The UN Divisions

MacArthur divided the UN forces under his command into two groups. One group included the Eighth Army under the command of Lt. Gen. Walton H, Walker and X Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Edward M. Almond. They were directed to head north toward the Chinese border. The first prize of the campaign was Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. A race developed between the American and South Korean units for the honor of capturing the city. When the South Koreans reached Pyongyang on October 20, however, the event in the Soviet embassy had already fled the rubble-strewn city. One soldier reported that the "single prize was a waterhouse chock-full of canned food and whiskey, which the hungry GIs greedily devoured." MacArthur was delighted with the success of his forces and urged them to move at full speed toward the Yalu River, the dividing line between North Korea and the Chinese province of Machurian. In defiance of specific instructions to the contrary, MacArthur ordered both American and ROK forces to move toward the Chinese border. The Eighth Army under General Walker proceeded up the west coast of the Korean peninsula. X Corps,

largely marines and some ROK divisions, under General Almond headed north along the narrow, steep, mountainous trails on the east side of the peninsula. These troops were to arrive at the border from two directions. By proceeding in this manner, General MacArthur violated some of the most basic rules of military science. He divided his small force and sent them against the potential might of the Chinese troops, who were close to their own base of supplies. Moreover, the Eighth Army and X Corps could not communicate by phone because of the height of the hills separating them. They could not assist one another in case of attack because they were separated by a twenty-to-thirty-mile gap. MacArthur began to receive reports from his field commanders that they had seen Chinese soldiers among the North Korean troops. But MacArthur urged the UN forces on until one American unit from the Eighth Army acually reached the Yalu River late in Octover 1950. On returning from the Yalu, that unit was surrouned by Chinese forces and largely destroyed in a savage attack. The Chinese then engaged other units in an action that lasted four days. Then, in one of the strangest events of military history, the victorious Chinese communist forces left the field of battle on November 6. French troops reported seeing them withdraw into the hills. They had disappeared. Acheson told President Truman in Washington that "they seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth." From Tokyo, MacArthur took this deprture to mean that only a few Chinese soldiers stood between the UN forces and the Yalu River and complete victory. He did not see it as a warning of the potential strength of the enemy. Nor did he remember his instructions to withdraw rather than engage Chinese troops. Boldly, MacArthur announced the beginning of what he and most people believed would be the final campaign of the Korean War. On November 24, MacArthur launched his "home by Christmas" campaign.