One Year of War

For the U.N. soldier in the front line, waiting last week for another Chinese push --or perhaps for peace, he was not sure--the war in Korea was still a grim and dirty business, and his chief concerns were those of all soldiers: to stay alive, to fight as best he could, to get home as soon as he could. To strategists, after one year of fighting in Korea, the story of the "dirty little war" had already become a closely studied textbook.

Phase One began when the North Korean army crossed the 38th parallel and bowled down the center of the peninsula through Seoul toward Taejon. A handful of green troops of the U.S. Eighth Army were rushed into Korea from Japan, tried to bolster crumbling South Korean resistance and to stem the Red onslaught. At Taejon came the first big decision: General MacArthur decided to force the enemy to deploy and he succeeded. In some of the heaviest battles of the whole campaign, at the famed "Bowling Alley" outside Taegu, the Reds were stopped cold. With that victory, the U.N. forces bought time for a buildup behind the hastily thrown-up defense perimeter around Pusan.

Phase Two began after less than three months during which a nearly miraculous logistical effort poured a flood of war materiel and men into Pusan's choking port. When the allied forces were finally ready for the big breakout, some U.N. forces stabbed westward to Kunsan, but the main body drove north toward Seoul. Then MacArthur dealt one of the master strokes of the war: the landing at Inchon (Seoul's port). The routed North Koreans reeled back toward the Manchurian border. MacArthur sent his forces after them in hot pursuit up to the Yalu.

Phase Three was the crushing Chinese offensive which almost cut off the overextended U.N. forces (mostly marines of the ist Division) in the northeast corner. At Changjin, crack Chinese divisions encircled the leathernecks. In one of the many truly epic battles, the marines made it, broke through to the sea, carrying along most of their wounded. Meanwhile, the Eighth Army, badly shaken by what everyone called the "Chinese hordes," retired all the way back past the 38th parallel, past Seoul. Finally, along a line running across the peninsula from a little below Samchok and Wonju, the Eighth stood its ground. At this point it became clear that the Eighth Army would not be driven into the sea, which was Peking's boasted aim.

Phase Four (the present phase) was limited in a relatively shallow strip of territory, most of it below the 38th parallel, in which the fighting surged back & forth. The Chinese launched a new offensive which came in two hard punches. The U.N. armies moved slightly with the punch, but by now they were hardened, battlewise, and well enough equipped to be able to take it--and to dish it out. Overwhelming superiority of U.N. air power and artillery, used with generally high U.N. morale, inflicted huge casualties on the Chinese, may have broken much of their will to win back the offensive.

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