On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out, and under the onslaught of the People's Army, Syngman Rhee was defeated and lost Seoul. In order to protect the interests of the United States, Truman decided to intervene, and from July 1, the troops of the 24th Infantry Division of the US Eighth Army stationed in Japan entered Korea one after another, and the troops of the 25th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division also landed at Busan and Putong and entered the ground battle. Since then, the United States has taken advantage of the fact that the Soviet union representatives cannot exercise the veto power in the absence of the Soviet Union, and passed a resolution in the Security Council to allow the armies of the United States, Britain, and other countries to fight in Korea in the name of the "United Nations Army."
At that time, the "United Nations Army" included the armies of 16 countries, of which the United States sent the most troops, a total of 180,000 people, and gradually increased its troops in the later period, reaching 380,000 by the time the armistice agreement was signed. The British sent 2 brigades with more than 14,000 men to rank 2nd, and the country with the fewest troops was Luxembourg, sending only one platoon of 50 men to fight. So who served as commander of the United Nations Army during the three-year Korean War? What was their end?
First Commander-in-Chief MacArthur: MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, where his father served as a three-star lieutenant general in the U.S. Army. In 1899, at the age of 19, MacArthur was admitted to The West Point Military Academy, and graduated four years later with a score of 98.43, which also set a record for the graduation score of the West Point Military Academy, which has not been broken. After that, MacArthur participated in World War I and World War II successively, and was famous for his "frog jumping tactics", becoming the general who received the most medals in the US Army, Navy and Air Force, and was promoted to five-star general of the Army for his military merits.
When MacArthur first became commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army," he faced an extremely severe situation, when the U.S. military had been compressed in the Busan Triangle and threatened to be driven out of the sea by the Korean People's Army to feed the fish. In order to reverse the defeat, MacArthur tried his best to defy the crowd and implemented the extremely risky Inchon landing, but unexpectedly succeeded in one fell swoop and completely turned the tide of the war, and the Inchon landing won MacArthur a great reputation and became a god-like presence in the US army. But it was also the last glory of his entire military career, and after that, in the course of fighting the volunteers, he rarely won, and the "United Nations Army" was driven back from the Yalu River to the vicinity of the 38th Line.
On April 11, 1951, Truman removed MacArthur from office on the pretext of "failing to fully support U.S. and United Nations policies." After MacArthur returned home, he was treated heroically by the Americans, and his farewell speech to Congress, "Veterans Never Die", made many people cry. In recognition of his exploits, the U.S. Congress also made an exception to create a gold special medal of honor for him. MacArthur died of gallstones on April 5, 1964, at the age of 84.
Second Commander-in-Chief Ridgway: Born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, Ridgway also graduated from West Point and was a disciple of MacArthur. After MacArthur did not remove himself, Ridgway, then commander of the Eighth Army, became the second commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army", and his greatest contribution during his tenure was to discover the shortcomings of the volunteer logistics, that is, the "Seven-Day Offensive", and on this basis, he caused a lot of trouble for the volunteer army. In May 1952, Ridgway succeeded Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Ridgway died at home in July 1993 at the age of 98.
Third Commander-in-Chief Clark: Clark and Ridgway were contemporaneous alumni of West Point, serving as commander of the U.S. Fifth Army during World War II and excelling in amphibious warfare. After Clark became the last commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army", the biggest military operation launched was the Battle of Shangganling, which lasted for 43 days, the US-ROK coalition paid more than 25,000 casualties but achieved nothing, and the volunteer army used this battle to fight military and national prestige. Clark signed the armistice on behalf of the United Nations Army on July 27, 1953, and retired three months later.
In his recollection of the Korean War, he said: "The Korean War for me was the end of 40 years of military service. This is the highest position I have ever experienced in my military career, but this is a position without glory. In carrying out the government's directives, I received an unenviable honor: I became the first commander of the United States Army in history to sign an armistice without victory. Clark died in 1984 at the age of 71.