Oct. 20 - Pusan: One Korean officer is extra harsh with the Korean civilian staff. This guy treats us much worse than the Americans do - he screams insults at us and orders us around - especially me. One day, I get into a fight with this guy. This incident becomes a major event. The man in charge decides to let me go. My friend Mr. Smith comes to my assistance and saves my neck. He pulls strings and makes me a Critical Military Specialist (CMS). My career in the intelligence business begins.
Nov. 29, 1952 - Eisenhower slips out of his house at 60 Morningside Drive, New York and leaves for a secret trip to Korea. For three days, Ike visits with his generals and GI's in the front. Ike realizes that he must end the war soon and that he must accept an honorable peace. He spends less than an hour with Rhee. Ike doesn't think much of the old man or of Korea in general. He wants the damn war ended and go on with life elsewhere. Ike agrees with Gen. Bradley that Korea is the worst place to fight the Soviets.
Dec. 17, 1952 - MacArthur resurfaces and grabs news headlines meeting with Ike. MacArthur proposes a Stalin-Ike summit. Ike would demand unified and neutral Korea and Germany. If Stalin refused, then US would nuke N Korea and China, and sow radioactive wastes along the Manchurian border, followed by amphibious landings on both coasts. Ike listens politely to the ramblings of the senile old general.
Photo: White man - Asian people's enemy?
Ike has his own plans to end the war -
"There is no sense in the UN, with American bearing the brunt of the thing, being constantly compelled to man those front lines. This is a job for the Koreans. We do not want Asia to feel that the white man of the West is his enemy. If there must be a war there, let it be Asians against Asians, with our support on the side of freedom."
Jan. 21, 1953 - Gen. Eisenhower is inaugurated president. Ike vows to end the war in one way or the other, and directs Gen. Bradley to recommend the best way to end the war. The general recommends
"the timely use of atomic weapons should be considered against military targets affecting operations in Korea".
Jan 23, 1953 - My brother Kim Ung Sik, an ROK army doctor, is stationed at Yijungbu north of Seoul. I pay him a visit. Since there is no hotel accommodation, he puts me with his patients (against the regulation). The field hospital is made of some 50 tents and has about 3,000 S Korean soldiers. Each tent has about 100 beds. My brother is in charge of the eye injury ward. Shell explosions create shock waves which tend to make your eyes to pop out. My brother has some 250 patients who have lost one or both eyes.
Most of the patients are farmers and accept their misfortune with "humor". They take out their glass eye and put it into their mouth to moisturize it, and then put push it back into their empty eye socket. They play games - for money or cigarettes - with the eye balls. They roll the balls on the floor - the one rolls the farthest wins the game. When the game is over, the eyeballs goes into the mouth for cleaning.
Feb. 1, !953 - War Front: I am attached to a front-line intel unit. The unit includes 10 or so Japanese Americans (nisei). Our job is to interrogate N Korean prisoners before they are killed or sent to POW camps. We also interrogate N Korean civilians when our combat guys capture a N Korean village. Refugees are also screened. If a prisoner speaks Japanese, a nisei does the interrogation.
If not, I do the honors with the help of a nisei. Chinese prisoners are sent to another unit manned by Chiang Kai Sek's boys from Taiwan. N Korean propaganda says that Japs are fighting for US in Korea. I guess they are right - nisei are Japs, technically speaking.
Feb. 11, 1953 - Van Fleet is replaced by Max Taylor as the 8th Army Commander. Taylor is more concerned with GI's lives than Van Fleet who attempted to ape his hero MacArthur. Ike wants to end the war by threatening China with the A-bomb.
March 5, 1953 - Joe Stalin dies and Malenkov takes over the USSR. Malenkov wants the war to end - "There is no disputed or unresolved question that cannot be settled peacefully.." Kim Il Sung and Chou En-lai want to settle the POW issue "in order to insure the cessation of hostilities in Korea and to conclude the armistice agreement."
The Joint Chiefs of Staff draw up a plan to hit the communists, if the talks fail, with an all-out effort including extensive strategically and tactical use of atomic bombs" against China and Manchuria, coordinated with a massive 8th Army ground offensive to achieve a position along the "waist".
March 27, 1953 - The JCS recommends the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Korea and China -
"The efficacy of atomic weapons in achieving greater results at less cost of effort in furtherance of U.S. objectives in connection with Korea points to the desirability of re-evaluating the policy which now restricts the use of atomic weapons in the Far East.
In view of the extensive implications of developing an effective conventional capability in the Far East, the timely use of atomic weapons should be considered against military targets affecting operations in Korea, and operationally planned as an adjunct to any possible military course of action involving direct action against Communist China and Manchuria".
March 28, 1953 - Kim Il Sung announces that he will accept Gen. Clark's offer to exchange wounded and sick POWs.
March 30, 1953 - Chou En Lai proposes to resume the peace talk.
April 10, 1953 - I am attached to an American combat unit (US 2nd Div., the Indian Head). We live in US army tents and eat with American GI's. Some GI's wonder what a group of gooks (American GI's call Koreans 'gooks' - not necessarily in a bad way - 'gook' comes from S Korea's 'Dae Han Min Gook' and N Korea's 'Gong Wha Gook') doing in their midst. Our tent has a hot-line (an army field phone - you crank it to charge up the capacitor) and we take turns to man it.
April 10, 1953 - Ho Kai-i, the ranking Soviet-Korean, commits suicide. Ho was expelled from party positions in 1951 for excessive purging of "disloyal" party members. Kim Il Sung puts Ho in charge of reconstruction of the Kyongyong Reservoir (bombed by US B29's in 1951), but Ho considers such a job beneath his dignity and shoots himself.
April 20 - The Little Switch, exchange of sick and wounded POWs, starts - the first concrete result of the talks. Western civilian internees were released earlier.
April 26, 1953 - Full talks resume at Panmunjom. The only guy not happy with this development is Syngman Rhee who does his best to sabotage the talks. Rhee is crazy enough to keep the war going even if it killed all Koreans. The US intelligence resurrects "Plan Everready" - a plan to assassinate Rhee. The Plan involves, on purpose, S Korean army generals friendly to Rhee, who tip off the old man. Rhee sees the light and agrees to obey the US commands.
May 13 - 16 - US planes bombs irrigation dams in N Korea and ten of thousands of civilians drown. This is one of the most barbaric acts committed by the US military in Korea.
The War is winding down and about the only calls we get are some stupid war exercise stuff. We idle away drinking beer, telling dirty jokes and inventing new games to play: e.g., who can ejaculate the stuff the farthest; who has the longest penis (usually a white guy); the fattest penis (a black guy); who can drink the most (a Jap) and other stupid things. The losers get to buy the winner a case of beer.
Once a day, we go out on patrol in a jeep. We make sure to include at least one white or black guy. A lot of GI's are trigger happy and love to shoot at gooks. I guess Japs look just like gooks to white guys. No new POW's or enemy towns are being captured these days. Watching GI's fornicating with Korean ladies in open fields become the main highlight of our patrols.
My nisei friends wear GI uniforms and standard US army insignia - they are actually regular GI's and have nothing to do spying. The nisei carry the standard US GI gear - a carbine or a pistol, a canteen and a GI belt. Technically, I am a civilian employee and so I am not allowed to carry any weapon - not officially. I wear GI uniforms without insignia and a name tag (not my real name). My Japanese buddies let me carry a carbine now and then.
I carry an ID printed both in Korean and English that states that I am a critical military specialist (CMS), an employee of the UN Command. It says further that I should not be moneyed with. The latter is intended for S Korean military police which is on the lookout for communist spies, draft dodgers and deserters. Any Korean youth caught without a proper ID is arrested.
Our commander is a white lieutenant. He asks me to keep an eye on the nisei. He thinks some of the Japs may be N Korean spies. We also watch S Korean units on our flanks. Americans are worried that S Koreans may go on the offensive on their own to crank up the war or they may change sides and attack the Americans. I guess nobody can trust anybody in a war. I suppose I am being watched over by a GI - I could easily be a communist spy. After all, I am from N Korea.
May 27, 1953 - Plan Everready is resurrected again. Gen. Clark is fed up with Rhee's refusal to give up his "march north and kill Kim Ilsung no matter what" attitude. Clark is about to execute option #3 of the Plan:
"President Rhee would be invited to visit Seoul or elsewhere - anywhere to get him out of Pusan. At an appropriate time, the UN commander would move into the Pusan area and seize between five and ten key ROK officials who have been leaders in Rhee's dictatorial actions...and take over control of martial law through the Chief of Staff, ROK army, until it is lifted."
June 18, 1953 - Rhee orders his army to free as many POWs as possible by force if necessary. Some 27,000 POWs are freed at several camps. ROK soldiers exchange fire with the American guards. The American guards fire on the fleeing POWs, killing more than several thousands POWs. This is the first documented case of US soldiers fighting ROK soldiers.
June 20, 1953 - Churchill calls Rhee a traitor and calls for his ouster, or else Churchill will pull out the British troops from Korea. Ike is mad at Rhee and resurrects Operation Everready for the fifth time. Ike says in a cabinet meeting - "I wished the South Koreans would overthrow Rhee." MacArthur, the man who put Rhee in power, tells Ike that Rhee would be "killed within a few weeks by the Korean people."
Ike to Rhee: "Your violation creates an impossible situation for the UN command. If continued, such a course of action can only result in the needless sacrifice of all that has been won for Korea by the blood and bravery of its magnificent fighting forces....The UN is ready to effect another arrangement to end the war; i.e., that any further such behavior could leave the ROK standing alone in the post-armistice period, with no U.S. assistance." Ike is ready to end the war with or without Rhee.
June 24-25 - The communist forces launch a major offensive aimed at the S Korean troops. 7,400 S Koreans die. On July 13, another offensive is mounted against the S Korean Army. Rhee is about to lose his army as well as the support of the American hawks. Rhee gives up and accepts the truce terms.
Photo: Peng signs the armistice agreement
July 19, 1953 - Armistice: At last the shooting ends. There is no celebration or rejoicing. Gen. Namil initializes the document, and Peng Dehuai and Kim Il Sung affix their signatures. Peng states -
"This is a happy day for our people. Through three years of fighting together, the Volunteers had forged a comradeship in blood with the North Korean people and their army - a friendship which further deepened and strengthened our international feelings."
On the American side, Gen. Harrison initializes and Gen. Mark Clark signs the documents at a camp set up in Munsan, S Korea. Gen. Clark states:
"I cannot find it in me exult in this hour. Rather, it is time for prayer, that we may succeed in out difficult endeavor to turn this armistice to the advantage of mankind. If we extract hope from this occasion, it must be diluted with recognition that our salvation requires unrelaxing vigilance and effort.".
All of us are tired of the war. Uncle Sam wastes no time in reducing its forces in Korea. Our rations are cut short and no more bonuses. The first to go is the intel guys. My nisei friends are sent back to America and I am reassigned to the MIS headquarters in Seoul.
The war has cost Korea over 6 million civilian casualties; 520,000 N Korean soldiers dead or wounded with 120,000 captured; S Korea lost 415,000 killed, 429,000 wounded, and 460,000 missing; US lost 157,530 dead, wounded, captured or missing. The biggest loser of the war is the Korean people. A US commentator states "A potentially swift and relatively bloodless reunification is turned into a carnage".
The only winner is Syngman Rhee. He saves his job at the cost of six million dead and devastation of Korea. (NB: as MacArthur predicted, the Korean people threw out Rhee in April 1960, Rhee tried to rig an election for the second time. The people were more humane to him than Rhee had been to the people - his life was spared. Rhee was expelled to US where he should have stayed in 1945. Rhee was perhaps the worst thing to hit the post-liberation Korea.)
Photo: A N Korean and a S Korean smiling
China lost 360,000 killed or wounded and 20,000 captured. It rotated 25 field armies, 70 artillery divisions, 10 railroad engineer divisions, 3 tank divisions, 2 security divisions, 12 air force divisions, and 15 engineer regiments - totaling 2,300,000 men.
The Soviets equipped 60 infantry divisions, 10 air force divisions, and supplied 80% of the ammunition for the communist forces (250,000 tons). Some 100 Soviets officers, including Kim Il Sung's personal advisor, Col. Itziatzev, died in Korea.
