任何历史问题,尤其是敏感的政治性问题,往往会根据政治立场存在不同的说法,而这其中往往有一方在说谎。在1990年代,接触了一些美国的历史书籍后,我发现中美对朝鲜战争的看法存在巨大的差异。核心问题是美国方面的一些观点:(1)中国军队数量为美军若干倍;(2)共军人海战术,被美军击毙上百万;(3)共军无理袭击联合国;(4)中国虐待俘虏;(5)联合国优待俘虏;(6)一万多志愿军战俘自愿去了台湾。带着对这些问题的疑问,我阅读了若干英文历史资料。准备一劳永逸地SETTLE这些问题。
在军事问题上,我主要参考了美军的战史,并与共军战史相比对。我发现,美军的战史往往只见树木不见森林,描写战斗详细到营排一级,比如BLAIR的书,长达一千多页。但战略部署基本没有介绍。而共军战史,往往战略意图交代非常清楚。二者正好可以互补。
在政治问题上,鉴于美国人和中国人写的历史明显带有强烈的意识形态和感情色彩,形容词太多,我因此弃而不用,完全采取了英国人的历史著作。关键问题上,为了减少争议,我采用引用的方式,而非转述。
比如说,在志愿军伤亡数量问题上,我使用的方法是分析美军的杀伤的统计数字来源,比如某次战斗的杀伤数量。一旦你追究到这个细节,就会发现,即使是美国的军史学家也认为,美军的数字是SPECULATION,其总和也就缺乏基本可信度。
经过相当长时间的努力,终于在1998年完成了《KOREAN WAR FAQ》。这个FAQ发布在网上基本成为KOREAN WAR的相关问题的定论,被很多学习朝鲜战争历史的人作为参考。这个FAQ也曾经一度被美军网站作为朝鲜战争的参考资料。10多年来,不断有人(包括访问CMF的不少美军人士)试图向这个《KOREAN WAR FAQ》提出质疑,但最后都鸦雀无声了。因此它经受了时间的考验。此FAQ于1998年发表之后,我几次想补充一些内容,但一直没有时间。以下是该FAQ的目录(链接)。
Korean War FAQ
Copyright(C) DXY, 1998, All rights reserved.
- What is the purpose of the Korean War FAQ?
- Why did PRC send troops to Korea?
- What was China's military objective in the Koren war?
- Did PRC warn US/UN before it sent troops?
- Why did PRC send troops under the name of volunteer army?
- When did PVA first enter Korea?
- What was an army in PLA unit hierarchy?
- How was the PLA equipment in the Korean war?
- What were PVA's tactics and strategies in Korean war?
- Who was the PVA commander in Korea?
- How did PVA's strength compare to that of US/UN forces at the second campaign?
- How did PVA perform in its first campaign against US/UN forces?
- How did PVA perform in the second campaign?
- How about the third PVA campaign?
- How did PVA perform in the 4th campaign?
- How about the 5th campaign?
- Why was PLA 180th Division lost?
- What happened after the 5th campaign?
- What was the PVA and UN numerical strength at various stages of the Korean war?
- What is "human wave" tactics?
- How many casualties did PVA suffer?
- How many casualties UN suffered?
- Why did the truce talk drag for so long?
- How were Chinese and NK POWs treated by US?
- How did Chinese treat POWs?
- What was the big dispute on POW repatriation?
- Was the "voluntary repatriation" a violation of the Geneva Convention?
- If the repatriation was voluntary, why did the POWs revolt?
- Why were so many Chinese POWs repatriated to KMT regime in Taiwan?
- How many western POWs choose not to repatriate?
- What did Mao say about US after the Korean war?
- Did US consider the use the A-Bomb in Korea?
- As a side question, did US threaten China with nukes after the Korean war?
- How many civilians were killed by US forces in Korea?
- What was the lesson China learned from the Korean war?
- What is the future outlook of Sino-US relations?