In 1949, the founding of New China marked the Chinese people standing up from then on, and thus drew an end to that humiliating history. Nevertheless, in the eyes of the world, the newly established new China is still the weak and small country that is backward and allowed to be slaughtered. However, on the Korean battlefield a year later, the performance of the new China shocked the whole world.
New China's defeat of the powerful Western coalition forces with rudimentary equipment seemed inconceivable to all countries. Countries are shocked and unwilling to admit that China has become strong. But the truth is there, and the ancient and mysterious lion of China has woken up.
At that time, north Korean leader Kim Il Sung and South Korean leader Syngman Rhee both wanted to unify Korea, but there was no room for two tigers on the mountain, and the two sides naturally had contradictions, and war finally broke out in 1950. Since then, all countries have joined the war, making what was originally a simple internal war gradually turn into a complex international war, and China was forced to join the Korean War.
Why was China forced to join?
First of all, we must start from China's national conditions at that time. In modern history, China has suffered a century-long invasion by Western powers, and has since experienced the War of Resistance Against Japan and the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, which is undoubtedly a heavy blow to China. Even if new China was founded, it was still in urgent need of development, and war should be avoided for China, but the Korean War was a battle that China had to fight for the following reasons:
First, in the process of attacking Korea, the war spread to the Chinese border, and at the same time, the US military repeatedly invaded China's territorial airspace in spite of China's warnings, which seriously endangered China's territorial sovereignty, and the provocations of the US side are really difficult to tolerate;
Second, the geographical location of North Korea is very important to China, North Korea borders northeast China, once the US military captures North Korea, it will be a great threat to China, and China cannot ignore North Korea, which is also a socialist camp;
Third, new China was founded not long ago, and it was still looked down upon by the world's major powers, so China urgently needed an opportunity to prove its strength, and the Korean War became the best opportunity at hand.
After comprehensive consideration, the CPC Central Committee made a great policy decision to defend the homeland and resist US aggression and aid Korea. In June 1950, Chairman Mao made a speech calling on the people of the whole country and the whole world to unite to defeat any provocation of US imperialism, thus setting off a heat wave of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea throughout the country. In October 1950, China formed the People's Volunteer Army, commanded by Peng Dehuai, to cross the Yalu River in support of Korea.
When the media of various countries learned that China decided to participate in the war, they all laughed, because in their eyes, China's military equipment at that time was quite backward, while the military equipment of the United States was ahead of the world, and all kinds of high-precision weapons were complete, and China and the United States had no chance of winning.
However, they ignored the Chinese army's tenacious will to fight and the firm determination to defend the country to the death, and China's participation in the war somewhat surprised the United States, but surprise turned to surprise, but the United States still did not pay any attention to China, believing that China's participation in the war could not change the situation, but the arrogant United States suffered a big loss.
The weapons of the volunteer soldiers who entered the Korean war were only rifles, and each army was temporarily equipped with about 100 material transport vehicles. In contrast, the United States, which has both the army, the air force, and the navy, has put about 1,200 combat aircraft into the Korean battlefield, more than 300 ships of various kinds, more than 1,000 tanks, more than 330 armored vehicles, and more than 3,800 other vehicles. In military equipment, China and the United States are incomparable, and Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai is well aware of the gap between the two sides, so he has worked tactics.
There seems to be a certain misunderstanding among the countries of the world about China's victory in the Korean War, they only know that China won the victory by relying on simple man-sea tactics, but what they did not know was that a series of tactics used by the volunteer army were the key to victory, and the volunteer army skillfully adopted a series of tactics such as interspersed tactics, pocket tactics, and night tactics, giving full play to its own advantages, learning from each other's strong points, and fighting the US military gradually.
MacArthur, the first commander of the UN army before the war, boasted that he wanted to unify the Korean Peninsula, but after many defeats, MacArthur was removed from the position of commander, and Ridgway was the new commander.
After taking office, Ridgway re-examined China, no longer lightly attacked the enemy, and adopted magnetic tactics to engage the People's Volunteer Army, which saved the situation a little, but he still did not fully see The strength of China. The volunteer army responded to changes and skillfully used tactics to engage the US First Marine Division, which is known as the world's strongest army, at the icy Chosin Lake, and finally won the victory and laid the foundation for Changjin Lake; in the Battle of Shangganling, it successfully resisted the US 7th Division, which has the title of "sharp knife division" and "drip collector division", and successfully defended Shangganling. I believe that the US military can hardly forget these two big defeats, and victory after victory tells the world that China is no better than the past, and we have become stronger.
Ridgway commented on Peng Dehuai, commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, saying that Peng Dehuai was a very brave warrior with both wisdom and courage, and that he led a group of civilized warriors.
After Ridgway retired from the army, he also said that on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he was very impressed by the resolute and tenacious spiritual quality of the Chinese Volunteer Army. Therefore, he frankly said that China's combat effectiveness ranks third in the world, and in front of the three countries of the United States, the Soviet Union and China, the combat effectiveness of other countries is not comparable at all, and it is not worth mentioning.
The Korean War lasted for three years, and in 1953, China and the DPRK signed an armistice agreement with the United Nations led by the United States, which brought an end to the world-renowned war and also marked China's victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
As soon as the news of China's victory came out, it caused a sensation around the world, and countries began to focus again on this ancient civilization. The American media chose to remain silent about this war, as if it had nothing to do with itself, but only reported some of the results of the war in the corners of the major newspapers, in an attempt to brush the war over, and the American people knew very little about the specific circumstances of the war. In fact, this is not difficult to understand, after all, as a defeated party, no one wants to expose their own ugly things. In order to save a little face, the United States even claimed to be the victorious side internally, which is really ridiculous, and the facts are still clear to them.
Compared with the United States' pretense, Japan is more incomprehensible. More than a decade ago, how could China, which was invaded by itself, achieve victory? Not to mention that the opponent was the American army led by MacArthur. During World War II, Japan saw with its own eyes how powerful the United States was, and the two atomic bombs of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were Japan's eternal pain.
After World War II, Japan as one of the defeated countries, the people's lives suffered a heavy blow, and MacArthur at that time from the United States transferred a lot of materials and US dollars to Japan, to solve the problem of Japan's livelihood, so he was also worshipped by the Japanese people as the Emperor Taishang, and now their Emperor Taishang lost to China, and Japan is a strong nation, which made them realize that they had to look at China again.
Britain, which had opened the door to China with opium, was also depressed, and Britain suffered heavy losses in the Korean War, and several of its ace armies were easily defeated by the volunteers. Britain used to look at China with disdain, but today's China is impressing. It has to be said that the British can face the facts and have the courage to recognize the strength of China. British General Fare Hollik once commented on the Chinese Volunteer Army, saying: "The German infantry is stronger than its Soviet and American counterparts, but it is still far behind the Chinese infantry." ”
Back to the side of the socialist camp, as the big brother of the socialist camp, the Soviet Union was not optimistic about China at first, but after seeing China's victory, the Soviet Union was shocked and also realized that China has great potential for development, the Soviet Union believes that China is worth cultivating, and then began to export a large number of technology and equipment to China, and China and the Soviet Union ushered in a "honeymoon period".
With the help of the Soviet Union, China's industry began to develop rapidly. It can be said that the victory in the Korean War has won China decades of development opportunities, and until now, China's GDP ranks second in the world.
Although the reactions of the world are different, there is no doubt that China is no longer the backward and beaten country.
Now that 71 years have passed since the Korean War, China is developing at a high speed with a new look, and we should also remember the past, remember the history, and march forward.