The Korean War: The War That Never Ended (Episode 4)

Key takeaways

• On the night of 10 August 1945, two young US officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, were given about half an hour to propose where to divide Korea. They chose the 38th parallel because it left Seoul in the American zone. No Korean was asked. By 1948 the temporary line had become a border between two states, led by Syngman Rhee in the South and Kim Il-sung in the North.
• Stalin approved Kim's invasion in April 1950, on condition that Mao also agree. On 25 June 1950 about 75,000 North Korean troops with Soviet T-34 tanks crossed the line, and Seoul fell in three days. Because the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council, the UN voted to defend the South; 16 countries sent combat troops, including Thailand and the Philippines.
• MacArthur's landing at Incheon on 15 September 1950, against tides of about 9 metres, turned the war in two weeks. UN forces crossed the 38th parallel, took Pyongyang and reached the Yalu, ignoring China's warning.
• Hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops crossed the Yalu in secret and struck in late November 1950. The UN forces made the longest retreat in US military history; at Hungnam the cargo ship Meredith Victory carried about 14,000 refugees in one trip. Truman fired MacArthur in April 1951 to keep the war limited.
• After two years of trench fighting and talks, the armistice was signed at Panmunjom on 27 July 1953, close to where the war began. Historians estimate about 3 million people or more died, most of them civilians. America drew two lessons, containment and the fear of falling dominoes, that led it into Vietnam.