After WWII, believing nuclear weapons
had eliminated ground warfare, Truman and his cabinet
virtually turned the United States Marine Corps into a
police force for the Navy. North Korea's invasion
of the South showed him that, in fact, ground warfare
was now the warfare of choice, in the eyes of aggressor
nations. South Korea was saved only by sacrificing our
unprepared citizen soldiers to help the ROKs establish
the Pusan Perimeter. The Pusan Perimeter was saved
largely by the small group of regular combat troops the
Marines had available, and the assault at Inchon
possible only because the Marine Reserves were called
up.
I've often wondered if Truman ever
really understood the opportunistic strategies of
Soviet policies and the wishful thinking of his
own.
These Marines might have been in the
Reserves, driving buses or pumping gas only two months
before being thrown into an infantry company and facing
and defeating NK veterans here in Seoul. But they did
defeat them, and continued to face and defeat them at
the Han and at Seoul.
Those who survived that far went on to
face ten Chinese divisions at Chosin.
