Chapter 3 〇2. The Yalu River: War after War

In 1950, the Chinese army crossed the Yalu River in the "Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" operation, making the Yalu River one of the most famous rivers in China at that time and since then. The name of the Yalu River comes from the Manchu language yalu ula, which means: the river of the border.It is the boundary river between Northeast China and North Korea.Northeast China's Jilin and Liaoning provinces are across the river from North Korea.It originates from the southern foot of Jiangjun Peak in Changbai Mountain, at an altitude of 2,300 meters. After that, it flows south to Huishan in North Korea, then turns to the northwest, travels 130 kilometers to Linjiang in Jilin Province, and then flows into the Korean Gulf from the southwest and enters the Yellow Sea.Because of the Korean War (1950-1953) that broke out in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Yalu River became a well-known place name throughout the country.The Chinese People's Volunteers crossed this boundary river and participated in the first war after the Civil War.And this war is related to China's international status-this new country needs to prove that it is not so weak and gain recognition; it also marks the confrontation between the two camps of capitalism and socialism at that time, which has extremely far-reaching domestic and international influence .China, North Korea and the United States, the relationship between these three countries still affects people's hearts today.

"I had seen the Yalu River in an archive movie, but now, when I look up close, it's not what I imagined. It's not as wide as I thought, but it's much more choppy. It is full of waves and whirlpools. The color of the water is slightly green. An old man without a need to buy spiced pumpkins on the street told me that the Yalu River often floods in summer, washing away crops, apple trees, houses on the shore, and sometimes flooded. The river will also drown livestock and people." In his 2005 novel "War Garbage," writer Hagin wrote. Ha Jin, who left China for Boston in 1985, is now a professor of English at Boston University.He is one of the most outstanding Chinese writers alive. "War Garbage" describes how a young Chinese official experienced the Korean War, and how he experienced the conflict between two cultures after being captured.In the novel, when the young man named Yu Yuan came to Dandong with his troops and was about to cross the Yalu River, he was in the high camp to carefully observe the river that later appeared in the song.

In Manchu, the name of this river is Yalu ula, and "yalu" means "the edge of the land, the boundary of the border" in Manchu.The Yalu River is actually doing the same thing. In 1909 and 1940, two cross-river bridges were built on the Yalu River, connecting Dandong, China, and Sinuiju, North Korea.The first bridge was bombed by U.S. aircraft during the Korean War in 1950.Today, if allowed, people can still travel by train or car along the second 940-meter-long bridge between Dandong, China and Sinuiju, North Korea. The river, with its light green waters, later entered into folk songs because it became the iconic site of the biggest international armed conflict since the founding of Communist China. "Cross the Yalu River with pride and pride; to protect peace and defend the motherland is to protect the hometown. The good sons and daughters of China, unite and march forward, resist the United States and aid Korea and defeat the wild wolf of the American emperor", this volunteer army song and "Internationale", "Good Socialism" ", "Nanniwan", "Red Detachment of Women Army Song", etc., became the red ballads that were widely sung before the 1980s.

When the newly formed People's Republic of China felt its security was threatened, or its dignity was challenged-despite President Harry Truman trying to keep the war small, the United States dragged Communist China into it, and many people Putting the blame on General Douglas MacArthur and thus deciding to join the war, China's internal propaganda machine was at full throttle, both before and after the war, to find a rationale for China's joining the war with its neighbors.Radio and newspapers agitated impassioned young people to volunteer in the war against imperialism.The country uses a sense of honor and national pride to motivate poor citizens, either to join the army, or to support a war in a foreign land with money and goods.In addition to the "Military Song of the Chinese People's Volunteers", there is also "Who Is the Cutest Person" written by the writer Wei Wei describing the outstanding performance of the volunteers in the Korean War.As a result, the phrase "loveliest person" became popular and remained in use for 60 years, mostly to describe military personnel.Soldiers who performed outstandingly in the Korean War were later respected by the people of the whole country, such as Huang Jiguang, who sacrificed himself to block the hole of a gun, and the hero Qiu Shaoyun, who was ignited by an incendiary bomb but remained motionless in order not to expose the hidden target.Their heroic deeds are written into the texts of primary and secondary schools, and their red light influences later teenagers.Literary works and film and television works representing some famous battles such as the Battle of Shangganling are overwhelming.

This war gave the Chinese great self-confidence.If we say that in the just-concluded civil war, the Chinese Communist Party’s army only fought against the Kuomintang army using American equipment, then in the Korean War, it was the Chinese army and the American army that fought hand-to-hand and directly confronted each other.You must know that the just-concluded World War II created two superpowers whose military strength has been improved in actual combat. They have a complete set of war machines and a large number of war-tested soldiers.America is one of them.When describing the newly established Communist China, people always use an adjective: poor and white.The country has been exhausted by the prolonged war.Therefore, deciding to participate in this war requires great courage for the Communist Party of China, and the fact that it was able to win (at least the victory we think) naturally greatly inspired a country that has always regarded itself as a big country, but has been poor and weak for a long time. country's confidence.Leader Mao Zedong's statement that "all imperialism is a paper tiger" has been verified once again.

But from the perspective of the United States, this war is extremely paradoxical.David Halberstam, one of America's most famous journalists and nonfiction authors, published The Coldest Winter, an account of the Korean War in 2007.In the book, Halberstam says that "the Korean War somehow seems to have been forgotten by history". For the Americans, it was a special war from the beginning.The world war that just ended is enough to make everyone have lingering fears about a new war.For most observers, America's real challenge remains in Europe.They were locked in a dangerous standoff with the Soviets in Berlin.America doesn't want this war.

"Even President Truman, who ordered American troops into Korea, was reluctant to call it a war. From the beginning, Harry Truman was careful to downplay the conflict. He wanted to avoid increasing tension with the Soviet Union. . On the afternoon of June 29, four days after North Korean troops crossed the border, while he was sending the United States into war, one reporter asked Truman if the United States had in fact entered a war. War. Truman replied that it was not. Although it was. Another reporter asked: 'Can it be called a security operation under the auspices of the United Nations?' Truman replied: 'Yes. It is against it an accurate description of .' ” wrote Halberstam.

Halberstam called it a strange war, Truman was unwilling to see it as a war, Mao Zedong said that those who crossed the Yalu River to fight were not combatants but "volunteers"; and, in the end, both sides Claiming to have won the ultimate victory. But the difference is that this war has been almost forgotten in the United States, and no one is willing or interested in bringing it up again.When Halberstam was writing The Coldest Winter, he once stumbled into a Key West library in Florida.He found that there were 88 books on the shelves that dealt with the Vietnam War—including Halberstam's own classic, The Best of the Best—but only four books about the Korean War.

Veterans of the Korean War bitterly find themselves on the brink of oblivion.Americans who are good at making large-scale war movies mostly focus on the Second World War or the Vietnam War, but no one focuses on the Korean War. Anden Rowley, a young mechanic who participated in the Korean War and spent two and a half years in a Chinese prisoner-of-war camp, noticed that from 2001 to 2002, the United States produced three famous war film and television works, "Pearl Harbor" ", "windwalkers" and "We Are Soldiers", none of which is about the Korean War.Unlike its counterparts, the United States has no Korean War heroes, nor Korean War literature.

Halberstam's explanation for this is that one reason is that the Korean War did not expand to a major war involving many countries, nor did it cause the United States itself pain like the Vietnam War; the other reason is that during the Korean War In the era when it happened, the television media was not yet developed.For the United States, the Korean War was a "black-and-white war." The black-and-white print on newspapers was far less shocking than the bright pictures on TV in previous wars. But the war lasted for three years, with more than 33,000 American soldiers killed and 105,000 wounded; 415,000 South Korean soldiers killed and 429,000 wounded.This is the data given by Halberstam.He failed to list the casualties of North Korean and Chinese soldiers.No one can know the exact number.But at least Mao Zedong, the founder of Communist China, lost his son in this war.Among the Chinese volunteers who crossed the Yalu into North Korea was the leader's only surviving son.He entrusted him to Peng Dehuai, the Chinese general who commanded the Korean War.Some people also speculate that this may be an inducement for the later intensification of conflicts between Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai. Obviously, this kind of speculation has been mixed with too many personal factors in history.

Other protagonists in this war are the corrupt South Korean political leader Syngman Rhee, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and the arrogant military genius General Douglas MacArthur.Each of them is driving this war.Before the war, Syngman Rhee and Kim Jong Il each believed that if their respective allies, the United States and the Soviet Union, were not too cautious and constrained, they would have unified the entire North Korea.Just as Syngman Rhee believed he could defeat his northern rivals by himself, Kim Jong Il began by believing that he did not need to ask for help from China and his leader Mao Zedong across the Yalu River.MacArthur was busy rebuilding a new political order in Japan and trying to revive its economy. The effects of the war were enormous.In China, in the short term, the misbehavior of some businessmen discovered during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea made the Communist regime determined to punish these unscrupulous businessmen and eliminate the private economy more thoroughly.Long term, it divided North and South Korea to this day.Moreover, North Korea, with its nuclear weapons and authoritarian politics, remains a potential powder keg for the entire world.This situation has become more complicated as China on the other side of the Yalu River has grown stronger.China can persuade North Korea to return to the Six-Party Talks, but China's response also allows the United Nations and the United States to consider how to avoid falling into disputes among major powers when dealing with the North Korean issue. The Yalu River is by no means a tender river.