A Forgotten War Remembered: the Korean Conflict
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A Forgotten War Remembered: The Korean Conflict Interviewer: Phil Marnell Interviewee: James S. Hecker 2/09/2004 Table of Contents Statement of Purpose Biography Historical Contextualization Interview Transcription Interview Analysis Works Consulted Statement of Purpose The purpose of this history project is to research the Korean War and preserve an oral first-hand recollection of a soldier who fought in it. The Korean War represents the first full scale confrontation between the Western Democracies and Communists during the Cold War. When Communist North Korea invaded the Republic of South Korea in 1950, the country proved a testing ground for Truman’s containment policy and the first battleground for a United Nations’ peace keeping force. By the time of the armistice in 1953 the United States suffered 50,000 casualties, and the dividing line between North and South Korea remained identical to that of 1950 when the conflict began. Jim Hecker participated in this conflict as a Lieutenant in the 7th Marines. His interview provides military tactics, policies, and viewpoints concerning the war from a former participant. Table of Contents Jim Hecker - A Brief Biography Jim Hecker was born in Landonsville, New Jersey on August 1, 1926. He was raised by his father Frank, an industrial engineer, and mother Linda, an Italian immigrant. He received a Catholic school education and graduated from Sacred Heart High School at age fifteen. After attending Drexel college for a year, he was accepted to the Naval Program at Drew University, and continued his training at the University of Pennsylvania and Quantico Virginia. He graduated in 1946 as a second Lieutenant and then served in Peping, China, guarding airfields and coal trains from Communist armies. When American forces were overrun in the last offensive of the Chinese Nationalist he was sent to Guam. He then returned to the states and married Linda Hecker. From August to December of 1951, he served as a Colonel in the 7th Marines during the Korean War, fighting the Chinese along the 38th parallel. He was evacuated to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital after a grenade injury. After being discharged from the hospital Mr. Hecker held numerous jobs in the states, including screening recruits for officer’s commissions in South Carolina, recruiting duty in Buffalo, sea duty aboard a carrier in Lake Champlain, and serving as an operations officer in Hawaii. He served as an infantry officer in Vietnam for thirteen months from 1967-68. Mr. Hecker received a Purple Heart, Brown Star and three Crosses of Gallantry during his years of military service, among other honorariums. Jim and Linda Hecker now reside in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. They have two children, Nancy and Richard. Mr. Hecker is currently the Chairman of the Board of Health in Jefferson County, a member of the American Legion and the Moose Organization, and a frequent blood donor to the Red Cross. Table of Contents That Other War After World War II Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union made several territorial gains in Eastern Europe, including eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, and much of present day Maldova. Another Soviet claim made in 1945 was northern Korea. After declaring war on Japan in the aftermath of the second atomic bomb, the Soviets pushed on to Manchuria and Korea, attempting to seize as much territory as possible. These conquests brought anxiety to United States officials. The U.S. Ambassador of the U.S.S.R. sent a telegram to President Roosevelt in 1945, stating, “We now have ample proof that the Soviet government views all matters from the standpoint of their own selfish interests… the Soviet program is the establishment of totalitarianism, ending personal liberty and democracy as we know it” (qtd. in Uschan 20). Fearing another Communist takeover, American forces were infused into southern Korea in a hasty response. On August 11, Colonels Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel were given half an hour to draw a dividing line between the two superpowers, and they decided on the 38th parallel. This line split the nation in half and granted the U.S. rights to the capital, Seoul. By the end of 1945, the Korean occupation began to resemble divided Germany, with “…neither side prepared to withdraw for fear that the other might not” (Gaddis 70). By the late 1940’s, the Soviet campaign for influence in the west was losing steam, due to the establishment of NATO, the achievements of the Marshall Plan, and the success of the Berlin Airlift. By the time Communist Mao Zedong overthrew China in 1949, Stalin’s ambition had taken a permanent turn towards Asia. In 1949 the U.S. had withdrawn troops from Korea, and when Secretary of State Acheson gave a speech in 1950 declaring Korea out of the U.S. defensive perimeter, Stalin’s generally cautious position had “shifted radically” (Gaddis 73). Confident in the U.S.’s disinterest in the nation, Stalin gave the green light to his North Korean puppet Kim Il Sung to mobilize forces to the 38th parallel. Nonetheless he warned Kim not to “expect great assistance and support from the Soviet Union” (Gaddis 74). Afraid that the U.S. would infer the attack as Soviet aggression, Stalin made the invasion void of Soviet manpower and supplied Kim with only war plans and supplies. Sung, a man “the Soviet Union could trust- and control” (Goulden 35), had long held personal ambitions to reunify his country, as did Syngman Rhee, the South Korean premier. Rhee and Kim, both pawns in a Cold War chess match and determined to control the future of their country, were bound to clash. On June 25, 1950, the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) crossed the 38th Parallel. This came to the shock of the United States who felt a shooting war would only develop in Europe (Uschan 39). Only a fraction of ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers were stationed, and their positions were quickly overrun. The NKPA would seize the entire peninsula unless the U.S. provided assistance. Instead of asking Congress to send troops, President Truman first pressed his case to the United Nations. He called upon “all members of the United Nations to render every assistance… in the execution of this resolution”. Truman received 9-0 approval and promise of military aid, making the Korean War the first time an international organization took concrete steps to challenge hostility (Ambrose 116). The U.S. would eventually receive support from 18 other nations, fourteen of which contributed combat forces (Blair X). The idea of collective security held great appeal in the U.S. The New York Times on July 3rd described the UN resolution as “a welcome and impressive display of international solidarity”, and that our combined efforts would “demonstrate that the military support… is a UN action taken solely in defense of the principles of the charter, and not for any selfish gain”. The war would be waged under the UN, although the U.S. provided more than half the manpower and a vast majority of materiel (Uschan 40). After receiving UN sanction Truman ordered naval and air support to Korea. He believed his bombers and destroyers alone would send the NKPA reeling, but they hardly slowed the advance. When ROK forces fell back to their final defensive perimeter around the southeast city of Pusan, Truman ordered that American troops be sent from Japan. Within a week of the attack the U.S. had committed land, air, and naval forces. The significance of the U.S. response should not be overlooked. Historian T.R. Fehrenbach writes, “…when America committed its ground troops into Korea, the American people committed their entire prestige, and put the failure or success of their foreign policy on the line” (5). Why did the U.S. react so strongly and swiftly to one of many Communist outbreaks in a country that few officials felt strategically important? Historians’ opinions differ on the matter. David E. Ambrose believes the U.S. quick response was political. He argues that Truman and the Democrats, already under fire for allowing China to turn red, were desperate to “prove to the McCarthyites that they could stand up to the Communists in Asia as well as in Europe” (116). Korea merely provided justification for a conflict Democrats had been itching for. Historian John Gaddis suggests that the swift American response was purely out of deep concern for worldwide security. He writes that the U.S. “feared a collapse of psychological self-confidence among allies” if Korea were to be taken over, and mentions Truman’s “personal commitment to the United Nations and to the principle of collective security” (75). Whatever the reason, Truman declared to his cabinet on June 24 that, “we’ve got to stop (them) no matter what” (Uschan 39). The first land unit sent to Korea was named Task Force Smith. Only several hundred strong, their job was to delay the NKPA advance and wait for further reinforcements. The young, inexperienced and poorly equipped Smith unit was routed, with nothing to fight off Soviet armor. Lt. General Walker, in coordination with General MacArthur, decided to retreat to the southeast Pusan defensive perimeter, rejoin the ROK, and heavily fortify the position. The American brigades shamefully left behind their wounded while fleeing for their lives (44). The Pusan Perimeter proved an ideal defense, with an ocean to the south and east, the Naktong river to its west and mountain ranges to its north. Throughout August and September of that year North Korean attacks were unyielding. In the Battle of the Naktong Bulge, the NKPA attempted to cross the river three times. Through the efforts of the ROK and further U.S.