Matthew Ridgeway, one of three American Savior Generals

History, especially American History, is one of my favorite past-times; would that more Americans, especially the young, be likewise interested.  Unfortunately, for decades, our young in particular, and older Americans in general, have been brainwashed by elites in education, government and the press who have bought into the godless principles of progressivism and have deprive the American people of the knowledge of leaders who have espoused the true history and spirit of America. 

In Victor Davis Hanson’s The Savior Generals -  How Five Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost, we are introduced to one of three unique American generals who had the ability and foresight to turn defeat into victory.

North Korean Communist Forces had invaded South Korea in June of 1950 in a surprise attack, driving scant American and South Korean forces to a region around the city of Pusan in Southeastern South Korea.  Now started the “police action” under a United Nations resolution to drive the communists from South Korea, under the overall command of General Douglas MacArthur.  MacArthur’s famous landing of new american forces at Inchon near Seoul, the South Korean capitol, hundreds of miles in the rear of the communist North Koreans, led to their massive defeat and a consequent furious drive of UN forces up into North Korea, reaching the Yalu river, the northern boundary of all Korea, in a short few months.  

During this drive northward, Chinese Communist forces had been infiltrating into North Korea and building up strength across the Yalu for a massive attack.  Inadequate intelligence never detected this buildup; when the Chinese moved, the resulting rout of Allied forces was a military embarrassment and disgrace.

Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgeway was appointed in late 1950 to replace the commanding general of all United Nations forces in Korea, who had been killed in an auto accident.  At this point in time American, UN and South Korean forces were in a chaotic condition.  They had lost confidence in themselves and their commanders, having been ill equipped to fight in bitter cold and attacked without warning; given no plans for coping with this new enemy, who fought by stealth and night tactics.  At home, thousands of miles away, the people, military leaders, politicians and journalists and General MacArthur himself in his post in Tokyo, all assumed a defeatist attitude and were contemplating withdrawing American troops.

The war was lost.

General Ridgeway alone was confident that his forces could turn things around and drive Communist forces out of South Korea while not risking disaster by going back into North Korea.  He saw that americans had control of the air and could hammer the communists if he slowly moved South along defensive lines already in place.  Each such move lengthened the supply lines of the communists which were then subjected to destruction by air power.  He moved his headquarters up to the front lines and led from the front with his men.  

He made sure his men had adequate clothing to bear the cold; adequate food and supplies.  Most of all he responded to the doubts of his men about fighting in a war far away from home with no justification for sacrificing their lives; he assured them they were fighting to restore the freedom of those subjected to tyranny for decades.  He re-instilled in them the principles of the American fighting man: fighting for the restoration of freedom and liberty under God for all men and women.

He fought with his men and sent mediocre generals packing, replacing them with new generals promoted from colonels who would fight.  He retreated slowly,  turning air power on clusters of the enemy; in a matter of weeks, communist forces were so weakened that he counterattacked and kept up an offense.  Within 100 days in the Spring of 1951, he pushed the communists back across the 38^th  parallel.  The war was no longer lost.  The war was won even though it took two more years of stalemate around the 38^th before a peace treaty was signed.

An interesting note is that Ridgeway did not believe in a volunteer army because those without military training would not experience a sense of duty to their country; instead they would be soft and subject to the pleasures of life without commitment to the values of american culture.  That is precisely what is happening to our youth today under the Progressives.

Another notable action of Ridgeway's was to integrate the American forces; blacks and non-blacks were no longer to fight in separate units but to fight together.  He was a commander of unique vision and quality.

2013 marks 60 years of the end of the Korean War with 60 years of  peace and freedom for South Korea.