Few people may have imagined that Syngman Rhee, who often called for democracy during his decades of exile, would become a single husband who only talked about force and not democracy once he held great power.
Since taking over the authority of South Korea, Syngman Rhee has pursued a policy of repression. On May 18, 1949, the South Korean government began arresting parliamentarians advocating peaceful reunification. On June 26, Kim Joo, who advocated the peaceful reunification of the North and the South and refused to run for the Southern National Assembly, was assassinated at Kyobashi by Army Lieutenant Ahn Doo-hee.
Kim Joo was a politician who fought all his life for South Korea's independence, and his assassination was not only his personal misfortune, but also the tragedy of the entire Korean nation. This conspiracy incident coldly shows that people who advocate North-South dialogue and independent and peaceful reunification are not tolerated by extremist forces, and all that remains is the killing of ethnic gangs who believe in the recklessness of force.
Sure enough, a year after Kim-joo fell, the Korean War broke out.
For a long time, there has been a long-standing debate in the international community. Who started the Korean War? In other words, who fired the first shots of the Korean War?
After the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States south Korea and most Western governments accused North Korea of launching a military offensive with the support of the Soviet Union and China, while the Soviet Union, China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which were also in the socialist camp, issued statements condemning the war between the United States and South Korea.
On the question of the origins of the Korean War, the democratic people's republic of Korea's view has remained unchanged, insisting that the United States and South Korea provoked the war.
In an editorial in the People's Daily on June 27, 1950, China said that "the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been forced to fight back because of a massive military offensive by Syngman Rhee's puppet army." A full-scale civil war in North Korea began. ”
In recent years, Chinese scholars have paid more attention to the deeper causes of the outbreak of the Korean War. At present, most scholars believe that the Korean War began with a civil war, it is a complex problem arising in a complex situation, and from the internal point of view, it is the inevitable result of the accumulation and intensification of contradictions between the north and the south; externally, the root cause of the war lies in the policy of dividing the spheres of influence between the United States and the Soviet Union and the Cold War confrontation, and it is the DPRK that has been artificially divided into two. It should be said that without the division of North Korea, there would be no Korean War, and without a Cold War confrontation, North Korea would not have been able to split.
Of course, even today, there are still scholars who insist that the Syngman Rhee regime in South Korea provoked war in order to prevent its own collapse. There is a wealth of information that can also support this view.
In March 1948, people in jeju island in southern Korea staged an armed uprising against the tyrannical suppression of the police and the right-wing group Northwest YMCA. The rebels, with a guerrilla force of 3,000 to 4,000 men, waged an armed struggle across the island and, by June, had taken control of the island's large and small villages. Wave after wave, wave after wave.
In October of the same year, soldiers from the 1st and 6th Companies of the 14th Regiment of the Rokka Army mutinied and refused to go to Jeju Island to suppress the islanders' uprising. The mutiny forces occupied the cities of Lishui and Suncheon at the southern tip of the peninsula, announced the restoration of the Yeosu People's Committee, severely punished the arrogant policemen, officials, landlords, and right-wing elements, and demanded that the United States withdraw its troops and achieve reunification between the north and the south.
The Yeosu military riot caused panic in Syngman Rhee's government. The U.S. Military Advisory Corps directly commanded the South Korean army and did everything in its power to suppress it. In the fierce fighting, the government army suffered 404 casualties and 3681 prisoners of the rebel forces. More than a thousand of the breakouts entered the mountains to rendezvous with the local guerrillas.
From November 1948 onwards, guerrilla warfare spread to Gangneung, Samcheok, Jinju, Gwangju, and Suncheon. By the beginning of 1949, the total number of guerrillas reached more than 10,000, and the U.S. and South Korean military departments believed that the Communist Party of the North commanded the guerrillas in the south, and as a response, they also sent guerrillas to infiltrate the areas around Shaliyuan, Haeju, Gaocheng, and Pole City in the north to carry out activities, and from time to time there was an ominous sound of gunfire in the area around the 38th Line. It can be said that from the march 1948 uprising of the people of Jeju Island to the eve of the outbreak of the Korean War, the armed conflict in the south and the surrounding area of the 38th Line has not stopped.
The military campaign by both the North and the South to suppress the guerrillas of the other quickly escalated into a clash between the regular armies, making the situation more sinister. In May 1949, the South Korean Defence Forces launched an attack in the Kaesong area. The North Korean People's Army counterattacked. The battle lasted for four consecutive days, killing more than 40 people on both sides.
In June of the same year, the two armies fought fiercely on the Ongjin Peninsula. In August, military clashes broke out again on Ongjinpyeong Island, where the North Korean People's Army defeated the South Korean Defence Force and expelled it from the area north of the 38th Parallel. In the same month, South Korean Navy patrol boats sank four more Northern ships in the waters near Mongumpura, and the military conflict expanded from land to sea. According to figures released by the North, from January ---- September 1949, South Korean troops crossed the 38th Parallel 430 times and violated North Korean airspace 71 times. Territorial waters 42 times.
Beginning in 1949, strikes and demonstrations in South Korea continued unruly until they developed into local armed insurrections, and the troops sent to suppress them often mutinied and joined the ranks of the insurgents.
In order to divert domestic contradictions, the Syngman Rhee regime continued to raise the banner of the "Northern Expedition," and South Korean Defense Minister Jung-sun-mo gave a speech in Incheon on July 17, in which he said: "Our army is not waiting for the orders of our president." Just give him an order. We will occupy Pyongyang and Wonsan in one day."
Syngman Rhee himself said: "To end the division between the North and the South, we must solve it by war" and "I firmly believe that we can occupy Pyongyang in three days." On September 2, the United Nations, in its report on the failure to mediate the Conflict between North and South Korea, said: "Intermittent fighting is already taking place along the 38th Parallel and on a large scale. ”
On September 30, Syngman Rhee wrote to the American Robert Oliver: "I am convinced that the psychological time has come for military action, and you must influence the leaders and opinion of the United States to secretly endorse our initial combat operations, and then give us the necessary military assistance." On October 21, Syngman Rhee publicly announced on a U.S. warship: "Our troops are ready to drive straight into North Korea at any time." And claimed to achieve the reunification of the North and the South in 1950.
In May 1950, Syngman Rhee suffered a crushing defeat in an election, and if he wanted to step down, he could only beg to put the country into a state of war. This is as analyzed by the American scholar Herschel Meyer: "In May 1950, Syngman Rhee's fascist regime had reached the point of collapse and disintegration. It suffered a crushing defeat in the May elections. Despite its use of terror and deprivation of democratic parties and labor groups, it received less than 20 per cent of the total vote. It won only 45 of the 210 seats in Parliament. ”
Thus, "like all bankrupt panicked oligarchic regimes, it places its last hope of survival in war". On June 11, Syngman Rhee even publicly announced that South Korean troops were preparing to deal a devastating blow to the Communists in the north.
The above analysis shows that if conditions permit, Li Chengliang did not hesitate to choose war.
There is another factor about the cause of the Korean War that has long been overlooked, and that is the role of the Kuomintang clique that retreated from the defeat of the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan. Recently, Shi Yuanhua conducted research on this issue on the basis of consulting the relevant archival historical materials in Taiwan, which provided us with some useful clues.
In July 1949, Shao Yulin went to South Korea to become the "Ambassador to Korea" of the Kuomintang regime in Taiwan. Before going to South Korea, he went to Xikou, Zhejiang Province, to ask Chiang Kai-shek, who had left the field, for instructions on relevant matters. According to Shao Yulin's recollection, during the conversation he and Chiang Kai-shek reached a consensus on the following issues: If the Chinese Communists attack Taiwan first, Taiwan will be unimaginable and South Korea will suffer; if the Chinese Communists attack South Korea first, the United States will not sit idly by and not save it, South Korea can be saved, and Taiwan may turn the crisis into safety.
To this end, they are pinning their hopes on the mistakes made by the Chinese Communists (that is, attacking South Korea first); second, they are striving to build an anti-communist alliance in the Far East of Taiwan, south Korea, and the Philippines; and third, they are "using extraordinary means" and cooperating with the use of tactics in order to ensure that the situation will develop in a direction favorable to Taiwan. This is what A calls "extraordinary means". That is, the use of some secret means, including agents.
Instigating a war conflict between North and South Korea. In this regard, Shao Yulin recalled: "At that time, the situation of China and South Korea was extremely dangerous. In the objective situation, the Korean War will break out sooner or later, but the Korean War will break out sooner or later. As far as we are concerned, the sooner the better, as far as South Korea is concerned, it is always appropriate to think that the US troops stationed in South Korea have not yet withdrawn. ”
In August of the same year, Chiang Kai-shek visited South Korea as president of the Kuomintang. During the Zhenhai talks, Chiang Kai-shek and Syngman Rhee held secret consultations on the situation in the Far East and the issue of joint anti-communism, and issued a joint statement on the establishment of the Pacific Pact Alliance, saying: "The countries of the Pacific, especially the countries of the Far East. Today's crisis due to the threat of communism is more serious than any other part of the world" "If Asia sinks, the world will be free" calls for the establishment of an Asian anti-communist alliance with China, South Korea, the Philippines and other countries as the core.
He urged Philippine President Tirino to convene a preparatory meeting in Baguio in the shortest possible time to "formulate various measures for the alliance", and then Shao Yulin was ordered to consult with the highest authorities of South Korea on military cooperation.
On December 20, Shao Yulin submitted a report to Chiang Kai-shek: "President Syngman Rhee, fearing an attack by North Korea, urgently needs to strengthen his air force and weapons and ammunition, so he asks me" and proposes to exchange arms for red ginseng. The purpose of using a naval and air base for China's use is to "stimulate the United States to increase aid to South Korea." This move is obviously in line with Chiang Kai-shek's original intention.
Because the use of arms to aid South Korea can not only use the islands of South Korea as naval and air supply bases for the Kuomintang army, expand the blockade of China's north China, but also make it a "bridgehead for the war against the Soviet Union and the war against the northeast"; at the same time, through this move, the United States can be "stimulated" to change its "passive" Far East policy.
On March 2, 1950, Shao Yulin submitted to Chiang Kai-shek a "Report and Matters Concerning Requests for Instructions," and under the title of "My World Strategy," he wrote the following paragraph: "Under the negative policy of the US government and the Democratic Party towards the Far East in the situation in North and South Korea, especially the negative policy of the US government and the Democratic Party towards the Far East, should I try to instigate a conflict between North and South Korea, causing tension in the North Pacific to promote a change in US policy and even the drastic changes in US-Soviet relations as a whole?"
He also said that these opinions were secretly discussed with "Chief Executive Officer" Yan Xishan and "Chief of the General Staff of the Ministry of National Defense" Gu Zhutong, and were endorsed by both of them. Half a month later, Shao called Chiang Kai-shek again and clearly stated that "the supreme policy should be to try to secretly instigate a conflict between North and South Korea, promote tension in the situation, and change US policy in order to advance the entire transformation of US-Soviet relations." ”
In April 1950, the situation in Korea was already tense. At this time, Wu Tiecheng, an elder of the Kuomintang, Wu Tiecheng, the official head of China's aid to South Korea during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and Zhu Shiming, head of Taiwan's military delegation to Japan, paid an informal visit to South Korea. There has been a lot of discussion in international public opinion, with some saying: "General Wu and Zhu's visit to the ROK bears a major military mission, and General Wu's task is to make Sino-ROK military cooperation and further specific discussions and establish a secret anti-communist military alliance in accordance with the principles of the agreement at the highest level of the Sino-ROK Zhenhai Conference."
Others said: "China and the ROK have secretly concluded a military mutual assistance agreement, and the ROK government has allowed the Chinese side to lease Jeju Island as an air base for bombing North China, Northeast China, and even Russia's Coastal Province."
In this regard, Shao Yulin speculated: "News rumors spread all over the country, whether this has caused shi mo (referring to Stalin) and Mao bandits (referring to Mao Zedong), who rely entirely on intelligence and external telegraphs, to attack Korea in advance because of their wrong judgments." It is highly doubtful whether this rumor was misrepresented by a foreign news agency or deliberately spread by the Taiwan authorities. ”
The above information seems to show that among some important leading members of the Taiwan authorities, there is a proposition that is, to instigate the North-South Korean conflict and stimulate the United States to intervene in the military, so that Taiwan can reap the benefits of fishermen. Of course, it seems presumptuous to assert that the Taiwan authorities participated in provoking the Korean War on the basis of these scattered sources alone, and it can be proved from some of the more direct information that many scholars have used so far that the outbreak of the Korean War was sudden and an unexpected change for Chiang Kai-shek.
In any case, there is no doubt that the Korean War has a very complex international context. In his article, Shi Yuanhua also analyzed: "The outbreak of the Korean War has its own background in both the North and the South and its international community, and if the DPRK side does not start first, it may not be able to avoid the occurrence of war."