On Nov. 29, 1952, less than a month after being elected president of the United States, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfilled his campaign promise to visit Korea to begin the process of ending the Korean War.
The seeds of the Korean conflict began at the end of the World War II. The Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on Aug. 9, 1945 — the same day the United States dropped its second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The Soviets nevertheless demanded their full rights as belligerents and demanded that Japanese units throughout Asia surrender to them.
The Korean peninsula had long been part of the Japanese empire, and both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to accept the surrender of Japanese units there. Whatever army accepted the surrender would be able to control the peninsula after the war. It was decided to split Korea down the middle at the 38th parallel, with the Soviets accepting the surrender of Japanese units north of the line and the Americans accepting the surrender south of the line.
Just as in West and East Germany, neither army wanted to leave after the war was concluded, and both created puppet governments to administer their halves of the peninsula. On June 25, 1950, North Korean communist leader Kim Il Sung persuaded Soviet leader Josef Stalin to allow him to attempt to unify the peninsula militarily, and the Korean War began.
The North Korean army met with initial success, forcing American and South Korean forces down to a little corner pocket of the peninsula around the city of Pusan. President Harry Truman began to send more military units to Korea, and the United Nations soon voted to create a police action to restrain the communist aggressors. In September 1950, Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed an amphibious force at Inchon, near Seoul, and caused the bulk of the North Korean forces to flee back to North Korea lest they be trapped from behind.
MacArthur soon gained the initiative and invaded North Korea, pushing the North Korean army back to the border with China. In November 1950, the Chinese (under the communist regime for only one year) entered the war on the side of the North Koreans, pushing the American, South Korean and U.N. forces back to the 38th parallel. Though the fighting continued for two more years, neither side attempted another large-scale invasion of enemy territory. The U.N. forces feared the endless cannon fodder of Chinese troops, and the communists feared American nuclear retaliation.
In the United States, Truman had been president since the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in April 1945. He had won re-election in his own right in 1948 and oversaw the beginning of the Korean conflict. When MacArthur proved publicly insubordinate, he had him fired and replaced. In 1952, Truman had contemplated running for president once again. One of his major concerns, however, was the position of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
After his heroic leadership as commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II, many considered “Ike” the man who had beaten Hitler. In 1948, he had been courted by powerful interests to run for president, and even Harry Truman had asked him several times if he had presidential ambitions. Eisenhower, however, remained aloof. Even his political affiliation was not known. (In fact, as a serving army officer, Eisenhower believed it was not his place to vote in national elections.)
Finally, after serving as the commander of NATO and as president of Columbia University for a time, Eisenhower decided to run for president as a Republican in 1952. Truman declined to run for re-election, perhaps believing he could not defeat his popular opponent, and the Democrats settled upon Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson as their candidate.
By 1952, the seemingly endless stalemate was a major concern for most Americans. Roughly 20,000 Americans had been killed, with over 100,000 wounded or missing. No one doubted Eisenhower's military ability, and when he said he could end the war, most Americans believed him. He campaigned heavily and promised to deal with “Korea, Communism and Corruption.” With the Red Scare in full swing, Eisenhower's decisive leadership and promise to stand up to communism impressed most Americans, and he led in most polls.
Two weeks before the election, Eisenhower gave a speech in which he stated that, if elected, he would go to Korea himself to develop a plan to end the conflict. This apparent willingness to put himself in harm's way to bring American boys home rang a further bell with Americans and won him more support. Truman, overseeing the last days of his presidency, thought the promise a cheap political stunt. Nevertheless, on Nov. 4, 1952, Eisenhower was elected president, 442 electoral votes to Stevenson's 89.
On Nov. 29, only weeks after his election, Eisenhower went to Korea, taking with him a host of military and political advisers, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar Bradley and Charles Wilson (whom Eisenhower was going to appoint his secretary of defense). In the book “Eisenhower: In War and Peace,” biographer Jean Edward Smith wrote:
“Eisenhower visited the frontline units and talked to senior commanders and their men. Despite the bitter cold, he wanted to see for himself. Bundled in a heavy pile jacket and GI thermal boots, he surveyed the terrain and watched an artillery duel through binoculars. He met his son John, now a major, who was serving at the front, and ate an outdoor meal from a mess kit with the 1st Battalion of the 15th Infantry, the unit he had commanded at Fort Lewis in 1939-40.”
Eisenhower also flew over the 38th parallel in a light artillery spotter aircraft, inspecting the Chinese/North Korean defenses over rocky, difficult terrain. Direct attacks against an entrenched, prepared enemy would be costly, Eisenhower knew, and he quickly dismissed any idea of a direct assault as a major blow to win the war.
The president-elect also met with Dr. Syngman Rhee, the president of South Korea, who struck him as little more than a dictator himself — one who harbored dreams of conquering North Korea and perhaps even invading Japan. In the book “Ike: An American Hero,” biographer Michael Korda called Rhee “an Asian Charles de Gaulle,” an ally who could prove almost as troublesome as an enemy if he was not handled properly.
If Eisenhower had believed a military solution in Korea was possible during his presidential campaign, his three-day mission to Korea stopped that belief cold. The Chinese were too powerful, too plentiful, and the only realistic alternative to another conventional invasion of North Korea would be the use of atomic weapons — something MacArthur had repeatedly called for but Truman refused. Indeed, no man in history — at the time or since — has had to bear the weight of responsibility for using atomic bombs on civilian populations as Truman did. Eisenhower shared the horror of using atomic bombs in Korea on humanitarian grounds, though the knowledge that the Soviets — North Korean allies — also possessed the bomb no doubt contributed to his decision. A diplomatic solution had to be found.
Korda wrote: “Ike decided that the war would have to be ended. Pressure would have to be put on both sides to agree at the truce negotiations, for President Rhee was as unwilling to give up his dream of a renewed full-scale attack as the North Koreans and the Chinese were to accept the 38th parallel as the limit of their ambitions in the Korean Peninsula.”
“We could not tolerate the indefinite continuance of the Korean conflict,” Eisenhower said. “The United States would have to prepare to break the stalemate.”
Peace talks had been going on ever since the stalemate had begun in 1951, however. Since the Soviets were not directly involved in the fighting, Stalin delighted in the situation in Korea that saw America engaged in bloody gridlock with his allies. When Stalin died in March 1953, however, his successors feared that if the war did not wind down the Americans would turn to the nuclear option, which would force a Soviet response. The new Soviet leaders soon put pressure on the North Koreans and Chinese to settle the conflict.
In July 1953, an armistice was signed between North and South Korea. Though both sides largely adhere to the cease-fire, a state war still exists between the two Koreas to this day.
Cody K. Carlson holds a master's in history from the University of Utah and teaches at Salt Lake Community College. An avid player of board games, he blogs at thediscriminatinggamer.com. Email: ckcarlson76@gmail.com