S3: Given the protracted conclusion of the war, who would you consider its winners in 1953? How about 2017?

While there was no peace officially declared, the armistice has served as a de facto state of peace for the past 50 years. The status quo is established and has been maintained by two diametrically opposed forces that have more to gain from…[Read more]

S2: Dr. Sygnman Rhee pushed for complete unification by requesting: CCF must withdrawal; nK Communists must disarm; Soviet and Chinese assistance must stop, under UN guarantee; ROK participation in settlement; no settlement conflicting with ROK sovereignty. Essentially complete surrender. If Dr. Rhee had his conditions for peace approved, what UN…[Read more]

ABLE: What is your response to the steadfastness of MacArthur’s insistence on the Inchon landing? How does it change, had the mission gone otherwise?

MacArthur made a gamble and it paid off. Had the operation gone poorly his stubborness would have been seen by later generations as the foolhardy insistings of an old man, luckily for him it worked…[Read more]

HAMMER: In that chapter Proud Legions the Doolittle board and their effect on the Army’s ability to create disciplined units able to fight. Officers and NCOs were ‘stripped’ of their power. How are we still feeling the effects of those changes? What tools do we have now to overcome this? Are they effective? Later on in that chapter he states “…[Read more]

• Alpha: Respond to the author’s commentary on “defending the frontier,” if you still think it is a valid perspective, and relate that to the nation’s last two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The notion of “defending the frontier” is one that has permeated the American psyche since its inception. Manifest destiny and the resulting policy decisions l…[Read more]

HAMMER: As UN forces marched north, there was evidence of the Chinese joining the conflict. Despite the evidence, General MacArthur and his staff believed “the Chinese would not dare intervene” They assessed that they lacked the Military capability to bring significant forces into the conflict and even if that was possible the US air superiority…[Read more]

S4: How did the enemy exploit sustainment weaknesses to contribute to the US withdrawal to the Pusan Perimeter?
The enemy exploited shortcomings in recognized materiel solutions to problem sets identified during WWII, e.g. tanks and anti-tank weapons, then outpaced the ROK and American efforts to reinforce key points with troops, weapons, and all…[Read more]