The popular broadcast of the movie "Chosin Lake" has once again given the Chinese people a more profound perception and feeling of the historical plot of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, especially the huge gap between the military forces of the two sides in the movie in terms of numbers, weapons and equipment, air superiority, logistics and supplies, etc., which has allowed our descendants to see the responsibility and responsibility of the predecessors when they braved difficulties and swore to die to defend their homeland.
But you know what? Just when the Korean War was in full swing and our army began to gain full superiority, then US President Harry S. Truman, in order to reverse the situation, publicly stated at a press conference: "If the Chinese volunteers cross the 38th Line, the United States may consider using an atomic bomb against China, after all, this is a new type of weapon." Since the invention and militarization of the atomic bomb, it has only fought in the two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on the eve of Japan's surrender in World War II, but it still made Japan completely yield and defeat, and let the world see the absolute destructive power and superiority of the atomic bomb in future wars.
It is obvious that Truman is engaged in naked "nuclear deterrence", but in the face of this nuclear deterrence, how did China, which did not have an atomic bomb at that time, respond? Chairman Mao said that "the atomic bomb is a paper tiger", which looks terrible, but in fact it is not terrible, of course, the atomic bomb is a weapon of mass murder, but it is the people who decide the victory or defeat of the war, not one or two new weapons. If you don't look at this response from a political perspective, many people may find it incredible, after all, we did not have an atomic bomb at that time, and the huge destructive power of the atomic bomb would indeed destroy millions of square kilometers of land and buildings.
Why did Chairman Mao call the atomic bomb, a new type of weapon with super destructive power, a "paper tiger"? It is true that the lethality of the atomic bomb is very strong, but for the United States, if it really wants to use the atomic bomb on the Korean battlefield, there is no need to notify the other side in advance, and notifying the other side in advance is obviously to engage in "nuclear deterrence", and Chairman Mao saw Truman's mind at a glance, so he called it a paper tiger, which means that the atomic bomb seems to be mighty and afraid, but it does not work at all in the Korean battlefield.
In fact, Chairman Mao dared to call the atomic bomb a paper tiger, and in addition to seeing at a glance that Truman would not really use the atomic bomb on the Korean battlefield, there was a more important reason that as early as before entering the Korean war, the troops carried out some ideological and operational unification in order to prevent the United States from using the atomic bomb on the Korean battlefield:
For example, in terms of ideological unification, the understanding of the use of atomic bombs by the United States in the Korean battlefield was conveyed in advance, saying that in World War II, the United States used atomic bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, and it is not excluded that the use of atomic bombs in Korea will not be ruled out, but the difference is that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are plain areas, the terrain is very flat, and the cities are lined up, densely populated, and the masses of the people are completely in a calm state without any defense, so the destructive power of the AMERICAN atomic bomb will be so great. However, the Korean battlefield is not the same as the mountainous terrain, which will use the terrain advantage to greatly weaken the lethality of the atomic bomb, and we will always be in a state of combat readiness, with strong underground fortifications on the ground, transportation trenches, and underground bunkers, so even if the United States uses atomic bombs in the Korean battlefield, it will not form much lethality to us.
Secondly, after the volunteer army entered the Korean War, everywhere they went, they used the local terrain and mountain ranges to build bunker fortifications, and all the underground bunkers were connected to the caves, but they could be closed independently, and the passages and passages were also various twists and turns, using the terrain to weaken the lethality, and the outer layer of the bunker would also be covered with a reinforced protective isolation layer including soil, rocks, etc., and the cave was equipped with sufficient living resources such as water and food. It can be said that at that time, in the Korean War, volunteer soldiers had already built an underground Great Wall that could defend against atomic bombs, and each construction fortification would receive direct on-site guidance from leading cadres at the division level during the construction process.
Coupled with the terrain limitations of North Korea, in terms of tactics, it is all the use of melee tactics, if the United States really used atomic bombs in the Korean War, or it will be completely evacuated in advance, which will certainly be known to our army in advance, if there is no evacuation and direct use of atomic bombs, the US military itself will not be able to escape, and Truman will step down.
On the other hand, Truman intended to use this to form a nuclear deterrent against China, but what he did not expect was that Chairman Mao had thoroughly analyzed his conspiracy and trickery, and also described the atomic bomb as a paper tiger, and could only sigh: underestimating Mao Zedong's courage, so in July 1953, the US military was forced to sign the Korean Armistice Agreement, and the Korean War was finally won.