Prelude to the Korean War

If one is to understand the United States of America's participation in the Korean War, one must understand what happened to our nation's armed forces after the end of World War II, a war which lasted six long, horrific years. Although our official participation in this global war only began in late 1941 America's per capita losses while terrible to our citizens on the home front, they were minimal when compared to the size of our major manpower contribution and to the casualty lists of our foreign Allies and Axis enemies. Like all the combatants of this world war, America was a war weary nation, but she was left with a victor's responsibilities as the occupier and governing power of the lands of our vanquished Axis Power enemies.

Blinded by the tears of desire for the swift return of its husbands, sons, and loved ones to the homeland and continuing to be traditionally adverse to the projection of American power overseas, the people of our country demanded the Truman Administration begin the rapid demobilization of our incredibly huge military and naval force. America has never been comfortable with a large-standing professional military and until these modern times had always relied on the vast expanses of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for benign protection. A pro-active posture with regard to the defense of which we hold dear, beyond the basic family unit was a foreign idea to the majority of our nation's people. Prior to 1939, the ranks of America's Regular Army numbered somewhere around 75,000 men, many of our airplanes had two wings, and our navy still sailed in capital warships with hull designs and targeting systems from the 1920's.

America approached the great Post-WWII Demobilization with the same sleeves-up, can-do zeal, with which it had fought the war. While troopships and transports rapidly delivered the thousands of men and women in uniform home to our shores and their families, the ships transporting the heavy ordnance of our war-fighting machine did not. As a matter of economics, the orders came down from The White House and the Pentagon to discard the machinery of war and the captains of the transport vessels dutifully complied by dumping their cargoes at sea! Tanks and trucks, field artillery, crates of weapons and munitions, tents and clothing, all went into the sea. To return all this materiel to American shores would have meant budgeting tax dollars to maintain it with a soon-to-be army to small to employ it all, and further glutting the national's booming economy with usable vehicles that would have prevented Detroit from selling civilian-model cars to a nation of people who were now flush with cash after working their way out of The Great Depression through WWII. The military was demobilizing their ranks with lightning speed, rolling and casing the battle flags of its proud regiments and divisions, while our navy was hastily mothballing the ships of its great fighting fleets and task forces,that it did not give or sell outright to her allies in need of vessels of the latest design. Everywhere in America, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines could be seen still in uniform, but proudly wearing their "Ruptured Duck" emblems of Honorable Discharge. This badge on the breast of their uniform, proudly told people these citizen soldiers had "mustered out," and were now civilians who were simply returning home in uniform as they did not have any civilian clothes in their warrior's kit.

The most experienced men and women with the longest service time at the battlefront, were returned first, which meant that the occupation duties were taken up by men and women who enlisted very late in the conflict and still had time left to serve on their military contracts. The battle-hardened units that were the nation's spear-point in battle, now found their ranks filled with 'greenhorns' carrying rifles and standing guard. You have to picture a metropolitan police force with the majority of its most seasoned members replaced by part-time security guards from your local mall. This was fast becoming the state of the American armed forces. Such was the sad-sack status majority of our occupying forces.

One of our history lessons in high school was that history itself abhors a vacuum, yet our leaders in Washington were hard at work creating one as they moved heaven and earth to appear as great peacemakers to the American people. We were about to pay dearly in a small and all but unkown country called Korea to prevent that 'vacuum' from being filled by communism. A lesson most of America always has difficulty comprehending, would come from the ancient Greeks, "Sic vis Pacem Parabellum," or, If you want peace, prepare for war. In 1946, America reverted to its short-attention span, and blindly began setting the stage for disaster in 1950.