Let Us Fight as Free Men: Black Soldiers and Civil Rights

6. A Country They Never Knew

C h a p t e r 6 A Country They Never Knew Korea was at ‘‘its modern nadir’’1 when a new war began in the Far East country at the end of June 1950. Rural and scarred by an economic depression , war, and Japanese repression, Korea remained poverty-ridden and its people mostly illiterate. Its economy was deeply grounded in laborintensive rice agriculture and technological advances remained scarce. In Korea, American soldiers faced an uninviting topography and climate. Often scorching hot and humid in the summer and freezing cold in winter, the rugged mountains and valleys drained soldiers and civilians alike. The dirt roads made advances difficult and slow. Against this background, feelings of senselessness and frustration ran high. Most Americans did not know much, if anything, about the country or the conflict. As one soldier put it: ‘‘I am here because the goddam president of the United States would put me in jail if I didn’t report for duty.’’ Yet the question remained, ‘‘What the hell am I doing here?’’2 On Japan’s surrender in August 1945, which ended forty years of Japanese occupation,3 the Soviet Union and the United States agreed on forming a trusteeship and arbitrarily divided the small country along the 38th parallel. Three years later, the Republic of Korea under American purview and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea under Soviet purview were founded in the South and North respectively. The situation had been tense in the Asian peninsula since the Second World War ended, as often violent altercations flared up between the country’s divided parts. It reached a breaking point, however, when North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and quickly invaded their Southern neighbor on June 25, 1950. The invasion of South Korea startled the United States and left it concerned about the possibility of a third world war. Most Americans suspected that A Country They Never Knew 131 the Soviet Union stood behind this invasion, a link that made the threat of another world war even more likely.4 Before the attack on South Korea, the United States had drastically reduced military presence and weapons support for the peninsula. Earlier warnings notwithstanding, the invasion was surprising, as most Americans had expected West Germany to be next on the list of Russia’s conquests. Korea, according to chief of staff of the army Omar Bradley, ‘‘had no appeal’’ and ‘‘would certainly be bypassed’’ in the event of military operations in Asia.5 Although the small country in the Far East bordered Russia in the North and China in the West, it initially held no special position in the growing U.S. global plan to contain Communism. Neither South Korea nor the American troops stationed there were prepared for the major military blow with which the well-equipped and well-trained North Koreans hit them.6 Washington looked for support in its mission to halt the dreaded spread of Communism. It gathered its allies under the UN flag, closely cooperating with countries that intended to keep their colonial possessions and uphold racial oppression.7 Although the powers in Washington did not believe direct Russian interference in the war was imminent, they believed that the Soviet Union was responsible for the North Korean invasion.8 Truman and his advisors were convinced of and propagated a monolithic view that a communist movement originating in Moscow was prepared to take over the world. In a radio and television speech on July 19, 1950, Truman declared: ‘‘The attack has made it clear, beyond all doubt, that the international Communist movement is willing to use armed invasion to conquer independent nations. An act of aggression such as this creates a very real danger to the security of all free nations.’’9 For Washington, North Korea’s attack completed Stalin’s intentions and was the beginning of worldwide Soviet aggression. Therefore, the hostilities became a war of international dimensions with unpredictable repercussions for the Western world. With an atomic threat looming, the spread of war to the West and even to the United States was, in the eyes of many contemporaries, very likely, if the North Koreans and Soviets could not be contained in Korea. Consequently , the United States entered the Korean conflict without officially declaring war.10 Initially, the general American press and public supported the U.S. involvement in a war Truman diminutively called, throughout its threeyear course, a ‘‘police action.’’ Americans agreed it was indispensable for...