September 15, 1950, 75 years ago: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of United Nations forces, launches what amounts to the Korean War's "D-Day," an amphibious landing of 40,000 infantry from 230 ships.
On June 25, troops of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea), a Communist nation, and by no means democratic or a republic -- crossed the parallel of 38th degrees north latitude, and invaded the Republic of Korea (a.k.a. South Korea), which was capitalist, but hardly free.
Two days later, President Harry S Truman announced that American and other NATO forces would come to the aid of South Korea. The next day, North Korean troops took the South Korean capital of Seoul. But it was not just NATO troops, but 16 United Nations countries that came to the South's aid.
At first, it looked like that aid might be too late. On August 5, North Korea had South Korean troops backed up into the southeastern corner of the peninsula, centered on the city of Pusan (now usually written in English as "Busan"). They held what became known as the Pusan Perimeter. It was a siege, but the ROK troops were holding on.
There would be no evacuation, the way the Nationalist Chinese had gone to Taiwan the previous year; the American troops had done in the Philippines in 1942, by escaping to Australia; or the British troops had done at Dunkirk in 1940 by retreating to their home island.
It wasn't just a matter of pride: The South Koreans had no place to go. American troops could have evacuated them to the nearest friendly country, but that would be Japan, where "friendly" was a bit of a stretch: That nation had occupied them from 1910 (and had effectively ruled them from 1876) until the end of World War II in 1945 -- just 5 years earlier. And Japan was still in the rebuilding process: Taking on millions of Korean refugees was not part of the plan of their military governor.
That was MacArthur, the 70-year-old 5-star General who had been commander of Allied forces in the Pacific. In spite of his age, there was no one more qualified to lead the mission than "Big Mac." As with D-Day, the invasion of Normandy in France in 1944, the U.S. had a deception operation underway, to convince the enemy that the invasion would be elsewhere -- in this case, at Kunsan, 105 miles to the south. The Communist spy network bought it.
After 5 days of bombing to provide air support, MacArthur, invading with his troops as he had at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines in 1944, gave the green light on September 15. The invasion began at 6:30 AM, local time. As with Normandy, there were invasion points given different code names: Green Beach, Red Beach and Blue Beach. The U.N. lost 224 troops; the North Koreans, 1,350.
Within 2 days, U.S. forces were able to take Kimpo, Seoul's international airport. Within 2 more, they were able to use it to bring more troops in. By September 22, they had over 53,000 men on the ground. By September 25, Red troops had abandoned the Pusan Perimeter, and were attempting to defend their ill-gotten gains at Seoul. On September 28, they had to abandon that.
In a span of 2 weeks, MacArthur had led, for all intents and purposes, the liberation of South Korea. He wanted more: He wanted to kick the Commies completely off the peninsula. He nearly did it: By November 26, 10 weeks after the Incheon landing, he had them backed up to the Yalu River, which separates the Korean peninsula from mainland China (and, technically, makes Korea not a peninsula but an island).
China then intervened on behalf of its Communist "little brother." Again, U.N. troops were pushed below the 38th parallel. By April 1951, they had gained back most of South Korea's territory, and a line cutting southwest-to-northeast across the peninsula became like the trench warfare of World War I, 35 years earlier.
MacArthur wanted to use tactical nuclear weapons against China. Truman told him no, because that would get the Soviet Union involved, and it would be World War III. MacArthur let his objections be known to the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Joe Martin of Massachusetts. Martin leaked this to the press. Truman found out, and fired MacArthur for subordination, replacing him with 4-star General Matthew Ridgeway, and later replacing him with 4-star General Mark Clark.
The war became a stalemate, lasting 3 years. About 327,000 Americans served in the conflict, and 36,574 were killed, with another 103,000 wounded but surviving.
It's not clear how many of those wounded, but surviving, were treated at Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals, or MASHes, which, due to the 1972-83 CBS TV series M*A*S*H, became popular culture's most familiar story of the Korean War. But, by being close to the front, they were able to save soldiers who surely would have died in the conditions of World War II. But that, and the addition of antibiotics and sulfa in World War II, saved a lot of lives that would have been lost in the conditions of World War I.
Today, Incheon is home to just under 3 million people, making it the 3rd-largest city in South Korea, behind Seoul, with 9.6 million; and Busan, with 3.3 million. Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, has 3.2 million.
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