History on Air

Revision of History

Christian Petrie — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:51:06 GMT

“History is written by the victors.” – Winston Churchill

When I read about history, I want to be presented with a complete view of the event or person. I never enjoy it when someone presents history skewed to their perspective. Yet, I enjoy reading history when something is presented in a new light.

If you are going to report on something historically, I believe that you need to be neutral on all aspects to it, never lean towards one side or another. This might seem naive on my part, but I think if you do this, then you present a clear picture of what happened. The outcome will remain the same, but with accurate facts.

Currently I am reading Grant by Jean Edward Smith, which is about Ulysses S. Grant. On the back of the book it states ’... today Grant is remembered as a brilliant general but a failed president’. In the preface the following statements are made:

In the White House, he dominated the country’s political scene for eight years, providing the stability that steadied the nation after years of war and upheaval. Yet his president has been denounced by most historians…”

… attributed the denigration of Grant’s presidency to the fact that his enemies wrote better than his friends.

In this book, the author is trying to present Grant in a new viewpoint. He reporting Grant’s life, without the bias that turned our perspective on him. How history has treated Grant, supports Winston Churchill when he said that history is written by the victors. Even if the person is not the victor, history can still alter the perspective of the person. This is a great example of presenting someone in a new light, without being biased.

For another example, what do you first remember about Custer’s Last Stand when growing up? Do you remember him as a valiant warrior standing up against the Indians? Or is it from high school when you learned how he foolishly attacked a stronger force then his? The story of Custer’s Last Stand shows how history can create a hero, yet over time the truth comes out, showing a more accurate viewpoint of him. In this case, it was due to the efforts of his wife that led to him being remembered as a valiant hero. It was only after her death that people started to review what actually happened. The way Custer is remembered is due to someone skewing the perspective of an event towards their own goals.

Naturally there are times when new information is discovered that leads to viewing a historical event, or person, in a new light. The release of sealed records or other unknown documents can alter our view point. There are still times, when we may not know what happened and an assumption needs to be made. Should an assumption have to be made, it should reflect an accurate possibility, instead of a biased possibility.

Recently, I saw that there is some speculation on James Buchanan being the first homosexual president. This speculation stems from the 15 years he lived with William King, Franklin Pierce’s vice-president. There is no clear information about this relationship, so I question how accurate is it? Any letters between the two men were destroyed by other people. So where does the person gather the information from to make the assumption? Is it an accurate assumption or is it biased towards someone’s own goals? Yes, there are times when assumptions have to be made regarding history, but the person making that assumption needs to make an accurate possibility based on limited information.

An example of trying to make an accurate possibility is The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. He admits that the scenes he writes about H.H. Holmes murdering his victims, only Holmes and the victims knew what happened. He tries to make it accurate based upon limited information. It is presented in a manner where you believe it that it could have happened that way.

History does need to be studied, learned from, and understood. It is possible for history to be reevaluated with new information or looking at it in a new light. But if we start changing history to suit our own needs and ends, then we alter what has come before us. An open mind should be kept when researching or studying history. If an assumption has to be made, then the best care needs to be done in presenting an accurate possibility.

A War Lost in History

Christian Petrie — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:50:47 GMT

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878 was the last war fought between the Russians and the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. This war was primarily fought between the Russians and the Ottoman Empire over the issue of the Balkans. The origins of the war started almost a decade before the war began.

Pan-Slaivc Movement in Russia
In the 1860’s Pan-Slavism started to become popular in Russia. This movement consisted of an idea to unite the Slavic people of eastern and central Europe into a political and cultural union. Within Russia, this movement wanted the Slavic people to be protected from both Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian rule. Of course this rule would be replaced with Russian rule under the Tsar. This caused problems within Russia, as the government had to balance what was good for the country versus what the people wanted. This split even carried over to members of the government. Even though Tsar Alexander II was a Pan-Slavic sympathizer, he still tried to do what was best for Russia. When it came to the rebellions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Bulgaria that started the path to the Russo-Turkish War, he did not see any benefit for Russia in intervening. However, in the end, it was due to the popularity of Pan-Slavism that led to Russia entering into war with the Ottomans.

The Beginning of War
Build up to the war started during the summer of 1875. At that time, there was an uprising in the Ottoman Provence of Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Ottomans. The reason for this uprising was the burdens of taxes the Ottoman Empire placed on them to help the Empire, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina wanting their freedom, and the harsh treatment of the Catholic Croat and Orthodox Serbs. This rebellion was limited to just Bosnia and Herzegovina, but was of interest to the Pan-Slavic Movement in Russia as an opportunity to advance their cause.

After this uprising started, a rebellion began in Bulgaria in the spring of 1876. Both rebellions helped to push the Pan-Slavic movement even further. Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Turks in both aid of the rebels and in hopes of acquiring the two rebellious Ottoman provinces. Once the Ottoman Empire started to deal with the rebellions, Russia and Serbia came to the aid of these countries. However, Russia had ready been planning how to fight a war against the Ottomans in Europe. It had originally started as a staff exercise due to the possible threat of a war in the area.

During this same time, other major powers tried to reach solutions to the problem. Germany and Austria-Hungary started by meeting with Russia and began work on what would become known as The Berlin Memorandum in May 1876. The Berlin Memorandum failed because Britain did not approve it, even though France and Italy had. When this failed, it was followed by the Reichstadt Agreement in July 1876 between Russia and Austria-Hungary. This paved the way for a conference in Constantinople. This conference involved a final attempt to resolve the Balkan uprising, which was reaching a critical state in Europe. Unfortunately, the conference failed, and on April 24, 1877 the tenth Russo-Turkish War began.

Start of the War
When the war started, Russia had an upper hand. They had made an agreement with Austria-Hungary in January, so Russia did not have to worry about interference from them. In fact, Austria-Hungary would remain neutral during the course of the war. Germany decided to remain neutral as well, while France and Italy opted to stay out of the war. Britain decided to stay out of the way, but it did monitor the situation in case it started to look like Constantinople would fall. The fighting of the war would be centered into two areas, the Balkan Peninsula and the Caucasus. However, the main focus would be the Balkan Peninsula.

War in the Balkans
As mentioned earlier, the Russians had started to plan for a war with the Ottomans. It was in early 1877 that the Russians started to gather information on the Ottoman’s military. From this information, the Russians started to prepare their war plans. The first act by the Russians in the Balkans was to secure the Danube River. Once secured, the Russians controlled the Danube, and could cross at any time they wanted to. During this early part of the war, the Ottomans helped the Russians, by not trying any proactive movements against them. Instead they waited to see what the Russians would do. This was seen in the initial battles between the Russians and the Ottomans. During these battles, the Ottomans opted not to attack first. Once the Russians crossed the Danube, the Ottomans started playing ‘catch-up’ with them, which allowed the Russians to make easy progress through the Balkans.

On June 26th, the Russians finally crossed the Danube and encountered little or no resistance at Svishtove. Thus making the crossing easier for the them. As the Russian army marched west towards Nikopol, they sent a small detachment of four divisions under Jospeh Gourko to capture the passes in the Balkan Mountains. While marching to Nikopol, the Ottomans sent General Osman Pasha from Vidin to fortify Nikopol. As he was heading towards it, the Russians captured it on the July 16th. At this point, he altered course to secure Pleven.

While the Russians were capturing Nikopol, Gourko was attacking the Ottomans at Shipka Pass. After two days of fighting, the Russians were able to secure the pass on the 19th. By this time, part of the Russian army had reached Pleven. The initial attack had moved the Turkish from the outer defenses, but Pasha, who had reached Pleven before the Russians, was able to push the Russians back. The Ottomans were finally able to hold the Russians at bay. The quick advance the Russians had made was now stalled.

Part of the Ottomans being able to stall the Russians was due to the heavy fortifications the Ottomans established at Pleven. Unknown to both sides at this time, was what would become a siege of Plevna. The siege lasted from July 20th to December 12th. Before this siege, tensions had started mounting among England and Germany over Russia’s advances. Bismarck, as he had in the past, was trying to get all of the Ottoman Empire split up, while England was not interested in it. In order to avoid getting pulled into a war with the Ottomans, England decided to wait and declare war only if the Russians occupied Constantinople. With Plevna, the Russians were held at bay during the rest of the year, which allowed tensions to ease among the Great Powers.

With both forces tied up with the siege, there were no major engagements during the summer in the Balkans. In August, Suleiman Pasha, a Turikish leader, tried to retake Shipka Pass. This attempt failed, as the Russians had built up their defenses to secure the pass. The Turks tried one last time in Sepetember to take the pass, but failed.

The Turks maintained a supply and communication line through Lovcha for Plevna. The Russians attacked on September 1st. After two days of fighting, the fortress fell, ensuring that Plevna would fall eventually. Still, it was not until October 24th, that the Russians finally settled in to cut off Plevna completely. There had been sporadic attempts by the Russians against Plevna, but they could not break through the Turkish defenses.

General Eduar Ivanocih Todleben decided to cut off all supplies to the city. This began with Gourko being called from Shipka Pass to start eliminating the garrisons that supplied Plevna. With these efforts Pleven was completely cut off. Osman had tried to retreat at one point, but was not given approval by the Ottoman high command.

The end of the siege began on December 9th. With being practically starved out, Osman tried one last attempt to escape pass the Russians. Unfortunately, the Russians had 100,000 men compared to 30,000 Turks. The escape failed, and Osman was injured during the battle. Finally, on December 10th, the Turks surrendered Plevna to the Russians. The stalemate had finished, and the Russians were free to march toward Sofia. They reached Sofia by January 4th. Their next target was Constantinople.

War in the Caucasus
Even though the Balkans was the focus of the war, it was also fought in the Caucasus as well. The war in the Caucasus started on April 27th, in which the Russians captured Bayazid. Following up with this, they also captured Ardahan and Gayar. However, in June they attempted to take Kars, but were repelled back by the Turks. The Turks counterattacked the Russians between June and August and started to turn the tide against the Russians. The Russians launched their own counterattack in October and were able to push the Turks back.

Ending the War
Even before the Russians reached Sofia, the Ottomans tried to end the war. They asked the major powers to step in and mediate an end to the war. Even though there were those in Britain anxious to end it, both the British Parliament and Germany did not want to intervene. After Sofia was captured, the Ottomans again asked for an armistice, this time the Russians agreed. On January 31st the armistice agreement was made. Things still did not settle down, as the British sent its fleet to protect Constantinople. The British sent the fleet, because they thought the Russian’s were advancing to capture Constantinople. What the British did not know, was that part of the agreement was, the Russians would occupy Turkish territory close to Constantinople. The Russians ended their march at San Stefano.

The Treaty of San Stefano and Treaty of Berlin
Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of San Stefano to end the war. In it, concessions were made that were favorable to Russia. The main area affected by the treaty was the Ottoman’s loss of control over the Balkans. The territory held by the Ottomans in the Balkans was either granted independence or the ability to self-govern. Montenegro, Romania, and, Serbia were granted independence, while Bulgaria became a self-governing principality with an elected prince. In addition to those concessions, Montenegro, Romania, and, Serbia were granted extra land as well. The Ottomans also promised to provide reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Russians also received war reparations from the Ottomans. This included the Russians receiving Armenian and Georgian territories in the Caucasus.

However, this treaty did not sit well with the Great Powers and a new treaty was created which altered the terms. Because all of agreements favored Russia, the Great Powers were concerned that Bulgaria would become a Russian satellite that could give them more control in the area. This led to the Berlin Congress in June. Montenegro, Romania, and, Serbia were still recognized as independent states but not given the extra land. Bulgaria was divided into three parts which reduced its access to the Aegean Sea, and Macedonia was to remain under Ottoman rule. Bosnia and Herzegovina was given to Austria to control, yet still part of the Ottoman Empire. Russia still received the land in the Caucasus.

Conclusion
The Ottoman Empire was already in a decline before the war, the war helped to continue the decline. Eventually, the Empire would be dissolved by the events of World War I. Even though the Russians achieved the victory in the war, their gains were hampered by the other Great Powers. Because of Great Britain’s role in the treaty revision, it led to strained relations between the two countries. Additionally, the unified Slavic nation did not appear after the war and the results of the treaty would eventually lead to other problems. The issue of the Balkans would continue into the next century, where things came to a head in World War I.

Map References
War in the Balkans
War in the Caucasus

Web Articles
Balkan Crisis and The Treaty of Berlin: 1878 by L. S. Stavrianos
Meosophilism Amongst the Lemko Population in the Twentieth Century by Paul Best
Virtual War, Virtual Journalism?: Russian Media Responses to ‘Balkan’ Entaglements in Historical Perspective, 1877-2001 by Steven J. Seegel
The Encyclopedia of World History

Books
Conflict and Chaos in Eastern Europe
Dennis P. Hupchick; Palgrave MacMillian; 1995

Reforming the Tsar’s Army
Bruce W. Menning & David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye; Cambridge University Press; 2004

Ship of Mystery

Christian Petrie — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 16:41:28 GMT

There are many events in history where you mention a name and everyone knows what you are talking about. You mention the name Mary Celeste and many people will recall a ghost ship. The ship where everyone vanished without a trace. However, can they name where it was headed to, how many people vanished, and what happened to it? As with history there is more to it than a name. When you learn the story of the Mary Celeste, you find there’s a lot of history behind the ship originally named Amazon in Nova Scotia that found a final end in Haiti.

The Mary Celeste began life as the Amazon and was a brigante, or also known as a hermaphrodite brig. Her length was between 100 to 103 feet in length. She was built in 1861, near the end of the Age of Sail, at Spencer’s Island in Nova Scotia. She continued life as the Amazon, until late 1868/early 1869, when she ran aground at Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island, in Nova Scotia. After this accident, she was repaired and put up at a New York salvage auction, where she was sold for somewhere between $3,000 and $10,000 and renamed to the Mary Celeste The new owners were James H. Winchester, Sylvester Goodwin, and Benjamin Spooner Briggs.

On November 7, 1872, the Mary Celeste shipped out from Staten Island, New York, headed toward Genoa, in Italy. The night before leaving port, Captain Briggs had dinner with Captain David Reed Morehouse, captain of the Dei Gratia. This is important to note, because the next ship to see the Mary Celeste after it left port, was the Dei Gratia. The cargo consisted of 1,701 barrels of alcohol. This cargo plays a hand in the fate of the Mary Celeste, and other theories about the disappearance of the people on board.

It was between the Azores and Portugal when she was seen again, on the 4th of December. Captain Morehouse first spotted the Mary Celeste, noted that it was drifting, and followed it for almost two hours before sending men over to it. Popular mythology has the Mary Celeste in perfect condition, with food still left on the table, as if the people got up and left it behind. This is not quite from the case. You have to keep in mind the Mary Celeste was sailing across the Atlantic ocean in winter, which can be rough for any ship at that time of year.

When the men from the Dei Gratia boarded the Mary Celeste they found ship to be completely soaked. There was lots of water between the decks, with about 3 feet of water in the hold. Of the two pumps used for pumping water out, only one of them was operable. In the hold the cargo appeared to be intact, even though it was unbalanced. When the cargo was unloaded, it was later found out that nine of the barrels were empty. In addition there still was a six month supply of food and water still on board.

On the upper deck of the ship the forehatch and the lazarette (a hatch located in the aft of the ship), were both opened and the main halyard was found broken and hanging over the side. Important navigation tools like the sextant and marine chronometer were missing, the compass destroyed, and the ship’s clock was not functioning. The captain’s logbook was there, with the last entry was dated November 24th. The ship’s slate, last dated November 25th, showed she had made it past the island of St. Mary. The crew had also left behind their oil skin boots and pipes. The obvious question arose: Where did everyone go?

After some discussion, it was decided to split the crew of Dei Gratia with one half going on board the Mary Celeste, to sail it to Gibraltar. Once in Gibraltar, in order to claim the salvaging rights for the Mary Celeste, the crew of the Dei Gratia had to go through a Court Hearing. It would have been a simple hearing, if it had not been for CourtFrederick Solly Flood. From the beginning he started to turn it into a trial of the crew of the Dei Gratia. He believed that they had something to do with the disappearance of those on board the Mary Celeste.

Because of the events that happened in Gibraltar, the Mary Celeste started to become a famous ghost ship. The simple method is write the ship off, give the Dei Gratia crew their money, end of the story. The hearing starts what becomes in time, the different stories of what happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste.

Frederick Flood starts by saying that the Dei Gratia got drunk on the alcohol that the Mary Celeste was shipping, then in their drunken state killed the crew. This theory is eliminated because the alcohol on board the Mary Celeste would probably kill you if you drank it. The next theory, Briggs and Morehouse conspired together, with Briggs killing the crew then meeting up with Morehouse, who killed him. Well, this falls flat because the money from salvaging ship would not cover the costs of owning the ship, which Briggs was a part owner. Additional accusations brought up, until the Admiralty Court brings it to an end. Though instead of the full amount for the salvage, the court awards the crew of the Dei Gratia a partial salvage.

From the court hearing, any type of crew murder can be discounted, because no blood was found the Mary Celeste. Testimony by crewman Oliver Deveau and Dr. J. Parton show that no blood was found on board the Mary Celeste. This still did not prevent additional speculations over time have involved murder, even a 1935 movie staring Belia Lougsi. The accusations of murder did increase interest in the story of the Mary Celeste, but eventually people started to forget about it, for the time being. It would not be until after the Mary Celeste was gone did interest began again.

Even though the salvage rights had been settle, what to do with the Mary Celeste? The Mary Celeste went through many hands for the next 12 years, until a fateful trip to Haiti. On its final trip, the Mary Celeste was loaded with boots and cat food, then deliberately ran aground on a coral reef, in order for it to sink and the owner to collect the insurance money for it. Unfortunately for the owner, the ship did not completely sink, and the case of insurance fraud was found out. The Mary Celeste was left to be consumed by the coral reef.

Interest in the Mary Celeste had died down, but what started to make it so memorable after all these years. At the time the crew and passengers vanished off the Mary Celeste, other similar incidents occurred as well. The interest had increased because of Fredrick Flood, but once the case was settled it went away. Then in 1884 a story was published called J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement. This story talked about a ship called the Marie Celeste and how its crew vanished. When it was found, the tea was still hot in the cups on board. Many people took this story to be the actual story about the Mary Celeste. Examples from the book started to mix in with the true story, that people believed the fiction. It did help its author find some fame, his name was Arthur Conan Doyle.

From this point additional stories or theories started coming out. There was one person who claimed to be a stowaway on the ship who watched the crew get eaten by sharks, you had people claiming giant squids attacked the ship, or that the Bermuda Triangle was involved. Movies and TV added their own twists for stories as well. But what did happen to the crew?

When you do a search on the Mary Celeste you will come across different theories, but there is one the appears to be most likely what happened. If you remember back to the story, when they opened the barrels of alcohol up, a few of them were empty. Before this voyage, Captain Briggs never took a shipment of this type of alcohol before. Depending on circumstances, it could explode. Based on recent tests, what probably happened is the crew opened the holds to check on the alcohol and either smelled the leaking alcohol, or the rush of air in caused a large rush of fumes and steam out of the hold.

Either way the captain, or everyone, thought the ship was about to exploded. They boarded the lifeboat, and floated a safe distance away. Then the rope attaching them to the ship broke and they could not catch up with the ship. This explanation backs up the open hold doors, the missing life boat, and the rope over the edge of the rails. Another sound explanation is the ship encountered a waterspout, a water tornado, that gave the effect of the ship sinking, in which case everyone boarded the lifeboat and the similar event occurred where the rope broke.

Unfortunately, with how much time has passed, we might never know the definite answer to the mystery of the Mary Celeste, but it is one ghost ship that will continue to fascinate us.

Sources
The Mary Celeste- Fact not Fiction
What Really Happened to the Mary Celeste
Occultopedia: Mary Celeste
The Mystery of the Mary Celeste
NOAA History: Sinbad’s Genie and the Mary Celeste

Not Dead But Forgotten

Kenneth L — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 16:40:56 GMT

In North Korea, it’s known as the Fatherland Liberation War. In China, it’s called the War to Resist America and Aid Korea. In the US, it was long referred to as a “police action”, or the Korean Conflict, to avoid necessitating a declaration of war from Congress (though now “Korean War” is the generally acknowledged term). If anything, it is the Forgotten War, the one that people can generally name but don’t know anything about.

More than an expansionist war between North and South Korea, it was a proxy battleground where the major fighters were Communism and Democracy, climaxing the early tensions of the Cold War in a protracted and ultimately pointless fight that served for little more than to maintain the status quo in Korea. But what was the status quo, and how did it come to be the status quo?

Lead-up to conflict

The beginning of tensions between the northern and southern halves of Korea has its roots in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. As part of its territorial gains in the war, Japanese troops occupied the Korean peninsula, eventually annexing it by force in 1910.

Korea remained a Japanese colony through World War II. In 1945, the US coaxed the Soviet Union into declaring war on Japan. Once war was declared, Russian troops and armor quickly overran the northern half of Korea, halting at the 38th latitudinal parallel while American troops worked their way up the peninsula from the south, also halting at the 38th. This divided the peninsula into clearly divided occupation zones, one under the communist USSR and the other under the democratic USA, which later led to the formation of a communist North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and a democratic South Korea (the Republic of Korea), split at the 38th parallel. Kim Il-sung assumed control of North Korea, and Syngman Rhee was elected President of South Korea.

Each leader began to contemplate the possibility and displayed intentions of reuniting Korea, each under their own political system. Several border skirmishes occurred throughout 1949, but at the time these were seen as mere fantasies, not anything that either leader seriously planned to expand and act upon.

But the skeptics were soon proven wrong.

The real Korean War: North Korea vs. South Korea

On June 25, 1950, North Korea declared war on South Korea, ostensibly with the intent to “liberate” it and unite all of Korea under a single, communist government. North Korean forces armed with weapons provided by Stalin’s USSR rolled across the 38th parallel under the cover of a hail of artillery fire. Though their equipment, including 242 mostly outdated Soviet tanks, was negligible and often obsolete, they still held the advantage in terms of matériel. Though they didn’t have any real navy, the North Koreans used their fledging air force of 180 planes to some effect. Their greatest weakness, however, lied in their lack of logistics infrastructure, stop-gapped through the use of many thousands of Korean peasants forced to hand-carry supplies through the rugged terrain of the peninsula, many times for hundreds of miles.

But the South was in a worse position. Facing off the North’s 135,000 soldiers were 65,000 of poor training and lacking in armor, artillery, and air support in even the basest sense. By June 28, North Korea had captured the South Korean capitol of Seoul and was understandably expectant of quick surrender. But it was not to be, because this little conflict on a peninsula that, globally, was of little military importance had roused the interest of giants.

Start of the Proxy War

Outside Korea, the war took the world by complete surprise.

Harry Truman feared the start of World War III. The UN came together and made a resolution the same day the invasion started, calling for three conditions to be met:

all hostilities must end and North Korea must withdraw across the 38th parallel
for a UN Commission to be formed to oversee the situation in Korea
for all UN members to help achieve this end and refrain from providing assistance of any sort to North Korea

US President Harry Truman decided, for reasons both political and personal, that the best course of action to take would be to send in the troops. To keep it from being debated and possibly blocked by Congress, he named his plan a “police action” and secured approval from the UN. His declaring it a “police action” as opposed to a war meant that Congress did not have to approve a declaration of war and Truman could get the troops into action faster without fear of being blocked. Though America at the time generally supported the war, this action would lead to its being called “Truman’s War” and quite a bit of criticism. The US, together with Britain, Canada, Australia, and twelve other UN members (with the US and Britain shouldering most of the troop strength), gathered forces and began to unload troops in the South Korean-held tip of the peninsula. The first to arrive were US Marines launched from bases in Japan, along with US General Douglas MacArthur, great hero of the Second World War’s Pacific theater.

The initial cluster of jumbled troops was named Task Force Smith and rushed into battle to hold the North Koreans back at Osan. They lost with heavy casualties and were forced to make a hasty retreat, one that cost their commander General William Dean, who was captured and became a prisoner of war.

Defeat after defeat followed. The remaining American and South Korean troops set up a hasty, last-ditch defense around the coastal city of Pusan and prepared to make a stand. Lieutenant General William Walker began a deadly tactical dance with the North Koreans, who ended up making the mistake of attempting a broad flanking maneuver instead of concentrating their forces, which might have led to victory. Massive American supply efforts and aggressive air support opened up some breathing room for UN forces to bring in reinforcements and set up a moderately secure front line along the Nakdong River and around the small chunk of the peninsula that they still controlled, which came to be called the Pusan Perimeter. A desperate holding action ensued, with day-long battles against North Korean forces a common occurrence all along the line.

The “Battle of Pusan Perimeter” raged on. American B-29 bombers based in Japan flew dozens of missions a day, destroying rail lines and roads critical for North Korean supply operations and blowing dozens of strategically critical bridges. They leveled cities and ports, bombed industrial centers and choked off crucial supply lines. Food and ammunition began to reach dangerously low levels and thousands of North Korea’s forces succumbed to starvation or deserted to the enemy. All the while, American and UN troops, now finally including tank battalions and artillery groups rushed all the way from the US, were constantly being poured into the tenuous foothold the UN maintained around Pusan, to the point where UN forces grew to number about 180,000 troops. Across the river, the North Korean troop count fell to about 100,000. North Korea had failed to seize Pusan and capture the peninsula. Now it was the UN’s turn to go on the offensive.

Breakout from Pusan: Operation Chromite

General MacArthur now proposed a daring plan that he had been incubating for several months. In order to cut off the North Korean troops’ supply lines and route of retreat, he proposed an amphibious assault to seize the coastal city of Inchon, code-named Operation Chromite. After seizing the city, mechanized divisions would race across the peninsula and ring in the North Korean troops, who would then be forced to surrender or die.

It was a dangerous initiative. Fickle tides could cause sea levels low enough to scuttle or trap the troop ships that would be necessary, which meant that careful planning and a defined window of opportunity were required. If the tides went down, troops already in Inchon could be stranded, without hope of resupply or reinforcement until the next high tide. MacArthur insisted, however, that the gamble was necessary, and that he could make it work. The pivotal point of his plan, however, lay in the US Marines, which at the time were a severely weakened and mal-equipped force due to Defense Secretary Louis Johnson’s attempts to scrap what he saw as an unnecessary component of the armed forces. They were undermanned and lacked landing craft. In order to solve these problems, MacArthur stripped every nook and cranny of Pusan and the Japanese bases of Marine Corps members and pressed aging World War II-era landing craft back into service. Admiral James Doyle summed up the plan by telling MacArthur that “the best I can say is that Inchon is not impossible.”

After receiving a grudging green-light from Washington, DC, MacArthur pushed ahead. On September 15, 1950, Marines, Army regulars, and South Korean troops stormed the beaches of Inchon from small amphibious assault craft, soon followed by larger ships that rolled heavy armor off right onto the beaches. Once they established a foothold, the Marines quickly overran the defenders and charged straight across the peninsula as planned. The North Koreans, finally realizing the vulnerability of their positions, began a hasty retreat that ran straight into the waiting troops. Of the 90,000-100,000 troops that started the retreat, only about 25,000 broke out and made it back across the 38th parallel. Operation Chromite was a sensational success.

With the North Koreans pitched back across the 38th, the UN had achieved all the goals it had intended to achieve. South Korea was free again and the North Korean army was in ruin. But the United States decided to press on, hoping to reverse the war and reunite Korea under democratic rule. In October 1950, having received UN approval, US forces rolled across the border. Further amphibious landings and bombing campaigns decimated resistance and secured victory. Having seized over 135,000 prisoners from the reeling North Korean army, UN troops marched into the North Korean capitol of Pyongyang within days. Kim Il-sung escaped across the border into China, where he continued to attempt to orchestrate a resistance to the American advance.

China enters the war

But this rollback policy would have serious repercussions. The Chinese began to fear that US troops would not stop at the Yalu River, the border between Korea and China, but instead try to continue by taking the war to China itself and overthrowing its communist government. It is true that many westerners, including General MacArthur himself, advocated this invasion, but President Truman and other leaders feared a showdown with the USSR and ordered MacArthur to keep away from China. Nevertheless, MacArthur did order some inconsequential bombing raids on North Korean bases in Manchuria during late September and early October.

China began to show signs of a growing reaction. Neutral diplomats warned of a Chinese military intervention in order to protect its “national security.” These were mostly dismissed, especially by CIA operatives who reported that they were empty rhetoric.

On October 8, Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered a gathering of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, which mostly consisted of elements of the government’s People’s Liberation Army, and had them march to Manchuria, where they set up positions on the northern banks of the Yalu and waited while Zedong sought support from Russia. Russia agreed to very limited support, namely consisting of air cover (the Chinese had no air force to speak of) for a range of up to sixty miles past the Yalu. The Soviets’ new, technologically advanced MiG-15s, painted in People’s Republic of China colors but flown by Soviet pilots, began to inflict serious casualties on the US’ older, lumbering P-80 Shooting Stars, which couldn’t fly as quickly or maneuver as well. This eventually led to an extraordinary rush by the US to turn out a competitor, which quickly came in the form of the new F-86 Sabre aircraft. Showdowns between packs of MiGs and Sabres in “MiG Alley” continued for the rest of the war, with neither side admitting the openly known fact that these were Soviet and American pilots having at each other, the one case where the Cold War became an actual, physical fight.

Having secured this limited support from the Soviets, PVA troops struck out in a sudden, surprise strike across the Yalu. 270,000 troops under the command of General Peng Dehuai attacked all across the UN line, then melted back into the mountains. Taking this as a sign of weakness, UN forces pressed on to the Yalu. In November, they met the Chinese again, who this time struck and crumpled the UN’s flank, under the domain of South Korean troops, and dealt heavy blows to UN troops. What followed was a chaotic and disorganized rout, nothing short of a disaster. UN troops retreated hundreds of miles in a panic. 15,000 out of 30,000 US infantrymen died when busting through Chinese encirclement at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. After inflicting tremendous casualties on several Chinese divisions, the Marines were also forced to retreat with heavy losses.

Again the UN troops were forced to scratch out a perimeter, this time around the port of Hungnam. In a fighting retreat through the city’s streets, US troops blew up large portions of the city in order to keep them from the enemy (and ended up depriving many Koreans of shelter in the middle of winter) and kept fighting even as they were loading onto ships to be evacuated to Pusan.

China’s Winter and Spring Offensives

Chinese and North Korean troops quickly seized the initiative. Using devastating night attacks with superior numbers, the Chinese quickly destroyed UN resistance and threw them back, out of Seoul (which fell on the fourth of January, 1951). The UN line only stabilized when the Chinese had to halt their advance due to supply problems. With American planes bombing and strafing the countryside, supplies had to be moved on foot or at night, causing tremendous logistics problems for the PVA. While the Chinese dealt with these issues, Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway, the new Eighth Army commander, quickly exploited their lapse to mount a counteroffensive, named Operation Roundup. The Americans were quickly learning and adapting to the Chinese Army’s tactics, and coming up with methods to successfully fight them. As such, Operation Roundup and its follow-ups, Operations Killer and Ripper, fought through heavy resistance and several counteroffensives to regain lost territory and, on March 14, 1951, Seoul.

But all was not well. General MacArthur was removed from command by President Truman on counts of insubordination. Truman likely feared that MacArthur would go through with the plans he was pushing to attack China, which included the use of nuclear weapons. Ridgway assumed command and continued the offensive operations despite widespread protests over MacArthur’s removal.

UN troops continued to make progress, passing the 38th parallel and taking the war back into North Korea. In April, however, the Chinese launched a large-scale Spring Offensive, involving as many as 700,000 men (the exact numbers are unclear). The Eighth Army rallied and gained back lost ground, however. It was the last major offensive action of the war.

Negotiations and the end of the war

Having established Line Kansas a few miles north of the 38th, UN troops dug in and decided to wait the next few weeks out. With this, the stalemate that defined the rest of the war set in. Peace negotiations opened on July 10, 1951 at Kaesong (though fighting continued throughout) and did not end until a cease-fire was enacted on July 23, 1953. At that time the border was redrawn at the 38th parallel, where a demilitarized zone (DMZ) was set up, sown with mines and protected on either side by trenches, barbed wire, and trigger-happy Koreans. It persists to this day. In effect, the several years of fighting and millions of deaths, civilian as well as military, had served for nothing.

Legacies of the Korean War

The Korean War saw many advances in military strategy and technology, most notably in the area of military aviation. The first jet fighters saw their baptism by fire in the Korean War, which when it begun was still being fought with propellor-driven, World War II-era fighters and bombers like the P-51 Mustang and the B-29 Superfortress. The US also started to bring in P-80 Shooting Stars, early jet fighters with straight wings and a rather rudimentary engine design. These Shooting Stars were proven obsolete in dogfights with the Soviets’ MiG-15s: swept-wing, centralized-intake fighters, they had vast advantages over the P-80 in speed and maneuverability, mostly because their swept-wings counteracted the force of drag working on the aircraft, which the Shooting Stars with their straight wings were prone to. In an incredibly quick response, the US contracted, developed, and produced the F-86 Sabre fighter, which employed the same principles as the MiG-15 (though to somewhat greater effect) to rival the Soviets’ technology, going straight from prototype to mass-production. This glimpse at Soviet aircraft afforded the US a chance to play catch up with the Air Force and usher it into the new era of jet aircraft.

Another important advance was MASH, the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which had been developed towards the end of 1945 to take advantage of technology that allowed for highly mobile and portable Army medical stations of differing grades to be quickly set up near to a battle zone to get the wounded faster care, which is proven to lead to higher success rates in saving soldiers from wounds. What the Korean War contributed, however, was the helicopter. Fast, nimble helicopters could get to battles and lift out wounded troops on stretchers to get them to MASH units even faster, which led to another huge increase in the survival rates of the wounded. This system of rapid and highly mobile medical aid (slightly improved upon, naturally) continues to be used by armies to this day.

Is the Korean War over?

The ceasefire is long since signed and Kim Il-sung is dead, but his son and successor Kim Jong-il is worrisome. Besides establishing one of the largest armies in the world, the North Korean dictator is known (or speculated, depending on who one chooses listen to) to be pursuing nuclear and other mass-effect weapons. Will we see a repeat of the Korean War of the fifties? The tensions remain the same, the base players remain the same, and Korean politics have become a volatile mix, as dangerous and potentially explosive as the land mines that seed the DMZ. It is a ticking time bomb, and what remains to be seen is if someone will manage to defuse it or if someone will cut the wrong wire and set it off.