Britain in Korea

The Brits in Korea

As national service waged war on individualism, communist China waged a brutal proxy war in Korea. The capitalist South, defending themselves with the help of American troops, were invaded mercilessly by the North, egged on by Soviet backing and expendable Chinese men. They were backed into a corner. In grave need of backing from the West, Truman and his men rounded up UN troops, not least those in Britain, to show Mao, Stalin and Kim Il-Sung that the West and its freedom wouldn’t yield. The ensuing conflict would rage for a further three years, see Downing Street and the White House change hands, and have a profound, yet untold, impact on Britain and its men.

After WW2 and her emancipation from Japan, Korea was diametrically carved along the 38^th parallel. Communists occupied the North, with Kim Il Sung ruling with an iron fist, and, around 100 miles south, American allied Syngman Rhee led with an equally brutal ferocity. These two infants of nations couldn’t be more opposed to each other. In June of 1950, with 3 million of China’s men, who were deemed by Mao to be expendable thanks to their roots in nationalism, and Soviet supplies, the communists launched a full-scale invasion of the capitalist south. Taking Seoul in rapid time, the invasion was unquestionably a cause for anxiety within Truman’s ranks. The South Korean army were soon pushed back to Busan, catalysing Truman and the UN to rally their allies.

Duly abiding with his closest and most powerful ally, Attlee, who already found himself struggling to finance the widespread welfare state, rounded up tens of thousands of troops, three quarters of whom were flung across the world into a snake-pit without a choice. British troops trundled up the peninsula in a counter-offensive in which troops reached the Chinese border, but quickly retreated following Chinese force. This dynamic continued endlessly, where, seemingly, the war would be a continuous stalemate and serve as a meatgrinder for young British men. These conscripts earned a pittance of £1.62 a week, troops describing their army as the worst paid, along with the Chinese. After an armistice, which had been waited on for three long years, troops came back hungry and invisible to the public whilst thousands were killed or injured. Korea had broken Britain’s troops, and made irrelevant those who came back.

On the domestic front, Britain was politically and financially fractured from the events of Korea. The Labour Party had suffered from infighting due to the cost of the war. Prescription charges to cover the cost of fighting outraged the NHS’s architect, and its staunchest defender, Nye Bevan. He resigned in a flurry of mutual disdain between the left and the right of the party. The Labour Party was hurt as a political force and appeared far too divided to lead the country. The Korean War slashed the party’s electoral charm, and played an incredibly significant role in laying the foundations for thirteen years of Conservative political dominance.

Economically, the costs of the war cannot be understated. Focused around re-armament, the war set the treasury back tens of millions of pounds, which put a significant strain on the new welfare state. Attlee’s tenure was remembered for his notoriously high tax burden which illustrates the war’s role in placing such a burden on British families. West Germany’s industry, which had been of vast might historically, was called up to kickstart this military rebuild. Consequently, the war had assisted West Germany in reimagining its role as an economic power. Competition with British manufacturing grew, and the mismanaged factories of the UK were found out. British output and industrial superiority were defeated thanks to the desperate post-war rebuild.

Internationally, the war was quite predictably a hammer to post-war foreign relations. It placed communism and capitalism as violent opposites, and set the potentially fatal benchmark that each side would stop at nothing in the pursuit of global power and dominance. Stalin told Mao that ‘if a war is inevitable, then let it be waged now, and not in a few years’ time’. General Macarthur took a leading role in the war from the American perspective, and manically suggested using nuclear weapons to quell the Chinese threat, although it was never viewed by Truman as viable. Both sides were ultimately prepared for global annihilation just five years after the end of the second world war in the name of victory. Britain was chained to the US by the Anglo-American loan worth billions, and thus had to abide by America’s dogma. Global ideological conflict was entrenched by the Korean War, with Britain at its core.

Ultimately, the forgotten conflict and its forgotten impact held Britain at its centre, if viewed to be on the periphery by most. It displayed Britain’s close, yet one sided camaraderie with the US, namely establishing the principle that the US would stand with America, no matter how unjust. ‘Moral support’ despite Wilson’s opposition to the Vietnam War can easily be construed as an impact of the Korean War. Equally, the placement of Britain on the opposite side of Soviet communism by the war explains why Kennedy personally updated Macmillan on the events of the Cuban missile crisis. At home, the war had a more obvious impact. Economically, Britain was battered and torn; once a goliath of industry, it had been swiftly overtaken by a nation sliced in half only a few years prior. The conflict set the wheels in motion for Conservative dominance and slashed the Labour Party down its middle, enhancing its divisions and rendering the party out of action for 13 years. Ultimately, the Korean War altered the way Britain worked, thought, and acted and is in many ways attributed to shaping the post war fabric of British society.

References

1. Archives, T.N. (2008) Korea and the entry of Britain into the War, The National Archives. Available at: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/korea-entry-britain-war.htm (Accessed: 07 September 2023).
2. Marr, A. (2017) A History of Modern Britain. Pan
3. 180,000 Chinese soldiers killed in Korean War (no date) 180,000 Chinese soldiers killed in Korean War - China.org.cn. Available at: http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-06/28/content_20365659.htm#:~:text=Xu%20said%20in%20the%20article%20that%20from%20October,Aid%20Korea%2C%20as%20it%20is%20known%20in%20China. (Accessed: 07 September 2023).
4. The Korean War (no date) The Royal British Legion. Available at: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/stories/the-korean-war#content (Accessed: 07 September 2023).