Operation Blacklist Forty

Operation Blacklist Forty
Part of the Cold War
American forces in Korea on September 8, 1945
Location	Korean Peninsula
Objective	Occupation of Korea south of the 38th parallel
Date	1945–1948
Executed by	United States
Outcome	Successful operation: End of the Japanese rule of Korea Establishment of the United States Military Government Establishment of the Republic of Korea

Operation Blacklist Forty^[1] was the codename for the United States occupation of Korea between 1945 and 1948. Following the end of World War II, American forces landed within the present-day South Korea to accept the surrender of the Japanese, and help create an independent and unified Korean government with the help of the Soviet Union, which occupied the present-day North Korea. However, when this effort proved unsuccessful, the United States and the Soviet Union both established their own friendly governments, resulting in the current division of the Korean Peninsula.^[1]^[2]

Background

The partition of Korea into occupation zones was proposed in August 1945, by the United States to the Soviet Union following the latter's entry in the war against Japan. The 38th parallel north was chosen to separate the two occupation zones on August 10 by two American officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, working on short notice and with little information on Korea. Their superiors endorsed the partition line and the proposal was accepted by the Soviets. The Americans hoped to establish a representative government supportive of American policy in the region, and the Soviets hoped to establish another communist nation friendly to their interests.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Occupation

The flag lowering ceremony in Seoul during the official Japanese surrender of Korea on September 9, 1945

The American occupation force composed of 45,000 men from the United States Army's XXIV Corps. The first of the American forces to arrive in Korea was a small advanced party that landed at Kimpo Airfield near Seoul on September 4, 1945. Another small advanced party, consisting of fourteen men of the 7th Infantry Division, sailed into Inchon on September 8, and the main landing began on the following day. According to author Paul M. Edwards, the United States government had little interest in Korea, and relied on General Douglas MacArthur, who was in command of the occupation of Japan, to make most of the post-war decisions. MacArthur, however, was already "overloaded" with the work that needed to be done in Japan, so he ordered the commander of Operation Blacklist Forty, Lieutenant General John R. Hodge, to maintain a "harsh" occupation of Korea. Hodge set up his headquarters at the Banda Hotel in Seoul, established a military government, declared English to be the official language of Korea, and began the process of building an independent Korean government that was friendly to the United States.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Hodge was considered a great battlefield commander, but a poor diplomat. There is little doubt he disliked Koreans, and was ignorant of their culture and how it differed from that of the Japanese. As a result, Hodge made many mistakes, including issuing an order to his men to "treat the Koreans as enemies." Furthermore, due to a shortage of manpower, Hodge allowed the old Japanese police force to remain on duty for crowd control and similar work. He also retained the colonial Japanese government, at least initially, until he could find suitable American replacements. However, following a complaint from the Korean people, the American military government in Tokyo officially had Korea removed from Japan's political and administrative control on October 2, 1945. Thus, the Japanese administrators were removed from power, although many were henceforth employed as advisors to their American replacements. Edwards says that General Hodge's most significant contribution to the occupation was the alignment of his military government with that of Korea's wealthy anti-Communist faction, and the promotion of men who had previously collaborated with the Japanese into positions of authority.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Author E. Takemae says that the American forces were greeted as occupiers, and not as liberators. He also says that the Americans held the Japanese in higher regard than the Koreans, because of the former's military background, and appreciated Japanese knowledge and administrative skills, which they did not find among the Koreans. As it turned out, the Americans found that it was easier to deal with Japanese authorities in regards to the handling of Korea, instead of dealing directly with Korea's many different political factions. According to Takemae; "[I]n the eyes of many Koreans, the Americans were as bad as the Japanese."^[3]

USS San Francisco off the Korean coast on September 28, 1945

Preparations for the withdrawal of American and Soviet forces from the Korean Peninsula could not begin until the United States and the Soviets could agree to establish a unified Korean government friendly to both nations' interests. However, the Soviets refused to accept any idea that did not involve the creation of a communist state, and therefore the negotiations were fruitless. As result of this disagreement, the United States sent the "Korean question" to the United Nations (UN). The United Nations agreed to take up the challenge in September 1947, and proceeded with providing the Koreans with UN-supervised elections. The Soviet Union, however, made it clear that any decision made by the United Nations would only apply to the portion of Korea south of the 38th parallel, and that anything north of the parallel would be determined by either itself or the new Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). Nevertheless, the elections were held, and the exiled Korean leader, Syngman Rhee, was inaugurated president of the new Republic of Korea (South Korea) on July 24, 1948.^[1]^[4]

The American and Soviet occupations of Korean ended soon after, leaving the Korean peninsula divided. According to Edwards, most Americans were glad to be gone. By 1950, Korea, or Far Eastern affairs in general, had become of such small importance to the Americans that on January 5, 1950, President Harry Truman said that he would not intervene in the clash between the Chinese Communists and the Nationalists on Taiwan, or on the Chinese mainland, and seven days later Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that "Korea was now outside the American sphere of influence." Despite this, the United States and South Korea signed a military assistance pact on January 26, 1950, but only $1,000 worth of signal wire had arrived in country by the time of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Edwards, Paul M. (2006). The Korean War. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313332487.
1 2 3 4 Edwards, Paul M. (2010). Combat operations of the Korean War: ground, air, sea, special and covert. McFarland. ISBN 0786458127.
1 2 3 4 Takemae, E. (2003). The Allied Occupation of Japan. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0826415210.
↑ Morison, Samuel Eliot (1965). The Oxford History of the American People. Oxford University Press.

Korean War

Participants	Australia Belgium and Luxembourg Canada China Colombia Ethiopia France Greece Netherlands New Zealand Democratic People's Republic of Korea Philippines Republic of Korea Thailand Turkey South Africa Soviet Union United Kingdom United States Arkansas Army National Guard Puerto Rico

Medical (non-combat) participants	Denmark India Italy Norway Sweden

Popular culture	Documentary films Films Books Reenactment MAS*H

Order of battle	Australia China United Nations contingents United States Eighth Army United States Seventh Fleet

Other	Aftermath Allegations of biological warfare American and British defectors Armistice Flying aces Impact on the economy of the United States MiG Alley Operation Blacklist Forty Operation Glory United Nations Memorial Cemetery Weapons

Cold War

USA USSR ANZUS NATO Non-Aligned Movement SEATO Warsaw Pact

1940s	Hukbalahap Rebellion Dekemvriana Yalta Conference Operation Unthinkable Potsdam Conference Gouzenko Affair Operation Masterdom Operation Beleaguer Operation Blacklist Forty Iran crisis of 1946 Greek Civil War Corfu Channel incident Turkish Straits crisis Restatement of Policy on Germany First Indochina War Truman Doctrine Asian Relations Conference Marshall Plan 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Tito–Stalin Split Berlin Blockade Western betrayal Iron Curtain Eastern Bloc Western Bloc Chinese Civil War (Second round) Malayan Emergency

1950s	Bamboo Curtain Korean War 1953 Iranian coup d'état Uprising of 1953 in East Germany 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Partition of Vietnam First Taiwan Strait Crisis Geneva Summit (1955) Poznań 1956 protests Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Suez Crisis Syrian Crisis of 1957 Sputnik crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis Cuban Revolution Kitchen Debate Bandung Conference Bricker Amendment McCarthyism Operation Gladio Iraqi July Revolution "We will bury you"

1960s	Congo Crisis Sino-Soviet split 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Soviet–Albanian split Berlin Wall Portuguese Colonial War (Angolan War of Independence Guinea-Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence) Cuban Missile Crisis Sino-Indian War Sarawak Communist Insurgency Iraqi Ramadan Revolution 1963 Syrian coup d'état Vietnam War 1964 Brazilian coup d'état United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965–66) South African Border War Transition to the New Order Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War 1966 Syrian coup d'état Argentine Revolution Korean DMZ Conflict Greek military junta of 1967–74 USS Pueblo incident Six-Day War War of Attrition Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Malaysia Communist Insurgency War Invasion of Czechoslovakia Iraqi Ba'athist Revolution Goulash Communism Sino-Soviet border conflict CPP-NPA-NDF rebellion Corrective Move

1970s	Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September in Jordan Corrective Movement (Syria) Cambodian Civil War Realpolitik Ping-pong diplomacy 1971 Turkish military memorandum Corrective Revolution (Egypt) Four Power Agreement on Berlin Bangladesh Liberation War 1972 Nixon visit to China 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War Carnation Revolution Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Ogaden War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino-Albanian split Cambodian–Vietnamese War Sino-Vietnamese War Iranian Revolution Operation Condor Dirty War Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Seven Days to the River Rhine Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union

1980s	Soviet–Afghan War 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts 1980 Turkish coup d'état 1986 Black Sea incident 1988 Black Sea bumping incident Solidarity Soviet reaction Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Able Archer 83 Star Wars Invasion of Grenada People Power Revolution Nagorno-Karabakh War Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Revolutions of 1989 Glasnost Perestroika

1990s	Mongolian Revolution of 1990 Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Frozen conflicts	Abkhazia China Korea Nagorno-Karabakh South Ossetia Transnistria Sino-Indian border dispute

Foreign policy	Truman Doctrine Marshall Plan Containment Eisenhower Doctrine Domino theory Hallstein Doctrine Kennedy Doctrine Peaceful coexistence Ostpolitik Johnson Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrine Nixon Doctrine Ulbricht Doctrine Carter Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Rollback Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War

Ideologies	Capitalism Chicago school Keynesianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics Reaganomics Supply-side economics Thatcherism Communism Marxism–Leninism Castroism Eurocommunism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Maoism Naxalism Stalinism Titoism Liberal democracy Social democracy

Organizations	ASEAN CIA Comecon EEC KGB Non-Aligned Movement SAARC Safari Club MI6 Stasi

Propaganda	Active measures Izvestia Pravda Crusade for Freedom Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Red Scare TASS Voice of America Voice of Russia

Races	Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race

See also	Brinkmanship NATO–Russia relations Soviet espionage in U.S. Russian espionage in U.S. American espionage in the Soviet Union Soviet Union–United States relations US–Soviet summits

Category Portal Timeline List of conflicts

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Operation Blacklist Forty

Background

Occupation

See also

References