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China’s War in Korea pp 109–143Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

From Defense-Offense-Defense

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Part of the book series: New Directions in East Asian History ((NDEAH))

Abstract

China shocked the world when it launched the first of its five offensive campaigns south of the Yalu in October 1950. Between late November and mid-December, the CPVF’s second offensive pushed UNF to the 38th Parallel and recaptured Pyongyang. By early January 1951, the CPVF’s third offensive crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea, captured Seoul, and pushed the UNF to the 37th Parallel. By the end of their fourth offensive campaign, nearly 950,000 Chinese troops were in Korea, including forty-two infantry divisions. Nevertheless, Chinese forces lost their fifth offensive campaign in May. Realizing China was incapable of ousting the UNF from the Korean Peninsula, Chinese leadership accepted a settlement without total victory, and truce negotiations began at Kaesong on July 10.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Peng Dehuai concentrated his forces to outnumber the enemy wherever the situation permitted in order to eliminate entire enemy battalions, regiments, or divisions, rather than to simply repel the enemy from the Peninsula. Peng’s Biography Compilation Team, Yige zhanzheng de ren [A Real Man], 178; Peng, “My Story of the Korean War,” 32–33; PLA-AMS, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun kangmei yuanchao zhanshi [War Experience of the CPVF in the WRUSAK], 11; Pang and Li, Mao Zedong yu kangmei yuanchao [Mao Zedong: Resisting the U.S. and Aiding Korea], 30.

  2. 2.

    Peng, “Speech at the CPVF Army and Division Commanders Meeting, October 14, 1950,” Selected Military Papers of Peng, 324. Although the date in the book is “October 14,” the leading scholars in China believe that it should be “October 16.” See Xu, Mao Zedong yu kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [Mao Zedong and the WRUSAK], 132.

  3. 3.

    William W. Stueck, Jr., The Road to Confrontation: American Policy toward China and Korea, 1947–1950 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), 3.

  4. 4.

    Xiaobing Li, “China’s Intervention and the CPVF Experience in the Korean War,” in The Korean War: International Perspectives, ed. Mark F. Wilkinson (Lexington: Virginia Military Institute Press, 2004), 144–45.

  5. 5.

    Luan Kechao, Xue ye huo de jiaoliang; kangmei yuanchao jishi [The Contest: Blood vs. Fire; the Record of Resisting America and Aiding Korea] (Beijing: Huayi chubanshe [China Literature Publishing House], 2008), 203; Xu, “Chinese Forces and Their Casualties in the Korean War,” 50.

  6. 6.

    M. Taylor Fravel, Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since 1949 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019), 61.

  7. 7.

    Mao’s telegram to Zhou, October 14, 1950, Selected Military Works of Mao, 2: 649–50; “Mao’s Telegrams during the Korean War, October-December 1950,” trans. and eds. Xiaobing Li and Glenn Tracy, Chinese Historians 5, no. 2 (Fall 1992): 73–74.

  8. 8.

    Lin’s words quoted in PLA Academy of Military Science (PLA-AMS), “The Unforgotten Korean War; Chinese Perspective and Appraisals,” unpublished manuscript written by PLA officer-historians and sponsored by the Office of Net Assessment (Washington, DC: Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, 2006), 50; Niu, Lengzhan yu xin zhongguo waijiao de yuanqi [The Cold War and Origin of Diplomacy of People’s Republic of China], 298.

  9. 9.

    Mao’s telegram to Zhou at 10:00 pm on October 13, 1950, Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 252–53.

  10. 10.

    Mao’s telegram to Zhou, October 14, 1950, Collected Military Works of Mao, 6: 122–23.

  11. 11.

    Ambassador N. V. Roshchin’s telegram to Stalin on October 13, 1950, in Chaoxian zhanzheng: eguo dang’an’guan de jiemi wenjian [The Korean War: Declassified Documents from Russian Archives], trans. and ed. Shen Zhihua (Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 2015), 2: 597–98.

  12. 12.

    Peng, “Speech at the CPVF Army and Division Commanders Meeting, October 14, 1950,” Selected Military Papers of Peng, 325.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 325–26.

  14. 14.

    Hong, Hong Xuezhi Huiyilu [Memoirs of Hong Xuezhi], 374–75; Du, Zai zhiyuanjun zongbu [At the CPVF General HQ], 34–37.

  15. 15.

    Mao’s telegram to Deng Hua and other CPVF commanders, October 18, 1950, Mao’s Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 568–69; Zhang and Chen, trans. and eds., Chinese Communist Foreign Policy and the Cold War in Asia, 178–79.

  16. 16.

    Mao’s telegram to CCP leaders in the regional bureaus, October 19, 1950, Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 267.

  17. 17.

    Lieutenant General Wu Xinquan, Chaoxian zhanchang 1000 tian; 39 jun zai chaoxian [One Thousand Days on the Korean Battleground; the Thirty-ninth Army in Korea] (Shenyang: Liaoning renmin chubanshe [Liaoning People’s Press], 1996), 20–21. Lt. Gen. Wu was the commander of the Thirty-ninth Army of the CPVF in 1950–1953. Wang et al., Peng Dehuai zhuan [Biography of Peng Dehuai], 409–10.

  18. 18.

    Hong, Hong Xuezhi Huiyilu [Memoirs of Hong Xuezhi], 376; Li Ying, Jiekai zhanzheng xumu de xianfeng: 40 jun zai chaoxian [Vanguard of the Early Actions in the War: The Fortieth Army in Korea] (Shenyang: Liaoning renmin chubanshe [Liaoning People’s Press], 1996), 5–6.

  19. 19.

    Military History Institute, PLA Academy of Military Science (PLA-AMS), Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng shi [History of WRUSAK], third ed. (Beijing: Junshi kexue chubanshe [Military Science Press], 2014), 331–32.

  20. 20.

    PLA-AMS, “The Unforgotten Korean War,” 51.

  21. 21.

    Yang Di, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli; xianwei renzhi de zhenshi qingkuang [My Years at the CPVF General HQ: Untold True Stories] (Beijing: Jiefangjun chubanshe [PLA Press], 1998), 36.

  22. 22.

    Wu, Kangmei yuanchao zhong de 42 jun [The Forty-second Army in WRUSAK], 60–61.

  23. 23.

    Hampton Sides, On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle (New York: Doubleday, 2018), 60.

  24. 24.

    Clay Blair, The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950–1953 (New York: Times Books, 1987), 375.

  25. 25.

    Peng, “My Story of the Korean War,” 32–33.

  26. 26.

    Yang, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli [My Years at the CPVF General HQ], 51; Xu, Mao Zedong yu kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [Mao Zedong and the WRUSAK], 131–32.

  27. 27.

    Ridgway, The Korean War, 52–53; Allan R. Millett, The War for Korea, 1950–1951: They Came from the North (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010), 298–303; David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter : America and the Korean War (New York: Hyperion, 2007), 379–82.

  28. 28.

    Yang and Wang, Beiwei 38 duxian [The North Latitude 38th Parallel], 147–48; Wang et al., Peng Dehuai zhuan [Biography of Peng Dehuai], 414, 446.

  29. 29.

    Yang and Wang, ibid.; Wang et al., ibid., 414–15.

  30. 30.

    Xu, Mao Zedong yu kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [Mao Zedong and the WRUSAK], 150.

  31. 31.

    CMC archives cited in PLA-AMS, “The Unforgotten Korean War,” 65–66.

  32. 32.

    The CMC document, “The Central Military Commission’s Circular on the Combat Characteristics of South Korean Troops, October 30, 1950,” drafted by Mao, Mao’s Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 630–61; “Mao’s Telegrams during the Korean War,” 66–67.

  33. 33.

    Stephen Taaffe, MacArthur’s Korean Generals (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2016), 90–91.

  34. 34.

    Mao, “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War,” Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, 1: 240.

  35. 35.

    Mao’ telegram to Peng, “Capture the Battle Opportunity; Finalize the Operation Plan Immediately,” 3:30 am on October 21, 1950, Collected Military Works of Mao, 6: 130–31; Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 270.

  36. 36.

    Mao’ telegram to Peng, “The CPVF Should Win the First Battle after They Left the Country,” 2:30 am on October 21, 1950, Mao’s Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 575–61; Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 268–69.

  37. 37.

    Mao’ telegram to Peng at 3:30 am on October 21, 1950, Collected Military Works of Mao, 6: 130–31; Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 270.

  38. 38.

    Mao’ telegram to Peng at 4:00 am on October 21, 1950, Mao’s Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 578; Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 271.

  39. 39.

    Mao’ telegram to Peng at 2:30 am on October 21, 1950, Mao’s Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 575–61; Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 268–69.

  40. 40.

    Peng’s telegram to Deng Hua and the CMC at 4:00 pm on October 21, 1950, Selected Military Papers of Peng, 328–29; Mao’s Military Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 274n2.

  41. 41.

    Ibid.

  42. 42.

    Peng’s telegram at 7:00 pm on October 22, 1950, is included as a footnote in Mao’s reply telegram to Peng on October 23, 1950, Mao’s Manuscripts since 1949, 1: 588–90; Zhang and Chen, trans. and eds., Chinese Communist Foreign Policy and the Cold War in Asia, 183–84.

  43. 43.

    Wang et al., Peng Dehuai zhuan [Biography of Peng Dehuai], 416; Tan Jingjiao, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [WRUSAK] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe [China Social Science Press], 1990), 32–33.

  44. 44.

    Hong, Hong Xuezhi Huiyilu [Memoirs of Hong Xuezhi], 390–91; Du, “Political Mobilization and Control,” 73–74; Yang, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli [My Years at the CPVF General HQ], 51–52.

  45. 45.

    Yang and Wang, Beiwei 38 duxian [The North Latitude 38th Parallel], 149; Peng Biography Compilation Team, Peng Dehuai zhuan [Biography of Peng Dehuai], 418.

  46. 46.

    Lieutenant General Wen Yucheng (1915–1989), as one of the Long March veterans, became division commander in the Anti-Japanese War in 1937–1945 and army commander in the Chinese Civil War. At the age of thirty-five in 1950, he commanded the CPVF Fortieth Army, including the 118th, 119th, and 120th Divisions. After his return to China, Wen was appointed as chief staff of the Guangzhou Regional Command, deputy chief staff of the PLA, and commander of the Beijing Regional Command. He was granted lieutenant general in 1955. See Xinghuo liaoyuan Composition Department, Zhongguo renmin jiefangjun jiangshuai minglu [Marshals and Generals of the PLA], 1: 474–75; Tan, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun renwulu [Veterans Profile of the CPVF], 631–32.

  47. 47.

    Composition Committee, ed., 38 xian shang de jiaofeng: kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng jishi [Fighting over the 38th Parallel: The Recorded Truth of the WRUSAK] (Beijing: Jiefangjun wenyi chubanshe [PLA Literature Press], 2010), 68–69; Li, et al. 40 jun zai chaoxian [The Fortieth Army in Korea], 19–27; Li, Jiekai zhanzheng xumu de xianfeng [Vanguard of the Early Actions in the War], 28–40; Roy E. Appleman, Escaping the Trap: The US Army X Corps in Northeast Korea, 1950 (College Station: Taxes A&M University Press, 1990), 675–77.

  48. 48.

    Hong, Hong Xuezhi Huiyilu [Memoirs of Hong Xuezhi], 396–97; Jiang, 38 jun zai chaoxian [The Thirty-eighth Army in Korea], 33–34; Zhang, Mao’s Military Romanticism, 103.

  49. 49.

    Li et al. 40 jun zai chaoxian [The Fortieth Army in Korea], 42–44; PLA-AMS, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun kangmei yuanchao zhanshi [Combat Experience of the CPVF in the WRUSAK], 21–22.

  50. 50.

    The CPVF claimed to have eliminated 15,000 enemy troops during the “first campaign.” For more details, see PLA-AMS, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun kangmei yuanchao zhanshi [Combat Experience of the CPVF in the WRUSAK], 27; Xu, Diyici jiaoliang [The First Encounter], 47.

  51. 51.

    Tan, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [The WRUSAK], 46–47; Li Qingshan, Zhiyuanjun yuanchao jishi [The CPVF Records of Aiding Korea] (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe [CCP Party History Press], 2008), 141.

  52. 52.

    General Walter Bedell Smith, “Memorandum by the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to the President, November 1, 1950,” FRUS 1950, Korea (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976), 7: 1025.

  53. 53.

    Mao’s telegram to Peng and Deng Hua, November 5, 1950, Collected Military Works of Mao, 6: 197.

  54. 54.

    Mao’s telegram to Peng, Deng, and Pak Il-yu, “Approval of the CPVF’s Plan and Deployment for the Next Campaign,” November 9, 1950, Collected Military Works of Mao, 6: 198; Mao’s Military Manuscript since 1949, 1: 342–43.

  55. 55.

    Mao’s telegram to Stalin, “On the Prospects of the Korean Situation,” November 13, 1950, Collected Military Works of Mao, 6: 201; Zhang and Chen, trans. and eds., Chinese Communist Foreign Policy and the Cold War in Asia, 204.

  56. 56.

    Jiang, 38 jun zai chaoxian [The Thirty-eighth Army in Korea], 153–54; Du, Zai zhiyuanjun zongbu [At the CPVF General HQ], 103–104.

  57. 57.

    Hong, Hong Xuezhi Huiyilu [Memoirs of Hong Xuezhi], 421–23; Yang, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli [My Years at the CPVF General HQ], 51–52; Jiang, ibid., 166–71, 194–95, 218–19.

  58. 58.

    Wu, Chaoxian zhanchang 1000 tian [One Thousand Days on the Korean Battleground], 164–74; Du, Zai zhiyuanjun zongbu [At the CPVF General HQ], 120.

  59. 59.

    Corporal Harold L. Mulhausen (U.S. Marine Corps, ret.), interviews by the author in Edmond, Oklahoma, in September 2005 and March 2006. Corp. Mulhausen served in A Company, 7th Regiment, U.S. 1st Marine Division in 1950–1952. See also Mulhausen, “The Chosin Reservoir; A Marine’s Story,” in Peters and Li, Voices from the Korean War, 98–116; Russell A. Gugeler, Combat Actions in Korea (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1987), 54–79; Robert Leckie, Conflict: The History of the Korean War (New York: Da Capo Press, 1996), 209–11, 219–20; Burton I. Kaufman, The Korean Conflict (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999), 48–49.

  60. 60.

    Peng, “My Story of the Korean War,” 33; Hong, Hong Xuezhi Huiyilu [Memoirs of Hong Xuezhi], 427; Billy C. Mossman, U.S. Army in the Korean War: Ebb and Flow, November 1950–July 1951 (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History and U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990), 132–37.

  61. 61.

    Captain Wang Xuedong (CPVF), interview by the author in Harbin, Heilongjiang, in April 2000.

  62. 62.

    Sides, On Desperate Ground, 229–30.

  63. 63.

    Among the CPVF casualties in the Second Offensive Campaign were 50,000 non-combat dead. See PLA-AMS, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun kangmei yuanchao zhanshi [Combat Experience of the CPVF in the WRUSAK], 48; Xu, Diyici jiaoliang [The First Encounter], 60.

  64. 64.

    Corp. Mulhausen, interviews by the author in Edmond, Oklahoma, in September 2005 and March 2006. See also Hastings, The Korean War, 152–62; Patrick C. Roe, The Dragon Strikes; China and the Korean War: June-December 1950 (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 2000), 333–43.

  65. 65.

    Sides’ description of the Battle of Chosin is the title of his book, On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle.

  66. 66.

    Bin Yu, “What China Learned from Its ‘Forgotten War’ in Korea,” in Mao’s Generals Remember Korea, trans. and eds. Li, Millett, and Yu: 17.

  67. 67.

    Capt. Wang, interview by the author in Harbin, Heilongjiang, in April 2000. Also see Capt. Wang, “The Chosin Reservoir; A Chinese Captain’s Story,” in Voices from the Korean War, Peters and Li: 117, 123; Zhao Yihong, 27 jun chuanqi [The Legacy of the Twenty-seventh Army] (Jilin: Jilin renmin chubanshe [Jilin People’s Press], 1995), 418, 420.

  68. 68.

    Peng’s telegram to Mao at 6:00 pm on December 8, 1950, in Ye Yumeng, Chubing chaoxian: Kangmei yuanchao lishi jishi [A True History of China’s Entry into the Korean War] (Beijing: Shiyue wenxue chubanshe [October Literature Press], 1989), 244.

  69. 69.

    Mao’s telegram to Peng, “The CPVF Must Cross the 38th Parallel for Engagements,” December 13, 1950, Collected Military Papers of Mao, 6: 239; Mao’s Military Manuscript since 1949, 1: 408–409.

  70. 70.

    The peace proposal suggested the Chinese stop their offensive at the 38th Parallel and then, on the basis of a ceasefire, convene a meeting between the major powers with interests in Korea to discuss a solution of the Korean crisis. For more details on the peace proposal on December 8, 1950, see Stueck, The Korean War, 145–48; Yafeng Xia, Negotiating with the Enemy: U.S.-China Talks During the Cold War, 1949–1972 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 46.

  71. 71.

    Millett, The War for Korea, 384–87; Mossman, U.S. Army in the Korean War, 192–98; Stanley Weintraub, MacArthur’s War; Korea and the Undoing of an American Hero (New York: Free Press, 2000), 300.

  72. 72.

    Hong, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng huiyi [Recollections of the WRUSAK], 107; Du, Zai zhiyuanjun zongbu [At the CPVF General HQ], 159.

  73. 73.

    Ridgway, The Korean War, 94–95; Millett, The War for Korea, 384–85; Mossman, U.S. Army in the Korean War, 198–200.

  74. 74.

    Peng’s telegram to all the CPVF armies and CMC, January 4, 1951, Selected Military Papers of Peng, 360–63.

  75. 75.

    Brian Catchpole, The Korean War, 1950–1953 (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2000), 101–102; Millett, The War for Korea, 384–87; Mossman, U.S. Army in the Korean War, 201–202.

  76. 76.

    Xiaobing Li, “Chinese Army in the Korean War, 1950–53,” The New England Journal of History 60 (nos. 1–3, 2003–4): 282.

  77. 77.

    Hong, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng huiyi [Recollections of the WRUSAK], 90–91.

  78. 78.

    Peng and Kim held the first, and the only, joint CPVF-NKPA army commanders meeting at the CPVF HQ to review the Third Offensive Campaign on January 25–29, 1951, as the UNF launched large-scale assaults along the Han River on the 25th. Caught by surprise, Peng and Kim changed the meeting’s agenda from assessing the Third Campaign to preparing the Fourth Campaign. Hong, Hong Xuezhi Huiyilu [Memoirs of Hong Xuezhi], 448; Yang, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli [My Years at the CPVF General HQ], 98–99.

  79. 79.

    Yang, ibid., 103–104; Jiang, 38 jun zai chaoxian [The Thirty-eighth Army in Korea], 301, 363; Mossman, U.S. Army in the Korean War, 253–54.

  80. 80.

    Jiang, ibid., 301, 327–32, 405–408; Mossman, ibid., 254–56.

  81. 81.

    Yang, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli [My Years at the CPVF General HQ], 102–106; Li, Jiekai zhanzheng xumu de xianfeng [Vanguard of the Early Actions in the War], 224–40; Wu, Kangmei yuanchao zhong de di 42 jun [The Forty-second Army in the WRUSAK], 105–106; Guo Baoheng and Hu Zhiyuan, Chipin hanjiang nanbei: 42 jun zai chaoxian [Fighting over the Han River: the Forty-second Army in Korea] (Shenyang: Liaoning renmin chubanshe [Liaoning People’s Press], 1996), 212–21; Mossman, ibid., 266–9.

  82. 82.

    Peng’s telegram to all the CPVF armies and CMC, 12:00 am, February 17, 1951, Selected Military Papers of Peng, 373–34; Yang, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli [My Years at the CPVF General HQ], 106.

  83. 83.

    Yang, ibid., 106–109, 111–13; Li, Jiekai zhanzheng xumu de xianfeng: 40 jun zai chaoxian [Vanguard of the Early Actions in the War: The Fortieth Army in Korea], 240–50; Guo and Hu, Chipin hanjiang nanbei [Fighting over the South and North of the Han River], 223–31.

  84. 84.

    For more information on the Battle of Chipyong-ni, see Gugeler, Combat Actions in Korea, 100–25; Halberstam, Coldest Winter, 535–66, 569–88; Stanley Sandler, The Korean War: No Victors, No Vanquished (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 136, 161; William T. Bowers, ed., Striking Back: Combat in Korea, March-April 1951 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010), 10–11; Millett, The War for Korea, 401–403, 406–10.

  85. 85.

    U.S. State Department, “Memorandum for the Record of a Department of State-Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting, February 13, 1953,” FRUS 1951, Korea and China, 7: 177.

  86. 86.

    Peng Biography Compilation Team, Peng Dehuai zhuan [Biography of Peng Dehuai] (Beijing: Dangdai zhongguo chubanshe [Contemporary China Press], 2006), 449; Yang, Zai zhiyuanjun silingbu de suiyueli [My Years at the CPVF General HQ], 109.

  87. 87.

    Peng, “My Story of the Korean War,” 35; Wang et al., Peng Dehuai zhuan [Biography of Peng Dehuai], 452–54; Yang and Wang, Beiwei 38 duxian [The North Latitude 38th Parallel], 287.

  88. 88.

    Xu, Mao Zedong yu kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [Mao Zedong and WRUSAK), 202–203; Zhang, Mao’s Military Romanticism, 143.

  89. 89.

    Mao’s telegram to Stalin, “On the Situation of the Korean War and the Rotation of the CPVF armies,” March 1, 1951, Selected Military Works of Mao, 1: 349–51; Mao’s Manuscript since 1949, 2: 151–53.

  90. 90.

    Mao’s conversation in Peng, “My Story of the Korean War,” 35; Xu, Mao Zedong yu kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [Mao Zedong and WRUSAK], 208.

  91. 91.

    The CPVF announced their annihilation of 78,000 UNF troops in the “fourth campaign.” See PLA-AMS, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun kangmei yuanchao zhanshi [Combat Experience of the CPVF in WRUSAK], 85; Xu, Diyici jiaoliang [The First Encounter], 80.

  92. 92.

    Colonel Wang Po, PLA Logistics Academy, interview by the author in Beijing, July 1994. See also Zhou, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng houqinshi jianbianben [A Concise History of the Logistics in WRUSAK], 25–29.

  93. 93.

    The CMC’s instruction on April 16, 1951, cited in Hong, “The CPVF’s Combat and Logistics,” 132.

  94. 94.

    Zhou, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng houqinshi jianbianben [A Concise History of the Logistics in WRUSAK], 87–88; Hong, “The CPVF’s Combat and Logistics,” 135.

  95. 95.

    Hong, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng huiyi [Recollections of WRUSAK], 137; Military History Research Division, PLA-AMS, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun kangmei yuanchao zhanshi [Combat Experience of the CPVF in WRUSAK], 129.

  96. 96.

    Zhang, “Command, Control, and the PLA’s Offensive Campaigns in Korea, 1950–1951,” in Chinese Warfighting; The PLA Experience since 1949, eds. by Mark A. Ryan, David M. Finkelstein, and Michael A. McDevitt (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2003), 110–11, 113.

  97. 97.

    Peng’s telegram to all the CPVF army commanders and the CMC at 5:00 pm on March 14, 1951, Selected Military Papers of Peng, 379.

  98. 98.

    The Chinese statistics show a total of 80,000–85,000 casualties in the Spring Offensive Campaign from April 22 to June 10, 1951. Approximately half of the total took place during the first step of the offensive campaign on the western front on April 22–29. See History Research Division, PLA-AMS, Zhongguo renmin zhiyuanjun kangmei yuanchao zhanshi [Combat Experience of the CPVF in WRUSAK], 152; Tan, Kangmei yuanchao zhanzheng [WRUSAK], 159. Also see the other statistics in Korean Institute of Military History, ROK Ministry of Defense, The Korean War (Seoul, South Korea: Korean Institute of Military History, 1998), 2: 5; Sandler, The Korean War, 142.

  99. 99.

    Peng’s telegram to Mao and the CMC, copied to Kim Il-sung, April 26, 1951, quoted in Wang et al., Peng Dehuai zhuan [Biography of Peng Dehuai], 466.

  100. 100.

    The CMC telegram to Peng, April 28, 1951, “Agree Your Operation Plan and Force Deployment of the Fifth Campaign,” drafted by Zhou Enlai, Selected Military Papers of Zhou, 4: 193–95.

  101. 101.

    Peng pointed out the “limited results” of the first step of the Spring Offensive Campaign in his telegram to Mao and the CMC, April 26, 1951. His telegram was included in the notes of the CMC reply to Peng, April 28, 1951, “Agree Your Operation Plan and Force Deployment of the Fifth Campaign,” Selected Military Papers of Zhou, 4: 195.

  102. 102.

    Peng’s telegram to the CMC and all the CPVF armies, May 6, 1951, Selected Military Papers of Peng, 392–93.

  103. 103.

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    Xiaobing Li

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Li, X. (2019). From Defense-Offense-Defense. In: China’s War in Korea. New Directions in East Asian History. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9675-6_5

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