The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea has eloquently proved that the era of Western aggressors who could occupy a country for hundreds of years as long as they erected a few cannons on a coast in the East is gone forever. This is Marshal Peng Dehuai's report on the work of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, and General Peng summed it up incisively.
As we all know, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea came soon after the victory of the War of Liberation. After the end of World War II, the Korean Peninsula was divided into two sides, controlled by the Soviet Union in the north and the United States in the south, and the two sides supported each other in their spheres of influence.
Reasons for the outbreak of the Korean War
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, mainland leaders visited the Soviet Union and signed a Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance with Stalin, which abolished the old treaty signed by the Nationalist Government against the Soviet Union. In the New Testament, the Soviet Union returned sovereignty over Northeast China, and the ice-free port of Arthur also belonged to China, and as a condition, Stalin demanded that if other socialist countries were attacked, the mainland would be obliged to send troops to help. It is worth mentioning that the main reason why the Soviet Union was able to give up China's sovereignty and ports in Northeast China was the pressure from the United States, because the United States at that time was interested in winning over the mainland, which gave Stalin a certain sense of crisis.
The Soviet Union originally wanted to maintain a peaceful posture between North and South Korea, and repeatedly responded to North Korean Kim's request for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula in order not to get involved in the war. However, after the return of Port Arthur to the mainland, Stalin changed his original mind about North Korea, and he no longer wanted North Korea to maintain peaceful coexistence, but instructed North Korea to reunify the Korean Peninsula, and provided weapons, ammunition, and tactical support.
With the support of the Soviet Union, North Korea's military forces marched forward and quickly occupied large areas of South Korea and were on the verge of completing the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. At this time, the United States, seeing that its interests were damaged, dispatched the so-called "United Nations" troops, landed at Incheon, and began to advance northwards in a big way.
Not only that, the US military has burned the flames of war to China's northeastern border and bombed China's northeastern border areas, seriously threatening the security of the people on the mainland. At the request of the Soviet Union and North Korea, our army still understood the truth of death for its own interests, and made up its mind to send troops to Korea, and China's campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea began.
What did the Soviet Union do in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea?
The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea lasted for two years and nine months, and the total number of troops sent by our volunteers was as high as 2.9 million, and in the cruel war, the number of combat losses of our volunteers was also very large, as many as 366,000, which can be described as a bloody battle. Because the weapons and equipment of the US-led coalition army are much better than those of our volunteers and the Korean People's Army, especially the air force, the US military has an overwhelming advantage, and this is one of the reasons for the heavy casualties of our volunteers.
After more than two years of war, the cost of 366,000 attrition was a great victory. Our army successfully pushed the battle line to the 38th parallel, forcing the "United Nations" forces led by the US military to sign a peace treaty, with the 38th parallel as the boundary, continuing to divide North and South Korea, and we called the north North Korea and the south South Korea.
It is worth noting that when our army and the US army were engaged in a head-on battle to resist US aggression and aid Korea, what did the Soviet Union, the initiator of the war, do in the campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea? In fact, when our army was backward in equipment and weapons, the Soviet Union became the greatest backing of our volunteers.
Although the Soviet Union did not directly send its army to fight in the Korean War, its deterrent power was not small. Because the Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance with the mainland, the US military did not dare to push the flames of war into China, including MacArthur, Van Vliet and others' demands to take action against China, including the threat of atomic bombs, which were rejected by the US high-level. The United States is more worried, if the war is burned to China, the Soviet Union will have an excuse to send troops, including the limited effect of the atomic bomb on solid chemical industry, the Soviet Union will respond accordingly, or the Soviet Union will interfere with the US occupation of Japan.
In addition, the Soviet Union was of great help to our volunteers in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. In terms of weapons, our Volunteer Army received a large number of advanced weapons aided by the Soviet Union, including aircraft equipped by the Volunteer Army, various artillery pieces equipped by the Volunteer Army, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, trucks, tanks, etc., and the Soviet side provided strong support.
As everyone knows, in our army's campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea, our volunteers were very inferior in the air force, and the rear was often attacked by enemy air raids, which not only caused serious casualties to our army, but also undermined our army's logistics and transportation risks, and left our army's front-line officers and men without enough food and clothing, and put our army in an extremely difficult situation in the campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
In order to improve the logistics of our army and strengthen the strike capability of our air force, the Soviet Union also gave a large amount of assistance to the air force. Beginning in 1951, in order to cover the railway transportation supply line on the Cheongchon River in North Korea, the Soviet Union sent planes to provide cover. On the battlefield, in order to assist in the air defense of the mainland, the Soviet Union successively dispatched 11 fighter aircraft and aviation divisions to ensure the safety of the mainland's air defense.
To be realistic, although the volunteers are brave and good at fighting and are not afraid of sacrifice or bloodshed, without the military assistance of the Soviet side, it would be difficult for our volunteers to form an effective firepower strike group, and they would not be able to annihilate the enemy army on a large scale and effectively, nor would they have a powerful firepower attack. Relying on the ability of our volunteers, the final victor of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was our volunteers, but without the support of Soviet firepower, the casualties of our volunteers would probably increase a lot.
Long before the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the United States united with many countries to impose a blockade and embargo on the mainland in an attempt to isolate the newly established China. In order to help the mainland increase its industrial capacity, the Soviet Union gave a lot of engineering aid.
The most typical is that the Soviet Union assisted the mainland in 156 projects, these projects are of great value, for China that has just come out of the Hundred Years War, it is undoubtedly a send-off, such as military industry, electric power, metallurgy, petrochemical and other heavy industries, the Soviet Union at that time gave aid to the mainland, so that a new China that is waiting to be rebuilt as soon as possible towards industrial development.
summary
The Soviet Union's overall contribution to the help of our volunteers to resist US aggression and aid Korea is still very large, perhaps beyond the imagination of some people. Many people may know that the Soviet Union provided a few guns, a few shells, and did not get it in such detail. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and weapons are not given away for free, and they have come at a price. In terms of industrial construction, the Soviet Union's aid to the mainland was also paid, but it did not require much, similar to "low interest", but for the situation that New China had just been founded, the burden was also relatively large.