Why couldn't United States fight off China when they joined the Korean war?
The Chinese army is a fast learner and innovative.
There are three Korean Wars: In the beginning, it was a civil war within Korea, and that was none of the business of America and China. Then America joined in to help the South. After some American fighter planes across the Yalu River, intruded the Chinese sovereignty, China then sent troops into Korea.
As we can see, there was no such thing as fighting off China. China was not in the battles until America intruded on China. It was China fighting off America by driving Americans all the way to the 38 parallel.
Before 1927, Mao had no arms and no army. Chiang killed all the communists he could and more (innocent people were mistaken as communists). It was the April 12 massacre. Then Mao decided to arm the peasants. At that time, Mao's army used only sickles and hoes as weapons against Chiang's guns and cannons, and airplanes. The question is then, why Chiang cannot wipe off the communists when they had no arms or their arms were so primitive?
Chiang cannot wipe off Mao because Mao's army was so innovative that they learn and developed guerrilla war. Guerrilla war was used in rural areas. Chiang with advanced weapons cannot wipe off the small and primitive guerrilla army.
Mao's guerrilla army not only sustained Chiang's brutal attacks, but also sustained the Japanese brutal invasion, and grew.
After the surrender of Japan, Chiang had a number of armies double that of Mao. Chiang's army was trained by American military experts and armed with advanced American weapons, while Mao had only riffles. Within three years of the Civil War, Mao's guerrilla learned the formal war of conquering the cities, and normal battlefield tactics drove Chiang to Taiwan.
Then in the Korean War, Mao's army was facing a modern American army who just triumphed in Europe defeating Germany, and in the Far East defeating Japan. Mao's weapons and troops were not trained for this kind of modern war, with tanks and airplanes, and cannons.
Mao always wins with a small army and an inferior weapon against a large army with advanced weapons. Why?
Mao believed in people. Mao said that the determinant factor of the war is people, not the weapon. Mao let commanders implement their initiatives, and the commanders allow the soldiers to have their judgment and initiatives on the battlefield. American soldiers carried out orders on how to fight a war, while Mao's soldiers carried out orders of what the mission had to achieve. Mao viewed the soldiers as capable and respectable men. Mao's army is equal between commanders and soldiers. Commanders and soldiers respect each other, take care of each other, and love each other. Every soldier has the discretionary decision-making right on the battlefield.
Mao was not a dictator. He consulted his commanders and let them come up with their plan and strategy for a campaign. Mao did have good ideas, which he did not dictate but conveyed to his commanders and let them come up with the plan just as Mao intended. In this way, the execution of a plan was most effective as every level of officials and soldiers know the intention of the battle, and each of them takes the intention as their own.
Mao has the most humanist army in the world and in human history. The US never won, not in the Korean War, not in the Vietnam War. The US cannot win such an army.
The west military academy calculates the resource, and weapons, and treated soldiers as tools. According to the calculations, none of the wars Mao carried out could win. The Western military theory can never explain why the US lost in the Korean War.
