Re: Korean War strategies (response)

[Ed Evanhoe <ede@oio.net>]

>John,

> >>In fact, Koreans were so eager to reunify their
>country that they were probably ready to resort
>to war if necessary. Syngman Rhee of S.Korea
>was, I understand, openly talking about occupying
>N.Korea in three days in 1949 and early 1950.
>The tricky question is who actually started the war
>in June 1950--Kim Il Sung or Syngman Rhee?
>And what was the U.S. role & strategy in the unfolding drama?<<

Syngman Rhee threatened to attack North Korea on any number of occasions 
between 1947 and June 1950 but this was one of his standard ways of 
rallying the people behind him.  He did not have the military power to 
accomplish this mission because the United States believed he would try if 
he thought he could so would not give the South Korean military the weapons 
it needed to fight an offensive war with.  Thus, when the war began the 
South Korean Army did not have tanks, heavy artillery, or combat 
aircraft.  Besides this, the weapons in the hands of the average South 
Korean soldier were either from Japanese war stocks or rejects turned over 
when U.S. forces pulled out.

As to who actually began the war, it is clear North Korea attacked South 
Korea.  Any other conclusion can not be justified.  At approximately 4 AM 
(Korean Local Time,)  North Korean artillery and mortars began firing on 
South Korean troops along the south side of the 38th Parallel at all points 
-- from the Ongjin Peninsula in the west to just north of Chumunjin on the 
East Coast.  This was a coordinated attack, not a response to an alleged 
South Korean attack as North Korea tried to claim during the opening days 
of the war.

Regards

Ed Evanhoe, PO Box 916, Antlers, OK, 74523
Author: DARKMOON: Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean War
Life Member: Special Forces & Special Operations Associations
Web site:  http://www.korean-war.com