Let’s remember that on this day in 1950, units of the 1st
Marine Division, the 7th Army Infantry Division, and the 3rd Infantry Division, along
with units of the Korean Capital and 3rd divisions were fighting their way out
of a trap sprung in temperatures of -30 degrees Fahrenheit near the Chosin
Reservoir in North Korea. They were just below the Yalu River, the border
between North Korea and Manchuria (China).
Despite significant warnings of a
Communist Chinese buildup and infiltration, two American megalomaniacs, Douglas
MacArthur and Edward Almond ordered the troops there for reasons of
self-aggrandizement. (Almond wanted to urinate in the Yalu as Patton had done
at the Rhine. MacArthur was in Tokyo publicizing an American victory for which
he would take credit.)
Americans back home were recovering from their Thanksgiving feasts. American soldiers were watching their comrades die.
The troops had traveled north on tortuous, frozen, paths
through mountainous territory with inadequate communications. It would be the closest the world was to World War Three until the Cuban Missile Crisis.
An old friend of mine was an artillery officer (Redleg) in
the battle. He wrote of American sentries who, if they stood watch without a
fire, would freeze to death during the night. Those who built fires would die
from enemy fire.
The discipline and honor of the individual troops and units
resulted in the successful evacuation of thousands of allied troops, albeit
with high casualties and bitter memories. During the retreat, they had to go back
by the same narrow roads, with enemy troops stationed in the high ground above
them. In our warm homes, we can’t imagine the carnage.
Let’s think. Do we want another megalomaniac, this one a
non-serving draft-dodger, to decide the standards of discipline and honor for
our brave men and women in uniform? Can’t we see what unbridled hubris can do
to us? As for me, I’ll abide by the honor of those who fought at the Frozen
Chosin. Facts matter.
Sources:
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War: David
Halberstam
On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the
Korean War's Greatest Battle: Hampton Sides
American Heritage:
Winter of the Yalu: James H. Dill
