Seventy years ago, the smoke of the Korean War has dissipated, but today's Chinese still remember the heroes who died for it, and americans remember their wretchedness and defeat on the Korean Peninsula.
As we all know, the Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice between the two sides of the war, and since it was a negotiated truce, it shows that the two sides are fighting each other without distinction, but such a stalemate was a humiliating defeat for the United States, which was the world's largest in comprehensive strength and military strength at that time, so the Americans still dare not despise China.
However, although today's Chinese people are still commemorating and remembering the martyrs of the Volunteer Army, in fact there are many controversies that run through the war, fortunately, under the leadership of Chairman Mao, who has far-sighted vision, it is precisely under his insistence that this great victory has been achieved.
The beginning of the Korean War
The korean peninsula in history was not divided into north and south as it is today, and at that time, the Dprk and South Korea as we know it today were not two different countries or peoples, they belonged to the same unified single nation-state - Korea. Speaking of the division and civil war of this unified nation-state, we have to mention the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union after the end of World War II.
After the victory in World War II in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union, two former partners of the anti-fascist alliance, quickly withdrew from their state of cooperation and began to divide their spheres of influence.
And because of the fundamental ideological confrontation between the two sides, the post-war United States and the Soviet Union regarded each other as their number one enemy, especially the Western camp led by the United States was extremely hostile to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.
It was against this backdrop that the Korean Peninsula was divided, with the U.S. and Soviet armies occupying the north and south sides separately on the 38th Parallel, and governing the two areas separately according to their own systems and models.
The Soviet army carried out democratic reforms in the north, with the North Korean People's Committee as a temporary body; After landing in the south, the U.S. military disbanded all Korean autonomous organizations and firmly controlled power in their own hands.
The division of the country makes it difficult for the industrial products of the north and the agricultural products of the south to circulate, which has brought great difficulties to the economic recovery and people's livelihood of the north and the south, while the United States and the Soviet Union have difficulty in reaching cooperation for their own interests, and even the two sides are unwilling to give in.
In September 1947, the United States unilaterally submitted the Korean issue to the United Nations, however, the United Nations has always been under the control of the United States, the Soviets of course refused to buy it, so under the protests of the Soviet Union, the United States took the lead in holding a separate election in South Korea, and on August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea was established with Syngman Rhee as president.
Not to be outdone, the Soviet Union soon established the Democratic Republic of Korea, headed by Kim Il Sung, on September 9 of the same year. At this point, the Korean Peninsula was completely divided, and both the North and the South claimed to be legitimate regimes and wanted to unify each other into their own territory, which led to sharp confrontation between the two sides.
Shortly after the founding of the North and the South, the U.S. and Soviet troops withdrew, leaving a time bomb on the land. Relations between the two sides continued to deteriorate, often erupting around the 38th Parallel, with about 2,600 armed clashes occurring between the two sides in just over a year before the war, and finally in June 1950, North Korea took the lead in waging war with the approval of the Soviet Union.
China sent troops to North Korea
North Korea preemptively attacked, the South Korean side was caught off guard, beaten to the point of defeat, and on the third day of the outbreak of the war, the capital of South Korea, Seoul, was lost, and the central government could only shrink in a corner of the southern tip of the peninsula.
The Americans could not bear to see north Korea on the verge of a nationwide victory, for once Korea was reunified, the Western countries would lose an important anti-communist bridgehead in Asia.
In September 1950, MacArthur led the US Tenth Army to land at Inchon and raided the Korean army from the rear, and the entire war situation was reversed, and the American troops entered the northern part of the Korean Peninsula on a large scale.
Although the war took place on the Korean Peninsula, it has created a security threat to China. As early as the beginning of the Korean War, the United States had sent the Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent the Liberation Army from liberating Taiwan.
When the US military crossed the 38th Line, it was very close to the border of the mainland territory, and without the barrier of the mountains on the Korean Peninsula, the Americans could easily step on the open plains of the mainland, and then China's heavy industrial base in the three provinces of the east was exposed to the muzzle of the Americans.
Even though the Chinese side has repeatedly warned that as long as the United States crosses the 38th Line, China will send troops to the war. However, the United States did not take China's warning to heart in the slightest, and in the eyes of the Western countries, they could unscrupulously plunder other countries with their superior scientific and technological and military strength, and now this socialist China has naturally become the object of their hostility.
After analyzing the international situation, Mao Zedong proposed that we should send troops into Korea to participate in the war. But in fact, this idea caused many people to worry in China at that time, because the object of the war was the world's top power, and at that time, China was not only poor and weak, but also experienced many years of war, and the whole country was eager for peace.
However, Mao Zedong shouted out the slogan: "Fight with one punch, lest a hundred punches come," and analyzed that the enemy was a laborer's expedition to invade other countries, while our fighters were going to defend their homes and defend the country, justice is here, our morale is far higher than the enemy's, and our will is far stronger than the enemy.
Therefore, with chairman Mao's persistence and encouragement, in October 1950, the Chinese Volunteer Army rushed to the Korean battlefield.
The significance of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
With regard to the entire course of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, as well as the difficulties of the battle and the greatness of the volunteer army in the process, there have been too many literary and artistic works that have been reflected, and these literary and artistic works have also been welcomed and praised by the people.
In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which lasted nearly three years, the number of volunteers sacrificed for this purpose was as high as 180,000, which shows that China has paid a huge price for this. Although the sacrifices were great, the impact of this war on China and even the world was more far-reaching and significant.
The victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea not only safeguarded peace in Asia and even the world, but also consolidated the newborn Chinese regime; after resisting the aggression and expansion of the United States, China's international status and prestige rose rapidly, which not only won a relatively stable development environment for China, but also laid a solid foundation for China's return to the United Nations and its entry into the "five permanents."
In addition, after the baptism of war Chinese people's liberation army has also withstood the test of modern warfare, and then quickly grown into a regular army that can adapt to modern warfare.
The victory of such a war has enhanced national self-confidence, allowing Chinese to see their own strength, even if we are still backward, but we are no longer the weak country that can be easily defeated; This victory also allowed the people of the world to see the power of Chinese, letting them know that China has returned to the world stage and is a big country that cannot be ignored.
At present, the Western countries, led by the United States, still adopt a hostile attitude toward China in many aspects, but the war of seventy years ago reminds them all the time of the strength and determination of the Chinese, so that even if they provoke China in many matters, they still dare not really break out into a substantive conflict with China.
In this sense, this war not only won a temporary victory for China, but also won peace for us today.
Peace and development should be the rights that every country and its people should have, but there are always some countries that want to occupy and deprive other countries of their rights and interests for their own interests, the United States once regarded the world as its own pocket, and the defeat of the Korean War finally taught him to treat China cautiously.