As China increases military tension worldwide, an Ole Seagull’s New Year’s Resolution for 2025 is the “Remember the Lesson of Chosin Reservoir.”
Seagull, why remember one battle from a “Forgotten War?” “How anyone can ‘forget,’ let alone not honor, any conflict where there were over 36,500 U.S casualties during the three-plus years of the conflict? Over 4,380 of those casualties came during just 16 days of the first six months of that conflict, at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir November 27, 1950, to December 13, 1950.”
Saying that the “war” would be over by Christmas and vastly underestimating what China would do, General Douglass McArthur separated UN Forces, including the 1st Marine Division, and ordered them to advance over the 38th Parallel into North Korea and proceed with haste, to the Yalu River bordering China.
On November 27, 1950, 30,000 UN troops, most from the U. S. Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division and all under the command of U.S. Marine General O.P. Smith, found out just how wrong McArthur was as China’s entry into the conflict encircled them with over 120,000 troops at the Chosin Reservoir. The breakout and withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir to the port of Hungnam, covering a distance of approximately 70 to 80 miles under some of the harshest winter conditions imaginable and constant attacks by the Chinese forces, was almost miraculous.
While some use the word “retreat” to describe the Battle of Chosin, then Marine Colonel Chesty Puller said,” “We’ve been looking for the enemy for some time now. We’ve finally found him. We’re surrounded. That simplifies things.” General Smith said, “Retreat, hell! We’re just attacking in a different direction.”
“But Seagull, where’s the lesson there? The withdrawal and the way it was done is the type of things that military strategists have admired for years.” That’s true and appropriate, but that’s not the lesson.
When we withdrew back across the 38th parallel, for whatever reason, we never went back above it. The mightiest Nation on earth with air and weapon superiority never seen in combat before was brought to a standstill by China and the political fears and considerations of the day. To this day, there is only an “armistice,” and there is still a state of war between North and South Korea.
“That’s all and well, Seagull, but what’s the lesson of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir?” “It’s really pretty simple: don’t underestimate China, economically, politically, or militarily. If they could do what they did as a result of Chosin, with only a tiny fraction of the economic and military power they now have, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to imagine what could happen now.
Comments