Chinese turned local conflict into a new war
As UN troops moved closer to the northern extreme of the Korean Peninsula, near the border with China, in November 1950 it seemed like the Korean War was all but over. Even the intervention of some Chinese “volunteers” in October, making raids across the border and defending strategic points along the Yalu River, had not tipped the balance against the UN forces in their pursuit of the North Koreans. American troops had engaged the Chinese and they seemed to be in retreat.
On November 25, General Douglas Macarthur, commander of the UN troops, launched a bold offensive to push the Chinese across the border. It was informally dubbed the “Home-by-christmas” offensive. But then something happened that would spoil the festivities for thousands of troops. On November 26 more than 180,000 Chinese troops began pouring across the border.
Macarthur told Washington: “We face an entirely new war.”
Instead of driving communist troops back, the UN forces found themselves fighting a desperate battle to withdraw to the south. Instead of being over by December, the war would drag on for another two and a half years.
The conflict had begun in June 1950 when forces from North Korea, the Korean People’s Army (KPA), crossed the border intent on reunifying North and South Korea by force. The South’s Republic of Korea (ROK) army fought valiantly against the KPA but South Korea’s capital Seoul was quickly captured. The first troops authorised by the UN arrived in July to aid the South Koreans but the KPA continued their march south, pushing the ROK and UN troops back to a small perimeter around Busan.
In September UN troops landed 1950