Chapter 78 fourth quarter

Before outlining the course of the Korean War, let us take a brief look at the international situation at that time in order to understand the reasons why it must have happened. The world war is over, but real peace has not come, and the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union has begun.With the Truman Statement in March 1947, the Marshall Plan in June, etc., American policy became superficial.By the time the "North Atlantic Treaty" was signed in April 1949, the US system of encircling the Soviet Union had been completed.The so-called "containment" situation in which the United States surrounds the Soviet Union with a network of overseas military bases has basically taken shape.The United States also has the military-technical advantage of the atomic bomb monopoly as its backing.

At that time, the United States was proud of its stockpile of atomic bombs, and the view that the Soviet Union could not possess atomic bombs in the next fifteen years still prevailed.In terms of carrying atomic bombs, the United States also has B-36, B-50 and other long-range non-landing flying bombers, and believes that the Soviet Union's technology in this area is also lagging behind.Based on this strategy, the Strategic Air Command was established by order of the President in March 1946. The purpose of this strategy is: the concentration of destructive power in time, the concentration of attack power in organization, and the concentration of combat power in regions.All in all, only eight atomic bombs are needed to achieve the effect of 32,000 sorties of B-29 bombers bombing Japan in fourteen months, and it can be done intensively with the least amount of manpower.Each plane knows in advance where to attack, and is often trained in this situation. It does not attack after receiving an order, but determines the attack target from the beginning.According to this system, the United States surrounded the Soviet Union with 1,500 strategic bombers.Distribute these bombers on 150 to 160 bases, aim at the Soviet Union, and form an encirclement.In this way, the strategic system capable of aggressively attacking the Soviet Union in case of emergency is ready.In September 1947, the U.S. Air Force Department became independent, and the strategic deployment to the Soviet Union was completed.

If you think of the signing of the "North Atlantic Treaty" not long after this, you can clearly understand the US plan. However, the situation has changed.The Chinese Red Army took control of all of China, and the Soviet Union announced that it possessed atomic bombs.Malenkov issued a statement on the October Revolution Day in 1949, saying: If the United States uses an atomic bomb to attack suddenly, the Soviet Union can also use an atomic bomb to retaliate.As a result of this new situation, the "containment" strategy was completely bankrupt.This made America anxious.If things go on like this, the United States is bound to become more and more in trouble.What about the huge capital invested around the world?The next step for the United States can be said to be to use North Korea as a springboard to carry out segmental operations against the Soviet Union and China, and there is no other way.

In addition, there is another factor in favor of the United States in the Korean War: since the Soviet Union's proposal to admit China to the United Nations was rejected in October of the previous year, the Soviet Union has been boycotting the United Nations. If the Soviet Union had attended the United Nations meeting at that time, the US proposal of "intervention by the United Nations army" would have been rejected by the Soviet Union's veto.The composition of the United Nations Army in North Korea is of course the United States as the main force, and the command power is naturally monopolized by the United States.Therefore, the Soviet Union boycotted the United Nations, but it turned out to be very convenient for the United States to intervene in North Korea.

Stone wrote: "Actually, choosing this timing to launch an attack seems very inappropriate from the North Korean side. Since the Soviet Union's proposal to admit the Chinese Communist Party to the United Nations was not approved, the Soviet Union protested this. Since then began to boycott the United Nations in January 1999 and did not attend Security Council meetings. The other 'Eastern European' seat on the Security Council is occupied by Yugoslavia, which is at odds with the Soviet Union. Therefore, if the United States tries to mobilize the United Nations against North Korea , not a single friendly state in the Security Council would exercise the veto to veto its proposal."