Shocking Things you Did Not Know about the Korean War

the korean war gets a lot less attention than the wars that america participated in immediately before and after it world war ii and the vietnam war but anyone who is interested in history and why the world is the way it is today should know about the korean war understanding the korean war shows how the american armed services went from being a force that could destroy nazi germany and imperial japan to a military that failed to stop the communist takeover in vietnam in some ways the korean war was almost much more disastrous for the americans than vietnam in fact at one point the north koreans almost pushed the american army out of the country for good and the south koreans whom the americans were allied with did some terrible things that will make you wonder why the u. s even wanted to fight for them in the first place at least 2 million civilians died although that number might be much closer to 3 million similarly the combined military deaths were at least 500 000 and might be well over 1 million but it was also a weird war where both sides made some strange decisions today let's go back in time to reveal weird and sad things about the korean war that you didn't know viewer discretion is advised for this video as some of this video may be offensive or disturbing we the makers of this video in no way support or condone the atrocities that were committed during the korean war in the lead-up to the war the south korean president xingmin re forced anyone he suspected of being a communist sympathizer to enroll in a re-education program that was supposed to set them on the correct way of thinking and when they couldn't find enough communist sympathizers they just started forcibly enrolling random people into this education program then when war officially broke out these people were imprisoned two days after the north korean army invaded south korea in 1950 the south korean president ordered the execution of the people in this re-education program and also people who were part of the south korean workers party from that day onward huge swaths of people were massacred by the south korean government when the u. s entered the war little happened to stop the heartless acts instead some commanders even approved of the executions others such as general douglas macarthur turned a blind eye to the atrocities the youngest known victim of these massacres was a young girl in her teens the most common method of execution was by firearm but the south koreans also used crueler methods for instance suspected communist sympathizers who lived on the coast were often tied together and thrown into the sea ensuring that they would drown the saddening ordeal was then suppressed until the 1990s and 2000s when south korea's government ended its authoritarian regime and became much more democratic the government has since uncovered thousands of human remains the true extent of the massacres may never be known after the north koreans invaded south korea you'd be right in thinking that the americans acted quickly to defend the south but you'd be wrong in thinking that this went smoothly as the first u.

s battle highlights less than two weeks after the outbreak of the war american soldiers arrived on the korean peninsula with the goal of forcing the communists back the first american engagement was the battle of osan which occurred on the 5th of july 1950. the day before the u. s soldiers who were made up of a group of 540 gis from a few different battalions that had been hastily grouped together nicknamed task force smith set up defensive stations on two hills on both sides of the road just outside the village of osan task force smith soldiers were almost all teenage boys only one-sixth of the men had combat experience most had only been trained for a total of eight weeks before being deployed into the theater of war and to defend themselves they had equipment that dated to the early days of world war ii few of these weapons were strong enough to pierce north korean tank armor and what made matters worse was that the group only had a total of six anti-tank rounds on the morning of july 5th the soldier saw eight north korean tanks approaching the timing was terrible as they approached during a heavy rainstorm meaning that air support could not aid the men at 8 16 a.

m the americans fired on the tanks with artillery fire then they watched in horror as the tanks continued to creep forward barely scratched the tanks reached a roadblock that the americans had set up the americans fired their six anti-tank rounds two of the tanks were damaged a third one caught on fire a north korean then exited this flaming tank and fired on the americans killing one gi before being killed himself the americans were then able to disable another tank by hitting its tracks but the north koreans then destroyed the american communication lines making logistical coordination impossible when things seemed hopeful another 25 north korean tanks rode up to the americans soon most of the north korean tanks had ridden past the americans without being damaged with the tanks firing upon the us posts the surviving americans tried their best to fortify what was left of their defenses when three more tanks and a column of trucks that stretched as far as they could see arrived the americans shot at these tanks and trucks some trucks were destroyed but by 2 30 pm the americans had used up all of their ammo and suffered heavy losses the survivors retreated wounded americans stayed behind hoping that the north koreans would imprison them instead the americans were all rounded up those that still had two arms were bound with the communication line wires that the tanks had disabled and they were terminated task force smith lost almost half of its soldiers in that battle the north korean invasion force had been delayed by a grand total of seven hours sadly the americans took a long time to learn from their mistakes in this battle over the month of july similar battles played out across the korean peninsula with inexperienced american soldiers using ineffective weapons and inevitably being overwhelmed because the us army was so badly equipped and trained the north koreans were on the verge of winning the war within two months of first invading south korea throughout july the american and south korean armies just kept on getting pushed further and further south by early august the north koreans had taken over 90 percent of the peninsula kim il-sung the north korean leader thought that victory was imminent instead the americans and the south koreans were able to fortify the 10 percent of the land that they had been pushed back to on the southeastern tip of the peninsula on august 2 1950 the u. s and south korean armies finally succeeded in halting the north korean advance soon the americans had planned a counter-offensive to take back the land they had lost another division nicknamed task force keen which was composed of twenty thousand men headed west to take the chenchu pass which would allow the americans and south koreans to rapidly move further inland task force keane headed toward the chenchu pass on august 7th but as they left their base they encountered thousands of north korean troops who had been attempting to reach task force king's base the two armies fought bitterly out in the open until both sides set up temporary bases for the next three days the americans and north koreans fought incredibly bloody battles eventually the task force king was beaten back to their original base failing to take any land once more the americans had been defeated instead the south koreans and americans had to remain in their tiny block of land bitterly defending it throughout august and the first half of september 1950 the never give up mentality of the us and south korean soldiers proved to be victorious at 6 30 a. m on september 15 1950 hundreds of ships approached the coastal city of inchon which was based hundreds of miles north of the land that the u.

s ground forces were defending much like d-day in world war ii thousands of american soldiers stormed the beaches destroying north korean defensive positions the north koreans were taken completely by surprise and the poorly maintained defensive positions were soon abandoned within two weeks of this surprise amphibious assault the korean capital of seoul was back in american and south korean hands the north koreans also suffered heavy losses in fact by mid-october america had taken in over 135 000 north korean prisoners of war from that point onward america and south korea had the upper hand in the war you may think that this account is an exaggeration of just how close the north koreans came to taking over the entire korean peninsula well it isn't even the american commanders at the time realized that they were on the brink of defeat for instance general matthew ridgway said that quote the war would have been over in 60 days with all korea in communist hands if it hadn't been for the us's air force people know that north korea is one of the strangest and most secretive nations on earth while every country has embraced internationalism to a certain degree the north korea of the present day is known as the hermit kingdom which refuses to integrate with other countries it reveals very little about what happens within its borders and even then much of what it says is blatant propaganda why is this it all lies in the fact that north korea and south korea are technically still at war of course nowadays battles are not being fought between north korean and south korean soldiers so in that sense it isn't a physical war but it is still happening because no side has ever formally ended the war instead this is how the conflict ended in june 1953 the communist forces and the combined u. s south korean and u. n forces had been locked in a stalemate for years in that month they fired millions of shells at one another this led to a major escalation in hostilities to soldiers on the ground it must have seemed like the fighting would only get worse but the communist governments were actually in the process of ending the war at this point joseph stalin the ruler of the soviet union for decades had died in early 1953 the remaining soviet leaders who were in an internal power struggle to become the new ruler lost interest in supporting the north korean war suddenly the north koreans and the chinese lost all their resources soon the north koreans accepted peace talks with the united nations by the end of july most of the heads of the nations at war had signed the korean armistice agreement ending immediate hostilities but this agreement makes it clear that the war is not over instead it says that all fighting shall stop quote until a final peace settlement is achieved so basically this agreement is a stop gap measure to prevent lies from being lost until final peace accords can be drafted but no final peace agreement has ever been signed in fact south korea hasn't even accepted the terms of the korean armistice agreement and no representative from south korea has ever signed it this was because the then south korean president singh min ri still wanted to take the entire korean peninsula of course without support from america he did not have the strength to do this so the fighting stopped because of this the korean war is still officially ongoing when the fighting officially ended all of the soldiers who had been captured by either side were freed and allowed to return home not all of them did as can be expected tens of thousands of north korean and chinese soldiers refused to return to their communist dictatorships and remained in the west a small number of south korean soldiers 327 to be precise remained in north korea many of these people probably had family in the north and they wanted to stay with them but most weirdly of all 21 americans and one scottish soldier who had been captured refused to return home instead they chose to remain under communist influence these men all had different reasons some were genuinely impressed with the communist way of life others were disgusted by the injustices of their home country one such individual was clarence adams adams was a corporal who originally came from memphis tennessee he was african-american so he had seen more than his fair share of suffering in the pre-civil rights usa in communist prison for the first time ever he had access to a high standard of education he studied communist political theory once he had become an expert on the subject he started lecturing other american prisoners on what he considered to be the virtues of communism when the war ended adams knew that the other american soldiers would say that he had spent his entire incarceration learning about and preaching about communism meaning that he would probably face even more prison time and be given a dishonorable discharge so adams moved to china and married a chinese woman he remained sympathetic to the communist way of life in fact during the vietnam war adams would often appear on communist radio shows during which he would plead for the american soldiers in vietnam to return to the u.

s and fight for civil equality but in 1966 adams decided to return to america because communism could not provide him with the thing he wanted most in this world his mother the u.