1950 * * * "" July 13: Nehru sends personal notes to the United States and U. S. S. R. asking aid in localizing and terminating the Korean fighting by "breaking the present deadlock in the Security Council August 2: Statement issued by Gen. Chiang Kai-shek states that he and General MacArthur have reached agreement on the defense of Formosa, based on Chinese-United States military cooperation. October 7: UN General Assembly adopts resolution, 47-5, recommending that "all appropriate steps be taken to ensure conditions of stability throughout Korea." October 9: General MacArthur addresses to "the Premier, Government of North Korea" a demand for the surrender of the forces under his command in whatever part of Korea they are situated. October 15: A conference is held on Wake Island between President Truman and General MacArthur. President Truman issues a statement stating that a "very complete unanimity of view" had prevailed in the discussions covering Korea, Japan, and United States policy to promote peace in the Pacific. November 16: President Truman states that "we have never at any time entertained any intention to carry hostilities into China * * * we will take every honorable step to prevent any extension of the hostilities in the Far East." November 24: UN forces open general "end the war" offensive in northwestern Korea under the personal direction of General MacArthur. November 28: General MacArthur announces that the United Nations forces in Korea "face an entirely new war" as over 200,000 Red China troops intervene in Korea. Wu Hsiu-chwan, chief of Communist China's delegation to the Security Council, makes first speech at Lake Success, accusing the United States of "criminal armed aggression" against China and announcing that the Chinese Reds will not talk to the Council about the presence of Chinese troops in North Korea. November 30: President Truman declares "the forces of the United Nations have no intention of abandoning their mission in Korea." In answer to reporter's questions, he states that the United States would take whatever steps were necessary to meet the military situation in Korea, and that consideration is being given to the use of the atomic bomb if necessary to assure victory, but he did not want to see it used. December 1: General MacArthur states that orders forbidding him to strike across the Korean border at Chinese Communists were putting the UN forces under "an enormous handicap, without precedent in military history." As of this date the following members of the UN have troops in or en route to Korea: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Fanama, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, Union of South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States. December 22: Communist China's Premier and Foreign Minister Chou-en-lai rejects the proposal of the UN Cease-Fire Committee, stating the Committee is unlawful because Communist China had not participated in creating it. He demands the withdrawal 1950 of all foreign troops from Korea, the withdrawal of the United States from Formosa, and the admission of Communist China to the United Nations. 1951 January 23: United States Senate unanimously adopts a resolution calling on the United Nations "to immediately declare Communist China an aggressor in Korea." February 1: The United States resolution introduced January 20, as amended, which would declare the Chinese Communist government to be engaged in aggression and establish a Good Offices Commission, is adopted 44-7 with 9 abstentions. The amendment, submitted by Lebanon, had the effect of withholding any recommendations for sanctions if the proposed good offices committee reported satisfactory progress. March 7: United Nations forces recapture Seoul. General MacArthur reports that the battle lines would remain in a "theoretical military stalemate" as long as there was a "continuation of the existing limitation upon our freedom of counteroffensive action" and no major additions to the organization strength. March 24: General MacArthur asserts he is ready at any time to confer in the field with the commander of the Chinese and North Korean forces to end the war and "find any military means whereby the realization of the political objectives of the United Nations in Korea, to which no nation may justly take exceptions, might be accomplished without further bloodshed." He added that a decision of the United Nations to depart from its effort to contain the war in Korea would "doom Red China to the risk of imminent military collapse." The State Department subsequently issues a statement that "the political issues, which General MacArthur has stated are beyond his responsibility as a field commander, are being dealt with in the United Nations and by intergovernmental consultations." March 29: Chinese Communist radio rejects MacArthur's offer of a truce in Korea and urges the Red troops to renew their efforts. The offer is termed a "bluff" and an "insult to the Chinese people." April 5: Representative Martin makes public a letter written March 20 by General MacArthur in which the general endorses Martin's demand for the use of Chinese Nationalist forces to open a second front against the Communists in Asia. April 11: President Truman relieves General MacArthur of all command in the Far East. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway is appointed to succeed MacArthur. III. BEGINNING OF MILITARY OPERATIONS IN KOREA A. Statement by United States representative to the United Nations, June 25, 1950 At 4 o'clock in the morning Sunday, June 25, Korean time, armed forces from North Korea commenced an unprovoked assault against the territory of the Republic of Korea. This assault was launched by ground forces along the thirty-eighth parallel, in the Ongjin, Kaesong, and Chunshon sectors, and by amphibious landings on the east coast in the vicinity of Jangmung. In addition, North Korean aircraft have attacked and strafed the Kimpo airport in the outskirts of the capital city of Seoul. Under the circumstances I have described, this wholly illegal and unprovoked attack by the North Korean forces, in the view of my Government, constitutes a breach of the peace and an act of aggression. This is clearly a threat to international peace and security. As such, it is of grave concern to my Government. It is a threat which must inevitably be of grave concern to the governments of all peace- and freedom-loving nations. A full-scale attack is now going forward in Korea. It is an invasion upon a state which the United Nations itself, by action of its General Assembly, has brought into being. It is armed aggression against a government elected under United Nations supervision. Such an attack strikes at the fundamental purposes of the United Nations Charter. Such an attack openly defies the interest and authority of the United Nations. Such an attack, therefore, concerns the vital interest which all the members of the United Nations have in the organization. The history of the Korean problem in the United Nations is well known to you. At this critical hour I will not review it in detail. But let me recall only a few milestones in the development of the Korean situation. A Joint Commission of the United States and the Soviet Union for 2 years sought unsuccessfully to agree on ways and means of bringing to Korea the independence which she assumed would automatically come when Japan was defeated. This 2-year deadlock prevented 38,000,000 people in Korea from getting the independence which it was agreed was their right. My Government, thereupon, sought to hold a four-power conference at which China and the United Kingdom would join the United States and the Soviet Union to seek agreement on the independence of Korea. The Soviet Union rejected that proposal. The United States then asked the General Assembly to consider the problem. The Soviet Union opposed that suggestion. The General Assembly by resolution of November 14, 1947, created the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea. By that resolution the General Assembly recommended the holding of elections not later than the 31st of March 1948, to choose representatives with whom the commission might consult regarding the prompt attainment of freedom and independence of the Korean people. These elected representatives would constitute a National Assembly and establish a National Government of Korea. The General Assembly further recommended that upon the establishment of a National Government, that Government should in consultation with the Commission constitute its own national security forces, and to dissolve all military or semimilitary formations not included therein. The General Assembly recommended that the National Government should take over the functions of government from the military command and from the civilian authorities of North and South Korea, and arrange with the occupying powers for the complete withdrawal from Korea of the armed forces as early as practicable and if possible within 90 days. Elections were held in South Korea and the Commission did observe them. A Government in South Korea was set up as a result of the elections observed by the Commission. The Commission was unable to enter North Korea because of the attitude of the Soviet Union. The Temporary Commission in its report to the third session of the General Assembly stated that not all the objectives set forth for it had been fully accomplished and that, in particular, unification of Korea had not yet been achieved. Notwithstanding the frustrations and difficulties which the Temporary Commission had experienced in Korea, the General Assembly at its third session continued the Commission's existence and requested it to go on with its efforts to bring North and South Korea together. One aspect of the resolution adopted by the third session of the General Assembly should, I feel, be particularly emphasized. The General Assembly declared that a lawful government had been established in Korea as a result of the elections observed by the Commission and declared further that this was the only lawful government in Korea. This is a most significant fact. The General Assembly declared further that the Government of Korea was based on elections which were a valid expression of the free will of the electorate of that part of Korea and which were observed by the United Nations Commission. In the light of this declaration, my Government on January 1, 1949, extended recognition to the Government of the Republic of Korea, and more than 30 states have since that time also accorded recognition to that Government. The United Nations Commission worked toward the United Nations objective of the withdrawal of occupation forces from Korea, the removal of the barriers between the regions of the North and South, and the unification of that country under a representative government freely determined by its people. In 1949, as in 1948, the Commission's efforts to obtain access to North Korea which included both direct intercourse with the northern authorities and endeavors to negotiate through the Government of the U. S. S. R. were fruitless. The Commission was unable to make progress either toward the unification of Korea or toward the reduction of barriers between the Republic of Korea and the northern authorities. The Commission reported to the General Assembly that the border of the thirty-eighth parallel was becoming a sea of increasingly frequent exchanges of fire and armed raids, and that this constituted a serious barrier to friendly intercourse among the people of Korea. The Commission observed the withdrawal of United States forces, which was completed on June 19, 1949. Although it signified its readiness to verify the pact of the withdrawal of Soviet occupation forces from North Korea, the Commission received no response to its message to the U. S. S. R. and therefore could take no action. At the fourth session, the General Assembly again directed the Commission to seek to facilitate the removal of barriers to economic, social, and other friendly intercourse caused by the division of Korea. The General Assembly also authorized the Commission on October 21, 1949, in its discretion, to appoint observers and utilize the services and good offices of persons whether or not representatives of the Commission. The United Nations Commission in Korea is presently in Seoul and we have now received its latest report. Mr. President, I have tabled a draft resolution which notes the Security Council's grave concern at the invasion of the Republic of Korea by the armed forces of North Korea. This draft resolution calls upon the authorities in the North to cease hostilities and to withdraw armed forces to the border along the thirty-eighth parallel. The draft resolution requests that the United Nations Commission on Korea observe the withdrawal of the North Korean forces to the thirtyeighth parallel and keep the Security Council informed on the implementation and execution of the resolution. The draft resolution also calls upon all members of the United Nations to render every assistance to the United Nations in the carrying out of this resolution and to refrain from giving assistance to the North Korean authorities. B. The first United Nations Security Council resolution, Resolution concerning the complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea, adopted at the four hundred and seventy-third meeting of the Security Council on June 25, 1950: The Security Council, Recalling the finding of the General Assembly in its resolution of 21 October 1949 that the Government of the Republic of Korea is a lawfully established government “having effective control and jurisdiction over that part of Korea where the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea was able to observe and consult and in which the great majority of the people of Korea reside; and that this Government is based on elections which were a valid expression of the free will of the electorate of that part of Korea and which were observed by the Temporary Commission; and that this is the only such Government in Korea"; Mindful of the concern expressed by the General Assembly in its resolutions of 12 December 1948 and 21 October 1949 of the consequences which might follow unless Member States refrained from acts derogatory to the results sought to be achieved by the United Nations in bringing about the complete independence and unity of Korea; and the concern expressed that the situation described by the United Nations Commission on Korea in its report menaces the safety and well-being of the Republic of Korea and of the people of Korea and might lead to open military conflict there; Noting with grave concern the armed attack upon the Republic of Korea by forces from North Korea, Determines that this action constitutes a breach of the peace, Calls upon the authorities of North Korea to withdraw forth- (a) To communicate its fully considered recommendations on the situation with the least possible delay; (b) To observe the withdrawal of the North Korean forces to the thirty-eighth parallel; and |