far more dangerous for PLAN than the Yangzi River).

great... now i don't know what my point is... oh well, just see this as some extra info.

There are two ways of looking at the korean war. good and bad.

Good side.

*China entered the korean war helping north korea, and with that gained a ally.

*It thrusted china in the worlds third most powerful airforce with a very large portion of it the very modern Mig-15s.

*Gave confidence to the chinese nation which from 1842 had experienced year after year of humilation. It unifled all those forces in china which had not supported the communist.

*It gave america a great big scare and they didn't want to mess with chian in vietnam fearing another big blooding conflict.

*Forcing the americans to make their longest retreat in history

Bad side.

*For a country which was just created after 40+ years of civil war and suffered so much. To wage a war againest the worlds most powerful and richest country. It cost china many millions of doolars and labour which could have been used instead do improve chinas economy. And didn't need to pay the Soviet union with wheat during the Great leap foward.

*It pushed china closer to the soviet union(my opinion is that it was bad)

*Pushed china more away from america, Which china was planning on to get money from

*Lost taiwan Becuase their planned invasion wasn't workable with the american 7th fleet stationed there

*Made japan have a very quick recovery.

chinawhite said:

*Lost taiwan Becuase their planned invasion wasn't workable with the american 7th fleet stationed there

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it's not neccessarily lost, but in a very bad position to take it back right now nevertheless. (not that it was in a good position before the korean war anyway)

lol...

I meant lost opputunity, Because after 1948-1949 the americans cut off funds to jiang jieshi and practically gave up all support.

They weren't even planning to send aid to him. during the PLA invasion of Jinmen the US navy refused to send aid to help jiang jieshi's forces.

So i would count US help to jiang jieshi out. Even if the PLA planned a 1million man siwm it could have effectily invaded taiwan.( taking their share of casulties)

{Has anyone heard the joke about the PLAs invasion of taiwan?A one million man swim.
Its not saying they are swimming it but mocking the PLAs then non-existant navy}

Regards,

Chinawhite

chinawhite said:

Even if the PLA planned a 1million man siwm it could have effectily invaded taiwan.( taking their share of casulties)

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ahahaha, that's the best idea i've heard in days. swim...

but anyway, this is a korean war thread so let's keep it there.

TUP said:

and up until the late 1970s, north korea was richer and had higher standard of living than south korea.

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Really?!

TUP said:

because china was preparing its forces in the south to invade and take back taiwan.

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Well, PLA would not have been able to take back Taiwan anyway. There aren't enough boats. And even if they build them, they probably had problems. Craftsmanship was poor and some boats sank due to high center of Gravity. (That reminds me, how could the Ulsan FFG in SK float? It's so high!)

Now back to topic.
China helped NK for 2 reasons:
1. To get aid from USSR. Help Kim and China'll get the help. The Soviets did not train Kim for nothing.
2. To get the USA away, or at least get a buffer zone.

Kim could care less.
He knew China valued NK as a buffer zone. And as long as China is afraid of the US on its shores, and that Kim does not realise the decline in population in his land, he would do nothing. (If he wants a big military, he better do something. He could use less people to lower food demand, but losing all but soldiers are worse.)

Kim could've really unified Korea if Pusan fell in time.

My opinion...

The only reason china helped korea during the korean war was because they didn't want america next to their border. If you look on a map north korea is right next to manchuria. and the manchurian factories at that time were suppiled by a Hydroelectric plant on the Yula river. If the americans had control of these plants then they could easily slow chinas recovery.

This actoin could have been made before a invasion of china itself by KMT forces which had just been ousted by the communist. A invasion of chian during this time was really real. Mac arthur even planned to use nukes on chinas coast and KMT troops in burma

If china didn't attacked american forces then it would have been almost surrounded on 3 sides.

Regards,

Chinawhite

chinawhite said:

My opinion...

The only reason china helped korea during the korean war was because they didn't want america next to their border. If you look on a map north korea is right next to manchuria. and the manchurian factories at that time were suppiled by a Hydroelectric plant on the Yula river. If the americans had control of these plants then they could easily slow chinas recovery.

This actoin could have been made before a invasion of china itself by KMT forces which had just been ousted by the communist. A invasion of chian during this time was really real. Mac arthur even planned to use nukes on chinas coast and KMT troops in burma

If china didn't attacked american forces then it would have been almost surrounded on 3 sides.

Regards,

Chinawhite

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That is very true, my opinion:I believe Mc Arthur wanted to attack mainland China for revenge after his stagering defeat, obviously, trumen disagreed with this not because this will spark a world war but the US is too far away and there really no efficient way to attack the PRC without being nailed, BUT, if the US and Sk had won, then I garantee you that the US would have built an military base and raid an envasion for mainland China.

KMT forces in Burma? Why'd MacArthur want to nuke those guys?
3 sides?
It's a good thing MacArthur isn't in charge of nukes.

After ww2 the chinese soldiers stationed in the Burma theater stayed there to "keep the peace". And others had come to burma running from communist forces after 1949. They weren't a lage force but only guerrilla type forces

The three sides are taiwan, korea and burma.

Mac arthur wanted to use colbalt(something like that) to make a radioactive wall around china so no communist forces could get out. this plan included nuking 10-13 cities on chinas coast



Regards,

Chinawhite