Following our great victory at
Inchon, realizing the North Koreans could be
totally defeated and the Nation reunited under a
democratic government, the United Nations
authorized General MacArthur to cross the 38th
Parallel and drive to the Yalu. Setting surprise
and speed as the top priorities had been the
secret to MacArthur's success at Inchon in
the first place. However, China considered our
crossing the 38th as a threat to their own new
government, infiltrated hundreds of thousands of
veteran foot soldiers into Korea in secret, and
ambushed our over-extended armies. Against troops
experienced in years of guerilla warfare,
planning and preparation proved to be far more
important than speed.
Routed, desperately falling back
as fast as possible to avoid further battle, our
troops made the longest retreat in our
Nation's history. There were bloody back and
forth battles for the next six months, then two
years of bitter fighting in trenches across all
Korea, leading at last to a Cease Fire. During
all this, countless innocent civilians suffered
and died.
The civilians in this photo would
have been murdered like tens of thousands of
South Koreans, simply as political opponents of
Kim Il Sung's North Korean government.
Indeed, maybe they were all
murdered. Their escape route was far more
perilous than ours.