Since the end of World War II, no local war has exceeded the scale and intensity of the Korean War.
On July 27, 1953, the Korean War, which lasted three years and one month, came to an end. Counting from the entry of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army into the DPRK, it was the victory of the Two-Year-Old and Nine-Month War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea that ended, and the military demarcation line between North and South Korea returned to the pre-war state, which also meant that the two camps of the East and the West were evenly matched in the Far East.
However, for the United States, this is a "disgraceful" battle, and when it comes to the sky, it is also the US military, which has absolute superiority in weapons and equipment, to be driven back to the origin of the front.
The 3 commanders-in-chief of the "United Nations Army", first MacArthur planted a heel, late and late; the successor, Ridgway, was very tough in the armistice negotiations, shouting "let the aircraft and artillery discuss it", the result was that the artillery fire was "discussed" for two years, the US military did not take advantage, and finally Clark was forced to request an armistice, and the old face was a bit hanging.
Volunteers
The mood of the Americans can be summed up in the title of a book by its native writer, Bevin Alexander, "The Korean War – Our First Defeat." For years, many Americans have been obsessed with the Korean War. Fighting is about steel, cement, and human life. Throughout the Korean War, the number of casualties of the US military has always been controversial.
Let's look at what the United States itself has to say. The most widely circulated version of this aspect is the figure from the "Korean War Veterans Memorial" in Washington, D.C., which says that the U.S. military died 54,246 people, captured 7,140 people, wounded 103284, and missed 8,177 people, for a total of about 172,000.
The Washington Monument was erected in 1995, but not by official U.S. acts, but by authorization from the U.S. Congress and funded through the U.S. War Memorial Commission, a non-governmental organization. Later, U.S. officials claimed based on monumental data that only 33,600 U.S. troops were killed in North Korea, and the other 17,600 was the sum of the number of U.S. military deaths around the world during the Korean War, with a total of 142,000 U.S. casualties in North Korea.
The problem is that during the Korean War, the US military did not fight in other regions, and the direct involvement in the Vietnam War was in the 60s, so according to the official US version, the young American soldiers died nearly 18,000 people in non-combat in 3 years, an average of 6,000 deaths a year.
Such a ridiculous official explanation, there are still many people who believe unconditionally, "Believe it or not, I believe it anyway." "It's a matter of the brain, we can't control it. But compared with the contents of the monument in Washington and the relevant data released by the United States, there are even greater loopholes
A monument to the United States
In October 1953, the Associated Press announced that the total number of U.S. and South Korean casualties was 1.47 million (excluding other "United Nations forces"). Then combined with the official data of the United States, minus the 142,000 CASUALTIES of the US army, the casualties of the South Korean army are nearly 1.33 million, which makes South Korea feel bad. South Korean officials claim that its troops lost 988,000 (of which about 228,000 were killed). According to the official accounts of the United States and South Korea, the total losses of the two militaries are 1.13 million.
Here comes the problem again. The U.S. memorial says the "United Nations Forces" (including South Korean troops) lost about 628,000 people, captured 93,000, missed 470,000, and wounded 1.06 million (each of which is accurate to single digits), for a total of about 2.25 million. Then, subtracting the official casualty figures announced by the United States and South Korea, the number of casualties (excluding captured) of the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Turkey and other allied forces of the United States reached 1.027 million.
However, the total number of troops sent to Korea by those dozen countries is less than 50,000, and with the replenishment of soldiers in the war, it will not exceed 100,000, and the total number of announced casualties is less than 30,000.
Later, the Americans explained that the total casualty figure on the monument of 2.25 million was inaccurate because some of the soldiers involved in the war were injured more than twice. Even so, the number of wounded should not be too different, because the ratio of soldiers' deaths and injuries on the battlefield is 1:2 to 1:3, with 628,000 deaths and 1.06 million wounded, less than 1:2.
Leaving aside the question of the number of injured. As long as it is not seriously injured, it is not unusual to return to the battlefield after recovering from injury, but a person can only die once, and the death toll counted by the monument is 628,000, minus the official figures released by the United States and South Korea, and the remaining 366,000 deaths are apportioned to the heads of American allies such as Britain and France.
U.S. troops in the Korean War
When the US military fought in Korea, in the spirit of cooperation of "dead friends do not die poor", they often let the allied troops serve as cannon fodder in the front, and the allies complained. But the total number of allied troops is so small, even if the whole army is destroyed 10 times, it will not reach the number of monuments.
Compared with the United States, the statistics on our side are much more "generous", not only do not exaggerate the results, but even less than the figures disclosed by the other side. According to the "History of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea", from the outbreak of the war in June 1950 to the end of the war in July 1953, the Chinese and North Korean troops killed, wounded and captured 1.093 million enemy troops (see page 461 of the third volume of the book).
That's 377,000 less than the Associated Press's 1.47 million, not to mention how much it differs from the number at the U.S. monument.
Regarding the losses of U.S. troops, the "History of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" recorded a figure of 397,000, more than double the official U.S. account.
In the Korean War, the US military accounted for more than 90% of the "United Nations Army", invested millions of troops before and after, and maintained hundreds of thousands of people all year round. According to the "U.S. Army in the Korean War", the U.S. military in Korea had a maximum strength of 580,000 troops, of which more than 400,000 were ground troops. Therefore, the United States is most suspicious of concealing its true casualty number.
As early as September 1953, Peng Dehuai made a "Report on the Work of the Chinese People's Volunteers to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea", which also mentioned that "from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953, when the armistice lasted, the Korean and Chinese people's troops killed, wounded and captured more than 1.09 million enemy troops, including more than 390,000 US troops."
In addition, in December 1954, General Chen Geng also said in a speech at the Harbin Military Industry University, "More than 300,000 people died in the United States [in the Korean War], but they themselves lied that it was only half of this number." "Here General Chen Geng compares the data of the American monument, that is, the U.S. casualties of 172,000.
General Chen Geng
Our army has always been very strict in counting the results of the battle, such as the number of enemies killed, usually only counting the visible enemy corpses, artillery and other weapons caused by long-range casualties, if obtained through intelligence reconnaissance, the statistics are very cautious. It should be said that the casualty data of the US military in Korea, our war history archives and the statements of General Peng and General Chen Geng are the closest to the historical truth. And there are relevant information from the United States to support this aspect.
Most Korean War archives and related books in the United States either use the terms of monuments or official U.S. figures, but there are exceptions. The famous American scholar and veteran war correspondent Y. Furstone is an anti-war person who wrote "The Inside Story of the Korean War", because the book refuted the lies of the US government and the military, after its publication in the 1950s, it was banned by the US government for a long time, and it was not lifted until the 70s.
On page 318 of The Inside Story of the Korean War, it is written that in July 1951, when the armistice negotiations began, "75,000 American troops were killed, and six months later, the number of American casualties exceeded 100,000", noting that it was written here that the death toll was lost, not injured.
"6 months later" refers to January 1952, when the number of American casualties had exceeded 100,000, and the war was still 1 and a half years away, during which the fighting was still very fierce, the United States launched many large-scale offensives, and the volunteers also counterattacked tit-for-tat.
In his book, I. Furstone writes that from 1952 onwards, "for every month that peace talks were postponed on average, the United States paid the price of 4,600 casualties — the price the United States demanded to continue fighting" (see Inside the Korean War, p. 318). When I. Fur stone's book was published, the Korean War had not yet been fought, so there was no mention of the total number of American casualties in the book.
South Korean soldiers in the Korean War
Speaking of which, we can conclude that the number of casualties in the Korean War officially announced by the United States has shrunk significantly, and the results announced by the Chinese and Dprk sides should prevail. However, some of the casualties concealed by the United States are South Korean soldiers in the US military.
In the Korean War, the United States was overstretched and recruited many South Korean soldiers, which are recorded in the Archives of the United States. For example, the U.S. 7th Infantry Division, which strengthened its strength before the Battle of Shangganling, totaled about 21,800 people, including more than 1,800 South Korean soldiers, as well as some Colombians and Ethiopians.
These people are real American soldiers, wearing American military uniforms, all American equipment, and enjoying the treatment of the Us military. However, when the US military counts combat casualties, it counts other foreign soldiers, but does not count the casualties of South Korean AMERICAN troops, which is in line with the attitude of the United States to despise The South Koreans. The South Korean soldiers who died became the souls of the nameless and nameless war.
However, the number of Korean War casualties concealed by the United States is not all South Korean soldiers in the US military, because the death standards of the US military are too harsh, and many native American soldiers who died in the Korean battlefield cannot meet the death standards.
It is said that a fire in 1973 burned many Korean War archives in the United States, and for americans, the casualty data of the Korean War has long been a confused account, and even they themselves are not clear.
References: History of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Inside the Korean War, etc