Korean War , which is what we usually call the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, which we usually call, began in 1950 and ended in 1953. In 1950, North Korea brazenly launched the Peninsula Unification War. It occupied the capital of South Korea in just two days and claimed that it would unify the peninsula in three days. However, the intervention of the United Nations Army led by the United States changed the situation on the battlefield. In the end, the war turned into three years. The participation of the United Nations Army also made this war the largest local unrest war in the world after World War II. In the end, our side and North Korea won the war.
Since then, peace has covered up the ashes, and the smoke has gradually dissipated. What is perfect is how many casualties were caused by the United States, which was a powerful and powerful war-making war at that time. There are many mysteries for this. Even though the United States officially released the casualty data and said it was true and credible, many misunderstandings caused by the United States have made many interested people disagree with the data given by the United States, and voices of doubt in the United States have also spread one after another.
We should be meticulous in treating history, learn from history, and respecting ancestors is also an attitude that everyone should hold. So today let’s take a look at why countries in the Korean War are different, and which statement is the most credible.
Battle Sculpture on the battlefield of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea
1. The puzzle and reasons for the casualties of the US military
Let’s take a look at the official data released by the US. First, the data during the armistice just now. The US military died 33,739 people and injured 103,284 people. These data are very large for the US military that cherishes life and is well-equipped. These deaths also included 5,800 people who died of injuries and illness in our prisoner-of-war camp.
seems to be very accurate, but in 1995, the United States built a memorial wall for the death of the Korean War in Washington, carved the names and hometown of each deceased to mourn and commemorate the dead soldiers. At the beginning of construction, the total sent by the civil affairs departments of each state exceeded the military statistics of 20,000.
triggered a wave of public opinion in American society, and many people voiced doubts and requested to learn the truth. After research and explanation, the US official said that this was because it also included 2,835 non-combat deaths in the Korean War Zone, which was caused by accidents such as car accidents, and the number of deaths in other war zones that were participated in in the United States in the three years from 1950 to 1953. Because I wanted to get high pensions subsidized by the US government, I reported them together and received recognition from the civil affairs department. This explanation is reasonable, but the truth cannot be verified.
Korean battlefield
But then the United States caused a series of misfortunes. The number of deaths given by the Navy in the more than 50,000 deaths on the Korean War memorial wall was 4,501. In 2013, the U.S. Navy announced that the Navy's death toll in the Three Years of the North Korean War was also 4,501, and both data were also in line with each other.
However, the number of naval deaths given by the US military during the armistice was 657. One reason is that the unified data on the war situation after the US and South Korea can be explained. After decades of the armistice, the United States and South Korea met to discuss and study the number of casualties during the Korean War, and gave a new data. This data far exceeded the data released by the US military when the US military stopped stations. The casualties of the UN military even exceeded the number of casualties of the UN military announced by our side of the 1.09 million casualties of the UN military, and only the casualties of the US military were less than the 390,000 counted by our side.
, but it still attracted a lot of public doubts. No one can prove the truth. There is another reason as mentioned earlier. The number of deaths in the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC, is not only the number of deaths in the Korean War Zone, but also the number of casualties in other war zones during the same period. This reason also caused great errors, and the US military has been criticized and ridiculed for this reason.After all, such a solemn thing, the US military cannot provide accurate data, which will more or less create an untrustworthy image among the people.
US fighter jet
Another part of the untrustworthy image created by the US military for the people is derived from the "Brave King" MacArthur . As a five-star general and commander-in-chief of the United Nations, MacArthur promised the US soldiers at home in the early stages of the war that they could celebrate Christmas. However, our army's strong counterattack unreservedly exposed the lies of the senior US general. The Eighth Army Command, under the commander who hangs a pipe on his mouth all day, even when facing the famous American journalist I. F. Stone, said that he would annihilate one enemy division a day and thirty enemy divisions a month.
When expressing his attitude, the reporter couldn't help but question whether General MacArthur was a military wizard or a bragging king, saying that he could not believe that such numbers were true. The generation of such questionable data made people even more unable to believe the US casualties data given by the US military.
US general MacArthur
So why the data given by countries about the casualties of the US military are different? Let’s take a look at the casualties data given by us. After the armistice, our country has summarized statistics through various methods. The data given is a total of 1.09 million United Nations troops and South Korean troops killed, wounded and captured 1.09 million, of which 390,000 US troops were killed, wounded and captured. The US military only gave more than 170,000 prisoners on its own killing, wounding and captives.
So why does this happen? The explanation worth referring to is that at a historical seminar held by China and South Korea in 2000, the South Korean military representative gave a 220,000 version of the answer to which of the death data of the South Korean military given by various countries is more credible, and explained the reasons. It is said that there was a global chaos during the war. In order to better stabilize the people, stabilize the morale of the army, and maintain the combat effectiveness of the team, the losses in the war were deliberately less estimated.
is also the death data released in South Korea in the decades after the war due to continuous excavation and declaration, which was released in South Korea in the decades after the war, nearly 100,000 more deaths than during the war just now. Although this is not an explanation of the fluctuation of the US military's death toll, this explanation has great reference significance. At that time, the strategic center of the United States was not in Asia, but in Europe.
After the end of World War II , as one of the few countries that did not suffer damage during World War II, it vigorously exported resources to other European countries that rebuilt their own economies. Because Europe, as the starting point of 's first industrial revolution and 's second industrial revolution , even though it was ruined by the turmoil of World War II, it had a good industrial foundation and did not need to invest more valuable troops in Europe. It only needed to invest US dollars to gain the trust and high profits of European countries, which were impossible in Asia.
It is also because Europe became the most important strategic development area for the United States to invest a lot of resources in the Korean War, which invested one-third of the army at that time, and nearly half of the navy and the air force. The stalemate of the war consumed countless manpower and material resources. Huge economic pressure and public opinion pressure from the people followed one after another. In order to cope with the pressure from society, it is naturally possible to specifically announce the number of people damaged by the war, so that the only way to better maintain the stability of the emotions of the domestic people. In addition, it can also fool the international community and show the strength of the US military. Why not do it? This is one reason.
Secondly, another reason is that the data caused by different calculation methods are different. The data given by our side is mainly based on the statistics of the soldiers' reports and combat situation assessment, which will definitely include mobile supplementary personnel from the US military, that is, injured people will suffer casualties again on the battlefield again. When our army counts the casualties of Volunteer Army , we did not count the second casualties, and we cannot confirm how many times such a situation occurred. The situation of a soldier being injured twice was counted as one, which is also one of the reasons why the casualties released by the US military is smaller than our side.
Another situation is that the United States uses South Korean people to supplement the US military on the Korean battlefield in order to reduce the US losses. In addition, the number of US military personnel is too small compared to the volunteers. Although the South Korean army has supplemented hundreds of thousands of people through emergency recruitment and other methods, its combat effectiveness is too weak. Replenishing South Korean troops into the US military can increase the combat effectiveness of soldiers. After all, the strength of the US military was obvious to all during World War II, and the US military sent the Seventh Division and other corps as the main force during World War II.
Another point is that the pressure of domestic and foreign public opinion caused by the United States' intervention in the Korean War at that time, and domestic public grievances were boiling. In this case, the US military would reduce the pressure from the people if it loses less than one soldier. In any aspect, adding South Korean soldiers into the US military is a seemingly good choice for the US military.
So on August 15, 1950, the commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army" MacArthur ordered the commander of the Eighth Army, Walker , requiring 100 Korean to be supplemented in the American infantry company. This seems simple requirement without any problem, but we need to be clear that during World War II, there were only 193 infantry companies in a US infantry company. If 100 South Koreans were arranged to be inserted, the US military could even change its name to the Joint Army.
In the end, this seemingly absurd order became a reality. Using the US Seventh Infantry Division as an example, there were more than 18,000 infantry divisions. After the idea of using the South Koreans to supplement the US military was put into practice, the Seventh Division alone added more than 8,000 South Koreans. In addition to the Seventh Division, the US military's 24th Division and 25th Division in the Korean War Zone also added a large number of South Koreans.
The United States has the majority of the troops sent by infantry, and if the US soldiers and South Korean soldiers suffer losses in the infantry division, the number of casualties in the war should indeed be much smaller. Some people in the international community have always suspected that my country's data on North Korea's casualties are falsified. In fact, more than half of the 390,000 deaths in the US military counted by China are from South Koreans who are included in the US military, which also shows the accuracy of my country's statistics from another aspect.
Correspondingly, the number of casualties in the South Korean army counted by the South Korean military was about 300,000 more than the ones we counted. Of course, this 300,000 is no match for the South Koreans who were incorporated into the US military. After all, it is impossible for only tens of thousands of Americans in the US military, so the truth is unknown.
To talk about which country's casualties data is more accurate, I think it must be a comprehensive perspective. Although my country's data statistics and publication were not faked during the process, there are inevitably some errors, such as the deviation caused by the South Korean army's incorporation into the US military and the different data caused by the situation of two injuries to US soldiers.
In December 1954, Chen Geng gave a speech at Harbin Military and Technology University, saying: "More than 300,000 people died in the US imperialism, but they lied that they were only half of this number."
In Chen Geng's view, even without the casualties of the troops of South Korea and other countries, the number of casualties of the US military alone exceeded 300,000, and at that time the US military also recognized half of the 300,000, which is true.
But we should also have doubts about the data released by the United States and South Korea. After all, the data released by our army is more than 100,000 people different from the data released by the United States. Overall, the real casualties of the US military is not only about 170,000, and the error of the 390,000 casualties released by our country is also not small. The real data should be one of the data between the two. What is the specific? Due to the chaos caused by the war, the total number of missing people on both sides of the battlefield is tens of thousands, and under such circumstances, it is almost impossible to obtain accurate data.
However, peace after war is the most important thing. We need to remember history, cherish peace, and defend peace.Using the lessons and experience of history to protect the rare balance, the Korean War brought valuable development time and development opportunities to our country. After the Korean War, the United States no longer unscrupulously provoked China, and the victory of the Korean War also proved our strength to everyone in the world. We have also obtained more support from the Soviet Union, received huge help, and gained the momentum for rapid development. The road to the rise of the Chinese nation was exchanged for by our ancestors with blood and tears. We should defend the hard-won peace with both hands!
