Report: Korean War-Era Massacre Was Policy

1950 Ambassador's Letter Confirms Policy Of Firing On Civilians Suspected Of Being N. Korean Insurgents

(AP)  Six years after declaring the U.S. killing of Korean War refugees at No Gun Ri was "not deliberate," the Army has acknowledged it found but did not divulge that a high-level document said the U.S. military had a policy of shooting approaching civilians in South Korea.

The document, a letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea to the State Department in Washington, is dated the day in 1950 when U.S. troops began the No Gun Ri shootings, in which survivors say hundreds, mostly women and children, were killed.

Exclusion of the embassy letter from the Army's 2001 investigative report is the most significant among numerous omissions of documents and testimony pointing to a policy of firing on refugee groups — undisclosed evidence uncovered by Associated Press archival research and Freedom of Information Act requests.

South Korean petitioners say hundreds more refugees died later in 1950 as a result of the U.S. practice. The Seoul government is investigating one such large-scale killing, of refugees stranded on a beach, newly confirmed via U.S. archives.

On Sept. 1, 1950, about 2,000 South Korean refugees had gathered on the Pohang beach, 230 miles southeast of Seoul, after North Korean troops took
over their villages in an August 1950 offensive.

They believed they'd be safe because warships of their U.S. allies were just offshore, said Bang Il-jo, 68.

At 2:08 p.m. the U.S.S. DeHaven received the order from its Shore Fire Control Party to open fire, according to the ship's declassified war diary, found at the National Archives by the South Korean newspaper Busan Ilbo and authenticated by the AP.

The Navy crew questioned the order and was told U.S. Army intelligence said enemy troops were among the refugees and "the army desired that group be fired upon."

Within minutes, the DeHaven's 5-inch guns turned the unsuspecting refugee encampment, backed up against a steep hill, into a scene of carnage.

"The sea was a pool of blood," said Choi Il-chool, 75. "Dead bodies lay all over the place." Witnesses say 100 to 200 civilians were killed in the Navy shelling.

Survivor Choi said his older brother and sister-in-law were killed, his brother's body found with head, arms and legs blown off.

"This place was reddish-colored," Choi said, pointing to the curved gravel beach and wiping his eyes with a handkerchief.

"Some were swept away by waves," said Bang, leader of a survivors' group. He said his wounded father died of loss of blood, and his 7-year-old brother of severe abdominal wounds.

The diary noted 15 rounds fired over 11 minutes. The DeHaven ceased fire after hearing from an air spotter that "personnel consisted almost entirely of old men, women and children," the shipboard report said. Refugees had been desperately waving white undershirts at the plane.

"They knew we were refugees," Bang said. "There were no (North Korean) People's Army soldiers among us. How could they do that to us?"

Survivors speculated that an earlier observer plane may have seen the refugees scrambling under a sudden rain shower and viewed this as suspicious.

Without giving specifics, the ship's diary asserted there were "very light casualties ... due to fire having been directed to scatter and chase personnel."

Survivor Bang said most shells did fall just offshore, but their shrapnel cut through the throngs of refugees at the water's edge. He said the Americans offered no medical aid.

No Gun Ri survivors, who call the Army's 2001 investigation a "whitewash," are demanding a reopened investigation, compensation and a U.S. apology.

Harvard historian Sahr Conway-Lanz first disclosed the existence of Ambassador John H. Muccio's 1950 letter in a scholarly article and a 2006 book, "Collateral Damage." He uncovered the declassified document at the U.S. National Archives.

When asked last year, the Pentagon didn't address the central question of whether U.S. investigators had seen the document before issuing their No Gun Ri report. Ex-Army Secretary Louis Caldera suggested to The Associated Press that Army researchers may have missed it.

After South Korea asked for more information, however, the Pentagon acknowledged to the Seoul government that it examined Muccio's letter in 2000 but dismissed it. It did so because the letter "outlined a proposed policy," not an approved one, Army spokesman Paul Boyce argues in a recent e-mail to the AP.

But Muccio's message to Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk states unambiguously that "decisions made" at a high-level U.S.-South Korean meeting in Taegu, South Korea, on July 25, 1950, included a policy to shoot approaching refugees. The reason: American commanders feared that disguised North Korean enemy troops were infiltrating their lines via refugee groups.

"If refugees do appear from north of U.S. lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot," the ambassador told Rusk, cautioning that these shootings might cause "repercussions in the United States." Deliberately attacking noncombatants is a war crime.

Told of the Pentagon's rationale for excluding the Muccio letter from its investigative report, No Gun Ri expert Yi Mahn-yol, retired head of Seoul's National Institute of Korean History, suggested the letter was suppressed because it was "disadvantageous" to the Pentagon's case.

"If they set it aside as nothing significant, we can say that it was an intentional exclusion," he said.

[ov442]

I agree with whitman's comments.
My uncle is a retired USMC 1st division and fought his way out of the chosin resevoir. He did his duty, he saved marine lives, and he hated killing. He doesnt like to talk about it. But he does know GWB and his antics with this lying sham the Iraq war is a crime against Americans and Iraqis. Bush is responsible. Even if he really was blissfully ignorant, he hired all these convicted and disgraced cronies and the buck stops on the desk in the oval office. period.
Cheney's company Halliburton has gotten rich off our taxpayer dollars, and bush's family and friends have done the same with hiked up oil prices. The whole thing was a sham and the doubters and critics were right even before they had proof. Now they have boatloads of proof.

[j-whitman]

impq1,,,
Personally, I would like Bush to stop trying our troops for murder -- At least untill he is tried for twisting intell to take us to war & the murder of of thousand's of civilians.

[j-whitman]

impq1,,, Maybe you should demand Bush appologizes for deserting our country & active duty in Viet Nam ---- Now he has made us a debtor nation to a Communist country - Communism we fought & died to prevent.

[agnim]

We noticed that one of those INNOCENT Korean civilians re-incarnated, and returned to Virgina Tech to do a bit of PAYBACK -- like shooting fish in a bowl? LOL

[impq1]

Screw them colateral damage. should have let the n.koreans and the chinese take over then we wouldn't have suffered 55,000 dead and S.Korea wouldn't be a thriving country. Why now, what purpose can this serve?? After 57 years we have people coming forward???? Please, war is hell
I KNOW...let go...I'm a proud member of Vista VFW Post 7041 and I listen to the Korean combat vets tell their story and I watch them sob openly, So now what do you want all these scared kids who grow old with the carnage fixed firmly in their minds to do ....Apologize? for what?..let some loser like Ted Kennedy apologize for the united states, maybe even donate some of that boot-leg money his old man made. LM

[StageRt]

"decisions made" at a high-level U.S.-South Korean meeting in Taegu, South Korea, on July 25, 1950

The salient point is, who were the South Korean representatives at this meeting?
Where/why are they hiding now?

[aznyron-2009]

let see now if your a liberal you hate the USA & military some how that message does not resinate with me I am a liberal and I love my country and I support my troops I will tell you who I do hate I hate big business for exploiting countries around the world and stealing there resources and I hate orginized religion because they just preach hate towards people who do not agree with them I hate politicions who sell out there voters I hate bible thumpers who carry a bible under one arm and pick your pocket with the other arm
I hate people who called me a communist because I support orginized labor some people try to do good and get accused of being a traitor or some other name living in peace is better than war and it seems all we do is fight some kind of war to make the defense cont. wealthy along with oil and auto makers and rubber plants some how I believe the human race can do better to me it all look like a power struggle who will get control in the end

[tuckerndfw]

Posted by haneyr at 08:55 PM : Apr 14, 2007

Your comments and opinions do not alter the fact that Europeans have a long history of slaughtering men, women and children.

We like to call it "collateral damage" to avoid facing the fact it is literally "slaughtering innocent men, women and children."

And, then make excuses by claiming we needed to slaughter them to save lives. That is the same excuse used throughout history when governments slaughtered innocent men, women and children.

Saddam Hussein used that same excuse. As did Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and everyone else throughout history.

BTW, did you know that there was a great deal of debate within the military when bombs became the weapon of choice? Some military leaders resigned rather than employing what they considered a device that targeted innocent men, women and children.

Obviously, we have long gotten over that hesitation as evidenced by the wanton use of bombs, rockets and missiles in every war since WWII.


Including the war in Iraq.

[haneyr-2009]

Tucker once again you are so fixated on slanting your agenda you dismiss facts that show otherwise.

I state once again: This is not an American or European issue. It is a human issue. Compare what the Japanese did in WWII to what the Germans did and it is much worse. Every victim of American atrocities you mention are themselves guilty of the same tar brush in their history.

Another fact constantly left in articles such as these is, where are they now?

How many South Koreans are wanting to emigrate to the North??? ZERO!

Where is East Germany today?

Which country is the second largest economy in the world? JAPAN (debatable with China)

Why is the TV show 24 one of the most poplular? Think Abu Graib would be a good series?

Inside each one of is an evil desiring to get out. It is only a matter of morals and society position that dictates the final outcome.

WAR IS HELL and always will be. Whether it is on your neighborhood street or in a foreign country.

To fix a car you can't stand outside and grumble about how bad it is. You have to get in it and get dirty before you can fix it. Or you can pay someone else to do it and suffer what ever results you end up with because you were either too lazy or too proud in yourself.

[tuckerndfw]

I as a proud retired military member will stand and fight with my countries brave men and women serving today just so you whiny ostriches can continue to spew your hatred and half-truthes in a forumn of no meaning at all.


Posted by haneyr at 08:24 PM : Apr 14, 2007

I assure you that in my three years as a Military Police officer, I dealt with far more than four rowdy soldiers ("criminals").

But, what does that have to do with the fact that slaughtering men, women and children is the policy of the US and has been since before the US was even invented?

Europeans were slaughtering men, women and children long before they arrived in the Americas and began slaughtering native Americans.

Stating facts is not intended to disparage anyone, including US soldiers who are doing their best to deal with some extremely difficult situations. Many of the "criminals" I dealt with were psycho from serving in combat. Maybe they were psycho before they went into combat, but one thing was sure, it didn't much help them.

The fact remains that Europeans have a long history of slaughtering men, women and children. A practice that continues today.

[gkc99]

Didntinhale may not have inhaled, but it looks like he's drunk the fascist Koolaid!

Care to offer any factual rebutal, Mr. Tight Whitey Right?

[haneyr-2009]

WOW Tucker boy FOUR misfits out of how many thousands of outstanding men and women in the military???? Good thing you were one of the few good guys the military had at the time.

Lets get our facts straight people. This IS NOT an American issue or a European issue, NOR IS IT an oil issue. It is called human history. NO society on earth has ever had a claim on being pure and decent. What happened in Korea is totally unacceptable to everyone except the guys on the front line trying to survive in a war with no human decency on either side. BUT at least the atrocities committed by the American's pales in comparison to what the North Korean and South Korean armies did. Why do you think they are not the ones bringing any of this to light?

I as a proud retired military member will stand and fight with my countries brave men and women serving today just so you whiny ostriches can continue to spew your hatred and half-truthes in a forumn of no meaning at all.

[tuckerndfw]

Posted by didntinhale at 04:45 PM : Apr 14, 2007


Unlike you, I actually served in the US Army as a Military Police Sergeant.

And, I know what kind of people are in the military. I helped escort four of them to the military prison at Leavenworth, Kansas. My assigned prisoner was convicted of rape and murder.

But, what does that have to do with the fact that the Europeans, upon arrival in the Americas, set out to slaughter anyone who opposed their "colonization"?

And, what does that have to do with the fact that General Sherman routinely slaughtered (or starved) men, women & children on his "march to the sea"?

Or, what does that have to do with the fact that the US (and "allies") routinely carpet bombed, fire bombed or otherwise indiscriminately slaughtered men, women and children in every war since WWII? Ultimately, using a hydrogen bomb which slaughtered 100's of thousands of men, women and children in Japan?

Europeans have a long history of slaughtering innocent men, women and children. A practice which continues today in Iraq, Iran, Palestine and anywhere else the US decides to operate.

[oceanc1]

If our policy was the same as it was in the 1940's amd 50's the war in Iraq would be over. The pick and choose targets does not work.

[missingamerica]

I also believe you should divorce this story from your opinions about Abu Ghraib and so on that are occurring in Iraq.

It takes time to build up a corp of interrogators who can be successful without stooping to barbaric methods. Our military was not given that time.

Recall those infamous words from Donald Rumsfeld: "As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want".

The blame for everything about Iraq lies at the feet of those who forced our military to go to war understrength, under-provisioned, and under-trained to achieve an objective they never defined.

[randalds]

The people who ordered our troops to do this and other policies like it are mentally ill. They are (as well as anyone who supports these atrocities) the most un-American people in the our nation. People who believe that we have to somehow climb down into the filth with our enemies, slaughter indiscriminately, rape, murder or torture do not have the right to call themselves Americans any longer, because they have lost sight of what it is they're supposed to be fighting for. They have already surrendered what they were supposed to be defending. There is no possible excuse for slaughtering civilians like this and anyone who ordered this atrocity (as well as anyone who supports it) should be stripped of their citizenship and expelled from this country permanently.

[missingamerica]

The military is held to the Geneva conventions, but the politicians are not.

Unfortunately, to become a member of "high-ranking officials" you must become a politician regardless of your uniform, because it is the real politicians who define the entry fee. I give you Rumsfeld's treatment of military officials who disagreed with him as an example.

Further, you will notice that the ambassador quoted does not appear to have expressed any qualms about the policy.

Korea, Iraq, wherever and whenever - the military has to do what the politicians say, no matter how morally repugnant. Either that, or retire and risk someone with absolutely no morality filling your spot - leaving no one there to temper the orders when possible to shield the troops, the non-combatants, and the nation itself.

So the guiding rule becomes "Thou shall not get caught carrying out your orders when you cannot gracefully disobey them.".

[jonny_chaos]

what good is a military if its not ready to kill the enemy? this is what it takes to win. that is why civilized socities avoid war. why are the europeans such cowards. because for somewhere around 1000 years you had constant genocidal warfare. every 20 years you have to rebuild your entire economy and society. how many of your daughters do you want expossed to that before you decide peace is better? heroics are all fine and dandy, but its nice to hug your family at the end of the day no matter what religious calling you profuse.

[jonny_chaos]

Hey, funny stuff. this is US military policy. trample and destroy. that%u2019s why diplomats are crucial. this is the policy we%u2019re using in Iraq and losing, Afghanistan and losing, Vietnam and lost, Korea, we lost and wait, also the Philippines(we won! Sort of),Indian wars, etc. nice, to see your dedicated to bashing %u201Cliberals%u201D however people that don%u2019t question authority or orders are kind of stupid (tools). brute force only works so long. why do we have so many gangs and drugs in this country, cause you declared war and you got war. (your losing) this policy only works if you can kill all your enemies. the Nazis tried it and the PR was bad. Bush missed that lesson, as do the rest that forget this is about money and power, if your dumb enough to rally round a human, you get what you deserve. US morals, eugenics, think about that. fat people were sterilized, pre-30s, and blacks, retards, debtors, Jews, whatever wasn%u2019t inbred white meat. you better hope you read your bible, and remember the guys that wrote it were less educated then a kindergartner in the 70s. bible and TV, and no empathy. without the understanding that you were lucky to American. If all you can do is label and follow, here is a label and a path, label, TOOL, path, Go to Hades. call me a liberal if you like. But I may be more right then you. After all incarcerate and kill is all you got. and well, that%u2019s not a lot.

[tuckerndfw]

I'm not sure who invented the myth that US forces are white knights in shining armor, but it is a myth.

Europeans ("Americans") have been murdering men, women and children since the Spanish first arrived in the Americas with Catholic priests to bless them for slaughtering innocent men, women and children.

Not to mention their habit of slaughtering men, women and children before they came to the Americas. Likewise with papal blessings.

After hundreds of years, habits are hard to change.