The Korean war

also from historical point of view, every time korea got invaded, need to exclud the Chinese invasions , China will send troops to fight for it. Well US and KMT were allies, not with Communist, and ideology played an important part, US relased report "United States Relations with China, with a Special Reference to the Period 1944-1949" in 1949, and based on the paper itself, it is possible to say that US actully wants to foster a good relationship with PRC, but then Mao totally killed any potential offers with his own article, and with the out break of Korea war, there is no chance for US or China to have a relationship until late 70s

as far as i know the Soviets did contribute "forces" into the Korean war, if they contribute enough material though? .

On a TV documentation about the Korean War, some russian units, especially pilots with their MIG trained chinese and north korean personell and participate disguised as chinese unit in dogfight with the Airforce. In an interview one of the pilots told they often forgot in the heat of battle not to speak russian over the micro.

I think the US realized that they are shooting at the communist from Russia, but didn`t announced it to not make the situation worser than it is

IMHO Stalin miscalculated in the Korean War. He thought he could have a no-lose situation where the outcome would either be a united Korea under communism or a weakened and discredited China. In the end he got neither, North Korea was nearly destroyed and forced to rely upon China, which had managed to hold off the Americans despite a total lack of air support, artillery, or even basic transport (promised by Stalin) for the first part of the war.

The entire Korean War was a miscalculation, sadly. The North Koreans thought that they could overrun South Korea before anyone could intervene to stop them. The United States thought that China would never intervene against them. The Chinese thought that they could whip the Americans and drive them out of Korea. And everyone kind of fumbled around for the last two years or so of the war because no-one wanted to lose, but no-one could quite figure out how to win, either.

Militarily though, the war had the effect of spurring the Americans to rebuild their conventional forces since the nuclear deterent that they thought would, well, deter, anyone from fighting them didn't quite work out. And militarily, it proved both the fighting power of Chinese troops against UN troops from all over the world; but it also proved how badly (and expensive in loss of life) even good infantry without adequate heavy weapons support (not that China could have done anything about that at the time anyway) would often fare against often mediocre infantry that had more heavy weapons support than anyone else had in warfare up to that time. The result was strategic stalemate.

Norfolk said:

The entire Korean War was a miscalculation, sadly. The North Koreans thought that they could overrun South Korea before anyone could intervene to stop them. The United States thought that China would never intervene against them. The Chinese thought that they could whip the Americans and drive them out of Korea. And everyone kind of fumbled around for the last two years or so of the war because no-one wanted to lose, but no-one could quite figure out how to win, either.

Militarily though, the war had the effect of spurring the Americans to rebuild their conventional forces since the nuclear deterent that they thought would, well, deter, anyone from fighting them didn't quite work out. And militarily, it proved both the fighting power of Chinese troops against UN troops from all over the world; but it also proved how badly (and expensive in loss of life) even good infantry without adequate heavy weapons support (not that China could have done anything about that at the time anyway) would often fare against often mediocre infantry that had more heavy weapons support than anyone else had in warfare up to that time. The result was strategic stalemate.

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One of the best summations I have ever read of the Korean War.

My only comment is that American infantry especially toward the end of the war was rather superb, in addition to having more heavy weapons than have ever been granted as infantry support to that time. Let us not forget that one American division under the command of General Chesty Puller was able to fend off eight different Chinese divisions that surrounded them. Generally speaking envelopment is fatal for most armies.

The Korean War may have had an indeterminate end but because the whole country is a peninsula, it was perhaps the best place America could have fought war against the PLA. The ability to land troops behind enemy forces, such as happened at Inchon was pivotal to a land force enjoying supremacy at sea. Best of all, the Chinese never again tried to force a land engagement after having experienced concentrated American firepower.

sinowarrior said:

china has to enter the war just for pure self interest, US may not intend to cross the Yalu, but it will definately pose a threat to China, since US can easily deploy its army along the border which will require China to deploy large amount of force to guard Manchuria, and more importantly Manchuria was the heavy industry hub for China. Also from pure history perspective, all the major japanese invasions were conducted from Korea, first one in Tang, then Ming and then Qing, Korea is the most important buffer zone for China and there is no way for the Chinese government to watch and see Korea fall. Also the fighting in Korea really boosted the moral of Chinese people, it is the first time in the century for China actully stopped a western power.
As for the life of Korean and the development of SK etc, it is simply not a consideration in that time, national interest forced China to protect Korea, simple as that.

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well from a film that i watched, it was mao's idea to help the korean while most of his associate dissagreed with him. So if mao did not perceived US attack on China then they wouldn't have attack.

taijisheng said:

You don't know that. Despite all the revolutionary talks, it is common knowlege that Mao saw himself as a chinese emperor, if you read his poems it's so obvious, he compared himself with all the famous emperors in the past, including Gehgis Kahn, and find that he is better than all of them. He did everything he could to stay in power, killed everyone who could threat him.

It is only logical that he would pass his power to his son. Sending his son to korea war was a move to build up his son's reputation, Mao Anying was placed in the army headquarter of the chief commander general Peng De Huai, he was never near a real battle. He was only unlucky that one day when Peng left, american planes bombed the headquarter and killed him. General Peng was one of the best generals of PLA, but Mao punished him for the death of Anying, Peng died a miserable death.

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god，western propagandism。In fact that Mao is a thorough populist，all his life what he hated most was bureaucracy，and he believed that only with people government officers can‘t dare to defalcate；He made a perfect fetish of people，He said：“people，only people，is the power of creating history” ，tenet of a party is “serving for people”。And one of his military doctrines is “people war”。In culture revolution， crazy people took him as china’s emperor，he just acknowledged contemptuously that he was their teacher at most.
After the foundation of PRC,many generals of PLA became very corrupt,they thougt that they created the new country,they should have some rights condignly.Mao is very worry about that,but at that time his power is in control of Liushaoqi,he even couldn't publish an article in newspaper,but he was very clever in political competition,he beated Pengdehuai with the help of Liushaoqi,as a matter of fact,Liushaoqi aggressed Peng most actively in Lushan Meeting,and Liu first brought "cult of personality".But after that,Liu was more deplorable than Peng.

Lavi said:

It was definetly NOT the US who started the war, it was North Korea that invaded the South, the US intervened on large scale after a UN resolution had been passed.

The Chinese intervention certainly stopped the UN-forces from winning the war and uniting Korea under a democratic regime, and when comparing the postions of North and South Korea today one can ask wheter this benefitted the North Koreans.

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obviously south korea is not democratic.Military government ruled South Korea till 1987,treating its people tyrannically.The leader of south korea was more brutal than the King in north korea.

ahho said:

well from a film that i watched, it was mao's idea to help the korean while most of his associate dissagreed with him. So if mao did not perceived US attack on China then they wouldn't have attack.

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If US occupied north korea,it would be a very dangerous threaten to china.so it was necessary for mao to dispatch troops.This was also most generals' viewpoint

Norfolk said:

The entire Korean War was a miscalculation, sadly. The North Koreans thought that they could overrun South Korea before anyone could intervene to stop them. The United States thought that China would never intervene against them. The Chinese thought that they could whip the Americans and drive them out of Korea. And everyone kind of fumbled around for the last two years or so of the war because no-one wanted to lose, but no-one could quite figure out how to win, either.

Militarily though, the war had the effect of spurring the Americans to rebuild their conventional forces since the nuclear deterent that they thought would, well, deter, anyone from fighting them didn't quite work out. And militarily, it proved both the fighting power of Chinese troops against UN troops from all over the world; but it also proved how badly (and expensive in loss of life) even good infantry without adequate heavy weapons support (not that China could have done anything about that at the time anyway) would often fare against often mediocre infantry that had more heavy weapons support than anyone else had in warfare up to that time. The result was strategic stalemate.

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To my knowledge, the Chinese political leadership didn't expect the Korean War to be a cakewalk; they had no illusions about the strength of American military power. Apparently, Mao paced his study for sixty hours before finally rolling the dice; this was after Stalin had continuously prodded him and promised air support (which never came).

The Korean War was an act of imperialism,and yes the war starded by the North Koreans.Thy would haved one but the Soviet Union was not present to veto the UN involvment in the war.:coffee:

to my knowledge China sent troops to Korea, not after Mao Zedong met with Stalin.
When the Korean War started, Mao Zedong immediately dispatched several Army troops to the China - North Korea border, known as border guards, once they are in China's civil war, the fighting in the region over the forces, but also elite troops.
With the North Korea military was defeated, Pyongyang was occupied, Kim Il-sung, fled into the mountains north of the border, Mao Zedong's request to send troops, after a night of consideration, Mao ordered border forces quietly went into North Korea border mountains area, and hiding there. While the UN troops in the northern mountain area combat with the residual North Korea troops , the Chinese army is also involved in a small-scale fighting, but the U.S. military not know.
the fighting subsided for a period of time that Mark arthur thought the North Korean army already have all escaped, but 300,000 chinese troops hiding in the north mountain area of North Korea, waiting for the opportunity, there is also commander Peng Dehuai plan military operations in this mountain area.
When the UN forces large-scale entered to the north mountain area of North Korea, the Chinese army launched a military offensive to the UN troops, while Chinese army from China entered to North Korea, from northwest to southeast direction attack UN troops,with the hiding northern mountains of Chinese army operation, UN troops were surrounded and separated,
All of these occurre and Mao Zedong visited Soviet Union almost the same time, it is difficult to distinguish the right time,after Mao Zedong return to China the war officially announced.