Can the Korean war lead to WW3

The KMT didn't loose quickly. It took 4 years for them to be kicked out of the mainland. And yes they did have support and supporters too. But one of the first things the CCP did in areas they took over did was to crack down on anyone likely to support the KMT. Any KMT attack, whether US supported or not is pretty much doomed to failure
 

Kongzilla

Banned
would the KMT begin bombing campaigns of some sort, attacking the nearby infantry divisions and what not with american supplied planes. I think the Americans were talking with Chiang after the outbreak of the war in korea to try and convince him to attack but he said no.

Could the convince him to do aerial attacks drawing off forces from korea.
 
Ok, could MacArthur bomb the manchurian airfields to stop any chance of Chinese aircraft and then proceed to take all of Korea instead of stopping near the 38th parallel.

The UN forces took pretty much all of Korea by November 1950 as it was. There were (as is traditional) US Soldiers taking a wee in the Yalu.

would the KMT begin bombing campaigns of some sort, attacking the nearby infantry divisions and what not with american supplied planes. I think the Americans were talking with Chiang after the outbreak of the war in korea to try and convince him to attack but he said no.

Could the convince him to do aerial attacks drawing off forces from korea.

Other way around. The KMT were keen to attack China during the war, but the US wasn't keen on them doing - they may have had an idea just how badly it would have gone.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
The UN forces took pretty much all of Korea by November 1950 as it was. There were (as is traditional) US Soldiers taking a wee in the Yalu.



Other way around. The KMT were keen to attack China during the war, but the US wasn't keen on them doing - they may have had an idea just how badly it would have gone.

But weren't they pushed back. Could it all be retaken by 1953 and kept that way. Maybe USAF fighters accidentally strafe a chinese village that is to close to the border allowing a chain of events resulting in a large scale war in asia.

I always thought it was americans that were keen. Was the KMT looking for a ground invasion or just attacking with arty etc
 
There wasn't the political will to advance north of the 38th a third time.

While the US was quite happy to back the KMT, the thought was that Korea was quite enough trouble at once.

As for straifing Chinese territory, USAF fighters on many occasions shot down MiG's over Manchuria, some as they were taking off and landing.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
Is there any way for the Chinese to consider an all out war with the Americans and other UN nations and actually using their PLA forces instead of "Volunteer forces". Also if that happened how many planes would china need to beg, borrow and steal from russia to put up an effective resistance against the UN air forces.

Also I was thinking with all this going on in Asia the NATO says ok to a west german army and allows them to become a fairly effective fighting force by 1953, if the West German armed forces hear about the anti soviet uprising in berlin could they potentially attempt to retake east germany.
 
Henry Kissinger revealed that in reality, in late 1949 Mao was hoping to approach the west as a strategic ally like Tito, and that the White House viewed Mao as a potential partner.

Kissinger therefore concludes that in fact Stalin convinced Kim Il Sung to being the Korean War in order to create a conflict between Mao and the UN. Mao was in fact a reluctant participant who was manipulated by Stalin. Notice how the Soviet Union barely participated in the Korean War.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
Does this mean that Mao can be convinced by Stalin to all out attack the UN if they think there is a perceived threat.

So there really is no way to stop a nuclear use in europe. could there be another way
 
If I am reading you correctly, you want a big enough Chinese attack to provoke a nuclear reaction causing WW3 in Europe.

You really run into the same issues I've mentioned previously that the Chinese cannot support a large enough army in Korea to overwhelm the UN to point of defeat.

I'd note too that a lot of the Chinese "volunteers" were members of the KMT army that had turncoated earlier and weren't fully trusted. This was their opportunity to prove their devotion to the movement.

EC: I think Kissenger was overlooking to degree of angst that the "loss of China" provoked at the time. It's doubtful that any approach by Mao would have been accepted at that point.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
I'd prefer no nuclear reactions in europe, I was simply looking for another World war preferably without the Nukes and I thought Korea was as good a time as any for it to start
 
I'd prefer no nuclear reactions in europe, I was simply looking for another World war preferably without the Nukes and I thought Korea was as good a time as any for it to start

That's difficult if not impossible at any point, but it's especially impossible in the late 40s and early 50s, when the US could actually win a nuclear conflict for a meaningful version of "win".

I'm enormously skeptical that any world war between nuclear-armed powers could be kept conventional. But in the 60s the US was led by people who were at least willing to consider it as a possibility.
 
Would the US use nukes if they were on the offensive?

In the 40s, the US nukes would be the offensive. There was a general expectation - I'm not qualified to judge if it's accurate or not - that the Red Army was far too powerful for NATO to beat in a fair fight. The US warplan was to fall back on the ground while Strategic Air Command devastated Russia from the air.
 
In the 40s, the US nukes would be the offensive. There was a general expectation - I'm not qualified to judge if it's accurate or not - that the Red Army was far too powerful for NATO to beat in a fair fight. The US warplan was to fall back on the ground while Strategic Air Command devastated Russia from the air.

That was definately the USAF's plan. The navy and army had other ideas, but the USAF was getting the lions share of the budget thanks to SecDef Louis Johnson and the AF were quite active in making sure that no-one else was going to have a say in it. (They were for example adamantly against the USN or the Army getting their hands on any nukes).
 

Kongzilla

Banned
Can the USN and US Army convince the Government that they can defeat the soviets and infact push them back. If east germany is anything to go by. Most people aren't going to like having the soviets in their country.
 
If you want to provoke WWIII then you need multiple incidents.
A few in combination I think could spark it:

Soviet pilot captured alive in Korea flying DPRK marked jet.
Shooting incident in Berlin, Soviet troop accidentally shoots an American civillian.
American aircraft strays over the Alaskan border and is shot down.
Have that kick off just before or while the chinese launch their first offensive and plausibly it'll only take one more thing to trigger WWIII - Soviet patrol gets lost on the Austrian border and shoots it's way back for example?
 
Top