Anyone know what occurred at the onset of the Korean War in 1950?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6933539.ece

November 27, 2009

Commission calls on South Korea to apologise for wartime massacreRichard Lloyd Parry,

Asia Editor

South Korea should make a formal apology and pay compensation to the families of thousands of civilians massacred on the orders of the Government during the early months of the Korean War, an official investigation recommended yesterday.

The country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced that it had confirmed the murders of almost 5,000 alleged leftwingers who were rounded up and killed by the police and army between June and September 1950.

These are believed to represent a fraction of the total number killed during an anti-communist frenzy as the army of North Korea surged down the peninsula, almost overwhelming South Korean and US forces. Historians and researchers estimate that the true number is at least 100,000, and could be twice as much.

The killings, ordered, according to the commission, at the highest levels of the South Korean Government, were a taboo for decades. Surviving families hid the death of relatives in the massacres for fear of being smeared as communist, under the right-wing military dictatorships that governed South Korea after the war. snip

With the passive collusion, and sometimes in the presence of US troops, the league members, sometimes including women and children, were slaughtered en masse, often being shot and then dumped into the sea or into mass graves ...

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I don't think this is covered in our school text books.

[leveymg]

1. I.P. "Izzy" Stone's "The Hidden History of the Korean War" reported these massacres, was suppressed

After it was first published in the early 1950s, a number of McCarthyite groups tried to have Stone brought before HUAC. When that effort failed (Stone had a sharp wit, and would have humiliated the Committee), they simply removed the book from the shelves of almost all the public libraries in America. Aside from The Nation, and a handful of left-wing limited circulation magazines, Izzy was effectively blacklisted by most of the major media and publishers, and for decades produced his own widely-respected monthly Reader.

Before it was finally reprinted in the 1990s, it was virtually impossible to find a copy of The Secret History of the Korean War in America.

[Scuba]

2. The account I read...

...left me with an impression of the following:


Tens of thousands of refugees were pouring into South Korea daily, and North Korean troops were infiltrating massive numbers of troops with the refugees. The South chose to defend against this incursion by killing everybody, believing that any other course would lead to losing the war.


Please don't read this as a defense of the actions of either South Korea, the US or anybody else.

[NNN0LHI]

3. That account wouldn't begin to explain why the little kids were killed though

So, that would make me very skeptical of the source of that account.

Don

[Scuba]

4. No, it doesn't explain or justify anything, and the account...

...I read (wish I could remember the source) did not attempt to justify the actions, only report them.



I can see how having tens of thousands of refugees flooding in - infiltrated by enemy soldiers - would be a problem.


But killing everyone, including chilren, cannot be justified.

[valerief]

5. Sounds like the kind of lip service reasoning the US produces. nt

[Lurks Often]

6. There are two different things going in this discussion

There first thing is the alleged "purge" by the South Korean government of those believed to be Communist or Communist sympathizers. I am not familiar with that part of the discussion, so I will not address it.

The second part is the the deaths of South Korea civilians on the battlefield and during the initial retreat to the Pusan perimeter during the early months of the war. My comments regarding this are based on the book by TR Fehrenbach "This Kind of War" (he was a combat commander for at least part of the war)

This did occur, sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally and sometimes as a byproduct of another action.

Intentionally: Done when North Korean units used the civilians as a shield to advance on position. The South Korean & US forces were so weak and the entire defense was in danger of collapsing, that they were forced to engage both the civilians and the North Koreans, which resulted in civilian deaths

Accidentally: Air strikes and artillery strikes against enemy forces resulted in civilian deaths

Byproduct: In some cases bridges were blown up to prevent the North Koreans from crossing a river, sometimes with civilians on it. (The person in command would often wait until the last possible minute to blow the bridge to allow as many friendly soldiers and civilians to get across the bridge)

My comments: Most people don't realize how close we were in the opening months of Korea into being forced to retreat to Japan and give up all of Korea to the North Koreans. The US military was in poor shape for a fight and what passed for the South Korean army was mostly trained and equipped as National police.

And sometimes in war, there are no good choices, just least bad choices.

[indepat]

7. The number of RW-dictatorships propped up and the number of left-wing regimes

overthrown since WWII have been crucial in defining us as a people and nation. :patriot:

[yellowcanine]

8. Yes. The U.S. and its allies nearly had a Dunkirk situation at Puson.

Darn near lost the war right there.

[peace4ever]

9. The conservatives crimes against the left are always ignored

Dismissed, or misdirected.