Korean War Overview

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Korean War Overview

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Before we go into the actual conflict
of the Korean War,
let's try to get a sense of the historical environment
going into the Korean War.
So if you go all the way back
to the late 1800s [and] early 1900s,
the Korean peninsula,
what we now consider both North and South Korea,
they were occupied by the Japanese military.
Then, in 1910, the Korean peninsula [was]
formally annexed into the Japanese empire.
So, the Japanese are essentially this colonial,
this imperialist power here.
And they stay in power in the Korean peninsula
all the way until the end of World War II.
And it's probably worth saying here
--it's probably worth maybe
doing a bunch of videos here --
that the Japanese occupation
was not a pleasant occupation for the Korean people.
They subjugated the Korean people in multiple ways:
forced labor; forced prostitution;
they tried to kind of eradicate the Korean language
and the Korean culture.
So this was not in a any way a pleasant occupation.
They weren't pleasant imperialists.
But we fast forward all the way to 1945,
we know that Japan loses World War II.
And, the major two victors on the Allied side
-- that are kind of acting in this part of the world --
are the United States and the Soviet Union.
And so, [in] 1945,
you have the Soviets coming from above [the north],
That's the Soviets, coming from above.
and eventually you have the Americans
coming from below.
They occupy Japan first. So this is the USA.
And they essentially, you remember, at this point
-- even though this is kind of
the beginning of the Cold War --
at this point in WWII,
the United States and the Soviet Union are allies.
And so, the United States
kind of tells the Soviet Union,
"Hey, why don't we just stop at the 38th parallel?"
And the United States didn't even think
that the Soviets would stop there.
But they actually did.
And from the Soviets point of view --
-- It's believed that they stopped there --
Because the United States
didn't get there at the same time.
So, there was no one to stop them
from going further south.
But it's believed that the Soviets
wanted to uphold their side of the agreement
so that they could get --
so that they would be a trusted party
to negotiations in Europe,
and maybe get more in Europe,
which is what the Soviets maybe cared about more.
So what happens after WWII is that, the North
-- what's now North Korea, essentially, --
becomes [territory] under the influence of Soviets.
Everything below the 38th parallel
becomes under the influence of the United States.
The Soviets, essentially,
install this gentleman right over here
to lead North Korea, Kim Il Sung,
or the part of Korea that is north of the 38th parallel.
At this point, this was just kind of viewed as a point
where the Soviets and the United States should
kind of meet up, where they would have to stop.
It wasn't meant to be
an actual partition of the country.
(But as we'll see,
it actually becomes a partition of the country.)
But the Soviets install Kim Il Sung.
He sets up, essentially, a communist dictatorship,
in the north, and this is the current leader of
North Korea's dad. This is Kim Jong Il's dad.
So he gets installed in the north.
And in the South,
if you fast forward a little bit to 1948,
there's an attempt at elections,
but those elections are seriously rigged,
and this gentleman, Syngmyn Rhee, comes to power.
And although he might look like
a nice, pleasant man,
he was actually fairly ruthless,
and he is unanimously considered a strongman.
And on both sides of this, this is, once again,
this is one of those situations where
you really can't call either of these guys good guys,
'cause both of them are...have done
some pretty nasty things to each other,
to soldiers on either side, and to innocent civilians.
But Syngmyn Rhee comes to power in the south,
and his, I guess, most attractive feature
to the Americans is that he is not a communist.
And so you have this situation setting up
Communist North, above [the] 38th parallel;
noncommunist South, controlled by Syngmyn Rhee,
supported by the United States.
The other thing that happens is that
the Soviets helped
build up the North Korean military,
The United States is not as encouraging of
a strong South Korean military.
So you start having an imbalance
between the military of the north and the south.
And obviously, either one of these parties---
Kim Il Sung wants to unite North Korea under his rule
under his communist rule.
Syngmyn Rhee wants to unite Korea
under his authoritarian rule.
So they're both kind of
setting up troops along the border.
And this whole time you have skirmishes
going on across the border.
And just to give you a context,
you're probably saying, "Wait,
Korea, you know, is right next to China,
what was going on there? "
And if you go to China in 1949,
the Communists come to power,
there was a civil war leading up to that,
between the Communists led by Mao Zedong,
and the Nationalists led by Chang Kai Shek
Mao Zedong comes to power.
He wants to support the communists in North Korea,
especially because some of those
communists in North Korea actually helped fight
on the communist side during the Chinese civil war.
So this is an important factor right here.
Mao Zedong is interested in spreading Communism.
He doesn't like the Americans in South Korea.
And he feels some type of allegiance
to the communists in North Korea.
So now you fast forward to June 25, 1950.
And in the North, you have a major---
There's a lot...the North...
The North Korean army-- And it's not called
North Korea at this point.
They both consider themselves Korea --
competing, I guess, governments of Korea.
The army in the north is disproportionately stronger
than [the army in] the south.
And so they invade.
They view this as their chance
at unifying the peninsula.
And essentially they're able to almost just kind of
storm through the Korean peninsula.
Immediately when that happens,
the UN and especially the United States --
and this is because at this point,
the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council,
so they couldn't even veto it.
The UN immediately started supplying
naval and air support for the South Koreans.
But, the disparity is so big that the North Koreans
are able to just keep marching forward.
Within a few days, literally by July 1st,
the US decides to commit ground forces--
Because we had substantial ground forces in Japan,
which isn't that far away.
Just to give you a global perspective,
this is the Korean peninsula, right here;
and this is Japan. I know I could have probably
found a bigger picture of that,
but America had military forces in Japan
that they could send, and so...
and the Americans enter the force...
enter the battle in a major way very early on,
but that doesn't stop the North Koreans for some time
So the North Koreans got all the way...they're able to
occupy all of the Korean peninsula except for
kind of the northeastern corner.
They get around this far. So over here you have
the city of Pussan,
and this is called the Pussan perimeter
And it's at the Pussan perimeter that
you have a little bit of a...
the United States and the Korean forces combined
are able to halt the North Korean,
and you have a kind of a slight stalemate
for a couple of months here,
but while that stalemate is happening,
the United States is able to...
and especially the UN, but it's mainly the United States
is able to build up significant troops
within the Pussan perimeter, but even more,
and at this point, the United States or..and the UN forces
go under the control of Douglas MacArthur,
General Douglas MacArthur,
who's a bit of an interesting character.
Until this point,
he was able to kind of rule Japan with an iron fist.
He's a hugely popular war hero in America.
And the current President, Truman,
kind of has little trouble controlling MacArthur
especially during the Korean War
We'll see that MacArthur really oversteps his bounds
during the course of this war.
Now at this point,
you have the South Koreans and the Americans
kind of cornered it out down here
inside the Pussan perimeter.
It looks like North Korea is on the verge of the victory,
but the US is able to build forces.
And the Korean War really just starts
becoming into a game of Risk.
I don't know if you've ever played the game of Risk,
but whenever somebody's turn,
they are able to spread their forces
but then they get spread in.
And the other side is able to come back.
We will see that the rest of the Korean War
is essentially a back-and-forth
between the Communists in the North,
supported by the Chinese,
although the Chinese aren't in the war officially just yet;
and then the Americans in the south.
And the first really smart thing that MacArthur does
is that he says, "Look,
instead of trying to fight our way through
the Korean forces that are over here,
instead of trying to fight our way through
all of these Korean forces that are over here,
why don't we just kind of outflank them?
And why don't we use our navy
to do an amphibious landing of an army at Incheon.
So in Septmeber 15,
well you have kind of the stalemate over here.
The United States,
they have an amphibious landing,
so they send troops from all of these places.
They have an amphibious landing at Incheon
which is near Seoul.
So, they land right over... they land at Incheon,
which is roughly over there
(I'm not super accurate here).
And what's interesting about that is that in any battle,
all of these Korean troops, right here,
they have supply chains.
They have to get food, supplies,
and fresh troops from up here,
and so the further in you go into enemy territory,
the more spread-out your troops get.
And the strategy here is,
instead of fighting through this,
what if we outflank them
and are able to land a significant force right here,
[in order to] immediately disrupt the supply lines
of the North Koreans?
And that's essentially what the Americans did,
and it was successful.
So, McArthur looks like a genius over here,
and he is able to re-take Seoul;
he's able to kind of take the North Korean capital
at this point -- PyongYang --
and you have the Americans marching North.
So, all of a sudden,
it started off with the North Koreans
being able to roll down,
and all of a sudden,
the Americans and South Koreans are able to roll up,
and they're feeling pretty good about themselves.
And the whole time,
Truman's trying to keep MacArthur under check.
McArthur's excited. He's ultra-confident.
He thinks that the troops
are going to be home by Christmas.
He doesn't think China is serious
about supporting the North Koreans.
And even more, he almost--
it seems he wants to pick a fight with China
because he wants to maybe eliminate Communism
in China as well.
He's kind of, you know,
on this mission to eliminate Communism
from all of Asia.
So, Truman is saying "limit the war;
don't cross the Yalu River, and be careful.
Don't... you now, don't start attacking Chinese
up here [to] enrage them.
You're going to have them enter the war.”
MacArthur doesn't take that too seriously.
He also says,
"Look. I have to start
bombing bombs across the Yalu River,
so that the Chinese won't be able to
send troops and supplies to aid the North Koreans."
So, he's marching up, all confident,
going up against the Yalu River.
And this whole time, the Chinese, under Mao Zedong,
are sending a pretty substantial army.
They're able to do it secretly;
they're able to march at night,
and they even have these policies
where if any surveillance planes go overhead,
all of the Chinese soldiers have to freeze.
And if they don't freeze,
someone else is allowed to shoot them.
Everyone wants to freeze,
so that no one can really see them from above.
So, it's really kind of a secret build-up of troops
across the Yalu River,
and this whole time, MacArthur is just ultra...
ultra-confident about what's happening over here.
But then you fast-forward until the end of October --
the Americans think that they're on the verge
of winning the Korean War,
and all of a sudden
you have the Chinese cross the Yalu River.
The Americans didn't even know
that the Chinese had major forces ready to cross.
And now you have
--once again, it's like a game of Risk--
now you have the Chinese across;
they catch the Americans unsuspected,
they engage a few times.
The Americans weren't sure
if the Chinese were serious
and they keep re-engaging them,
but then it becomes clear:
yes, the Chinese are serious.
Essentially, the Chinese are able to
push back the Americans and the South Koreans
all the way back,
so that they are able to re-capture Seoul.
But once again, like any game of "Risk" ,
now the Chinese are spread thin;
the Americans and the South Koreans
and all the other UN forces
(altough the UN forces are mainly the Americans)
are able to re-group, and then, in March,
Seoul has changed hands four times.
So, in March, they are able to re-take Seoul again.
And at this point, McArthur -- ultra-confident --
he's telling the Chinese, "You've essentially lost";
he's even trying to get permission
to use nuclear weapons against the Chinese.
To some degree, he doesn't even think he needs
the permission of Truman to stop.
It sounds like he's eager
to push the Chinese further back,
even though they kind of
surprised him the first go-around.
So, Truman has enough of this “wild-card” guy,
who, you know, thinks he can call the shots,
and use nuclear weapons if he wants to, “willy-nilly”,
and so Truman finally dismisses McArthur
in April of 1951. And at this point,
you start having a stalemate near the 38th parallel --
so.. you start having a stalemate
across this border right over there.
And both sides think the end of the war is imminent:
"Okay, we're back to where we both began.
We should both stop here."
But the negotiations, unfortunately,
took over two years,
and there's a lot of back-and-forth
on what to do with prisoners of war,
and all of the rest.
But, it finally took two years,
so that in July 27, 1953, you have the Armistice
signed between the two parties.
And I want to make it clear:
an Armistice agreement is not a peace treaty;
it is not saying that we both agree
that this is the border of our two new countries
and that we are now at peace with each other.
All an Armistice means is
that we are going to stop fighting.
It is not a formal end to the war.
So, in theory, North and South Korea,
even to this day, are in a state of war.
And you know, to this day,
I'm recording this video in 2011;
maybe a few years into the future,
they won't be in an official state of war.
But they're in an official state of war,
under an Armistice.
They've just agreed to stop fighting.
So, all-in-all, you have this hugely bloody battle,
with all of these atrocities going on, on both sides;
Syngmyn Rhee, when he was---
the first time when North Korean troops
were rolling in to South Korea,
he essentially, beforehand,
he was kind of imprisoning a bunch of people
who he suspected to be Communist.
When I'm talking about "people,"
I'm talking about whole families, sometimes.
And when he was retreating,
he essentially allowed the massacre
of a huge number of people
who were just suspected to be Communists.
And these weren't just military men;
these were women, these were children,
these were entire families.
So, he's guilty of that.
And Kim Il Sung, [is] just as guilty;
when the North Korean soldiers
infiltrated the South Korean Seoul,
they committed atrocities, killing civil servants,
killing any of the established intellectuals in the areas.
On both sides, [there is] this hugely horrific war.
And to get a sense of what was happening,
Korea isn't a huge country.
But you have, within Korea, the civilian deaths:
1.5 to 3 million civilian deaths,
and the consensus is at 2 million.
And this tells you how ugly war is;
you can't even estimate how many people died,
to the nearest 500,000 people.
You just don't know what happened;
2 million people died in a country that's not too big.
You have 30-- all in all,
you have about 40,000 American soldiers dying.
China, China loses, on the order of
(depending on the estimates)
around 400,000 soldiers.
I mean, the estimates are all over the place.
North Korea loses,
[along] the order of the same magnitude of soldiers.
South Korea loses, you know,
several hundred thousand soldiers.
So, you have this hugely bloody battle
-- this hugely bloody war, I should say --
that really ends with an outcome
that wasn't so different from where it started.

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