During the bad old days when Kim Il Sung — with the backing of Soviet Russia and Communist China — decided to invade the south, blatant, propaganda cartoons was the means by which a war of ideas was fought on all sides. I recently discovered a small but interesting collection of Korean War propaganda leaflets (1952-1953) that is a colorful, miniature collection of war art that is part museum, part opera, that is still awaiting a more complete retrospective look. Above is “Why must your leaders bow to Russian masters?” (3 October 1952) and below is The Communist hand brings fatal deafness to all North Koreans!” (16 May 1953)
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these are excellent! wow. it’s interesting that most of the pamphlets aimed towards the chinese are either telling them to desert before dying or that they are merely the pawns of Joe Stalin. It’s hard for me to believe that these types of messages would be effective.
they should have appealed for ethical considerations of fighting in the war. But I guess the theory was that the chinese wouldn’t be motivated by ethical considerations, but only on survival instinct…
I mean, I would think the Chinese soldiers are well accustomed to fighting with crappy weapons. And I can’t see how some pamphlets can really inspire fear like the actual bombs and tanks they were facing…
Thinking backwards, I don’t think any islamic terrorist would be successful leaving behind large number of pamphlets along the line of “leave iraq before an IED gets you” with a picture of a dead marine. But if they left a lot of pamphlets with a tear jerker story of how an Iraqi boy lost his entire family from crossfire with the message of “leave Iraq, it’s not your war.” Wouldn’t this type of psychological attack be more effective?
I don’t know… Someone in the army please explain to me the utility of messages telling the People’s Army that they are going to die when they clearly make numerous suicidal attacks showing that they just don’t care about their lives…
Actually, Virtual Wonderer, the mass attacks were viewed as a military necessity, owing to UN Command mastery of the skies, and undertaken only after careful consideration of both the objective and the opposing troops. After Kapyong in April 1951, the Chinese never used human wave attacks against western troops again, though they continued to use them against Korean units until late in the war. You can bet that the troops themselves cared very much about their lives, and that the better Communist commanders only used such tactics when absolutely necessary.
As for the Psyop, you have to put in the context of the times. Communism was still viewed as monolithic (as Joe Stalin certainly believed he ran the Comintern, though Uncle Ho and the elder Kim were discovering that Stalin and Mao needed them as much as they needed Russian and Chinese assistance). Also, many Chinese soldiers had previously served in the Nationalist Army.
Regarding the crappy weapons. Due to their recent history, CCF units entered the war with a wide variety of weapons. Battalions within the same regiment might be armed with Russian, American, German, and Japanese small arms. As the war progressed, and the Russians undertook to train both the Norks and CCF in logistics, this was greatly simplified by arming all the CCF with standard Soviet weapons (some of which were copies produced in China).
thank you. One thing i don’t understand about the Korean War is how it became a stalemate. I am told that “most” of the war happened in the first 12 months of the war. (drive to Pusan perimeter, Inchon landing, Chinese intervention) Then I am told that the war essentially seesawed along the 38th parallel before the ceasefire.
With USAF controlling the Korean skies and the Chinese afraid to use “human wave” attack, how did the Chinese manage to hold their line on the 38th parallel? It seems that they did so for well over a year… Were the Chinese just better soldiers than the North Koreans?
hmm…
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