The Korean War was the
first major military conflict of the Cold War between the
Western powers and the Communist nations in the years
following World War Two. The war lasted three years, cost
millions of lives, devasted both North and South Korea,
and actually continues to this day as the military
conflict concluded with a truce, not an actual peace
treaty. The Korean War involved all of the major powers
of the 1950s: The United States, United Kingdom, France,
China, and Russia (the Soviet Union), as well as the
relatively new United Nations. The war in Korea was just
one of several major conflicts pitting the Western powers
against Communist forces, but this was the only one at
the time that carried the potential for escalating into a
Third World War. Such a world war could easily have
become a nuclear conflict as both the U.S. and Soviet
Union possessed atomic weapons.
Below is a public domain
timeline of events in the Korean War, provided by the
U.S.
Army.
Korean
War Timeline 1950 - 1953
June 25,
1950
North Korean
People’s Army (NKPA) invades across the 38th
Parallel with 135,000 men. The outnumbered Republic of
Korea Army (ROK), which does not have effective anti-tank
weapons, field artillery, or combat aircraft, suffers
heavy casualties. North Korean forces enter Seoul on June
28.
July 5,
1950
First battle between the
U.S. Army and the NKPA. The 24th Infantry Division’s
Task Force Smith, a battalion combat team deployed from
Japan, attempted to delay the advance of a NKPA division
near Osan. Outnumbered and poorly equipped, Task Force
Smith delays the North Koreans for only a short period
before retreating with heavy casualties.
Aug. 6 - Sept. 12,
1950
Defense of Pusan
Perimeter. After a series of costly delaying actions
during July, the U.S. Eighth Army withdrew on Aug. 1 into
a final defensive line around the key port city of Pusan.
After deploying from Japan the previous month, Eighth
Army had assumed command of all U.S., ROK, and other
nations’ ground combat units fighting to defeat the
North Korean invasion. As reinforcements from the United
States and several other nations arrive at the port,
Eighth Army directed the successful defense of the
perimeter against major NKPA attacks in August and
September.
Sept. 15,
1950
X Corps amphibious
assault at Inchon, Seoul’s port city. General of the
Army Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of Far East
Command and commander-in-chief of United Nations Command,
plans to liberate Seoul and crush the NKPA between X
Corps and Eighth Army begins its breakout from the Pusan
Perimeter on Sept. 16.
Sept. 28,
1950
X Corps completes
liberation of Seoul. Eighth Army has linked up with X
Corps, and while many North Korean soldiers escape, most
NKPA units are destroyed.
Oct. 19,
1950
Eighth Army seizes
Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea, after UN forces shift from the defense
of South Korea to the destruction of the North Korean
regime. The NKPA can mount only very limited and
generally ineffective opposition. Meanwhile, X Corps has
been withdrawn from Seoul to land in northeastern
Korea.
November 26 - 30,
1950
Two army groups of the
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) attack and defeat
outnumbered UN forces in North Korea, inflicting heavy
casualties. The People's Republic of China (PRC), after
warning the UN, intervenes to prevent the destruction of
the North Korean regime and the establishment of an
American-allied Korea on its border. After the attack,
the Eighth Army breaks contact with the Chinese and
retreats into South Korea; X Corps is withdrawn by sea to
South Korea where it joins Eighth Army. Two significant
battles during this period include the 2nd Infantry
Division's harrowing withdrawal through the Kunu-ri
gauntlet and the 1st Marine Division's heroic efforts in
the Chosin Reservoir battle.
Jan. 4,
1951
U.N. forces evacuate
Seoul after the Chinese and NKPA launch another major
offensive. Eighth Army breaks contact with the enemy and
withdraws to a new defensive line south of the Han
River.
Jan. 24,
1951
Eighth Army begins a
counter-offensive with an emphasis on using its superior
firepower to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. After
defeating another major enemy attack in February, the
counter-offensive continues.
March 14,
1951
Eighth Army retakes Seoul
against light enemy resistance.
March 27,
1951
Eighth Army reaches 38th
Parallel. Enemy resistance continues to be light, but
intelligence indicates that the Chinese are massing their
forces for another major offensive.
April 11,
1951
President Truman relieves
Gen. MacArthur as CINCFEC/CINCUNC after MacArthur had
publicly and repeatedly questioned President
Truman’s strategy for the war.
April 22 - 29, 1951
& May 16-20, 1951
Chinese Spring
Offensives. After forcing the outnumbered Eighth Army to
make tactical withdrawals, Chinese and North Korean units
in April and May are decimated by superior UN firepower.
This is the last attempt by either side to win the war by
inflicting a crushing battlefield defeat on the
enemy’s army.
July 10,
1951
Armistice negotiations
begin as both the US and the PRC decide that the costs
are too high to unify the peninsula under their Korean
ally, and they instead settle for a continuation of a
Korea divided between two regimes. To pressure the
communists and to seize better terrain for defensive
lines, Eighth Army mounts a series of limited-objective
attacks during the summer and autumn that are successful,
but very costly because of fierce enemy
resistance.
Nov. 12,
1951
Eighth Army assumes the
“active defense” as the UN’s objectives in
the armistice negotiations, and the growing unpopularity
of the war in the United States, rule out major
offensives with high casualties. In the active defense,
UN forces hold a main line of resistance, protected by
fortified outposts, from which units patrol and conduct
raids against enemy positions.
May 7 - June 10,
1952
On May 7, NKPA
prisoners-of-war at the UN POW camp on Koje Island
capture the camp commander. He is released unharmed after
an American officer signs a statement admitting to the
mistreatment of POWs. A great propaganda victory for the
communists, this incident is the most notable example of
the communist strategy to turn POW camps into another
battlefield of the war. During June, the UN POW camp
system is reorganized to improve security, although
communist POWs will continue to provoke violent incidents
until the end of the war.
July 17 - Aug. 4,
1952
Battle for Outpost Old
Baldy. The 2nd Infantry Division loses the outpost to a
Chinese attack that demonstrates the enemy’s greatly
expanded artillery force, mounts several unsuccessful
counterattacks, and then finally retakes the outpost.
While patrolling is now the most common form of combat,
the Chinese for the next year will attempt to pressure
the UN at the armistice negotiations by inflicting heavy
casualties on UN units with attacks on
outposts.
Oct. 6 - 15,
1952
Battle for White Horse
Mountain. The successful defense of this position by the
ROK 9th Division, with the assistance of U.S. artillery
and air strikes, against heavy Chinese attacks signals
the great improvements the ROK has made, with the aid of
American advisers, in its tactical and technical
competence since the first year of the war.
Oct. 8,
1952
Armistice negotiations
recessed because of a deadlock on the issue of
repatriation of POWs. While the Geneva Convention of 1949
mandates immediate repatriation of POWs after hostilities
end, the United States decides to press for allowing POWs
to choose whether they will be repatriated. The U.S.
takes this position because screening of enemy POWs has
revealed that tens of thousands of them are either South
Koreans conscripted into the NKPA or Nationalist veterans
of the Chinese Civil War drafted into the PLA after the
communist victory in that war. These POWs do not want to
go to North Korea or the PRC after hostilities
end.
April 26,
1953
Armistice negotiations
resume. While both South and North Koreans still desire
to defeat each other and unify the peninsula, the UN and
the PRC wish to end what has become a bloody and
expensive war whose objective, the status quo ante
bellum, is for them not worth the cost of
continuing.
May 28-29,
1953
25th Infantry Division
battle for Nevada outpost complex. The Chinese repeatedly
attack to take these outposts, suffering very heavy
casualties, until Eighth Army decides to abandon the
outposts. With an armistice agreement in sight, senior UN
commanders conclude that holding an outpost, after the
Chinese have demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice
whatever number of soldiers required to take it, is not
worth the cost in UN soldiers’ lives. The Chinese
take several other outposts with this tactic, which is
designed to distract from their concessions at the
armistice negotiations and to keep pressuring the UN
during the final stage of the negotiations.
June 8,
1953
Agreement reached at
armistice negotiations on repatriation of POWs. All POWs
will choose whether they will be repatriated, and both
sides will be allowed an attempt to persuade its POWs to
choose to be repatriated.
July 13-19,
1953
Chinese offensive against
ROK units in Kumsong Salient. A major attack breaks
through ROK lines and inflicts heavy losses, but the
Chinese do not attempt to exploit the breach even though
they also have suffered heavy casualties. The purpose of
the attack is to punish the South Koreans for
unilaterally releasing 27,000 POWs who had refused
repatriation and to distract world attention from the
concessions made at the armistice
negotiations.
July 27,
1953
Armistice signed at
Panmunjom. Both sides then withdraw slightly to create a
demilitarized zone between the two Korean
regimes.
Aug. 1953 - Feb.
1954
Exchange of POWs. A total
of 82,493 Koreans and Chinese POWs are repatriated, as
are 13,444 UN POWs (3,746 of which are Americans). 21,839
communist POWs refuse repatriation, as do 347 UN POWs,
including 21 Americans.
