The Korean War Simplified

Among the many consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia’s turn toward democracy and President Boris N. Yeltsin’s eagerness to distance his government from its communist predecessors is the new light being thrown on shadowy corners of history through material plucked from long-secret files.

Slowly and selectively, in a process likely to last for many years, information held in Communist Party, government and secret police archives is being released, adding to understanding about Soviet policy and conduct but also--no less important--confirming much that was already known. Most scholars of Soviet affairs and world communism see the newly available material as a bonanza. But for others, those who have been inclined to excuse the behavior of the Soviets and their allies, the new material threatens to embarrass.

Forty-two years ago today communist troops crossed the line separating North and South Korea in a naked act of aggression. The United Nations quickly acted to condemn and oppose the invasion. There were, though, dissenting voices, some of which echo to this day. South Korea was then ruled by Syngman Rhee, no friend of democracy and no respecter of civil rights. Apologists for North Korea’s action were soon suggesting that Rhee had provoked his enemy in a scheme to reunite his divided country with foreign help.

At a conference in Seoul this week, Gavrill Korotkov, now at the Institute for Military History at the Russian Defense Ministry and in 1950 a political aide to the Soviet Far East army commander, offered further evidence to refute this notion. Korotkov reported discovering archival documents in Moscow showing that “the Korean War was a kind of proxy war waged by Kim Il Sung (then, as now, North Korea’s dictator) under Stalin’s leadership.”

The Soviet military, said Korotkov, directly helped North Korea draft the invasion plans that would set in motion a three-year war. More than 53,000 Americans died during the conflict. Even today, the fate of hundreds of men missing in action remains uncertain. Political and military aspects of the Korean War are proper matters of controversy. But about the origins of the invasion there can be no real dispute.