Controversies of the Korean War: The Tragedy at No Gun-ri – Part #3

The Aftermath of No Gun-ri

It should be clear by now for most fair minded people that the incident at No Gun-ri was not a planned execution of Korean civilians. It was what I call the “Perfect Storm” of a multitude of circumstances that ultimately led to killing of the South Korean civilians. First of all there was scared soldiers that had been retreating all night from what they percieved to have been enemy tanks. No one knew that the actual North Korean frontline was actually 15 miles down the road due to the chaos of that night plus the fact the regiment had been operating autonumously due to the piece meal deployment that left them without a division headquarters to relay intelligence information to them.

Secondly the unit had many poorly trained soldiers, who had never done any training above a company level much less training with handling refugees and uncoventional warfare due to the nature of their occupation duties and funding of the division.

Thirdly the 7th Cav was missing adequate leadership due to the few experienced NCO’s they did have being removed from the unit and given to the 24ID. Also the soldiers at the bridge were not in their typical unit structure due to being a hodgepodge of soldiers pulled from the road to form the defensive line which caused a situation where there was a lot of Indians and not enough Chiefs to relay orders. So an order is put out to shoot above the heads of the civilians and others down the line without the benefit of training and leader supervision also begin to fire.

The final factor that contributed to this was the fact that the refugees were there to begin with. 28 refugees from the village claim they were removed from the village of Imgae-ri by US soldiers. This claim is possibly true but unlikely as there was US units within three miles of the village at that time.

Here is a quote from the US Army Report I found noteworthy:

While the U.S. Review Team cannot rule out the possibility that the movement of the villagers occurred as described by the Korean witnesses, there was no sound military reason for soldiers to travel approximately three miles off their designated movement route to the village of Im Gae Ri during a hasty withdrawal for the purpose of encouraging an additional 400 refugees onto the already crowded roads and aggravating further the congested conditions. It is also unlikely that the soldiers would have performed this evacuation given the widespread knowledge and fear of North Korean infiltrators believed to be present in refugee concentrations.

Though it is unlikely because of the many valid reasons stated above in the report, but let’s assume the village was evacuated by US soldiers, they would be wrong to do so. The village should of been evacuated by the Korean National Police who would of then escorted the villagers out of the area. Maybe the soldiers didn’t get the message from higher on how to handle evacuating villages and refugees? They were in a chaotic, unorganized retreat and many of the radios had been lost and what leaders were left with radio contact had little ability to pass out orders with everyone spread out everywhere. The bottom line is that there is no conclusive proof to show that US soldiers evacuated the village, only witness testimony which researchers and critics are not allowed to see because the AP won’t release the witness details or transcripts. However, whatever happened at Imgae-ri that caused the villagers to leave was the final part of the perfect storm that put the villagers under the bridge that day in the line of sights of the hodgepodge of 7th Cav soldiers.

I think it is quite obvious by the evidence that these 7th Cav soldiers were not just sitting on a hill waiting for the next group of helpless refugees to shoot at because they were under orders to do so by some general who just didn’t want to deal with refugees anymore.

I also think that it is obvious that 400 people did not die on the bridge that day. I say a maximum of 50 people died that day. By looking at the bridge myself I estimate that if the bodies were hidden under the bridge possibly no more than 50 could be stacked and hidden from the aerial pictures. This is still a tremendous amount of civilian casualties that should not be discounted. The only way I can see 400 deaths is from a combined total of deaths of civilians in the area at the time and not just at the bridge. I would buy that 400 civilians died overall in that area between crossfire between the combatants, stafings, and artillery fire. This is highly possible and villagers are just assuming their relatives died at No Gun-ri.

However, why is 400 dead at the bridge brought up over and over again instead of 50 which the facts more heavily favor? 50 is still a horribly large loss of life. It is because 400 deaths are what Pulitzer Prizes are made of and $400 million in compensation money is awarded from, which remember was never mentioned in the AP article.

What is the motivation of the many veterans who lied about their involvement in this tragedy. Maybe some of these people were disgruntled at the military, wanted notariety, or maybe just simply with age do not remember the incident accurately. Money has also been found to be a motivator. However, the lies caught up with one veteran only looking for his payday:

Prosecutors successfully proved to the court that Daily had filed a claim with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on shrapnel injuries he said he received while he was a Korean War veteran. He also claimed POW status. From February 1986 through the end of 2001, Daily received $324,911 in payments wired to his bank, and $87,928 in medical care for service-related disabilities. The war veteran?s fraudulent claims were discovered following a Stars and Stripes investigation of the Associated Press story about Nogun-ri. Investigators with U.S. News also found discrepancies in the testimonies of witnesses named in the Associated Press story. Declassified Army war diaries and other declassified documents showed that Edward Lee Daily was not a member of a 7th Cavalry Regiment line company. Instead, he was a mechanic with the Army?s 27th Ordnance Maintenance Company. Daily?s claim to be a 1st Lieutenant in the Army was also false, according to his own admission in court.

On September 13, 2002, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger pronounced sentence against Daily. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Daily was sentenced in federal court to 21 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, Daily must repay the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs $412,839?money which he illegally obtained from the government by wire fraud.

I realize that even with the evidence I have displayed some people will never except the possibility that these soldiers were part of what I term a “Perfect Storm” of circumstances that combined to create this tragedy. Some people will continue to maintain these soldiers are racist war criminals and were under orders to kill all refugees and whatever else the current mythology preaches. Some will claim that these guys are war criminals because if they had been there that day they wouldn’t have fired. That is an extremely bold statement coming from someone sitting at home. Getting shot at in a war brings a new perspective to things you cannot even understand unless you are there. Watching Saving Private Ryan doesn’t mean you understand soldiers and the nature of warfare.

Many will also continue to demand compensation for what happened an No Gun-ri. Isn’t the loss of 54,229 (this number includes combat and accidental deaths) American lives, 103,248 wounded, 8,142 MIAs, 3,746 POWs, over 50 years of national security provided by USFK, as well as over 50 years of economic development made possible by the US-ROK alliance enough compensation to Korea? There is nothing more valuable to a country than their youth, and America gave the lives of over 54,000 of their youths plus the ten of thousands of more wounded to give a country no one even heard of before a chance at a better life free from communism. I just hope that fair minded people will give Korean War veterans a chance to restore the honor they have lost by the unfair reporting and sensationalism of this tragedy.

Prior Posting:  What Happened at No Gun-ri?

Next Posting: The Media and No Gun-ri
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I hope I have been able to better educate people that may not know much about the incident to look more into it and to draw their own conclusions because I am quite confident in what I think happened that tragic day in July, 1950. So what do you think? Feel free to place your comments.

Here are some books and links I highly recommend if you have further interest in this topic.

This Kind of War, T.R. Fehrenbach

No Gun Ri, Robert Bateman

The Bridge at No Gun Ri, AP reporters

South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, Roy Appleman

Official US Army Report on No Gun Ri

Korean War Educator