The Chinese Revolution and the Korean War

1
The Chinese Revolution and the Korean War

• Kevin J. Benoy

2
WW2 Ends

• Just as the end of the world called into question
  the future geopolitical situation in Europe, Asia
  was also in a state of flux after Japan
  collapsed.
• In Asia the preponderant military power was
  America so initially it appeared that American
  interests would come out on top.

3
WW2 Ends

• Neither of the new super-powers considered the
  possibility of a Communist China.
• Stalin seemed committed to accommodation with
  Chiang Kai Sheks (Jiang Zhongzheng in Mandarin)
  Kuomintang (Guomindang). As Stalins biographer,
  Isaac Deutscher notes, Stalin was contemptuous
  of partisans, sceptical of the chances of
  communism in China, and distrustful of any
  revolution asserting itself without his fiat and
  beyond the range of his military power.
• The Americans also underestimated Maos partisans
  and were confident Chiang would become the
  policeman of the Far East in cooperation with
  the USA.

4
Maos CCP (Chinese Communist Party)

• Mao was more confident in his own forces than was
  his Soviet sponsor.
• He understood better than anyone outside China
  that KMT (GMD) power rested on a fragile base.

5
Maos CCP

• During WW2 the Communists waged a reasonably
  effective guerilla war against the Japanese.
• They were seen as Chinese patriots willing to
  continue the struggle even behind Japanese lines.
• The KMT were seen as ineffective. Chiang seemed
  to place more importance on conserving his forces
  to use later, against the communists, than risk
  them against the Japanese prior to Japans
  invasion in 1937.

6
Maos CCP

• In 1937 the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) had 5
  secure base areas with a population of 12 million
  people.
• In 1945 there were 19 base areas with 100 million
  people.

7
The Kuomintang

• KMT government was ineffective.
• Corruption was rife. Officials were as likely as
  not to be lining their own pockets and those of
  their landowning friends with whatever could be
  skimmed from foreign aid or from national
  production.
• Little or nothing was done for the rural
  peasantry, making up the bulk of Chinas
  population.

8
The Kuomintang

• Peasants remembered that Chiang tolerated food
  profiteering during the 1930s a time of rural
  famine.
• Peasants also faced high taxes and forced labour
  when many landlords conspicuously displayed their
  wealth.

9
The Kuomintang

• Laws intended to prevent child labour were not
  enforced.
• Factory inspectors were openly bribed, yet
  nothing was done to stop the practice because
  Chiang was afraid of alienating his industrialist
  backers.

10
The Communists

• Compared to the KMT, the Communists appeared
  paragons of virtue.
• Land reform took place in Communist areas all,
  including the poorest peasants, received some
  land.
• Corruption was not tolerated by the thoroughly
  dedicated CCP leadership.

11
Wars End

• At the end of the war American and Soviet forces
  ensured their clients, Chiang and Mao, moved in
  to replace the defeated Japanese in occupied
  territories.
• Manchuria fell into Communist hands (though
  Stalin saw this as temporary giving him a
  bargaining chip).
• To the South Chiangs KMT took control.
• In both cases, Chinese forces inherited the
  weapon stocks of the defeated Japanese.

12
Wars End

• As Soviet troops withdrew from Manchuria, they
  took with them about 200 million in industrial
  machinery.
• When Chiangs troops finally entered the northern
  province, they were in a difficult situation.
• They could only assert control in the cities.
• Like the Japanese before them, they faced a
  hostile populationand their supply lines ran
  through hostile territory.

13
Wars End

• Attempts to reconcile the KMT and CCP by US
  General George C. Marshall seemed to help as a
  compromise settlement was worked out in early
  1946.
• However, nationalist (KMT) generals, fearing loss
  of power in a reconstructed national army, and
  CCP elements opposing expanded KMT influence in
  Manchuria, sank the deal.
• Marshall called for an embargo on arms shipments
  to China but to no avail.
• He left China blaming both sides as civil war
  raged.

14
Civil War

• Chiang had strong support in the USA the China
  Lobby business interests and missionary groups
  opposed to communism.
• Trumans policies elsewhere had stirred up strong
  anti-communist feelings now the administration
  was a prisoner of the great fear.
• Pressure to resume aid to Chiang grew stronger.

15
Civil War

• At first the KMT enjoyed some success in N. China
  and Manchuria, taking many of the cities from the
  communists.
• However, economic trouble caused by the high cost
  of paying for the war undermined Chiangs efforts.

16
Civil War

• Inefficiency and corruption, along with high
  inflation, could not be countered by even
  large-scale US aid about 900 million worth of
  military equipment was sold to Chiang for about
  20 of its real cost.
• Civilian and military morale suffered.

17
Civil War

• Financial matters in CCP controlled rural areas
  were of less consequence, as most lived outside
  the cash economy.
• Communist morale remained high.

18
Civil War

• In January, 1947 communist forces began an
  offensive that captured ½ of KMT territory in
  Manchuria.
• Mass KMT desertions followed and much equipment
  fell into CCP hands.

19
Civil War

• Other Communist forces advanced in Central China.
• In 1948, decisive Communist victories occurred in
  North China.
• Each CCP victory sapped KMT strength and
  undermined KMT morale.

20
Civil War

• In a key battle for Hsuchow, total air
  superiority and superior armour could not
  overcome inept KMT leadership.
• By January, surrounded KMT forces numbering
  500,000 men surrendered with all of their
  equipment.

21
Civil War

• In 1949 Chiang resigned and was replaced by
  General Li but the situation was hopeless.
• Nanking, Hankow and Shanghai fell.
• By the end of 1949 only Hainan, Taiwan and some
  small islands were in KMT hands.

22
Civil War

• The KMT government re-established itself on
  Taiwan taking with it as much of Chinas wealth
  as possible, including most of the national gold
  reserves and much treasure from mainland museums.
• Chiang came out of retirement to head what was
  left of Nationalist China.
• America was shocked that 35 billion in aid were
  not enough to give Chiang victory in the civil
  war.

23
Communist Victory

• Mao now had the mammoth task of re-building a
  war-torn mainland China.
• He began talks with Stalin (who he did not
  trust), hoping to receive aid.
• For his part, Stalin wanted to exploit the
  unexpected communist windfall, while realizing
  that Maos victory also presented the Soviets
  with problems.

24
Communist Victory

• It was clear that Mao would expect Stalin to give
  up some of his Manchurian booty.
• Ideological differences between the two leaders
  were vast, despite their common Marxist rhetoric.
• Stalin was a European proletarian communist,
  whereas Mao was an Asian communist with his roots
  planted firmly in the rural peasantry.

25
Communist Victory

• After 3 hard months of negotiations in secret
  talks, a deal was finally reached.
• On February 14, 1950 a formal alliance was
  signed.
• Stalin promised to return what his forces took
  from Manchuria.
• The Manchurian railway would be returned to China
  not later than the end of 1952.
• Port Arthur was returned (though Dairen remained
  in Soviet hands).
• Generous development aid was promised though
  only 300 million was ever delivered.
• Stalin wanted to avoid having another breakaway
  Communist country like Jugoslavia. He needed
  any help he could get at a time of increasing
  friction between the USSR and the capitalist West.

26
Americas Response

• Communisms terrific success in Asia shook US
  leadership.
• Though the Truman Doctrine spoke forcefully of
  containing communism, it was felt that more was
  needed.
• In early 1950 the National Security Council began
  work on a secret document (declassified in 1975),
  known as NSC-68, which would form the basis of US
  policy for the next 20 years.
• America was committed to massive re-armament to
  the tune of 50-60 billion in spending per year.

27
Americas Response

• The premise of the document was that the US and
  USSR were locked in a struggle of ideologies
  which ...inescapably confronts the slave society
  with the free... To that end Soviet efforts are
  now directed toward the domination of the
  Eurasian land mass.

28
Americas Response

• Secretary of State Dean Acheson overruled the
  opposition of two key State Department experts on
  Russia, George Kennan and Charles Bohlen, who
  felt Stalin had no master plan for world
  conquest.
• Acheson felt it necessary for the USA to launch a
  world-wide offensive to gain the initiative in
  the Cold War.
• Events of 1950 were sufficient to convince Truman
  that Acheson was right.

29
Korea

• At the end of hostilities in 1945, Korea was
  divided into two zones of occupation at the 38th
  Parallel to facilitate the surrender of Japanese
  forces.
• The United Nations called for free elections in
  the entire country to determine a post-war
  government.
• No agreement was reached on a formula suitable
  for both occupying powers.

30
Korea

• Frustrated by Communist intransigence, the UN
  supervised elections in the South in 1948.
• The result was the establishment of the Republic
  of Korea (ROK), under President Syngman Rhee.

31
Korea

• In the North, the Soviets installed their own
  protégé Kim Il Sung in the new Democratic
  Peoples Republic of Korea a month later.
• When American And Soviet troops pulled out of
  Korea in 1949, they left two mutually
  antagonistic regimes in Seoul and Pyongyang
  with two leaders claiming to be the legitimate
  leader of the whole country.

32
Korea

• Both rulers were authoritarian.
• Kim Il Sung adopted the traditional communist
  methods of dealing with the opposition.
• Syngman Rhee also disregarded constitutional
  rights to the point where the US State Department
  registered a protest of his actions in early 1950.

33
The Korean War

• On June 7, 1950, North Korean troops invaded the
  South attempting to take advantage of the
  political instability resulting from Rhees
  debacle in the May elections he won only 48 or
  168 seats, yet patched together a shaky coalition
  and continued to rule.

34
The Korean War

• Encouraged by Acheson and MacArthurs comments
  that Korea stood outside the American defense
  perimeter, Kim (and his Soviet protector, Stalin)
  must have believed that the US would not act.

35
The Korean War

• At first the N. Koreans defeated the hapless and
  disorganized forces of the South.
• President Truman cut short a visit to Missouri to
  return to Washington.
• He and Acheson was convinced this was part of a
  Russian-directed plot to spread communism.
• Their response, however, was measured.

36
The Korean War

• General MacArthur was ordered to sent supplies
  from Japan to the South Koreans.
• Fearing Mao might strike against Taiwan, the US
  7th Fleet sailed between the island and the
  mainland.
• At the UN, the USA introduced a resolution in the
  Security Council branding N. Korea an aggressor
  and calling for a return to pre-war positions.

37
The Korean War

• The Soviets were boycotting the UN in protest
  against Red Chinas exclusion from the
  organization.
• As a result, the motion passed 9-0, with just
  Jugoslavia abstaining, and no chance of a Soviet
  veto.
• Two days later, with S. Korean forces collapsing,
  US air and naval forces committed to the war.

38
The Korean War

• On the same day, June 27, another Security
  Council resolution was passed, calling for UN
  help for S. Korea.
• This passed 7-1, with Jugoslavia opposing and
  India and Egypt abstaining.

39
The Korean War

• 15 countries committed troops Australia,
  Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Nationalist China,
  France, Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Greece,
  Turkey, Panama, the Philippines, Thailand, and
  the United States.
• All fell under the command of US General Douglas
  MacArthur.
• Officially a UN operation, it was clear that the
  major contributor, the US, called the shots.

40
The Korean War

• International support saved the South.
• Reinforcements poured into the still unoccupied
  Pusan Perimeter.
• In a dramatic counter-attack, MacArthur reversed
  the fortunes of war.
• The Inchon landing, near Seoul, and a couple of
  hundred miles to the rear of the battle-front,
  resulted in a stunning defeat for the North
  Koreans.

41
The Korean War

• Soon the North Koreans were in a disorganized
  retreat.
• In two weeks, communist forces were pushed out of
  the South.
• Truman ordered the UN to push beyond the 38th
  parallel fully intending to bring about
  unification by eliminating Kims communist
  government in the North.

42
The Korean War

• Communist Chinas Zhou Enlai warned the Americans
  that crossing the 38th Parallel might bring China
  into the war.
• The Americans thought it a bluff.
• Confident that their nuclear superiority would
  keep Stalin out of the conflict and convinced
  Maos army was incapable of effective fighting,
  the US could not imagine a communist response.

43
The Korean War

• With the US 7th fleet poised against it in the
  South China Sea, American forces approaching the
  Manchurian border and Chiang Kai Shek calling for
  his foces to be unleashed on the mainland to roll
  back communism, the Chinese communists took the
  initiative.

44
The Korean War

• The war almost grew on October 9, when two US
  F-80 jets attacked a Soviet airfield near
  Vladivostok.
• Stalin protested, the US apologized, and no
  further action was taken.

45
The Korean War

• In November, 300,000 Chinese volunteers crossed
  the border, pushing UN forces out of North Korea
  by mid-January, 1951.
• MacArthur talked of attacking Manchuria and using
  atomic bombs if necessary.

46
The Korean War

• Truman countermanded MacArthurs orders to bomb
  Chinese troops and supplies in Manchuria.
• Fearing his commander might spark a 3rd World
  War, Truman dismissed MacArthur on April 11, 1951.

47
The Korean War

• The war settled into a long and hard-fought
  stalemate.
• More and more lives were lost as two years of
  negotiations at Panmunjon continued.
• Finally, a compromise was reached in July, 1953.
• The border was returned, more, or less to the
  38th parallel modified to follow local
  landforms.

48
Results of the War

• Korea was devastated.
• 4 million were killed and 5 million left
  homeless.
• The division of the country seemed permanent.
• Cease-fire violations have continued regularly to
  the present.

49
Results of the War

• The Soviet Union never again boycotted the UN.
• Likewise, other Security Council members learned
  a valuable lesson.
• Their use of the veto effectively blocked any
  further use of collective security in the Cold
  War period.

50
Results of the War

• Turning the Cold War hot over Korea intensified
  the international conflict.
• Both sides distrusted each other more than ever.
• For the US, North Korean aggression and the
  Chinese intervention confirmed the beliefs of the
  authors of NSC-68 that the USSR was using client
  states to further communist expansion.

51
Results of the War

• Americas relationship with China was strained
  for decades to come.
• America was committed to a global strategy of
  containment of Communism no longer just in
  areas previously considered vital to American
  interest.

52
Results of the War

• America soon began its fateful involvement in
  Vietnam, pledging to help France fighting
  communist insurgency.
• Just financial at first, it would later involve
  troops.
• US military commitments in Europe and Asia grew
  dramatically.

53
Results of the War

• Within the US, anti-communist sentiment grew
  hugely and the efforts of MacArthur supporters
  and the radical right of Senator Joseph McCarthy
  took the US into a period of domestic turmoil.
• Truman and Acheson were accused of being soft on
  communism.
• American Leftists were persecuted and hounded out
  of jobs during the witch hunts of the 1950s.

54
Results of the War

• By the time McCarthyism ran its course at least 9
  million Americans had been investigated.
• Thousands lost their jobs and reputations badly
  tarnishing Americas reputation for fairness.
• Much of Trumans Fair Deal was defeated in an
  atmosphere of anti-Socialism.
• President Truman himself lost his job in the 1952
  election to Eisenhower.
• Dean Acheson was replaced by an even stronger
  anti-communist John Foster Dulles.

55
finis