Korean War - PART 5, Beginning of the Attack (June 1950) 6.25 전쟁

The Korean Civil War enters into a major phase: The South Korean military attempts to deal with the initial attack from the North in June 1950. The North Koreans blame the South Korean army on the Ongjin Peninsula of attacking first. The North Koreans were clearly ready for war, but may have been waiting for the very first provocation from the South to justify an attack, (much like the Russia-Georgia conflict of 2008). The USA responds, asking the UN Security Council to act. The Soviet Union did not object, as they were boycotting the UN at the time. The UN agrees to act. The UN did NOT consider the new conflict as a civil war within Korea. MacArthur goes to Korea (MacArthur is voiced here by Charlton Heston!) and makes "desperate plans" to handle the situation.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• North Korean invasion
• Paik Sun-yup
• Colonel Stuart Peach
• Dean Rusk
• Dean Acheson
• Sir Keith Shann
• Ivan Kratsov
• Trygvie Lie
• James Hausman
• Douglas MacArthur
• Han Se Gon

[Kmag61]

This war and Vietnam were set up by....people tired of war after WWII. FDR dies, Churchill is voted out of office. This left one man, who wanted to seize the moment. Stalin. Of course the Japanese had occupied Korea since 1910, at the end of the war(WWII), Stalin demanded shares of the spoils. Eastern Europe, 1/2 of Germany, 1/2 of Korea, and 1/2 of Vietnam. If FDR hadn't kept Truman out of the loop, he would have known Stalin couldn't be trusted.

[mlovmo]

@Kmag61

Well....I'll just respond to your comment about Korea:

Stalin did NOT demand half of Korea...it wasn't that simple. It was the USA that FIRST suggested that the USSR and USA jointly occupy Korea. The 38th Parallel decision (the separation of the occupation forces) was ALSO suggested by the Americans. In fact two US Army colonels, Charles Bonesteel and Dean Rusk (later to become Sec of State under Kennedy/Johnson) drew a line across a 1/250,000-scale map in a antechamber of (cont.)

[mlovmo]

@Kmag61

the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting room in July of 1945, on orders from the Joint Chiefs. This idea was floated to the Russians, and Stalin accepted the idea with no problem. It's one of those "what ifs" of history: If the USA had suggested that the USSR occupy Manchuria only, and the USA occupy Korea only, then the Russians might have even accepted that, and Korea would NOT have been divided. We DO know that the USSR probably would NOT have liked an "adverserial" regime in Korea.

[LovelyEngland]

This is a great documentary. Many thanks for putting it on here.

[mlovmo]

Your very welcome. Yes, this 1988 documentary is probably the best Korean War documentary that I've seen. How often do you see a Korean war doc that has EXTENSIVE interviews with participants from both sides? It really took a British media company to achieve this. I cannot imagine such a balanced, and yet nuanced, documentary of this war being made in the USA, where very strong opinions and prejudices concerning the war would make it well nigh impossible to produce and distribute such art.

[DJYC21215]

@mlovmo Yes because they would have cut stuff out making them look like heros eventhough its their fought this happened in the first place.

[mlovmo]

@DJYC21215 Yes, fault can be laid on the USA for helping put in place a situation in which a war could take place there, but make no mistake: One can find plenty of blame to spread around to any of the other participants in this war. Oh, and the version of this documentary that WAS shown in the USA in 1990 had "stuff cut out", courtesy of WGBH Boston, the PBS producer. The documentary you see here is the one that was shown in Britain in the summer of 1988.

[womblewandering]

Macarthur........outsmarted and outfought by N korea and china. Whenever his name is mentioned, the chinese and N koreans just laugh.

[sass225]

@Kmag61 Ho chi minh asked the US to reconize Vietnamesse independence in 1945-46. America supported the French Clain to her former colony to gain French support in Europe.

Ho was a communist but he had joined the french communist party when he was working in france before ww2.

[troytblevins]

hong-kong?why?

[Kmag61]

Sorry, I used the wrong wording. But you're right, I didn't really want to blame the Western powers "To the victors go the spoils. I served in Berlin & in Korea in 1968-70, get my Commies mixed up. From what I read, the Americans & Brits were just tired of this war. So, they just divided it up, I know the Brits also screwed up the middle east by the borders they drew up.

Just shows to go you, pay attention, and don't trust Communists.