Photo By Lori Stewart | This communist leaflet advised American soldiers of the risks of resistance and argued...... read more read more
Subscribe
by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
KOREAN WAR PROPAGANDA LEAFLEFTS
Seventy-five years ago, early on Jun. 25, 1950, the North Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the Republic of Korea (ROK). Three days later, the ROK capital of Seoul fell. The North Koreans nearly overwhelmed the southern part of the peninsula before U.S. forces, under United Nations (U.N.) auspices, landed and established a toehold at Pusan. U.N. forces pushed gradually north to the Yalu River, at which time the Chinese Communist Forces crossed into Korea and forced the Americans back across the 38th parallel. By mid-1951, negotiations for peace had begun although military action continued throughout the peninsula for two more years. An armistice signed on Jul. 27, 1953, finally ended the fighting and left the two Korean nations divided along the 38th parallel.
Throughout the war, both the communist and United Nations forces relied heavily on propaganda leaflets as a relatively inexpensive way to exploit soldiers’ fears of failure and death. They were used not only to weaken the enemy’s morale and resistance but also to inform civilians about the war and warn them about imminent offensives. Some “Safe Conduct Passes” provided soldiers with instructions on how to surrender and promised them humane treatment as prisoners of war.
The U.S. dropped more than two billion leaflets during the three-year war, aiming to fulfill Secretary of the Army Frank Pace’s order to “bury the enemy in paper.” The U.S. leaflets came in a variety of sizes and were often dropped from aircraft in bomb-like containers with time-release hatches. The North Koreans and Chinese, lacking the U.N. forces’ aerial capabilities, typically delivered their leaflets by hand.
The U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence Command History Office’s collection of Korean War leaflets was donated by Harold Hunt. In November 1953, then 1st Lt. Hunt was a quartermaster officer assigned to a Graves Registration Company. While helping to recover the bodies of American soldiers who died in the April-July 1953 Battle of Pork Chop Hill, he collected a variety of leaflets from the battlefield. Hunt’s collection includes leaflets produced by both the communists and Americans and are written in English, Chinese and Korean.
New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 06.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2025 16:28 |
| Story ID: | 501168 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Korean War Propaganda Leaflets (1950-1953), by Lori Stewart, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
