Exhibits: Korean War

Korean War

More than a half-century ago, thousands of Americans fought a bitter war on the Korean peninsula against a very determined enemy. Known as “the forgotten war,” the battle for Korea was the first US combat action of the Cold War. The Korean War also marked resurgence for the Marine Corps which had been dramatically reduced in size during the years following World War II.

Korea marked the first combat use by the Marine Corps of both helicopters and jet aircraft. On display is a Grumman Panther jet fighter which flew as part of the first Marine jet combat mission in December 1950 and an early Sikorsky helicopter. The gallery describes the “see-saw” nature of the war’s opening battles and the conflict’s gradual transformation into a static war of attrition, reminiscent of World War I trench warfare. Other exhibits highlight the introduction of Combined-Arms Teams, flak jackets (body armor) and expanded roles for women and minorities within the Marine Corps during this time period.

Visitors ride with Marines to the sea wall at Inchon as part of General MacArthur’s strategic end run to attack the enemy’s rear. A Pershing tank rumbles through the war-torn streets of Seoul. On Toktong Pass near the Chosin Reservoir, visitors encounter Marines who are cold, tired and dangerously short of ammunition. Visitors feel the cold; they hear the Chinese soldiers advancing up the snowy mountain and watch the Marines prepare for the next attack. It is a battle that must be won against overwhelming odds. Lastly, a sobering look at a POW cage serves as a reminder of the high price of war.

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Send in the Marines: 1946 – 1953

The Cold War
The Pusan Perimeter
Inchon/Seoul
The Chosin Reservoir Campaign
“The Other War”
Fate of the Prisoners of War
Global Readiness
We, the Marines
Casualties of War

The Cold War

"If this was allowed to go unchallenged, it would mean a third world war."
- President Harry S. Truman

In the unsettled aftermath of World War II, much of Europe and Asia fell into the hands of totalitarian regimes in the thrall of international Communism. Americans celebrating the end of Nazi and Japanese aggression in 1945 soon realized that freedom was once again threatened. Against the backdrop of nuclear-armed tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the survival of the world depended on the ability of the United Nations and the two superpowers to keep a local crisis such as Korea from escalating to total war. The Korean conflict, the first U.S. combat action of the Cold War era, remained limited and undeclared.

The Pusan Perimeter

On 25 June 1950, the North Korean People´s Army (NKPA) stormed across the 38th Parallel, the border between communist North Korea and America´s ally, the Republic of Korea. Supported by powerful Russian-built T-34 tanks, they overpowered South Korean units, seized the capital of Seoul, and raced southward. President Harry Truman transferred U. S. Army units stationed in Japan to Korea under United Nations auspices.

Army garrison troops arriving in Korea could not stem the onslaught. By the end of July, UN control had shrunk to a toehold in the peninsula’s southeast corner, protecting the vital port of Pusan. Collapse of the Pusan perimeter would lose the war. LtGen Walton Walker, commanding the Eighth Army, exhorted his troops to hold firm. "We must fight to the end — a retreat… would be one of the greatest butcheries in history!" UN resistance stiffened along the Naktong River, but more North Korean units advanced to force the crossings. Help was on the way: a newly formed Marine air-ground brigade would reach Pusan on 2 August to preserve the embattled perimeter.

The Marine Brigade under BGen Edward Craig that arrived on 2 August swiftly went into action. The brigade´s carrier-borne aircraft flew against NKPA targets the next day. Marine infantry engaged the enemy in broiling heat west of Masan on the 7th, leading the first successful counteroffensive of the war.

The newly arrived Marine Brigade provided a boon to the besieged Eighth Army, desperately holding the Naktong River line against NKPA assaults. General Walton Walker employed the Marines as his emergency "Fire Brigade," shuttling them around the perimeter to counterattack each massive breakthrough. In a costly month of hard marching and bitter fighting, the Marines hurled back each enemy penetration. "Here were professionals," reported an Associated Press correspondent.

Inchon/Seoul

"We shall land at Inchon and I shall crush them!"
- General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief, Far East

The surprise US landing at Inchon reflected General MacArthur’s strategic vision and the creative flexibility of the 1st Marine Division. The massive, seaborne flank attack enabled the US Eighth Army to break the North Koreans’ siege of the Pusan Perimeter and drive the enemy north against MacArthur’s newly established "anvil" along the Han River.

At Inchon, the 1st Marine Division faced its most daunting challenge, deploying so hurriedly it still lacked its third infantry regiment and ordered to execute an amphibious assault in a city the size of Omaha under the worst tidal conditions the Marines ever faced. Yet MacArthur’s prophesy proved correct. The Marines overcame Inchon’s notorious tidal surges, mudflats, and seawalls, and indeed "crushed" the port’s defenders. Within two weeks the Leathernecks had fought their way inland and raised the American flag in recaptured Seoul.

The Chosin Reservoir Campaign

"Our hands and feet were frozen numb. The wind-borne cold attacked with terrible fury. We shivered violently."
- Lt. Joseph Owen, 7th Marines

The Marines’ greatest battle occurred during one of the nation’s most bitter military defeats, when Chinese forces crossed into North Korea to rout the unsuspecting Allies. General MacArthur ignored reports of China entering the war and spurred his command across the 38th Parallel, and into disaster. Near a large reservoir, the 1st Marine Division found itself surrounded by a Chinese field army 78 miles from the sea, and burdened with thousands of casualties at the onset of one of the coldest winters ever recorded along the Manchurian border. The Marines ignored the reservoir’s Korean name "Changjin" in favor of the Japanese name "Chosin," which became "Frozen Chosin." No Marines ever fought under worse conditions of weather and terrain. Superbly supported by the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, the division fought an epic withdrawal to the sea, turning back the Chinese and bringing out their own wounded and dead.

“The Other War”

Faced with waning support at home and always concerned that the Soviet Union might intervene on behalf of its allies North Korea and China, the Truman administration ruled out further amphibious "end runs" like Inchon as too risky and provocative. The remaining 31 months of the conflict became a wasteland known as "The Other War," a dreary cycle of grinding combat, devoid of operational finesse or popular appeal. Heavy fighting flared at places like Kanmubong Ridge, "The Hook," and outposts such as Carson, Reno, and Vegas. Most fighting raged at night under torrents of artillery fire, and involved platoons rather than regiments. The "Other War" cost three times as many casualties as had the 1950 battles, and more than forty percent of Marine losses in Korea occurred after March 1952.

Fate of the Prisoners of War

Nearly 7200 Americans became POWs in Korea, 221 of them Marines. The communist captors, according to a postwar report, "perfected a diabolic method of torture which combines degradation, deprivation, and mental harassment." While many POWs weakened and cooperated with their captors, the Marines resorted to discipline, loyalty, and offbeat humor to endure the ordeal honorably. Only 27 of them (12%) died in Communist hands. Almost 2700 Americans of other services died as prisoners, a mortality rate approaching 39%. "Without USMC training I would never have lived," said Captain Charles Harrison. All surviving Marine POWs returned home.

Global Readiness

The Marines’ frenzied deployment to Korea had succeeded, but the process resembled the patchwork embarkations of the 19th century instead of the advance positioning the Cold War demanded. Korea reinforced an emerging Navy-Marine Corps innovation - the continuous deployment of combat-ready Marine expeditionary forces aboard amphibious ships.

We, the Marines

Total Marines on 1 June 1950: 74,279
Total Marines on 1 June 1953: 249,219
Total Marines who served in the Corps during 1950-53: about 424,000
Total Marines who served in Korea during 1950-53: about 130,000
Peak strength serving in Korea: about 35,900 in April 1953