In the early negotiations, the United States was absent-minded
After a year of fierce fighting in the Korean War, the United Nations army led by the United States suffered heavy losses, and the Chinese and North Korean armies also paid a considerable price, in order to reduce the casualties caused by the war, Chairman Mao presided over the central committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting in June 1951, decided to adopt the principle of "talking while fighting, and striving to solve the problem through negotiations", while at the same time, the United Nations army also planned to negotiate an armistice with the Chinese and North Korean sides.
Pictured: Volunteers entering North Korea to fight
In this regard, the Sino-DPRK coalition forces proposed that the 38 degrees north latitude be the boundary, and both sides should withdraw from the cross-border area, with our army retreating on the western front and the US army retreating on the eastern front, and the east and west being straightened up first and restored to the pre-war state.
However, the United States is obviously not sincere about the negotiations, they only talk about the Western Front, that is, the withdrawal strategy of our army, and they do not mention anything about their own withdrawal strategy on the Eastern Front, and their attitude is: The Chinese and DPRK coalition forces withdrew from the 38th Line, and before they crossed the 38th Line on the Eastern Front and crossed the area occupied by the 38th Line, the US military would not retreat. This unreasonable proposal was immediately rejected by our representative.
The two sides were at loggerheads over the withdrawal of troops, and at this moment, Harrison, the negotiator of the United Nations Army, directly announced that the armistice negotiations would be adjourned indefinitely! Let the cannons and machine guns debate! Negotiations between the two sides have broken down and fighting will begin again.
However, the performance of the US military on the battlefield was obviously not as tough as they were at the negotiating table, and their army was torn apart by the Sino-North Korean coalition forces, and many of the attacks launched were ineffective, and they paid huge casualties. As a last resort, the two sides began to negotiate an armistice.
Pictured: The U.S. military is absent-minded in negotiations
However, there are still great differences between the two sides in this negotiation, and the performance of the US representatives on the issues that arose at the meeting was silence, and some interesting things happened for this reason.
At the meeting, because of the large differences between the two sides, the meeting had to come to a standstill, at this time, neither side had anything to say, so they began to smoke, and when the American representative finished smoking, he reached out and took our cigarettes, and at the end of the meeting, he took the remaining cigarettes of our personnel. Such a scene is probably also a special landscape in the history of negotiations.
In addition, during the meeting, US representative Harrison adopted a strategy of "adjourning the meeting upon arrival" to obstruct the normal progress of the negotiations. Once, at the beginning of the meeting, Harrison walked slowly to his place with his document bag, and as soon as he sat down, he proposed to "propose to adjourn the meeting", and when he finished, he got up and left the venue, and the whole process took only twenty-five seconds! As a result, Harrison also set a world record for the shortest meeting time in an international conference.
In addition to adjourning the meeting, the US side has also appeared many times
"Escape"
situation. From June to July 1952, in just one month, the US side actually committed four tax evasions. Due to the unreasonable teasing of the US side, the negotiations between the two sides have once again fallen to the brink of collapse.
Chart: Progress on both sides has been slow
In order to speed up the efficiency of the negotiations, during the stagnation of the negotiations, our support forces launched several counterattacks in the whole county, achieved great victories, the American troops were gradually defeated, in order to stop the advance of the volunteer army, they finally agreed to an armistice and negotiated with our side again.
The two sides reached agreement on the demarcation line, and more importantly, the arrangement of prisoners was at stake.
In fact, the issue of the treatment of prisoners of war is not as complicated as everyone thinks, because such issues are supported by international law and international practice. Concluded with the participation of the United States
Geneva Conventions
The stipulation that after the end of the war, both sides will release and repatriate all prisoners of war without delay, which is fully applicable to the Korean battlefield. Therefore, the DPRK and China put forward the principle of the rapid repatriation of all prisoners of war, but the United States did not intend to do so, and they had already made their own small calculations on the issue of prisoners of war.
On the issue of prisoners of war, the United States played a careful role
At the beginning of the negotiations on the prisoner of war issue, the United States made unilateral changes to the prisoner of war information, according to the list of uniformed personnel provided by the United States, the Korean People's Army captured 111774 people, the volunteer army captured 20,700 people, a total of 132474 people, and this figure is a full 44,205 fewer than the United States had reported that the Geneva Red Cross was captured, and the list information is also very imperfect, in this list. The US side did not indicate any positions and ranks that could be identified by everyone, so it could not be checked.
Pictured: Volunteers in a prisoner-of-war camp
In addition, the US military also tried to detain a large number of volunteers and send them to Taiwan, in this regard, the US side said that although this does not conform to the provisions of the Geneva Convention, it can vilify China's politics, which is obviously beneficial. Therefore, as soon as the negotiations on the prisoner of war issue began, the United States refused to repatriate all prisoners of war in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, and put forward the so-called "reciprocal repatriation", and even the absurd principle of "one-to-one" exchange and "voluntary repatriation".
In fact, in the Korean War, when the Chinese and DPRK armies fought against the United Nations Army, both sides captured a lot of prisoners of war of the other side, and in the face of these prisoners of war, our army has always treated these prisoners of war with a policy of preferential treatment for prisoners, and even many prisoners of war of the United Nations army did not want to return home after the war after receiving favors from our army. But unaffiliated the Korean People's Army and volunteer prisoners of war were less polite.
As early as the beginning, the US military launched a bloody "screening campaign" against the captured fighters of China and the DPRK, and they installed a large number of Kuomintang agents in the prisoner-of-war camps to incite and oppress the soldiers of our volunteer army, and forced the volunteer soldiers to tattoo various reactionary slogans and patterns on their bodies, so that they could not accept repatriation.
Pictured: UN forces torturing and killing prisoners of war
What is even more cruel is that the US side still uses threats, temptations, and even uses bayonets and torture devices to force prisoners of war to express their unwillingness to accept repatriation, and many prisoners of war who are unwilling to endure insults and abuses have been shot and killed by the US military, and for those fighters who have a strong willingness to repatriate, the US military has brutally killed them by means of "digging their hearts" and other methods. In order to get out of the desperate situation, the volunteers who had laid down their arms waged a heroic struggle against these inhumane american prisoner-of-war administrations, the most moving of which was the earlier geoje island prisoner of war camp incident.
The mistreatment of prisoners of war, the cruel tactics of the U.S. military
As early as May 23, 1951, before the start of the armistice negotiations, in this period of the Korean battlefield, the fifth battle is coming to an end, in a battle, the 180th Division of the 60th Army of the 3rd Corps of the Volunteer Army was cut off by the US army, the US army used tanks and artillery to launch a fierce attack on the Volunteer Army, after holding out for a few days, the soldiers of the 180th Division were already exhausted, they organized the troops to break through many times, but in the process of the breakthrough, they were blocked by the US artillery machine guns, and suffered heavy casualties. The attacks launched were also repulsed again and again. In the end, most of the soldiers of the 180th Division were captured by the enemy, and the division commander Zheng Qigui led the remnants of the troops to successfully break through, while the political commissar Wu Chengde led the remaining soldiers into dashan to carry out a year-long guerrilla war. In the end, due to being betrayed by traitors, Wu Chengde was captured by the American army.
Photo: Prisoner-of-war camp on Geoje Island
After the Fifth Campaign, about 20,000 of our volunteers were captured by the Un Army, and the U.S. Army organized these more than 20,000 Volunteer soldiers into three formations of 68, 70, and 72 and held them in the Geoje Island prisoner-of-war camp in southern Korea. Each formation is headed by special agents, and the purpose of these agents is to force the volunteer soldiers to make an unwilling attitude of repatriation by all means, and the US army wants to send these fighters to Taiwan and to Chiang Kai-shek to oppose our army.
This is also the main reason why the US military is reluctant to release all prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war negotiations.
In April 1952, volunteer prisoners of war vigorously protested against the illegal acts of the U.S. military. The U.S. prisoner-of-war administration was furious when they received this news, and they divided the volunteer army into two parts, "willing to return to the mainland" and "willing to go to Taiwan," and this division was mandatory, and they did not ask the attitude of the volunteer prisoners of war before the division.
Pictured: The volunteers were humiliated by the U.S. army
After being detained separately, the US military adopted a "differentiated treatment" approach to these two groups of prisoners of war; for those prisoners of war who "wanted to go to Taiwan," the US military would send them big fish and meat every day and provide them with a very comfortable living environment; for the prisoners of war who were "willing to return to the mainland," they would be persecuted by the US military every day, and they would be shocked, dissected, cut and even buried alive by the US military.
The volunteer prisoners of war were obviously not intimidated by these cruel methods, and many of them, in order to preserve the dignity of the motherland and the glory of the nation, would rather sacrifice themselves than fight these brutal spies to the death. In the camp, two prisoners of war of Formation 72 publicly called for their return to the mainland and gave inspiring speeches to the other comrades in the formation. The two warriors were Lin Xuekui, who graduated from college and joined the army, and Yang Wenhua, who came from the 22nd stage of the Whampoa Military Academy. Unfortunately, their speech was also heard by agents stationed in the camp, who reported the situation to their leaders, Wang Shunqing, the captain of The 72nd Formation.
Photo: Lin Xuekui
Subsequently, the two prisoners of war were brutally killed by the U.S. military and agents. On the night of April 7, 1952 alone, ninety-nine volunteer soldiers were brutally killed by the U.S. military in the Geoje Island prisoner-of-war camp, and more than 300 were cut flesh and electrocuted by the U.S. army. More than four hundred people were beaten and maimed by U.S. forces, and thousands were severely beaten.
In addition, the U.S. military also used grenades, gas bombs and other weapons to kill volunteer prisoners of war, and the camp became a sea of red in an instant, and many prisoners of war fell in pools of blood, but until this time, they still firmly shouted:
"Screening is not accepted! Resolutely return to the motherland! ”
Yang Changjun, who was blind at the time, also lay on the bunk and shouted
"Against the U.S. Military Massacre!" ”
The brutal atrocities of the US military did not shake the will of our volunteers, but made us more united.
Unite to expose the atrocities committed by the US military
Since then, the PRISONERs have also gradually realized that their silence and compromise will only contribute to the brutality of the American army. So they began to unite for a series of covert operations.
Photo: Francis. Dode
On May 6, 1952, the 76th Formation korean People's Army prisoners of war, in coordination with the volunteer prisoners of war, proposed to the gendarmes who managed the camp that frances. Dooder came to talk to him and demanded that if the U.S. military did not agree, all the prisoners of war here would go on a hunger strike in protest. At this point, the gendarme apparently did not take the prisoners' demands to heart, and he said impatiently to the prisoners: "I will report the situation to General Dood, but I do not think he will come to see you." ”
On 7 May, the prisoners of war of the 76th Wing began a hunger strike, and Dude saw this and rode in an armored vehicle to the camp of the 76th Wing prisoner of war camp, accompanied by several guards, each with a submachine gun in his hand, ready to attack.
When Dodd arrived, the prisoners refused to negotiate because in this tense atmosphere, negotiations would not be fruitful. So Dodd waved impatiently, and the guards lowered their submachine guns and retreated far behind.
Subsequently, the prisoners of war complained about the fact that the US army tortured and killed the prisoners of war, and forced the prisoners of war to be "screened", and Dodd did not care at all about the prisoners' remarks, he was very impatient to argue, and completely denied the cruel atrocities of the agents.
Pictured: Geoje Island was a sensation around the world
Dodd's actions shattered the desire of the volunteer prisoners of war to solve a peaceful problem. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, when the defenders were not prepared, more than a dozen Korean troops rushed out and arrested Dodd into the prisoner-of-war camp, and then the prisoners of war wrote in English a slogan seven meters long and two meters wide:
We have captured Brigadier General Dood, and we absolutely guarantee his safety, and when we have had proper negotiations with him, we will safely send him to you, and you will be fully responsible for the adverse consequences of serious armed action.
This news alarmed the entire Korean Peninsula and caused a great sensation in the world. After negotiations, Dooder promised to take the representatives elected from each camp to the 76 Wing camp for final negotiations.
After the US military high-level learned of this matter, they quickly mobilized troops to surround Geoje Island, and at this time, in order to support the prisoners of war detained on Geoje Island, we read out the protest draft on the negotiating table and published it, at this time the US military also wanted to use force to solve the matter, but with the release of the protest book, more and more people knew about the atrocities of the US military, and Dude also had no choice but to sign a statement acknowledging the atrocities committed by the US military against prisoners of war.
Although the struggle ended in victory, 14,000 volunteer prisoners of war in the camp were brought to Taiwan by the U.S. military, and these prisoners of war were tattooed with reactionary slogans. In the end, only more than 6,000 volunteer prisoners of war returned to the mainland, and the heroic performance of the prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camp was affirmed by everyone, and at the same time, the confidence of the volunteer officers and men in fighting was also encouraged, and the ugly face of the United States was made public, and they were the heroes of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea!