The crossing of the 38th parallel by northern forces at dawn on 25 June 1950 (1950)
The invasion that began the fighting; Kim Il-sung had Stalin's approval.
History · The 20th century
The Korean War
25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953
The first shooting war of the Cold War, fought under a United Nations flag
The war that began when North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel on 25 June 1950 and ended, three years later, close to where it started. The United Nations Security Council authorised a defence of the South while the Soviet delegate was boycotting its meetings, and sixteen countries sent combat troops under American command. Douglas MacArthur's landing at Inchon in September 1950 reversed the invasion, but the advance towards the Yalu brought Chinese intervention in October and November and a second retreat. From mid-1951 the front stabilised near the parallel while armistice talks dragged on. The armistice signed at Panmunjom on 27 July 1953 created the demilitarised zone; no peace treaty has ever followed.
How to spot them
- ▸An invasion across a line of latitude on 25 June 1950
- ▸A Security Council vote passed because one permanent member was boycotting the chamber
- ▸An amphibious landing behind enemy lines in September 1950, at a port with huge tides
- ▸A general sacked by his president in April 1951 for insubordination
- ▸An armistice in a truce village, and a demilitarised zone still in place
What happened
The amphibious landing of September 1950 at a port of huge tidal range, codenamed Operation Chromite (1950)
Inchon, Douglas MacArthur's masterstroke, which cut off the invading army.
The intervention of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army under Peng Dehuai in October 1950 (1950)
Mao's decision brought some 300,000 troops across the Yalu and drove UN forces back south.
The dismissal of a supreme commander by Harry Truman on 11 April 1951 (1951)
MacArthur was relieved and replaced by Matthew Ridgway; "old soldiers never die", he told Congress.
The April 1951 stand of the Gloucestershire Regiment on a hill above a river crossing (1951)
The Battle of the Imjin River; the Glosters held out for three days and were largely killed or captured.
The armistice signed in a truce village on 27 July 1953, creating a four-kilometre-wide buffer (1953)
Panmunjom; the Demilitarized Zone still divides the peninsula.
The American mobile hospital comedy set in the conflict, on screen from 1970 and on television for eleven years (1970)
M*A*S*H, adapted from Richard Hooker's novel.
Quick-fire facts
- •The peninsula had been divided at the 38th parallel in 1945 between Soviet and American occupation zones
- •Security Council resolutions 82, 83 and 84 of June and July 1950 passed because the Soviet Union was boycotting the Council over the seating of China
- •The United Nations Command was led by the United States; sixteen member states contributed combat forces
- •Syngman Rhee led South Korea and Kim Il-sung the North
- •Seoul changed hands four times
- •Truman called it a police action rather than a war, as Congress never declared one
- •Prisoner repatriation was the great obstacle in the talks, since many prisoners refused to return
- •Total deaths, including civilians, are usually estimated at two to three million, with estimates varying widely
- •The armistice was signed by the United Nations Command, North Korea and China; South Korea did not sign
- •An armistice, not a peace treaty, remains in force, so the war is technically unended
Drill it — 10 cards
1 / 10new card
Sources
- Max Hastings — The Korean War
- Bruce Cumings — The Korean War: A History