In article ,
"George Z. Bush" writes:
If you knew your history, or were around at the time, you'd know without being
told that the only reason the US was in that "police action" at all was that the
Soviet Union, during those relatively early UN Security Council days, took a
walk during one of their political snits when the subject came up for
discussion. The SC, in their absence, approved UN intervention in behalf of
South Korea; had the Soviet ambassador been present during that SC discussion,
they could easily (and undoubtedly would have) vetoed it, since they had the
right to do that as all original members of the Security Council could.

That's not entirely so, G.Z. U.S. troops moved from Japan to Korea
before the U.N. debates, and U.S.A.F. airplanes were shooting down
airplanes and dropping bombs pretty much from Day One. The North
Koreans crossed teh 38th Parellel on June 24, 1950, The U.S. comiited
Air and Naval forces to supporting the ROK Army on Jume 26. The
U.N. Resolution authorizing force was passed on the evening of June
27. (Remember, we're talking about MacArthur, here.)


So, to answer your question, they fought in behalf of North Korea because North
Korea was one of their client states to whom they furnished all kinds of
military equipment and supplies, as well as the training in their use. They
fought for the NKs because they did not want the world to think their MIG
aircraft, in the hands of relatively green NK pilots, couldn't be competitive
with US military equipment. If they could have turned back the clock, there
wouldn't even have been a war, because they'd have prevented it from happening.
That's it, in a nutshell.

Well, the NKPA Air Force dissolved in the first month. The MiGs that
first appeared were Soviet, flown by Soviet Pilots. (151st Guards
Fighter Aviation Division) They first appeared in November, 1950,
about 3 weeks after the U.N. had reached, and the Chinese crossed the
Yalu. The Chinese were getting pretty badly beaten up by
U.S. tactical airpower, which consisted of F-80s, F-51s, and B-26s
(The Douglas ones) at that time.
None of them could, however, compete with the MiGs. The Chinese
didn't start flying their own MiGs in combat until late 1951. The
North Koreans didn't start flying theirs until they got some pilots
trained in late 1952 - whether any made it into combat is a matter of
some dispute.

Now, mind you, they _did_ go to great lengths to hide their
involvement.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster