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The Big Picture TV Series, Military Documentary, Public Domain
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00:01By the spring of 1950, only five short years after the last shots of World War II had been fired,
00:11the United States Army had been reduced to an active force of 600,000.
00:21A great number of these were scattered about the world on occupation duty.
00:35But the armed forces of the truculent Communists, Soviet Russia and Red China, remained on a strong wartime footing and
00:45in belligerent posture.
00:52Aggression was soon to come.
00:55Americans would be fighting against tyranny for the third time in 32 years.
01:06The End
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01:45Korea
01:48A crowded little finger of land, but of key importance to the free world in the Far East.
01:57What happened here opened the next major chapter in the history of the United States Army.
02:08The war began here, at the 38th parallel.
02:14Just how did this imaginary line become the fuse for a three-year explosion?
02:21Before the Japanese surrender in World War II, we made an agreement with the Russians, who were then our allies.
02:29When surrender came on the Asian mainland, Russian troops would accept the surrender of Japanese forces north of the 38th
02:38parallel, and we would do the same south of it.
02:44The 38th parallel was chosen because it divides the Korean peninsula roughly in half.
02:51It was also agreed that free elections would be held, and the government of Korea returned to the Korean people.
03:01In August of 1948, free elections were held in South Korea, supervised by United Nations inspectors, establishing the Republic of
03:11Korea.
03:14Three weeks later, communist-controlled elections in North Korea, from which UN inspectors were barred, established the communist regime, and
03:25divided the Korean nation.
03:28Not long afterwards, the communists decided their moment for conquest had come.
03:36In early summer 1950, life was good in the agricultural south.
03:42There was peace, time for living in the quiet, ancient way.
04:07Then suddenly, in the pre-dawn darkness of June 25th, 1950,
04:20South Koreans were jarred awake by living nightmare.
04:25Unprovoked and unannounced, the communist latest war of conquest had begun.
04:49Many thought it was the beginning of World War III.
04:53It might have been if we had not taken immediate action.
04:59President Truman ordered our Navy and Air Force to provide cover and support to the Republic of Korea.
05:07In the United Nations, United States delegate Warren Austin spoke for the indignant people of free nations everywhere.
05:16The armed invasion of the Republic of Korea continues.
05:21The Republic of Korea has appealed to the United Nations for protection.
05:27I am proud to report that the United States is prepared to furnish assistance to the Republic of Korea.
05:39Four days after the invasion began, the capital city of Seoul fell to the communists.
05:45Small elements of the United States Army were airlifted from Japan to help check the red advance.
05:57They were greeted with cheers.
06:03But the cheering was soon forgotten.
06:06Our small forces found themselves greatly outnumbered by communist troops trained and equipped by the Russians.
06:18Our handful of troops fought a delaying action, buying precious time until reinforcements would arrive.
06:32We showed to the communists that we had the will to fight aggression wherever and whenever it occurred.
06:44On July 10th, President Truman appointed General Douglas MacArthur, commander in chief of the United Nations forces which were beginning
06:53to assemble.
07:08All the outnumbered troops in the field, it was fight, pull back, and fight again.
07:20More United States forces arrived in Pusan.
07:24Not nearly enough, but it was a beginning.
07:34Field commanders like General Walton H. Walker and General William F. Dean found their task was a grim one and
07:42all too familiar historically.
07:43A holding action with no time and too few men.
07:59But American military leadership had only recently been blooded and honed to professional keenness in a greater war.
08:06To reinforce and compliment the top leaders was a hard core of seasoned officers and enlisted men who had won
08:14their campaign ribbons on other fields of battle only five or six years before.
08:42Through July and August of 1950, our small forces were being pushed into a corner.
08:47The Pusan perimeter.
08:53We rushed more troops from Japan.
09:01Again, we were faced with an emergency buildup to fighting strength.
09:06We drew on our citizen soldiers, reserves, and inductees.
09:10Within the year, our army would grow from 600,000 to more than a million and a half men.
09:22The Pusan perimeter.
09:23The Pusan perimeter.
09:24The Pusan perimeter.
09:43Other United Nations forces began arriving in Korea.
09:47British troops of the Sutherland and Argyle Highlanders.
09:51The International Army was beginning to take shape.
09:54It was none too soon.
09:56Again, time was running out.
10:04The Naktong River provided a natural defense line around Busan.
10:09It was here that the guts and stamina of the American soldier
10:12and his Republic of Korea allies
10:15and a protective wall of artillery fire
10:18held the Communist forces at bay.
10:44The build-up of Allied strength was rapidly gaining momentum.
11:01In Chang, September 15th, 1950.
11:05The United Nations suddenly took the offensive.
11:19The United Nations
11:33General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander,
11:37had conceived this daring amphibious strike
11:40along the coast of the Yellow Sea, just west of Seoul.
11:57The Marine Landing Force secured Walmy Island in just 58 minutes
12:04and pushed on into Inchon itself, kicking in the back door to the enemy's defenses.
12:21Additional army forces poured in.
12:30Simultaneously, the breakout from the Busan perimeter
12:33got underway in the south.
12:43In a week of heavy fighting,
12:45our forces drove 20 miles inland from Inchon to Seoul.
12:53More than 10,000 North Korean troops were dug in
12:56and waiting at every street corner
12:58with orders to fight to the death.
13:28The United Nations
13:29The United Nations offensive role
13:30back the communist forces, sweeping northward, past the 38th parallel.
13:45First, Kaysong fell.
13:54Then, Wonsang, on the east coast.
14:10Then, Pyongyang, the North Korean capital itself.
14:30Psychological warfare played an important part.
14:38Loudspeaker messages.
14:43And safe conduct passes for North Korean troops inviting them to surrender met with striking
14:49success.
15:01Often, entire units stacked their weapons and awaited the arrival of UN forces.
15:24Our army units pushed on toward the Yalu River, Korea's northernmost boundary.
15:40But, there were signs of potential trouble ahead.
15:44Some of the prisoners taken in the North wore the quilted uniform of the communist Chinese
15:49army.
15:55November found elements of the 10th core on the frozen banks of the Yalu River.
16:05While they ate their Thanksgiving dinner, they could look across the river and see communist
16:10China.
16:14victory seemed assured.
16:16There was talk of war's end by Christmas.
16:21But, on the other side of the Yalu, Chinese armies were massed.
16:25A whole new war was about to begin.
16:33Late in November, two full Chinese field armies attacked across the Yalu, splitting UN forces
16:40and rolling them back.
16:42What President Truman had first called a police action had now become a major war.
16:50Our forces in the West pulled back to the South.
17:00Elements of the 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division, 10th Corps, along with
17:05Republic of Korea troops, cut off in the Northeast, fought their way in sub-zero weather toward
17:11the port of Hong Nam and evacuation by sea.
17:20100,000 fighting men and their machines were loaded onto waiting ships.
17:32More than 90,000 refugees fled from their homes in North Korea rather than live again under communist rule.
17:40We gave transportation to freedom to as many of them as we could.
17:49By sea, the massive withdrawal moved southward toward ports where the units could land and regroup.
18:00In the West, elements of the 8th Army withdrew south of the 38th parallel.
18:13The Chinese forces followed up with their massive New Year's offensive.
18:24Thousands of Koreans choked the roads leading southward.
18:28They had seen communism in practice.
18:30Any hardship was preferable.
18:40Once again, Seoul changed hands as we pulled out blowing up the bridges behind us.
18:50Far to the south, our units were regrouping.
19:07In late February, we made a fresh start.
19:10An Operation General Ridgeway graphically called Operation Killer.
19:14The Chinese armies held a staggering superiority of numbers.
19:20And Ridgeway's intent was simple.
19:22Cut down the odds.
19:25patties.
19:45C
19:52Operation Killer did just that.
19:55The enemy lost ten men for every United Nations casualty.
20:00What had begun as an attempt to inflict heavy personnel losses on the enemy
20:04developed into a ground-gaining operation.
20:17On March 15th, Seoul again changed hands.
20:21South Korean troops entered the deserted streets unopposed.
20:26The enemy had pulled out to the north.
20:36But not for long.
20:38Spring brought with it still another crisis.
20:41Another massive communist offensive.
20:48General Van Fleet fortified the city of Seoul,
20:51determined not to lose it again.
20:53The enemy came on in human ways to be met by a storm of fire.
20:58They lost tens of thousands, but still they came on.
21:02And then suddenly they faltered, broke, and started pulling back,
21:07pursued by our armor.
21:09Again the communists had run afoul of two things.
21:13The immense firepower of the 8th Army
21:16and the principles of logistics.
21:19They were simply unable to supply a large force
21:22for a sustained offensive.
21:24June 2nd, 1951.
21:27Again we crossed the 38th parallel.
21:30A badly battered enemy withdrawing before us.
21:39Soviet UN delegate, Jacob Malik, frankly proposed truce talks,
21:43suggesting that perhaps a ceasefire could be discussed.
21:48On July 10th, preliminary truce talks were opened
21:51in the red-held city of Kaesong.
21:54They were to drag on for two long years,
21:56while the bloodshed continued.
22:03The lines of the fighting front became virtually stabilized.
22:11After 12 days, the talks in Kaesong were deadlocked
22:15over the issue of a ceasefire line.
22:18Then the communists broke off the talks.
22:23In the fall, they were resumed at Panmunjom.
22:34The fighting continued.
22:45Materials were expended daily and nightly
22:48in prodigious amounts.
23:03Massive supply by air was a new military concept
23:07that came to full development in Korea.
23:10Airlift and airdrop techniques became a major means of supply
23:14in a large-scale combat situation.
23:34Winter 1952 found the talks at Panmunjom
23:38deadlocked over the principle of prisoner exchange.
23:43While back and forth along the twisted length
23:46of the main line of resistance
23:48raged the bitter hill battles.
23:54The друг element of war is a division in the spread.
23:54The danger is how,
24:19the strength of the cinema works for the people
24:19holding the air.
24:22In March, 1953, the communist world was shaken by the death of Joseph Stalin.
24:29His successor, Yorgi Malenkov, launched what he termed a worldwide peace offensive.
24:36Its influence would soon be felt in Korea.
24:44Within a month, the communists suddenly took us up on our standing offer to exchange sick and wounded prisoners.
24:55This was Operation Little Switch.
24:58It indicated that a ceasefire might come soon.
25:04Battle-weary men listened for word that the shooting was to end.
25:13On July 27th, 1953, at the U.N. base camp in Monsani, General Mark Clark signed the ceasefire agreement.
25:22A few miles away, the communists did the same.
25:30By August 5th, Operation Big Switch was underway.
25:34Some 13,000 U.N. soldiers returned from red prison camps.
25:46General William Dean, captured in the battle for Taizong early in the war, returned with his thousands of comrades in
25:53arms.
25:55It was then that the world image of communism received a telling blow, for two-thirds of the Chinese prisoners
26:02refused to return to Red China, and 35,000 North Koreans decided they'd rather live in South Korea.
26:17An armistice, however, is only a ceasefire, not peace.
26:22And in this divided nation, the need is for constant watchfulness.
26:27Unending preparedness still remains and may continue for years to come.
26:32This is true anywhere on Earth where people face an aggressor.
26:59The communists had miscalculated in Korea.
27:05They could not bring themselves to believe that we would spend so much of materiel and of effort and of
27:13pain so far from home.
27:18That lesson was an important one for all concerned.
27:23Once again, the United States Army, the American soldier, had stood foremost in a massive military force on foreign soil,
27:34but not for conquest.
27:39As the years passed, we began to see that our preparedness would have to be large-scale, constant, flexible, and
27:48adaptable.
27:50They were to be years of menace, bringing into being a new phrase, the Cold War.
28:00The Cold War
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