A contribution to the Friends of Korea committee seminar held at the NCP Centre in July to commemorate the victory of the Korean people over US imperialism and its lackeys.
by Dermot Hudson
July 27th 1953 was the day when the US imperialists finally admitted they could not militarily defeat the DPRK and signed the Korean Armistice Agreement which actually contained a clause stipulating the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the Korean peninsula. But the US reneged on this later.
Mark Clark the commander of US forces in the war wrote “in carrying out the instructions of my government, I gained the unenviable distinction of being the first United States commander in history to sign an armistice without victory.” and US General Bradley admitted that it was “the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy”. These were the confessions of US commanders that they were defeated in the Fatherland Liberation War.
The Fatherland Liberation War, known as the Korean war in the West, is sometimes referred to as the “Unknown War “. This is because the US was defeated and they wanted to cover up their defeat and also cover up the fact they provoked the war. The right-wing, anti-communist US military historian, Bevin Alexander, who himself had been a US army officer during the Korean war, said it was ‘the first war we lost’. Max Hastings, another right-wing historian, wrote that “many American career officers were dismayed by the precedent Korea established: the United States had failed to fight a war to a victorious conclusion”.
However much the US tries to dress it up or downplay it, they suffered a total military disaster in Korea. The loss suffered by the US imperialists was nearly 2.3 times greater than what they had suffered in the four years of the Pacific War during World War II. Even according to the heavily doctored and downplayed statistics of the US military, the US lost more than 15 times as many troops in the three years of the war than in nearly 20 years of the Afghan war and nine times as many in 8 years of fighting in Iraq.
The great leader Kim Il Sung said “In this great struggle our people fought determinedly as one in mind under the correct leadership of the party and government and thereby withstood the harsh trials of war honourably and won a historic victory inflicting an ignominious defeat on US imperialism and its running dogs”.
Some people attribute the Korean people’s victory to the internationalist assistance that was given to the DPRK from the People’s Republic of China and the former USSR believing that only big countries can make a difference or only big countries can solve problems. Of course, it needs to be stated that in fact, it was not just the big socialist countries that helped the DPRK but all the socialist countries. There was also a powerful solidarity movement with the DPRK waged in many countries including even the US. In fact, Italian-American congressman Vito Marcantonio, the sole member of the American Labour Party in Congress, voted against the war in the US Congress. In the UK the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Daily Worker opposed the war, as did some Labour MPs to their credit, like the famous Welsh MP S O Davies and Barking MP Tom Driberg. But the so-called left Labour MP Michael Foot supported it.
In the oppressed colonial countries, the revolutionary peoples intensified their anti-imperialist struggles. In particular, the revolutionary forces of Malaya and Thailand stepped up their armed struggle. However, the best internationalist aid and assistance have no effect unless the revolutionary forces of a given country unite and wage a powerful struggle. History knows many examples of revolutions that were given unstinting assistance but came to nothing because the internal revolutionary forces were not strong enough and the quality of leadership was lacking.
As Kim Il Sung pointed out “Even small countries can defeat big enemy, once they establish Juche, unite the masses of the people and valiantly rise in battle despite sacrifice. This is a very plain truth of our times which has been borne out by actual life."
During the Fatherland Liberation War, the Korean people fought in the spirit of self-reliance. During the first stage of the war the Korean People’s Army under the command of Kim Il Sung and entirely on its own liberated Seoul, the south Korean puppet capital on the third day of the war. The forces of the heroic KPA defeated the so-called "Invincible US 24th Division" on the 20th July 1950 at Taejon and took its commander General Dean prisoner. Dean was the first US general to be captured by an opposing side. Dean’s general’s pips and boots can be seen in the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang where you can also see a wonderful diorama of the battle of the Battle of Taejon. Within six weeks the KPA had liberated 90 per cent of the territory of south Korea and 92 per cent of the population. A truly amazing feat.
The US imperialists and reactionaries had made a big miscalculation and greatly underestimated the DPRK, the Korean People’s Army(KPA) and the Juche-based military tactics of the Korean communist leader, Kim Il Sung, who accumulated vast and unrivalled experience in the 15-year-long anti-Japanese armed struggle.
Kim Il Sung employed unique Juche-based tactics during the Fatherland Liberation War. Based on the Juche idea that people are the masters, he attached importance to the decisive role of people rather than weapons during the war. Basically, he believed that the outcome of war is simply not decided by weapons but by those who hold those weapons.
Kim Il Sung initiated an immediate counter-attack on the aggressors when they provoked the war on the morning of the 25th June 1950. He called a cabinet meeting where he made a speech titled Let Us Wipe Out the Invaders by a Decisive Counter-Offensive and ordered the Korean People’s Army over to an immediate counter-offensive. Thus the KPA went over to an immediate counter-offensive pushing the south Korean puppets back. This was something unprecedented in the history of warfare!
During the Second World War, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France all fell to the invasion of Nazi Germany, seemingly powerless to resist let alone organise a counter-offensive. Even the Soviet Union in June 1941 was not able to go over to a counter-offensive immediately. By launching a counter-offensive quickly Kim Il Sung snatched away the advantage of surprise from the south Korean puppets and US imperialists.
The KPA under the command of Kim Il Sung also created other original tactics such as tunnel warfare. The DPRK later sent tunnelling advisors to Vietnam during their war against American aggression. An article by overseas Korean writer Han Ho Suk wrote that “North Korea's expertise in digging tunnels for warfare was demonstrated during the Vietnam War. North Korea sent about 100 tunnel warfare experts to Vietnam to help dig the 250 km tunnels for the North Vietnamese and Viet Gong troops in South Vietnam. The tunnels were instrumental in the Vietnamese victory”. Also, there was the original idea of opening a second front behind enemy lines, the creation of aircraft hunting and tank hunting teams and guerrilla warfare.
Revolutionary peoples of the world praised the DPRK’s victory in the Fatherland Liberation War. The Organisation of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America said “Under the superb leadership of Marshal Kim Il Sung and the People’s Army and the people of Korea who inherited the traditions of the glorious anti-Japanese armed struggle fought heroically and defeated US imperialism in defence of the liberty of the fatherland and the gains of the revolution, thereby making a great contribution to the anti-imperialist national liberation struggle of the peoples throughout the world and the struggle for peace in Asia and the world.”
A Cuban Minister stated, “The firm position and confidence of the Korean people and their valour offer a model for the peoples of Vietnam, Cuba, the Congo and other countries of the world”.
Gaston Soumialot President of the supreme council of the Revolution of the Congo also wrote in 1968 "Marshal Kim Il Sung is widely known to the whole world as a gifted military strategist...The US imperialist aggressors who had been bragging about their so-called 'mightiness' in Korea scored a failure in Korea for the first time in their 114 wars of aggression”. And Field Marshal Costa Gomes, who had been president of Portugal after the 1974 ‘carnation revolution’ that ended the dictatorship, said that Kim Il Sung had thwarted all the plans that had been worked out by the US general and military policy makers.
During the Fatherland Liberation War the mask of ‘civilisation ‘ and ‘humanity‘ was torn off the US and there were exposed as mass murderers and aggressors who even used biological and chemical weapons against the Korean people. The Korean war showed that there can be no ‘peaceful co-existence between imperialism and socialism and that there must be an uncompromising struggle against imperialism.
Although the guns fell silent on the 27th July 1953, there was never a permanent or binding peace treaty and the US still has troops in south Korea and has dispatched a nuclear submarine to south Korea. If the US provokes a war the US will suffer a second and a third ‘July 27’ and the Korean people led by respected Kim Jong Un will win and reunify the country!
Glory to the Korean people and the KPA on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War against the US imperialists!
