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North Korea, a highly militarised
state dominated by one family

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for over half a century.

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The product of a conflict
reinforced by a nuclear threat,

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that still endures today.

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It began with the Korean War fought
between 1950 and 1953, a war

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that led to deep ideological
and physical divisions between North

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and South
and reverberated across the world.

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There is no way to understand what's
going on today without understanding

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of the Korean War.

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How can you understand this Korean
conflict that we are having without

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understanding of the origin
of that conflict?

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Nearly 70 years on, this unresolved
conflict continues to pose a serious

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threat to America and its allies.

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The Korean War was one
of the bloodiest chapters

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in the country's history.

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A civil war that nearly
ignited World War III.

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We are united in detesting
Communist slavery.

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It took the lives of tens of
thousands of soldiers and millions

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of Koreans.

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When they came, they came in waves -
a wave, a wave, a wave, a wave.

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I threw three cartons of grenades
that night.

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We could hear the bugles sound
and then all the screaming

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and what have you.

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And their sole purpose
was to annihilate

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the 1st Marine Division.

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The Korean War was one of the most
vicious, violent, nauseating wars

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of the 20th century.

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The United States dropped
more ordnance on North Korea

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in that three-year war

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than we dropped during the entire
Second World War.

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For North Koreans, the Korean War
is not a memory.

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It's still very much alive.

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Good evening from the White House
in Washington.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the President
of the United States.

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The world will note that the first
atomic bomb was dropped

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on Hiroshima, a military base.

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Nagasaki - target
for the second atomic bomb.

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Just three days after Hiroshima...
London newspapers this morning

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are speculating that a new surrender
ultimatum to Japan

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may be likely soon.

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At the close of World War II,
the Americans turn their attention

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to the surrender of Japanese
forces in Korea.

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With Soviet troops already deployed
in Northern Korea and marching

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southward, the US military needed
to act quickly.

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The United States was much
further away,

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its troops were much further away
than were Soviet troops.

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What that meant was suddenly
the Americans had to try

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and establish some agreements
with Stalin, the leader

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in the Soviet Union, on Korea.

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The Americans proposed
that the United States

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and the Soviet Union establish
zones.

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On August 10th, 1945, two US Army
officers were given a mission

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to divide Korea before the Soviets
could occupy the entire country.

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Armed with only a National
Geographic map of Asia, Colonels

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Rusk and Bonesteel, who knew little
about Korea, zeroed

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in on the peninsula.

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They had 30 minutes to really divide
up the country and they looked

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at the wall and there was a map
of the Korean peninsula

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and they said, "Well,

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"why don't we just kind of divide it
here in this 38th parallel?"

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The 38th parallel was just north
of Seoul and they wanted the
national capital

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to be in the American zone,
and with very little discussion

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that decision goes up to Truman
and is made in a proposal to Stalin.

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The 38th parallel was simply
a line on a map.

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It followed no physical features.

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It divided farms and villages,
severed 300 roads and cut

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across six railways.

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The Soviets accepted it.

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Korea had been cut in two
without a word of input

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from a single Korean.

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Koreans were one people
for thousands of years,

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and the Koreans didn't have a lot
of choice.

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You know, it's not even
a big country. We're just divided...

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And that took all of 30 minutes.
It was a 30-minute decision.

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And so the 38th parallel becomes
this temporary dividing line

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between Northern and Southern Korea.

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But the temporary dividing line
congeals into effectively

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a permanent dividing line

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when the Soviet Union
and the United States fall out,

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the Cold War intervened
and American troops didn't go home.

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At the end of World War II,
the United States

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and the Soviet Union had emerged
as superpowers.

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By 1946, the map of the world
was split between the conflicting

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ideologies of democracy
and commerce.

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In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin
tightened his hold on power

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and began to extend communist
influence throughout Europe.

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US President Truman, sworn in after
the death of Franklin D Roosevelt,

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was both unpopular and untested
on the world stage,

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yet he was determined to advance
America's post-war interests.

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The policy of the Truman
administration

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was that the United States
needed to focus on containing

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the Soviet Union, keeping
Soviet power and Soviet ideology -

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communism - from spreading.

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It wasn't simply the tanks
and troops of the Soviet Union.

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It was this ideology, it was the
belief system of communism.

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Europe was the Cold War's
first battleground.

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Neither side was interested
in events on the faraway

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Korean peninsula.

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For US strategic planners, Korea
really didn't figure much

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in the picture at all.

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To the extent that we cared
about Asia,

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US strategic planners believed
that the only power in Asia

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would continue to be Japan.

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The Japanese defeat in World War II
ended their occupation of Korea.

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A history marred by the brutal
subjugation of the Korean people.

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Japan succeeded in colonising Korea
in 1910. That led to terrible

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hardships for millions of Koreans.

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And then the Japanese used Koreans
as mobile capital and labour

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throughout the empire.

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You have the mobilisation
of 200,000 Korean soldiers

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into the Japanese army -

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most of them drafted.
As many as 100 to 200,000 women

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were dragooned into serving

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dozens of Japanese soldiers
every day as sex slaves.

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So when they were liberated
in '45, the Koreans thought

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this was the beginning of a bright,
bright future for them

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and that this division would end
very quickly.

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TRANSLATION:

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Park Kyung-Soon was just nine years
old when she heard the news

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over the radio that the Japanese
had surrendered.

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There was celebration, relief
that this period of Japanese rule

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was over, but there was a power
vacuum that opened up dependent

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on the evolving relationship
between the Soviets

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and the Americans.

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And as it turned out, the Soviets
and the Americans couldn't reach

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an agreement on how to unify
the Korean peninsula.

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To control their occupied
territories,

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the Soviets and Americans put
in power men they could trust.

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In the South, the Americans
supported Syngman Rhee,

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a Princeton educated Christian who'd
been lobbying the US government

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for the job throughout
World War ii.

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Syngman Rhee had no faction
in Korea.

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He had no base in Korea
because he had been out of

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the country for 40 or 50 years.

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But he had a certain charisma.

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He had a great smile.

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Americans tended to think
he was a kindly old gentleman.

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Uncle Syngman. Rhee's kindly manner
belied an unyielding thirst

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for power and desire to unify
the two Koreas at any cost.

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He was elected president
of South Korea in 1948.

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To consolidate his authority, Rhee
crushed political dissent, killing

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thousands of communist guerrillas.

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Rhee was an authoritarian, semi-thug
with great contacts.

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He wasn't a nice man, but Americans,
certainly in this period, tended

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to believe if somebody could speak
English and had been educated

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in the United States that, oh, well,
that means they've absorbed

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all kinds of democratic values.

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Well, that didn't happen to be
the case.

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Syngman Rhee just happened
to be, as Franklin Roosevelt

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would have said, our SOB
rather than theirs.

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In the North,
the Soviets picked Kim Il-sung -

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an unknown expat who'd
been radicalised

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by the Japanese occupation.

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Kim Il-sung was really unknown.

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But then, when the Japanese took
control of the Korean peninsula

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during the occupation in the first
half of the 20th century,

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Kim Il-sung transformed.

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He became known as a guerrilla
fighter

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fighting against the Japanese
in China.

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And from that point on,
had basically a price on his head

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as an anti-Japan conspirator
by the colonial government.

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He eventually moved to the Soviet
Union, where he learned Russian

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and became close to a number of key
Russian generals.

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Kim quickly solidified his power
and amassed a formidable army.

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By 1949, Kim had burnished his image
as supreme leader, creating the myth

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of a fearsome guerrilla fighter
who single-handedly

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defeated the Japanese.

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Idea was - our country
has suffered for generations

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because we had no great leader.
And then great leader

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emerged, he liberated us
from the Japanese occupation.

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It was blatantly untrue
because Kim Il-sung, during the

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war with Japan, the decisive stage
was far away from the front line

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in a small Soviet military base.

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Kim Il-sung was one of the shrewdest
politicians of his era,

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but a particularly brutal
and ruthless person who knew

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how to gain power and hold on to
it.

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There are striking similarities
between Rhee and Kim Il-sung.

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Both of them are the same types
of expat nationalist leaders

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who have big plans -
with themselves at the centre.

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Both of them have a strong vision
of a unified Korea.

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And both of them believed
that their fundamental power came

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from their ability to manipulate
outside sponsors - in Rhee's case

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the United States,

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and in Kim Il-sung's case,
the Soviet Union.

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In 1949, Mao's victory over
the American-backed nationalists

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in China emboldened Kim.

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00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:35,560
The time was right for
a unified communist Korea.

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Kim travelled to Moscow to lobby
Stalin to back an invasion

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00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:42,840
of the South.

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00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,120
He was rebuffed by the Soviet
leader,

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00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:48,160
who believed the US presence
made war too risky.

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00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:55,880
But by January 1950,
Stalin had had a change of heart.

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Now, what happened in between, say,
September of 1949 and the end

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00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:06,080
of January 1950...

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00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:12,000
Dean Acheson, who was the American
Secretary of State, in January 1950,

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00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:15,800
January 12th, made a major speech
to the National Press Club

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00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:21,160
in Washington, DC, and
in the speech, he left South Korea

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out of the American defence
perimeter in the Pacific.

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And Stalin obviously noticed that.

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00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:33,200
Stalin now believes that
the Americans will not get

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00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:36,400
involved in Korea.
He's absolutely convinced.

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00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:41,160
So he says,
"OK, I'll give you my blessing.

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00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:44,440
"But you have to ask now
for the final decision."

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00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,920
Stalin's position was something
like, "Well, comrades,

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00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:55,360
"you say that you will win soon,
it's your idea,

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00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:58,000
"and we will provide
you with ammunition and money

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00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,120
"and everything,
but it will be your responsibility.

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00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:05,040
"If something gets really bad,
don't count on our support."

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00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:10,640
In May 1950, Kim travelled to China
to meet Mao.

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00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:16,320
Now, as one of the most
experienced leaders in the world,

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00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,520
with his own gigantic army
that had just proceeded to clear

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00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:24,800
the mainland of nationalist forces
and who had many allies

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00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,960
who had fought with Kim Il-sung
and other guerrillas throughout

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00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:33,200
the 1930s, I think Kim Il-sung
had good reason to believe

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00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:35,440
that he would have plenty
of comrades in China

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00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:37,680
that would help him.

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00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:42,320
Kim was masterful at manoeuvring
between Stalin and Mao

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and then ended up getting support
from both of them.

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00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:51,240
By the summer of 1950, Kim Il-sung
was ready to invade the South,

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00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,760
assuring Mao that he would be
greeted as a liberator and take

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00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:57,200
the peninsula in a matter of days.

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00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:09,520
News the communist troops
have invaded Southern Korea...

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00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:12,600
..invading their fellow countrymen
to the South to bring another

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00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:16,760
international crisis to the already
long-suffering world.

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00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:22,200
At 4am on June 25th, 1950,
North Korean troops raced

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00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:23,920
across the 38th parallel.

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00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:27,960
Kim's invasion of the South
had begun.

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00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:05,400
Basically, the South Korean army
either couldn't fight

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00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,440
or didn't fight or ran away.

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The North Koreans were in Seoul
in three days.

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00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:36,840
Some South Korean men went
into hiding to avoid conscription

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00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:39,440
into the communist army.

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00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,760
Others were put on trial
and publicly shamed for not pledging

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00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:45,200
allegiance to the party.

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00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:48,880
Beatings, kidnappings and executions
were routine.

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00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:15,880
The South Koreans just couldn't stop
them and they just fell apart.

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00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:21,960
The reaction in Washington
was one of shock.

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00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:25,800
Gentlemen, we...we face
a serious situation.

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00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:29,080
We hope we face it
in the cause of peace.

240
00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:31,960
By now, news of the invasion had
reached

241
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:34,880
the Allied Supreme Commander
in Japan.

242
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:38,160
Douglas MacArthur
was an American war hero.

243
00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,040
His face had appeared six times
already on the cover

244
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:42,280
of Time magazine.

245
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:48,760
Douglas MacArthur was the scion
of a military family, his father

246
00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:52,320
had fought in the Civil War
and won the Medal of Honor.

247
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:55,120
Douglas MacArthur was a brilliant
student at West Point.

248
00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:57,720
He was a gallant soldier
in World War I.

249
00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:01,960
He won all of the medals anyone
of his generation could win.

250
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,280
He was the Supreme Commander of
Allied forces in the southwestern

251
00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:07,440
Pacific during World War II.

252
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:15,080
MacArthur was a very proud,
self-confident, vainglorious

253
00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:19,200
individual who had a complete belief
in his own truths,

254
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,080
whether they were based on fact
or not.

255
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:25,360
He considered himself a man
of destiny, and he had an ego

256
00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:27,560
the size of China,

257
00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:30,440
but he was a master
on the battlefield.

258
00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:32,720
From his command in Tokyo,

259
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,560
MacArthur assured Washington
that he could handle

260
00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:39,280
the North Koreans
with one arm tied behind his back.

261
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,040
But the Truman administration,
intent on shrinking the defence

262
00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:49,280
budget, had only a small advisory
team left behind in Korea.

263
00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:52,520
After World War II,

264
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:55,200
America had built down its military,

265
00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,880
not expecting that they would
have to be used again -

266
00:19:57,880 --> 00:19:59,920
at least, nothing on that scale.

267
00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:03,160
So at the time of the outbreak
of the Korean War, the American

268
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:07,080
military was a shadow of
what it had been in World War II.

269
00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:13,080
As long as we had a monopoly
of nuclear weapons, we could relax

270
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:17,200
a little bit in terms of
the manpower we had in the army.

271
00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:25,120
We had to very quickly
put together two regiments.

272
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:29,760
They took half of my platoon
and filled me up with reserves -

273
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,240
many of whom had never even been
to boot camp.

274
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:41,640
I had just turned 17 and I was sent
to Camp Drake in Japan,

275
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:43,680
outside of Tokyo.

276
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,920
And all we did was process
and train to make an amphibious

277
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,640
landing and head for Korea.

278
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:55,640
On them, world peace depend.

279
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,360
MILITARY MUSIC

280
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:01,880
They will not fail.

281
00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:05,160
They never have.

282
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:12,920
The Americans were pretty confident,
you could even argue they maybe

283
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:15,440
were a little bit cocky.

284
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:22,080
Their first encounter was with
North Korean troops that had

285
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:26,480
Soviet T-34 tanks, and the American
forces had no weapons.

286
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:31,200
The bazookas they had would not
penetrate the armour of a T-34 tank.

287
00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:39,040
And so when they entered
into battle, at first they ran.

288
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:44,720
They saw their comrades being killed
around them and it gradually got

289
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,560
a name that was called the bugging
out - they would bug out.

290
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:58,120
When we were still in Camp Drake
in Japan, we were told at that time

291
00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:00,080
that it was going to be

292
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,880
an easy war to finish, you know?

293
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,400
We were told that the North Koreans,
"slant eyes",

294
00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:09,680
they couldn't say to the right
or the left flank.

295
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:11,840
They could only see to the front.

296
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:14,360
That you could actually
sneak in behind

297
00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:17,120
the North Koreans and get them,
you know.

298
00:22:17,120 --> 00:22:21,280
But we found out
that wasn't true!

299
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:24,920
Them suckers had eyes in the back
and also in the front.

300
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:29,840
All we could do was just run
back as fast as we could,

301
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:31,960
and they were right after us.

302
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:52,880
World conquest by Soviet Russia

303
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:57,000
endangers our liberty
and endangers the kind of world

304
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:00,040
in which the free spirit of men
can survive.

305
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,360
The Soviet Union had an atomic bomb,

306
00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:07,800
a tight grip on Eastern Europe
and a powerful alliance

307
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,920
with Mao's China.

308
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:13,040
It wasn't a good thing that China
went communist.

309
00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:16,560
This was a dire threat
to the United States.

310
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:21,560
And so, when communist forces
of North Korea invaded South Korea,

311
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:25,080
Truman figured - I need to do
something about this.

312
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:29,160
If, politically, the Truman
administration loses South Korea,

313
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:33,000
it's going to appear, first of all,
to my domestic critics that I am

314
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:34,600
a terrible President,

315
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,200
and there's the whole question
of American credibility.

316
00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:41,320
Our potential allies,
like in Europe, which was our top

317
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,560
priority, would say,
"Well, in the end, the Americans

318
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:49,360
"can't be depended upon." Korea
is a small country thousands

319
00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:51,440
of miles away.

320
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,560
But what is happening there is
important to every American.

321
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,080
It was really inevitable
that the Americans were going to do

322
00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,120
whatever they could
to stop the North Koreans.

323
00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:04,160
We are united in detesting
communist slavery.

324
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:08,120
We know that the cost of freedom
is high, but we are determined

325
00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:12,360
to preserve our freedom,
no matter what the cost.

326
00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:17,080
What Americans most wanted
after World War II was to come home

327
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:20,160
and to have families and to get
about the business

328
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,440
of peacetime affairs.

329
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,880
Harry Truman recognised
that if a lot of Americans started

330
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:31,840
getting killed in Korea, the war
could turn unpopular very quickly.

331
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:36,480
To share the burden would make
the war in Korea politically

332
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,000
more acceptable.
To show his resolve,

333
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,160
Truman bypassed Congress
and took his plan directly

334
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:44,960
to the newly formed United Nations.

335
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:49,600
The armed invasion of the Republic
of Korea continues.

336
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:54,920
This is, in fact, an attack
on the United Nations itself.

337
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:59,520
On June 27th, two days after
the invasion, the Security Council

338
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:03,400
passed a resolution authorising
military intervention.

339
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:09,280
By June 30th, Truman had approved
the use of American troops -

340
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:13,400
the first time an American President
had unilaterally committed

341
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:15,840
the country to war.

342
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:19,120
I didn't know where Korea was
until I heard

343
00:25:19,120 --> 00:25:23,680
that we was having a war
with North Korea.

344
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:27,400
I lied. I was 16 when I went in,

345
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:34,640
but the Second World War
had just finished and I had no idea

346
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:37,880
that I would ever be involved
in a war.

347
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:43,680
When the war started in June of
1950,

348
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:47,680
early one morning, I received
a telephone call saying,

349
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,600
"Lieutenant Kinard, you're now
in the army."

350
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:52,040
I said, "What's this?"

351
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:57,400
Because I didn't really know where
Korea was until I looked at the map

352
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:02,640
and figured out the...
it was far from my home.

353
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:09,400
The term of art at the time
was a "police action".

354
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:12,680
There is someone who has disturbed
the peace,

355
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,920
you call out the police
and the police go to it.

356
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:20,960
And so this term, police action,
seemed to be a nice dodge,

357
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,480
around why Truman wasn't asking
Congress for a declaration of war -

358
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:28,200
it's not really a war,
it's just this police action.

359
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,480
You know, we was, uh...
Harry's police force.

360
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:37,040
It was kind of funny -
here we are fighting a war,

361
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,120
and he'd call it a police action.

362
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:48,520
By July 1950, some 50,000 US
troops, followed by thousands

363
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:53,120
more from Great Britain, Australia,
Thailand and 12 other nations,

364
00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:54,600
headed toward Korea.

365
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,760
North Korean troops were streaming
down the peninsula

366
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:01,160
at lightning speed.

367
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,880
Kim Il-sung's promise that he would
take the South in a matter of days

368
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:07,840
was coming true.

369
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,560
All up and down the line,
people couldn't quite figure
out the North Koreans.

370
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:15,680
John Foster Dulles, who was Truman's
roving ambassador for East Asia

371
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:20,080
policy, said he can't figure out
what keeps these masses of troops

372
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:21,680
come shrieking on -

373
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,320
maybe they're on drugs or maybe
the Soviets have found some way

374
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,320
to programme these people.

375
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:31,040
And in fact, they were fighting
and dying for their homeland,

376
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,520
for the unification
of their homeland.

377
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,600
What you have really in
this situation is this brutal civil

378
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:42,200
war overlaid with an international
war between two ideological foes

379
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:46,120
of the Cold War - the Soviet Union
and the United States.

380
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:51,560
To try to slow the North Korean
onslaught,

381
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,000
MacArthur sent the US Army's
7th Cavalry to intercept them

382
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:56,560
in the city of Taejon.

383
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:01,840
We could see the North Koreans,
they were coming in waves.

384
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,600
So by the time we killed the first
two waves,

385
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,520
we were fighting with bayonets
because we were out of ammunition.

386
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:18,160
The North Koreans, by mid-July,
had a pincer down the east coast

387
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:20,800
from the north, and then coming
around from the southwest

388
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,040
and along the southern coast,

389
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:27,200
and if the Marines had not landed
around that time and stiffened

390
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,160
the lines,
the war would have been lost.

391
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:35,440
They form what we call the Pusan
Perimeter, which is considered

392
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:40,680
basically the last good spot
across the peninsula to establish

393
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:42,240
a defensive position.

394
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,480
Caught in the crossfire
between advancing North Korean

395
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:58,320
troops and UN forces were
hundreds of thousands of Korean

396
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:02,680
refugees who now filled the roads
between Seoul and Pusan.

397
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,720
My father and my grandparents
had to walk the distance

398
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,000
from Seoul to Pusan.

399
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:16,320
That's really walking the distance
from Washington, DC to New York.

400
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,520
When the war broke out,
my grandparents talked about

401
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:22,480
how they ran to Pusan Perimeter,

402
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:23,720
the family split up,

403
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,600
my grandmother went with my aunts
and my grandfather went

404
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,000
with the boys -
my uncle and my father.

405
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:34,280
And he'd lost, actually, one of my
uncles during the move to Pusan.

406
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,720
For UN troops already
outmanned and overwhelmed

407
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:42,000
by the North Korean army,

408
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:45,680
the refugee crisis presented
yet another challenge -

409
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:50,840
North Korean soldiers hiding amongst
villagers to get behind enemy lines.

410
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:58,360
There were only a handful of main
roads along which you could travel

411
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:01,520
with tanks or with other
sorts of equipment.

412
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:02,880
On those very same roads,

413
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,960
you had civilians that were trying
to evacuate.

414
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:10,600
American troops did not know who was
the enemy and who was the ally.

415
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:15,560
There was always this fear
about refugees that created

416
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,240
a great deal of moral dilemma
among American soldiers.

417
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:19,880
You see a bunch of refugees,

418
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,680
you think that North Koreans
are hiding among them.

419
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:24,440
Do you shoot against them or not?

420
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,600
In some instances, US forces
DID shoot, and refugees

421
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:31,680
were sacrificed in the panic.

422
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:54,080
Yang Hye-Suk was 13 in July 1950,
when war came to Im Ke Ri - a tiny

423
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:57,600
farming town 100 miles south
of Seoul.

424
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,960
1st Calvary Division troops had
forced the people of these

425
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,600
two villages, called Chu Gok Ri
and Im Ke Ri,

426
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,400
to evacuate and get
on the main road south.

427
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,360
Chung Koo-Do's family were also
among the hundreds of refugees

428
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:36,680
led by US troops to a place
called No Gun Ri.

429
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:47,160
As the refugees gathered on nearby
railway tracks, American planes

430
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:49,760
began to circle before opening fire.

431
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:03,440
The refugees ran for cover under a
bridge,

432
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:05,920
where survivors claim the 7th
Cavalry

433
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:09,720
fired on them for three days
and nights - fearful North Korean

434
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:11,560
soldiers were among them.

435
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,000
Yang Hye-Suk, surrounded by
casualties,

436
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,360
was hiding under her mother's skirt,

437
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,120
when she heard her uncle cry out
in pain.

438
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:35,600
An investigation found Pentagon
files that supported

439
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:37,240
the survivors' accounts.

440
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:40,800
There were orders flying
around the warfront to treat

441
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:43,040
civilians as enemy.

442
00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:47,440
Orders from the very top command,
the Eighth Army, to stop any refugee

443
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,960
movement across lines.

444
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,560
Every war is horrible,

445
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:57,240
but the Korean War
among American wars was

446
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:02,280
the war that had the greatest
proportion of civilian casualties.

447
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:10,000
Homer Garza was a 17-year-old
private with the Army's 7th Cavalry.

448
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:15,520
He arrived at No Gun RI
just as the massacre ended.

449
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:19,080
There were two tunnels side by side.

450
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,160
When we got there, there must have
been

451
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,920
about 300 South Korean civilians

452
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,440
that were killed there.

453
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:33,720
One thing I'll never forget,
there was a woman, a mother, laying

454
00:34:33,720 --> 00:34:36,280
there on her back,
and she had a little baby

455
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:42,520
about...probably about not more
than eight or nine months old,

456
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:46,520
trying to trying to nurse
on the dead body there.

457
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:49,960
It was a very dirty war,

458
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,440
and that also demoralised
American soldiers.

459
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:55,600
They didn't quite know
what they were fighting for

460
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,000
and they were forced to do
things that they didn't do

461
00:34:58,000 --> 00:34:59,200
in World War II.

462
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:05,040
We received orders that anything
in front of us was the enemy, no

463
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:07,200
matter who was in front of us.

464
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,880
If they didn't shoot at you,
you shot, you would shoot at them.

465
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:18,040
It was increasingly clear
to the UN troops that this bloody

466
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:22,200
conflict was not bound
by modern rules of engagement.

467
00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:25,480
Atrocities were being committed
on both sides.

468
00:35:31,240 --> 00:35:35,480
Early in August, there was
a massacre of captured American

469
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:39,920
troops by the North Koreans, as the
North Koreans left a hilltop,

470
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:46,280
Hill 303, uh,
they simply bound and then shot

471
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:50,120
in the back of the head
about 30 American prisoners.

472
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,600
Photos of this were run
in the Stars And Stripes newspaper,

473
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,600
which was getting to the troops
in Korea.

474
00:35:57,600 --> 00:35:59,720
Some of them cut the photo out
and carried it

475
00:35:59,720 --> 00:36:01,480
inside of their helmets.

476
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,720
So, once something like that
happens,

477
00:36:05,720 --> 00:36:08,520
that sort of frees some men at least

478
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:11,040
to do the same thing to the enemy.

479
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:17,840
We would captured 15, 20 enemy
and supply one or two men to escort

480
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:20,440
this...POWs back to the rear.

481
00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:27,000
If they try to get away from you...

482
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,600
..open up with your machineguns
and your rifles.

483
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:35,000
Don't let them get away.
And they would be gone

484
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:40,040
for 10 or 15 minutes, when we would
hear the machinegun going off.

485
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:53,240
While casualties continued to mount
through the summer of 1950,

486
00:36:53,240 --> 00:36:56,440
the North Korean army
maintained their advantage.

487
00:36:56,440 --> 00:37:01,080
All the high American officers
had been heroes of World War II.

488
00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:05,760
Whether it's General MacArthur
or Curtis LeMay or Matthew Ridgway.

489
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:10,040
These were people who were famous
in the battles that defeated

490
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:11,760
the Nazis and the Japanese.

491
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,600
The tide of battle still favours
the aggressors.

492
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,240
The United Nations' forces
in Korea are forced

493
00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:18,960
to improvise their defence.

494
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,480
And here it is, 1950, only five
years later, and they're getting

495
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:26,000
their butt whipped
by rough peasant armies.

496
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,680
MacArthur was used to fighting
with his back to the wall.

497
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,160
From his headquarters in Japan,
he was quietly putting together

498
00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:38,480
a plan for a bold counterattack.

499
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:44,680
He hoped to ambush the communist
forces behind their lines, landing

500
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:49,600
at the Port of Incheon and cutting
off their supply lines.

501
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,840
Extreme tides and shallow waters
made Incheon a risky

502
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:54,200
spot for invasion.

503
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:59,320
Precisely the reason MacArthur
believed it would work.

504
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,160
Nobody thought it was practical.

505
00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:04,760
Everybody was against it
because it was so impractical.

506
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,840
The timeframe for landing
those amphibious vehicles

507
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,240
was very limited to a few hours.

508
00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:14,080
But MacArthur really believed
that because of its impracticality,

509
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:16,560
the North Koreans wouldn't defend.

510
00:38:17,720 --> 00:38:21,080
The Joint Chiefs of Staff thought
that this was not a particularly

511
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:24,760
good idea, but they were in an odd
position.

512
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:28,360
MacArthur was essentially
politically untouchable

513
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,360
and there was nobody in the military
chain of command who would

514
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:34,120
tell MacArthur "no".

515
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,520
I think that so many people said
you can't do this - the more you do

516
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:42,320
that to somebody like MacArthur,
you kind of increase

517
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,080
their resistance to change.

518
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:47,640
The more you tell them not to do
some thing, the more likely

519
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:49,760
it is you're going to get it.

520
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:13,440
When you got on the ship, we didn't
know where we were going.

521
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:15,760
Out in the ocean,

522
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,920
we were told we were going to
Incheon to make a landing.

523
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:24,320
I don't think I knew enough
to be scared.

524
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:31,400
It had a 26ft tide, and you had
to go in at high tide,

525
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:35,800
and it takes a lot of time
to get a division ashore,

526
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,320
total division.

527
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:41,280
So I was pretty...
I was nervous.

528
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:43,400
Naturally.

529
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:47,720
On September 15th,
70,000 UN troops stood at anchor

530
00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:49,240
off the Korean coast,

531
00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:52,760
awaiting high tide and MacArthur's
order to attack.

532
00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:01,120
One Admiral said, if you drew up
all the things that made

533
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:04,480
amphibious operations difficult,
Incheon had them all.

534
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,240
The tides are bad,
the harbour's all mud.

535
00:40:08,240 --> 00:40:10,480
Who knew how many guns were
sitting in it?

536
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:19,120
Lieutenant Richard Carey was leading
a platoon of Marines that day.

537
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:23,280
At 5pm, MacArthur
gave his unit the order to attack.

538
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:28,320
Well, I had a couple of hours before
it was dark, and the only place

539
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:30,880
we could go in was into an inlet.

540
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:36,320
And when we got into the inlet,
it was surrounded by barbed wire.

541
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,600
I started cutting a wire,

542
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:43,480
and a sniper shot off my radio

543
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:47,800
that was strapped on my shoulder,
and the guy on the other side of me

544
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,080
took one right between the eyes.

545
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:56,840
We were getting shot at when we hit
the beach, but I don't think

546
00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:58,480
they expected this.

547
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,520
Despite initial resistance,
the UN forces had secured

548
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:05,840
the beach by evening.

549
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:10,440
They then headed east to cut
off North Korean supply lines.

550
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,960
MacArthur had caught the
North Koreans by surprise.

551
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:15,720
His gamble had paid off.

552
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:22,840
It was such a daring strike
and such a rapid strike

553
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:26,320
that it changed the momentum
in the war entirely.

554
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,440
The United States and the South
Koreans were losing

555
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:31,720
badly until then.
All of a sudden they were winning.

556
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:55,120
It was such a risky operation,
and the fact that he brought

557
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:57,720
it off without any problem,

558
00:41:57,720 --> 00:42:00,400
MacArthur was viewed as a kind
of God.

559
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:05,440
In one stroke,
MacArthur cemented his reputation

560
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:07,680
for military genius.

561
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:11,480
The tide of the war turned
as the North Korean troops scrambled

562
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:13,440
back to the 38th parallel.

563
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:20,240
In just two weeks, Seoul was back
in the hands of the United Nations

564
00:42:20,240 --> 00:42:22,560
and President Rhee was restored.

565
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:30,320
MacArthur's forces were now sitting
at the 38th parallel with fresh

566
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,840
troops, superior air power
and momentum.

567
00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:38,520
There is a drastic alteration
of the military situation.

568
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,880
Suddenly, the Americans
and South Koreans are on the verge

569
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:45,080
of going across the 38th parallel
and into the North.

570
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:48,080
Now, obviously, military leaders
want to take advantage

571
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:50,600
of the immediate situation.

572
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:54,240
Having taken the advantage,

573
00:42:54,240 --> 00:42:58,160
MacArthur wanted to pursue
the conflict into North Korea.

574
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:05,400
He wanted to unite the peninsula
in the name of democracy, and issued

575
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,600
a decisive blow against communism
in Asia.

576
00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:14,760
MacArthur's aggressive worldview
was at odds with President Truman's

577
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:17,200
idea of a limited war.

578
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:19,640
But with MacArthur's success
at Incheon,

579
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:21,520
Truman saw an opportunity.

580
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:27,560
MacArthur says, "Give me just a
little bit more time and I can end

581
00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:31,040
"the war. I can capture or destroy
all the North Korean forces."

582
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,680
Truman, who just weeks before,
had worried about the fact

583
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:37,520
that he was going to be charged
with losing more ground

584
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:41,600
to the communists, thought, "I can
do something that no President

585
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:43,280
"before me has ever done.

586
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,280
"I can take ground
back from the communists."

587
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:56,360
On October 7th, 1950,
MacArthur's troops stormed north

588
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:57,720
across the border.

589
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:06,080
Victories came quickly as
UN forces pursued the remaining

590
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:10,880
North Korean army and continued
to pound them from the sky.

591
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:14,000
People were lighting cigars
all over Washington and Seoul

592
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,760
when American troops
were marching up the peninsula

593
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:18,960
in October 1950.

594
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:22,960
MacArthur arrived in Pyongyang,
the capital of North Korea.

595
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:26,680
He gets off his plane and he says,
"where's Kim Buck Too?

596
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:29,520
"Isn't he here to greet me?"

597
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:33,840
Only two months after UN troops
had faced annihilation at Pusan,

598
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:38,200
their flag flew above Kim's
capital city, Pyongyang.

599
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:41,520
We had already taken Pyongyang.
We didn't have...

600
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:46,720
..too much resistance
from the Koreans at all.

601
00:44:46,720 --> 00:44:51,240
A devastating blow against communism
was within reach.

602
00:44:51,240 --> 00:44:55,120
MacArthur's forces pressed closer to
the Yalu River, North Korea's

603
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:56,720
border with China.

604
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:05,840
MacArthur argues that really
he needs American forces to go

605
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:09,120
all the way to the Yalu in order
to clean up the situation

606
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:10,400
and do it quickly.

607
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:17,280
And the administration back
in Washington faced with strong

608
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:22,520
Republican attacks on the Democratic
administration being weak on Asia.

609
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:26,920
The Truman administration
does not say no to MacArthur.

610
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:34,560
Saying no to MacArthur was difficult
for Truman, an unpopular President

611
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:37,600
seen as badly mismanaging
the war in Korea.

612
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:43,280
Needing assurances from his general
on the war's future course,

613
00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,280
Truman requested a meeting.

614
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:50,840
MacArthur, ensconced in Tokyo,
forced Truman to fly to Wake Island

615
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:52,000
in the Pacific.

616
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,320
MacArthur greeted his
Commander-in-chief

617
00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:58,920
not with the traditional salute,
but with a mere handshake.

618
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:05,840
MacArthur had been overstating
his authority for many months.

619
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:09,400
He would hold news conferences
and he would speak very often

620
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:14,120
as the United Nations Commander,
and not report directly

621
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:15,960
to the President
of the United States.

622
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:19,880
So Truman flies all the way out
to Wake Island in the Pacific,

623
00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:24,480
hoping, on the basis of MacArthur's
repeated assurances,

624
00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:29,480
the war is nearly over
and Korea will be liberated.

625
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:33,680
He puts the question to MacArthur -

626
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:37,880
if American troops get close
to the border, will the Chinese

627
00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:39,520
enter the war?

628
00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:42,920
And MacArthur says,
"They won't dare.

629
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,080
"And if they do,
I will annihilate them."

630
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:05,160
We were pumped up,
MacArthur put it out, he said

631
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:10,000
we're going as far as the Yalu and
probably going right into China.

632
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:12,880
So we were pretty enthusiastic.

633
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:15,400
We said, "This is going
to be the end of it.

634
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:17,520
"We'll win the war right here."

635
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:23,200
MacArthur is assuring them
that the war is nearly over.

636
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:27,680
He kept saying that American troops
will be home by Christmas,

637
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:31,440
that the war is wrapping up.
When American troops

638
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:34,360
had their Thanksgiving dinner,
and they're thinking, "Christmas -

639
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:36,880
"that's only a month away.

640
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:39,280
"We're all going to get to go home."

641
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:49,440
In late November 1950, 30,000
UN troops paused their advance.

642
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:52,920
They sat down in the frozen hills
and valleys around the Chosin

643
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:56,920
Reservoir to enjoy a hot
Thanksgiving dinner courtesy

644
00:47:56,920 --> 00:47:58,640
of the US government.

645
00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:04,360
We was dug in in the hills,
up there. Headquarters had set

646
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:08,880
up cooks and we had our
Thanksgiving dinner.

647
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:11,120
They didn't have serving trays

648
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:13,920
at the time I got through there
and I just went ahead

649
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:17,840
and took my helmet liner out
of the helmet and used my helmet,

650
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:22,520
and I had my Thanksgiving dinner
in 1950 in a helmet.

651
00:48:24,240 --> 00:48:29,120
And then when we moved out of where
we was dug in after Thanksgiving,

652
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:33,880
we went out to Yudam-ni,
that's when all hell broke loose.

653
00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:40,480
The UN forces were caught
in a massive trap sprung

654
00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:42,400
by the Chinese.

655
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:44,480
MacArthur had miscalculated.

656
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:46,720
Mao's army had entered the war.

657
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:56,040
Attacking at night to retain
the element of surprise and to avoid

658
00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:57,880
aerial bombardment,

659
00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:01,120
hundreds of thousands of Chinese
troops stormed the front line

660
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:03,640
in an overwhelming display of force.

661
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:11,680
Over 200,000 Chinese managed
to infiltrate across the Yalu River.

662
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:15,480
When the Americans are taken
by surprise, they find

663
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:17,160
that they're basically surrounded.

664
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:22,280
And instead of fighting for victory,
they're fighting for their lives.

665
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:26,880
We could hear the bugles sound and
all the screaming and what have you.

666
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,160
The Chinese coming at you in hordes.

667
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:37,440
But we was outnumbered probably five
to one, ten to one,
something like it.

668
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:41,120
And their sole purpose
was to annihilate

669
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:42,960
the 1st Marine Division.

670
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:56,280
When they came, they came in waves -
a wave, a wave, a wave.

671
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:03,960
The platoon sergeant, he and I
were in a foxhole together.

672
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:09,640
So he took the grenades out
all night, handed them to me.

673
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:14,360
I counted them.
1001, 1002, and threw them.

674
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:19,520
I threw three cartons of
grenades that night.

675
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:27,840
That night was bitterly cold -
God, it was cold.

676
00:50:29,240 --> 00:50:32,400
It was below 50 below zero.

677
00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:20,840
Many of these soldiers, they pretty
much consigned themselves to die one

678
00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:22,200
way or the other.

679
00:51:22,200 --> 00:51:24,600
They were going to get killed
by a Chinese bullet or a mortar

680
00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:26,520
round or they were going to freeze.

681
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:30,680
And it was merely a matter of -
how long can we put this off?

682
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:36,800
West of Chosin, the 7th Cavalry
were also battling the Chinese

683
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:38,320
and extreme cold.

684
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:45,440
Our fingers would crack
if you tried to close your hand,

685
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:50,960
with it being so damn cold. And we
got the old blanket sleeping bags

686
00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:55,800
and we cut strips of the blanket
and wrap it around our feet...

687
00:51:57,120 --> 00:51:59,800
..to try to keep our feet
from freezing.

688
00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:07,960
It was so cold that it wouldn't take
more than four or five minutes

689
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:11,560
after a guy was killed
that he was froze solid.

690
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:16,240
If we were staying in the same hill
for a while,

691
00:52:16,240 --> 00:52:20,800
we would get the dead Chinese
and the dead Koreans,

692
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,840
and stand them up against the trees,

693
00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:25,840
frozen solid, yeah.

694
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,720
When you saw one of those Marines'
bodies froze stiff,

695
00:52:32,720 --> 00:52:37,240
that was sad. Arms sticking
out, legs sticking out.

696
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:40,680
You really knew you was at war then.

697
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:46,000
Hard to describe. It truly is.

698
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:50,240
Had to be careful how you picked
them up. If you pick them

699
00:52:50,240 --> 00:52:53,320
up by an arm, for example,

700
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:55,120
you'd break the arm off.

701
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:00,760
There was no option but to retreat.

702
00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:04,320
Over ten days, UN troops fought
their way out of the reservoir

703
00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:06,760
at the cost of 18,000 casualties.

704
00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:11,960
The whole ethos of the American
approach to war

705
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:13,560
was "advance, attack".

706
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,640
And when the soldiers saw
that we can't attack, in fact,

707
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:19,360
it's going to be everything
we can do simply to escape, to flee

708
00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:20,680
and get out of this alive.

709
00:53:20,680 --> 00:53:23,520
It was exceedingly disorienting.

710
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:27,040
These were soldiers, many of them
whom were in their first combat.

711
00:53:27,040 --> 00:53:28,520
They hadn't seen anything like this.

712
00:53:28,520 --> 00:53:31,240
They had never really confronted
the basic questions

713
00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:32,520
of life and death.

714
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:40,400
They told us to straighten up
as we was coming into Hagaru-ri.

715
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:44,840
You come in there like real Marines.

716
00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:49,040
We're singing the Marine Corps hymn,
"All Gung Ho," you know.

717
00:53:55,560 --> 00:53:58,880
The tide of the war had changed
once again.

718
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:03,400
UN troops were forced back
below the 38th parallel.

719
00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:06,680
Within weeks, Seoul fell
to the combined North Korean

720
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:08,120
and Chinese forces.

721
00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:13,520
Bloody fighting in and around Seoul
would see the capital change sides

722
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:15,160
four times.

723
00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:27,160
With bad news from the front
and growing public discontent,

724
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:31,360
Truman was forced to confront
the war that seemed unwinnable.

725
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:37,960
No-one seriously talked
about the use of atomic weapons

726
00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:44,280
in Korea until the end of November,
beginning of December 1950.

727
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:51,280
When American forces were fleeing
for their lives upon the Chinese

728
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:55,640
entry into the war, then
it certainly occurred to members

729
00:54:55,640 --> 00:54:59,360
of the public to ask, "Well,
how can we lose to North Korea?

730
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,480
"How can we lose to China
when we've got the bomb

731
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:03,880
"and they don't?"

732
00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:11,520
In the press, General MacArthur made
a case to expand the conflict

733
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:14,720
into China. In the war room,

734
00:55:14,720 --> 00:55:17,840
he was making plans to use
the atomic bomb.

735
00:55:18,920 --> 00:55:20,960
MacArthur wanted an unlimited war.

736
00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:25,440
He wanted to use 24 atomic bombs.
In December 1950,

737
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:29,880
he said, "I want 24 atomic bombs
to establish a radiation cordon

738
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:35,200
"along the Yalu River, using cobalt,
which has a half-life of 90 years,

739
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:38,080
"and the two places will be
separated, you know, for a long

740
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,000
"time, generations to come."

741
00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:42,880
In November of '50,

742
00:55:42,880 --> 00:55:47,360
Truman was asked about the use
of atomic weapons, and he said, yes,

743
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:49,160
this would have to be considered.

744
00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:51,800
That was the first mentioned by him.

745
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:56,960
Then the next question is,
"Well, who is going to determine

746
00:55:56,960 --> 00:55:59,360
"whether the bomb will be used
or not?"

747
00:55:59,360 --> 00:56:03,240
Truman said without thinking
very clearly that the decision

748
00:56:03,240 --> 00:56:06,360
will be made by the commander
in the field.

749
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,080
Well, everybody realised
the commander in the field

750
00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:11,520
is Douglas MacArthur.

751
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:15,920
Harry Truman has just announced
this policy that the atom bomb

752
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:18,280
is available for use in Korea
and that Douglas MacArthur

753
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:22,040
is going to make the decision.
Oh, boy. What have we gotten
ourselves in for?

754
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:24,480
The President has stated
that the use of the atomic bomb

755
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:27,800
is being considered to halt
the communist onrush and may well

756
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:30,040
precipitate World War III.

757
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:33,720
News that Truman was
considering a nuclear attack

758
00:56:33,720 --> 00:56:35,720
set America's allies on edge.

759
00:56:39,160 --> 00:56:43,200
Clement Attlee is the British Prime
Minister, and he is in a meeting

760
00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:47,480
of Parliament and he hears this stir
in the back and kind of wonders

761
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:50,320
what's going on, and somebody passes
him a note explaining

762
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:53,440
that the President of
the United States has threatened

763
00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:55,440
the use of the atom bomb in Korea.

764
00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:59,080
A new war brought Britain's Prime
Minister Attlee to Washington

765
00:56:59,080 --> 00:57:01,040
for talks with President Truman.

766
00:57:02,120 --> 00:57:05,960
The Prime Minister of Great Britain
raced across the Atlantic to try

767
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:09,760
and bring some sanity back
into the situation.

768
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:13,280
Truman's statement deepened public
scepticism of his abilities

769
00:57:13,280 --> 00:57:15,560
as Commander-in-chief.

770
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:18,240
General MacArthur's campaign
for the expansion of the war

771
00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:21,800
into China increasingly
put the two men at odds.

772
00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:24,800
MacArthur wanted a rollback.

773
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:28,080
He wanted to keep on going into
China and try to settle the hash

774
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:30,200
of the Chinese revolution.

775
00:57:30,200 --> 00:57:33,000
That was his great error
in Truman's eyes.

776
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:34,840
Truman wanted a limited rollback,

777
00:57:34,840 --> 00:57:37,320
he wanted to roll North Korean
communists back

778
00:57:37,320 --> 00:57:39,080
and unify the peninsula.

779
00:57:40,720 --> 00:57:43,280
MacArthur feels like this is
the place where we're going

780
00:57:43,280 --> 00:57:46,640
to have to have this great battle
against communism, even

781
00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:50,240
to the extent that he's willing
to risk World War III.

782
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:56,240
Truman said to MacArthur,
"If this war gets any bigger,

783
00:57:56,240 --> 00:57:59,840
"we don't have the resources,
we don't have the military

784
00:57:59,840 --> 00:58:01,840
"establishment to do that.

785
00:58:01,840 --> 00:58:04,640
"General MacArthur, your job
is to buy time."

786
00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:07,600
Well, that cut against everything
that MacArthur wanted. "No, no.

787
00:58:07,600 --> 00:58:10,040
"In war, there is no substitute
for victory.

788
00:58:10,040 --> 00:58:13,640
"We fight to win,
not simply to hold ground."

789
00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:17,560
Truman learned from Hiroshima
and Nagasaki that no true victory

790
00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:19,400
in that sense is possible any more.

791
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:22,120
And so he really wanted
to limit the war.

792
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:24,560
MacArthur couldn't deal
with that defeat.

793
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:27,920
Truman had given him a directive
on December 5th not to say anything

794
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:32,120
publicly against the policy
of the Truman administration,

795
00:58:32,120 --> 00:58:35,640
and MacArthur consistently defied
that directive.

796
00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:43,880
On April 11th 1951, President Truman
addressed the nation.

797
00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:49,000
I have considered it essential
to relieve General MacArthur

798
00:58:49,000 --> 00:58:52,200
so that there would be no doubt
or confusion as to the real purpose

799
00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:54,760
and aim of our policy.

800
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:58,400
It is with the deepest personal
regret that I found myself compelled

801
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:00,160
to take this action.

802
00:59:00,160 --> 00:59:03,880
General MacArthur is one
of our greatest military commanders,

803
00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:10,880
but the cause of world peace is much
more important than any individual.

804
00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:17,480
For Truman, this was an issue that
transcended the moment in Korea.

805
00:59:17,480 --> 00:59:21,240
This had everything to do
with how America was going

806
00:59:21,240 --> 00:59:23,240
to be governed in the Cold War.

807
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:27,040
Truman recognised that the Korean
War was not one of a kind.

808
00:59:27,040 --> 00:59:29,800
There would be other challenges
like this.

809
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:35,640
And so he made a point of relieving
MacArthur simply because his view

810
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:38,200
of what American policy should be
was different

811
00:59:38,200 --> 00:59:39,720
than the President's.

812
00:59:39,720 --> 00:59:42,880
General MacArthur was far
from damaged.

813
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:47,240
On April 16th, he left Japan.
In New York,

814
00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:51,160
he was given a ticker tape parade
and was invited to speak to
Congress.

815
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:58,400
For many, MacArthur was the last
great World War II hero.

816
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:00,920
In living rooms
across the country,

817
01:00:00,920 --> 01:00:03,320
Americans hung on his every word.

818
01:00:06,400 --> 01:00:12,040
MacArthur knows that this audience
is primed to approve of him.

819
01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:21,240
I stand on this rostrum with a sense
of deep humility and great pride.

820
01:00:21,240 --> 01:00:24,640
And he speaks in a very stentorian
voice.

821
01:00:24,640 --> 01:00:27,440
And he plays the crowd.

822
01:00:29,080 --> 01:00:36,240
But I still remember the refrain
of one of the most popular

823
01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:42,840
barrack ballads of that day,
which proclaimed most proudly...

824
01:00:45,760 --> 01:00:54,560
..that old soldiers never die,
they just fade away.

825
01:00:56,240 --> 01:01:00,160
And like the old soldier of that
ballad...

826
01:01:00,160 --> 01:01:04,640
..I now close my military career

827
01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:08,160
and just...fade away.

828
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:15,360
And there was not a dry eye
in the house.

829
01:01:16,480 --> 01:01:21,480
In private, Truman fumed, calling
the speech a bunch of damn bullshit.

830
01:01:23,560 --> 01:01:27,600
His decision to fire MacArthur
nearly cost him his presidency.

831
01:01:29,480 --> 01:01:33,000
I think his popularity rate sank
to 22%.

832
01:01:33,000 --> 01:01:36,560
I mean, he was an extremely
unpopular leader because he didn't

833
01:01:36,560 --> 01:01:38,640
see in terms of victory or defeat.

834
01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:40,880
He said we had to limit this war.

835
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:56,440
By the spring of 1951, the Korean
War had reached a stalemate.

836
01:01:58,680 --> 01:02:02,600
Under the new leadership of
General Matthew Ridgway, UN forces

837
01:02:02,600 --> 01:02:05,120
were dug in around the
38th parallel.

838
01:02:06,800 --> 01:02:10,440
..trading ground against North
Korean and Chinese forces,

839
01:02:10,440 --> 01:02:13,080
one bloody battle at a time.

840
01:02:33,160 --> 01:02:35,920
What we were doing at that time
was very different

841
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:38,720
than what had been
earlier in the war.

842
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:42,880
They called that the stalemate
at the time, which is what it was.

843
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:48,040
But living in the trenches there,
was like living as animals,

844
01:02:48,040 --> 01:02:50,880
you were living in the dirt,
you ate in the dirt.

845
01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:53,720
That was a little bit hard
on the morale.

846
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:03,400
It was a terribly bloody
and demoralising experience.

847
01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:08,160
There was a dynamic that basically
meant that neither side could win.

848
01:03:08,160 --> 01:03:12,560
Most of the casualties take place in
this period, for no good purpose.

849
01:03:16,080 --> 01:03:20,360
Armistice talks between the UN,
China and North Korea, begun

850
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:25,840
in the summer of 1951,
dragged on for months, then years.

851
01:03:27,720 --> 01:03:31,360
The Soviet Union continued
stonewalling.

852
01:03:31,360 --> 01:03:36,400
United Kingdom. Yes.
United States. Yes.

853
01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:38,320
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

854
01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:40,280
No.

855
01:03:40,280 --> 01:03:43,160
Stalin was willing to fight the
Korean War

856
01:03:43,160 --> 01:03:45,280
to the last Chinese soldier.

857
01:03:45,280 --> 01:03:49,200
It was keeping
the Americans engaged in Korea

858
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:51,640
rather than building up in Europe.

859
01:03:55,680 --> 01:03:59,640
In order to break the communists'
will, Americans stepped up their air

860
01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:01,360
campaign in North Korea.

861
01:04:06,520 --> 01:04:11,120
All of the cities in North Korea
were essentially flattened.

862
01:04:11,120 --> 01:04:16,640
It got so that the pilots
and the squadron leaders etc

863
01:04:16,640 --> 01:04:19,920
were complaining they had
no more targets.

864
01:04:19,920 --> 01:04:23,920
A written directive to the 5th
Air Force in North Korea had ordered

865
01:04:23,920 --> 01:04:29,520
that every installation, every town,
every village be destroyed.

866
01:04:44,960 --> 01:04:48,360
They dropped a lot of napalm,
and napalm had been invented

867
01:04:48,360 --> 01:04:51,960
at the end of World War II,
but not used much.

868
01:04:51,960 --> 01:04:58,560
It was used indiscriminately
across North Korea.

869
01:05:03,120 --> 01:05:06,400
They thought that that was the price
that you had to pay to avoid

870
01:05:06,400 --> 01:05:08,160
a larger war,

871
01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:11,640
World War III, with China,
and so basically North Korea became

872
01:05:11,640 --> 01:05:15,160
that kind of victim
to force the communists

873
01:05:15,160 --> 01:05:17,600
to negotiate the armistice.

874
01:05:22,600 --> 01:05:25,080
The Republican Party is back
in power.

875
01:05:25,080 --> 01:05:28,200
General Dwight D Eisenhower
is elected.

876
01:05:28,200 --> 01:05:32,320
Even President Eisenhower,
a Republican who'd won the 1952

877
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:36,400
election on a pledge to end the war
in Korea, could do little to change

878
01:05:36,400 --> 01:05:38,400
the situation on the ground.

879
01:05:39,800 --> 01:05:42,520
The mere fact that Dwight
Eisenhower, the hero

880
01:05:42,520 --> 01:05:45,400
of the European side of World War
II, was going to go,

881
01:05:45,400 --> 01:05:47,440
he was going put his mind to it now.

882
01:05:47,440 --> 01:05:51,400
Now, in fact, the end came not
because Eisenhower went to Korea,

883
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:54,120
he went, he looked around,
basically came home.

884
01:05:54,120 --> 01:05:57,160
But the key was the death
of Joseph Stalin.

885
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:05,320
In March 1953, the Soviet dictator
unexpectedly died

886
01:06:05,320 --> 01:06:07,200
of a cerebral haemorrhage.

887
01:06:08,440 --> 01:06:13,000
Once Stalin's gone, his body's
hardly cold when the reigning

888
01:06:13,000 --> 01:06:17,000
Central Committee, the Presidium,
sends a message to the Chinese

889
01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:19,520
and North Koreans -
get an armistice.

890
01:06:20,720 --> 01:06:25,400
It took several months to agree
on an armistice line.

891
01:06:25,400 --> 01:06:29,000
The communists initially
argued for the 38th parallel,

892
01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:31,760
which was an indefensible line
on a map.

893
01:06:31,760 --> 01:06:36,880
The Americans insisted on another
line, a line that was defensible.

894
01:06:36,880 --> 01:06:39,560
They wanted the armistice
to survive.

895
01:06:40,840 --> 01:06:44,280
As negotiators argued,
battles continued to rage.

896
01:06:45,480 --> 01:06:50,320
At Pork Chop Hill, nearly a thousand
US soldiers were killed or injured

897
01:06:50,320 --> 01:06:53,920
fighting over a plot of land
of no strategic value.

898
01:06:55,880 --> 01:06:58,680
It seemed the fighting would
never end.

899
01:07:03,000 --> 01:07:06,840
We didn't know too much
about what was going on with

900
01:07:06,840 --> 01:07:09,960
the negotiations,
except they were happening.

901
01:07:11,360 --> 01:07:14,640
All of us hoped and thought
any day we were going

902
01:07:14,640 --> 01:07:18,000
to have a treaty signed.

903
01:07:19,160 --> 01:07:22,960
You always thought, I don't want
to be the last one to die

904
01:07:22,960 --> 01:07:24,800
in this war.

905
01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:32,880
Eventually, the two sides agreed not
to accept the 38th parallel,

906
01:07:32,880 --> 01:07:36,800
they would accept a demilitarised
zone on each side of the line

907
01:07:36,800 --> 01:07:40,160
of battle, so there would be a minor
retreat of anywhere from three

908
01:07:40,160 --> 01:07:43,440
to 5km
at the end of the war,

909
01:07:43,440 --> 01:07:47,160
but it would be essentially
the battle line.

910
01:07:47,160 --> 01:07:50,920
Then the exodus begins.
And from the disputed hills,
hundreds of thousands

911
01:07:50,920 --> 01:07:52,440
of men pull back.

912
01:07:52,440 --> 01:07:55,400
And there is not a regret
in a truckload.

913
01:07:55,400 --> 01:07:59,360
The new border had serious
consequences for many Koreans.

914
01:07:59,360 --> 01:08:01,320
Families were permanently separated,

915
01:08:01,320 --> 01:08:05,960
as territory once part of the South
came under Northern control.

916
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:19,720
Kaesong, Park Kyung-Soon's hometown,
was caught behind enemy lines.

917
01:08:21,280 --> 01:08:24,440
Her mother, fearing what might
happen to her daughter,

918
01:08:24,440 --> 01:08:25,640
told her to flee.

919
01:09:24,680 --> 01:09:29,520
On July 27th, 1953,
an armistice was finally reached

920
01:09:29,520 --> 01:09:33,080
between the UN, China
and North Korea.

921
01:09:33,080 --> 01:09:36,320
It called for a cessation of
hostilities until an official

922
01:09:36,320 --> 01:09:37,960
peace treaty could be signed.

923
01:09:40,440 --> 01:09:43,640
North Korea was completely
destroyed, not

924
01:09:43,640 --> 01:09:45,240
a building left standing.

925
01:09:45,240 --> 01:09:47,720
South Korea was completely
destroyed.

926
01:09:47,720 --> 01:09:49,920
China lost a million people.

927
01:09:49,920 --> 01:09:52,400
Mao lost his own son. And US, too,

928
01:09:52,400 --> 01:09:56,040
what do we accomplish after
three years of destruction?

929
01:09:56,040 --> 01:09:59,800
We're left with where we started
with the DMZ

930
01:09:59,800 --> 01:10:01,320
and the 38th parallel.

931
01:10:13,800 --> 01:10:16,680
Most of us, when we came back...

932
01:10:19,440 --> 01:10:23,440
..really felt like we had not
accomplished much.

933
01:10:23,440 --> 01:10:28,080
The American people generally, most
of them really didn't even know

934
01:10:28,080 --> 01:10:29,920
where we'd been.

935
01:10:29,920 --> 01:10:33,800
No-one could gin up enthusiasm
for a victory parade because there

936
01:10:33,800 --> 01:10:35,280
wasn't a victory.

937
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:38,760
In fact, when the troops came home,
there was this armistice,

938
01:10:38,760 --> 01:10:43,160
there was the possibility
that they might have to go back.

939
01:10:43,160 --> 01:10:45,760
The war was far from over.

940
01:10:45,760 --> 01:10:48,960
There was no official peace treaty.

941
01:10:48,960 --> 01:10:51,680
Thousands of POWs awaited
repatriation,

942
01:10:51,680 --> 01:10:53,480
and continuing tensions

943
01:10:53,480 --> 01:10:56,520
forced President Eisenhower
to commit thousands of troops

944
01:10:56,520 --> 01:10:57,720
along the border.

945
01:11:00,840 --> 01:11:04,760
The world had lost interest
in events in Korea, but the luxury

946
01:11:04,760 --> 01:11:08,600
of forgetting the war was not
possible for Koreans.

947
01:11:08,600 --> 01:11:12,680
Three years of bloody conflict left
both countries devastated.

948
01:11:12,680 --> 01:11:15,200
After the armistice was signed,

949
01:11:15,200 --> 01:11:18,800
the Korean Peninsula was basically
a field of rubble.

950
01:11:18,800 --> 01:11:21,960
The United States dropped
more ordnance on North Korea

951
01:11:21,960 --> 01:11:23,320
in that three-year war

952
01:11:23,320 --> 01:11:27,600
than we dropped during the entire
Second World War. Basically

953
01:11:27,600 --> 01:11:29,080
levelled the country.

954
01:11:30,440 --> 01:11:33,600
The southern side of the peninsula
was no better.

955
01:11:33,600 --> 01:11:35,480
Everything was levelled.

956
01:11:35,480 --> 01:11:38,480
They were starting very much
from scratch.

957
01:11:41,960 --> 01:11:45,040
Despite receiving millions
of American dollars to rebuild

958
01:11:45,040 --> 01:11:49,000
South Korea,
the country remained destitute.

959
01:11:49,000 --> 01:11:53,440
Syngman Rhee continued his
authoritarian rule, his government

960
01:11:53,440 --> 01:11:54,840
rife with corruption.

961
01:11:58,880 --> 01:12:03,000
Syngman Rhee ruled the country
ostensibly as a constitutional

962
01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:07,480
democracy, but really in a very
brutal and ruthless way,

963
01:12:07,480 --> 01:12:13,080
very cliquish, focusing on
providing benefits to his followers,

964
01:12:13,080 --> 01:12:15,280
punishing his detractors,

965
01:12:15,280 --> 01:12:18,840
and he essentially sought economic
assistance from the United States

966
01:12:18,840 --> 01:12:20,480
and from other countries,

967
01:12:20,480 --> 01:12:24,880
but was using it largely to
subsidise his own rule and was not

968
01:12:24,880 --> 01:12:28,480
really putting it
in to an economic plan.

969
01:12:32,200 --> 01:12:36,320
In the countryside and in major
cities, food and basic resources

970
01:12:36,320 --> 01:12:38,120
remained scarce for years.

971
01:12:41,200 --> 01:12:46,080
I was raised in Gangnam,
Apgujeong-dong in Gangnam,

972
01:12:46,080 --> 01:12:48,520
where Psy, the singer, sings
about it.

973
01:12:48,520 --> 01:12:52,200
So I have a memory of that when
it was just a field and has none

974
01:12:52,200 --> 01:12:53,600
of these buildings.

975
01:12:54,680 --> 01:12:59,720
South Korea, People forget,
was one of the poorest countries in
the world.

976
01:13:07,720 --> 01:13:11,920
In North Korea, Kim Il-sung
oversaw a rapid transformation

977
01:13:11,920 --> 01:13:15,760
of his country,
rebuilding it to glorify his image.

978
01:13:18,600 --> 01:13:22,360
After the end of the Korean War,
the North Korean economy developed

979
01:13:22,360 --> 01:13:25,600
quite rapidly because they had
a great deal of support

980
01:13:25,600 --> 01:13:28,920
from the Soviet Union
and from communist China.

981
01:13:34,720 --> 01:13:39,760
Kim Il-sung used the painful memory
of the war to bolster his authority.

982
01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:42,840
After the war,
Kim Il-sung was in a very vulnerable

983
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:46,480
position because he had led the
country into this disaster.

984
01:13:46,480 --> 01:13:48,760
But Kim Il-sung is a survivor.

985
01:13:48,760 --> 01:13:51,520
The way the North Koreans
learn about the Korean War

986
01:13:51,520 --> 01:13:55,520
is that the United States first
of all divided the Korean Peninsula,

987
01:13:55,520 --> 01:13:57,560
then invaded North Korea,

988
01:13:57,560 --> 01:14:00,640
but under the great leadership
of Kim Il-sung, the

989
01:14:00,640 --> 01:14:03,000
North Koreans emerged victorious.

990
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:06,600
Yet you have to continually fight
against Americans because Americans

991
01:14:06,600 --> 01:14:09,560
are bent on destruction
of North Korea.

992
01:14:09,560 --> 01:14:13,280
And this is sort of repeated
over and over and over.

993
01:14:14,400 --> 01:14:18,280
To strengthen this mythology
and consolidate his power, Kim

994
01:14:18,280 --> 01:14:20,920
enforced a series of brutal purges.

995
01:14:20,920 --> 01:14:26,400
And then a huge purge happens
in '58 and '59.

996
01:14:26,400 --> 01:14:30,160
Some people say like 100,000 people
then are killed.

997
01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:33,000
By '61, he's totally in power.

998
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:37,320
Kim created a political
philosophy to govern the country.

999
01:14:37,320 --> 01:14:41,440
He called it "juche" - a doctrine
that focused on independence,

1000
01:14:41,440 --> 01:14:44,720
nationalism and, most importantly,
self-defence.

1001
01:15:07,080 --> 01:15:11,120
Before he defected to the South
in 2004, Jang Jin-sung

1002
01:15:11,120 --> 01:15:15,160
was a prominent North Korean
propaganda officer.

1003
01:15:51,320 --> 01:15:54,640
Though increasingly
isolated, Kim Il-sung held

1004
01:15:54,640 --> 01:15:58,360
onto his vision - to build an army
strong enough to defend

1005
01:15:58,360 --> 01:16:03,120
against America and South Korea
and to one day unify the peninsula.

1006
01:16:04,920 --> 01:16:07,160
POP MUSIC PLAYS

1007
01:16:16,920 --> 01:16:21,440
By 1968, South Korea had emerged
from a corrupt and economically

1008
01:16:21,440 --> 01:16:25,280
stagnant era that had marred
Syngman Rhee's administration.

1009
01:16:27,480 --> 01:16:30,920
Under the leadership of Park
Chung-hee, a military leader

1010
01:16:30,920 --> 01:16:34,760
with a modernist bent,
South Korea's economy was booming.

1011
01:16:37,640 --> 01:16:41,360
By the late 1960s and early '70s,
Park Chung-hee implemented

1012
01:16:41,360 --> 01:16:43,720
an export-oriented economy.

1013
01:16:43,720 --> 01:16:47,680
And it was through his guidance
that South Korea, as we know it,

1014
01:16:47,680 --> 01:16:50,400
really began to take off
economically.

1015
01:16:51,560 --> 01:16:55,720
He was also a dictator,
but he was able to create

1016
01:16:55,720 --> 01:17:00,520
the economic platform from which
South Korea could then develop

1017
01:17:00,520 --> 01:17:04,640
into a democracy. While South
Korea's prosperity was praised

1018
01:17:04,640 --> 01:17:06,480
across the Western world,

1019
01:17:06,480 --> 01:17:10,120
to Kim Il-sung and North Korea,
it was a threat.

1020
01:17:13,800 --> 01:17:17,640
As South Korea started to take
off economically, North Korea

1021
01:17:17,640 --> 01:17:21,040
then saw the window
for reunification closing

1022
01:17:21,040 --> 01:17:25,120
because it had surpassed
North Korea's economy.

1023
01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:28,560
North Korea was going down
economically, South
Korea was going up.

1024
01:17:30,160 --> 01:17:33,400
With thousands of American troops
sitting on the border

1025
01:17:33,400 --> 01:17:37,760
and the well-armed South Korean
military, Kim Il-sung saw his chance

1026
01:17:37,760 --> 01:17:40,600
to unite the peninsula disappearing.

1027
01:17:40,600 --> 01:17:44,440
Between 1967 and 1972,

1028
01:17:44,440 --> 01:17:48,960
it did look like that North Koreans
really wanted to restart

1029
01:17:48,960 --> 01:17:54,280
hostilities and maybe create havoc
by successful assassinations

1030
01:17:54,280 --> 01:17:56,360
of high-level officials.

1031
01:17:57,720 --> 01:18:01,640
So a short period, which is
sometimes called

1032
01:18:01,640 --> 01:18:06,200
the Second Korean War began. And it
was at that point that North Korea

1033
01:18:06,200 --> 01:18:10,640
then begins a series of provocative
actions in order to unify

1034
01:18:10,640 --> 01:18:14,400
the peninsula
under Kim Il-sung's rule.

1035
01:18:14,400 --> 01:18:20,040
On January 21st, 1968, Kim Il-sung
ordered his most brazen military

1036
01:18:20,040 --> 01:18:23,360
operation since the end of the war.

1037
01:18:23,360 --> 01:18:26,920
A unit of highly trained
North Korean commandos cut their way

1038
01:18:26,920 --> 01:18:31,760
through barbed wire along the DMZ
and slipped into the South with fake

1039
01:18:31,760 --> 01:18:33,840
military uniforms and papers.

1040
01:18:36,880 --> 01:18:39,880
The orders from Kim Il-sung
were explicit.

1041
01:18:41,960 --> 01:18:46,400
Their instructions were basically
to go to the Blue House to kill

1042
01:18:46,400 --> 01:18:49,560
the South Korean president Park
Chung-hee, to cut off his head

1043
01:18:49,560 --> 01:18:52,200
and to bring it back to North Korea.

1044
01:18:53,920 --> 01:18:56,480
The North Koreans got within yards
of the president

1045
01:18:56,480 --> 01:19:00,960
before they were discovered,
and the assassination was foiled.

1046
01:19:00,960 --> 01:19:06,960
And I sincerely hope Kim Il-sung
and his people up north recognise

1047
01:19:06,960 --> 01:19:11,400
the futility and the unwisdom
of continuing this action.

1048
01:19:13,920 --> 01:19:18,080
Days later,
North Korea captured the USS Pueblo.

1049
01:19:18,080 --> 01:19:21,920
The ship's 82 men and crew
was bound, blindfolded

1050
01:19:21,920 --> 01:19:26,120
and transported to Pyongyang,
where they were charged as spies.

1051
01:19:33,280 --> 01:19:36,960
For 11 months, the ship's crew
was tortured and subjected

1052
01:19:36,960 --> 01:19:39,160
to harsh interrogations.

1053
01:19:39,160 --> 01:19:44,920
The North Koreans committed yet
another wanton and aggressive act

1054
01:19:44,920 --> 01:19:48,840
by seizing an American ship
and its crew.

1055
01:19:48,840 --> 01:19:52,200
Clearly, this cannot be accepted.

1056
01:19:54,440 --> 01:19:58,800
By the winter of 1968, America
was being dragged towards conflict

1057
01:19:58,800 --> 01:20:02,760
in Korea, just as the war in Vietnam
was heating up.

1058
01:20:02,760 --> 01:20:04,400
Park Chung-hee is furious.

1059
01:20:04,400 --> 01:20:05,920
He wants to go north,

1060
01:20:05,920 --> 01:20:09,800
he wants to seek revenge
for the Blue House raid.

1061
01:20:09,800 --> 01:20:13,080
But all the other powers around the
Korean Peninsula, of course, are not

1062
01:20:13,080 --> 01:20:16,600
interested in restarting
the Korean War.

1063
01:20:16,600 --> 01:20:20,080
The Americans are back
down in Vietnam.

1064
01:20:20,080 --> 01:20:23,680
The Soviet Union has distractions
in Eastern Europe,

1065
01:20:23,680 --> 01:20:29,360
it invades Czechoslovakia in 1968,
and the Chinese are involved

1066
01:20:29,360 --> 01:20:32,160
in their cultural revolution.

1067
01:20:32,160 --> 01:20:35,720
So the outside powers outside of
the Korean Peninsula

1068
01:20:35,720 --> 01:20:38,880
have no interest
in starting the Korean War,

1069
01:20:38,880 --> 01:20:42,160
but the two Koreas want,
again, to start a war.

1070
01:20:44,600 --> 01:20:48,400
With pressure from America,
President Park stood down.

1071
01:20:50,280 --> 01:20:54,880
The American crew of the Pueblo
were released in December 1968.

1072
01:20:54,880 --> 01:20:56,880
The ship was never returned.

1073
01:20:59,360 --> 01:21:03,840
Simmering tensions between the two
Koreas continued throughout the '70s

1074
01:21:03,840 --> 01:21:07,600
and '80s, with Kim attempting
to undermine the South's burgeoning

1075
01:21:07,600 --> 01:21:10,440
prosperity. And then the Soviet
Union establishes

1076
01:21:10,440 --> 01:21:13,320
diplomatic relations with South
Korea in 1990,

1077
01:21:13,320 --> 01:21:16,760
China follows in 1992.

1078
01:21:16,760 --> 01:21:21,160
So North Korea is now diplomatically
isolated and unable to deal

1079
01:21:21,160 --> 01:21:24,240
with South Korea on any equal terms.

1080
01:21:24,240 --> 01:21:27,800
And it's that time, then,
that the North Korean regime

1081
01:21:27,800 --> 01:21:31,120
seeks its nuclear programme
for its own security.

1082
01:21:47,200 --> 01:21:51,640
On July 8th, 1994, Kim Il-sung died.

1083
01:22:52,560 --> 01:22:56,440
Kim's son, Kim Jong-il became
supreme leader.

1084
01:22:58,240 --> 01:23:02,480
He inherited a country in crisis.
The collapse of the Soviet Union

1085
01:23:02,480 --> 01:23:06,160
in the early nineties devastated
the North Korean economy,

1086
01:23:06,160 --> 01:23:09,120
and a serious of successive famines
killed an estimated

1087
01:23:09,120 --> 01:23:10,960
one million Koreans.

1088
01:23:13,360 --> 01:23:16,360
Yet even as his people
were starving, Kim ramped

1089
01:23:16,360 --> 01:23:18,840
up his father's nuclear ambitions.

1090
01:23:20,680 --> 01:23:23,400
So everyone really thinks
at that point that North Korea

1091
01:23:23,400 --> 01:23:25,960
is going to collapse,
and yet it doesn't.

1092
01:23:25,960 --> 01:23:30,000
Kim Jong-il continues with his
nuclear programme and he knows

1093
01:23:30,000 --> 01:23:35,040
that that is the only leverage
he has for survival.

1094
01:23:39,440 --> 01:23:43,080
For North Korea, nuclear weapons
are not only the ultimate sign

1095
01:23:43,080 --> 01:23:47,560
of strength, but they have meaning
for North Korea and their history

1096
01:23:47,560 --> 01:23:52,920
because Kim Il-sung saw how Japan's
occupation of Korea, which looked

1097
01:23:52,920 --> 01:23:54,760
like it would never end...

1098
01:23:56,600 --> 01:24:00,760
..suddenly being terminated by two
atomic bombs that the United States

1099
01:24:00,760 --> 01:24:03,120
dropped on Japan.

1100
01:24:03,120 --> 01:24:08,800
They saw China explode a nuclear
device in 1964 and then become

1101
01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:13,080
a permanent member
of the UN Security Council.

1102
01:24:13,080 --> 01:24:16,560
These are the interpretations,
the lessons the North Koreans
learned

1103
01:24:16,560 --> 01:24:19,160
from the ability to have
nuclear weapons.

1104
01:24:25,440 --> 01:24:29,360
Despite international pressure on
Kim Jong-il to give up his nuclear

1105
01:24:29,360 --> 01:24:35,360
programme, on October 9th 2006,
North Korea completed a successful

1106
01:24:35,360 --> 01:24:37,160
nuclear weapons test,

1107
01:24:37,160 --> 01:24:39,760
achieving a long-cherished ambition.

1108
01:24:42,400 --> 01:24:47,760
And after his sudden death in 2011,
his son, Kim Jong-un vowed

1109
01:24:47,760 --> 01:24:50,800
to continue the family's
nuclear dream.

1110
01:24:55,200 --> 01:24:59,280
Here's this guy who's like a
young guy, educated in the West,

1111
01:24:59,280 --> 01:25:02,160
who was not introduced to the North
Korean public until a year

1112
01:25:02,160 --> 01:25:04,880
before his father's death in 2011,

1113
01:25:04,880 --> 01:25:07,800
and yet he comes in there
and is able to consolidate

1114
01:25:07,800 --> 01:25:09,520
his power so quickly -

1115
01:25:09,520 --> 01:25:12,560
that just shows the power
of the Kim Il-sung myth

1116
01:25:12,560 --> 01:25:14,360
and how it's still alive.

1117
01:25:16,280 --> 01:25:21,280
He knows that Kim Il-sung had
popularity and love of the Korean

1118
01:25:21,280 --> 01:25:23,200
people, North Korean people.

1119
01:25:23,200 --> 01:25:26,320
So that's why he wanted to sort
of even look like his grandfather,

1120
01:25:26,320 --> 01:25:28,280
the way he dresses, his haircut,

1121
01:25:28,280 --> 01:25:32,080
just the whole outer appearance
looks like his grandfather,

1122
01:25:32,080 --> 01:25:35,400
and his behaviour is also
more like his grandfather.

1123
01:25:52,640 --> 01:25:57,080
In September 2016, North Korea
tested their fifth and most

1124
01:25:57,080 --> 01:25:59,120
powerful nuclear warhead.

1125
01:25:59,120 --> 01:26:00,800
The North Koreans,

1126
01:26:00,800 --> 01:26:06,600
the message that their leaders give
them is that we're not going to let

1127
01:26:06,600 --> 01:26:10,840
the United States do to us
what they did between 1950 and '53,

1128
01:26:10,840 --> 01:26:13,280
and that's why we need nuclear
weapons and that's why

1129
01:26:13,280 --> 01:26:15,760
we need to have missiles
that can deliver them

1130
01:26:15,760 --> 01:26:18,160
to the continental United States.

1131
01:26:21,240 --> 01:26:24,400
The United States started entering
negotiations from the Clinton

1132
01:26:24,400 --> 01:26:28,040
administration onwards,
and in all of these cases,

1133
01:26:28,040 --> 01:26:31,400
what the United States has put
on offer is remarkably consistent,

1134
01:26:31,400 --> 01:26:35,160
which is the promise of
normal political relations,

1135
01:26:35,160 --> 01:26:39,040
the promise of a peace treaty
ending the Korean War, economic

1136
01:26:39,040 --> 01:26:41,520
assistance, energy assistance.

1137
01:26:41,520 --> 01:26:44,760
And all of these things would be on
offer to North Korea if they did one

1138
01:26:44,760 --> 01:26:47,640
thing, which is give up
their nuclear weapons

1139
01:26:47,640 --> 01:26:50,760
and ballistic missiles. But I think
the main lesson we've learned

1140
01:26:50,760 --> 01:26:54,240
from all of this is that the problem
is not the United States.

1141
01:26:54,240 --> 01:26:58,400
The problem is that North Korea
doesn't want to give up its weapons.

1142
01:26:58,400 --> 01:27:02,400
In the end, the prospects for peace
could hinge not on the Western

1143
01:27:02,400 --> 01:27:07,360
powers, but on the two leaders
of this long-divided nation,

1144
01:27:07,360 --> 01:27:11,800
and on its people, still separated
by a never ending conflict.

1145
01:27:48,760 --> 01:27:53,040
This is a blip in the history
of Korea, this division since 1945,

1146
01:27:53,040 --> 01:27:55,840
and then the Korean War since 1950.

1147
01:27:55,840 --> 01:27:59,720
It's same ethnic make-up, same
language, same culture. The two

1148
01:27:59,720 --> 01:28:03,320
Koreas were one Korea for thousands
of years.

1149
01:28:03,320 --> 01:28:06,640
We don't get fairy tale endings
on the Korean Peninsula.

1150
01:28:06,640 --> 01:28:12,360
So whether it is the Japanese
occupation of Korea, the start

1151
01:28:12,360 --> 01:28:16,480
of the Korean War in 1950,
democratisation in South Korea in

1152
01:28:16,480 --> 01:28:18,760
1987, the list goes on and on.

1153
01:28:18,760 --> 01:28:22,040
History has shown that change
on the Korean Peninsula

1154
01:28:22,040 --> 01:28:25,560
always comes suddenly,
it never comes gradually.