Word: pusan
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...tactical mistake of the North Koreans. Apparently overestimating the U.S. strength, the Communists chose to deploy (see map). If they had driven straight on with their main armored force, they would have overrun the tiny U.S. contingent and barreled on through, without opposition, to the crucial supply port of Pusan. If they had done that, Douglas MacArthur, instead of receiving victory plaudits in Seoul last week, would probably have been sitting in Tokyo directing the reinvasion of Korea from Japan. MacArthur instantly recognized the Reds' vital error. Some people ridiculed him for saying on July 20: "The first phase...
...story accompanying the map the editors explained that it looked now like a three-phase war. The first phase was to fight a delaying action toward Pusan and establish a perimeter around this excellent port with both flanks resting on the sea. U.S. & U.N. forces, with control of the air and sea, ought to be able to hold such a protected beachhead indefinitely. The second phase was to build up U.S. strength inside the perimeter. The third phase, as outlined by the editors, was the break out from the Pusan perimeter supported by Allied amphibious attacks behind the North Korean...
...week wore on, the pattern of fighting in Korea changed. The Communists' defense of Seoul, feeble at first, stiffened sharply as they poured in artillery and reinforcements. The Allied attack on Seoul bogged down into a siege. In the southeast, around the old Pusan perimeter, the Reds fought tenaciously for a few days, then began to pull back, very rapidly in some sectors. Elements of the North Korean 9th Division, which had been engaged in the southeast, surprised the Americans by appearing in the lines around Seoul-another example of the amazing mobility of the Red troops...
Across the Naktong. In the U.N. beachhead around Pusan, General Walton Walker's Eighth Army (four U.S. divisions, five South Korean divisions and a British brigade) went over to a general offensive. The aim was to break the enemy ring and link up with the U.N. forces fighting their way east from Inchon. Initial advances along the 120-mile perimeter were spotty. Nevertheless, at week's end Walker's men had established bridgeheads on the west bank of the Naktong...
Between the U.N. anvil at Seoul and the U.N. hammer at Pusan the bulk of the enemy's strength would be pounded. "By employing [our] two great advantages," predicted MacArthur, "we are going to wrest the ground initiative from him . . . If that can be accomplished, these [Communist] forces will sooner or later disintegrate...