The Longest Armistice

 

25 June 1950... sixty-one years ago today, North Korean forces invaded South Korea, pushing their way through almost the entire country, only to be halted outside the port of Pusan (the 'Pusan Perimeter').  Thus began a three year conflict in which eventually 1.8 million American military fought North Korean, Chinese, and Russian forces, resulting in 33,686 Americans killed and 8,176 missing in action.

 

The war's devastation wasn't limited to physical property or military forces. Between 245,000 to 415,000 South Korean civilians lost their lives between 1950 - 1953.

The Korean war also marked the first instance of jet aircraft engaged in combat.  Chinese MiG-15s initially ruled the air as they faced WWII fighters like the P-51 Mustang and F4U Corsair, but the arrival of the F-86 Sabre brought eventual Allied air superiority.

Korea was the first proxy war between Western democracies and Communism.  It was the first direct conflict between US and Chinese and Russian forces (although most people know that Chinese troops fought on the ground against UN forces, few know that Soviet Air Force pilots flew the MiG-15s against Western air forces).  Despite being a direct casus belli, their participation was ignored due to the fear of confronting three nations in a nuclear war.

Today the two Koreas technically remain in a state of war, the fighting halted by the armistice signed on 27 July 1953.  Hostilities continue to flare up, the most recent being the North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, resulting in 2 military and 2 civilian casualties. US military members have been killed since the armistice signing as well, the most memorable instances being the murder of a EC-121 reconnaissance crew in 1969 and two Army officers hacked to death at Panmunjom in 1976.

It's not Alan Alda and MASH over there.  It remains a hostile place in which one of the belligerents now holds nuclear weapons--and has no compunction about proliferating that technology.  It is currently undergoing the second transfer of power from father to son, except this time no one knows if that will occur gracefully or bring about a violent regime change. While the world concentrates on the Islamic extremists bent on bringing sha'ria or death to the rest of the world, North Korea continues to be a festering sore.

Imagine how different the world would be today if President Truman had listened to General MacArthur about pushing the Chinese back to China instead of firing him? Will we be asking a similar question years from now about President Obama and General Petraeus?