Re: Korean War Causes & US Involvement

[<Jhk789@aol.com>]

In a message dated 4/7/2001 6:45:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time, ede@oio.net 
writes:

<< You are confusing "implementation" with "decision." >>

Ed,

What do you mean by that?

Well, I read the English translations of the Russian documents
but there were no specific references that the N.Korean ruling party
decided to invade. Furthermore, caution should be taken in
using the translated documents because the source for the
documents is unreliable. (Supposedly, someone in the Russian
President's Archive copied some documents by hand and these
were given to a conservative Japanese nespaper reporter!)

Another aspect of your essay also troubled me. You said S.Korea
had only 50,000 soldiers at the time of the War. I don't know
where you got this number from, but it is way too low.

According to Cuming's book on "The Origins of the Korean War,"(pp. 472-473)
S.Korea had the following forces:

          ROKA..........50,000 in 8/1948; increased to 100,000 by 7/1949
          ROKA Reserve......33,000
          National Police(which included combat battalions)........51,000
          Navy........6,700
          Air Force.........1,800
          Youth Corps......ukn

Thus, S.Korean armed forces numbered at least 200,000 in June 1950.
In July 1949, the US transferred some $110 million in military equipments &
supplies to S.Korea, including anti-tank weapons. If the US had given tanks & 
fighter
airplanes, the balance of military forces would have shifted decisively
in favor of the S.Korean forces. This is probably why the US didn't give
any tanks & fighter planes to Rhee. In any case, it is apparent that the
S.Korean forces outnumbered the N.Korean soldiers in terms of personnel.
Thus, the real question is why the S.Korean forces didn't put up a good
fight and retreated so fast.

John