BG> Que? To the north, we had the North Koreans and the Chinese,
 BG> and to the south, we had Aussies, Poms, Yanks, Kiwis, and John
 BG> Wayne. 

 BG> Not to forget the occasional South Korean as well... 

 KR> i do seem to recall, although i wasn't that old at the time,
 KR> that it started off as a korean civil war with the south
 KR> getting the rough end of the stick. the un cavalry charged in
 KR> and turned the tide, and that would have been that if mcarthur
 KR> had left well alone at the border,

  You have it slightly wrong...

  Historically, northern Korean falls iunder the influence of China, 
southern Korea under Japan. Northern Korea went communist and would 
have swept through all of Korea. The Yanks saw a communist Korea as 
a threat to Japan, a way for the Russians to get into the Pacific
through Vladivostok. Look at the map. The UN set the 38th Parallel 
as the notional border, beyond which communism must not cross. They 
crossed.

  The UN charged in to stop the communists and were basically driven
into the sea. Seoul hung on. At that stage, the West had lost all of
Korea except for two beach heads at Pusan (far south) and Inchon (near
Seoul). The MiG15 was knocking the shit out of Mustangs and that dopey
Lockheeed jet whose name escapes me. Tough times in Asia.

  This is what I meant when I said that Koreans were tough soldiers.
At that stage is was Communist Korea v. The World and the score was
one-nil. This was winter.

  Come summer, the Americans invaded Korea in a large way with better
equipment instead of WWII surplus, and drove the Korean Communists 
beyond the 38th parallel. Then Macarthur had a brain fart as you
describe, drove the Korean Communist armies up to the Yalu River (the
border with China), and tried to take China too. When Truman asked him
to please stop he told him to go root his boot, so he did, starting
with Macarthur's size 9's.

 KR> but he decided to chase the red menace back across their own
 KR> territory, and, at that point, the yellow peril swarmed down
 KR> from china, and it all went distinctly ovoid. a lot of fighting
 KR> ensued, many wacks were copped, and a fine old time was had at
 KR> the 4077th, in the end, the whole thing sort of ground to a
 KR> halt and the armed standoff that we have come to know and love
 KR> started.

  I think the Chinese would have invaded anyway, willing to settle for
half or anything they could get. Korea has always been basic to the
balance between China and Japan, north and south.

  I still wonder what would have happened if the US had tested the new
H-bomb on Peking rather than Bikini atoll, the way Macarthur wanted.

  The powers in the world today are the same as they have always been:
England, Germany, France, Russia, Islam, China, Japan, and USA. Spain
fell off the board, and Holland, and it looks like England may go
next, but we see the main players as Europe, Russia, Islam, China,
Japan, USA. To me, China is the most dangerous of all, Communist and 
growing rich besides.

  I think in 20 more years we may be saying that Macarthur could have
stopped it. 

Regards,
Bob
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