Just 5 years after the end of World War II, the Soviet-equipped military forces of North Korea invaded the Southern part of the Korean peninsula on June 25, 1950. The war was fought initially with the materials of the second world war, but as the fighting progressed, more and more modern weaponry found its way into the conflict. Initially, the B-29 Super Fortress, the mainstay of the strategic bombing forces of the U.S. against Japan in the Pacific war, were mobilized to attack the North Korean forces. The main concern at the start of the conflict was how to keep the war small and not to get the Soviets or Chinese overtly involved. Things took a turn for the worse by the summer, as North Korean forces drove back the armies of the Republic of Korea and U.N. forces, (mainly U.S.), to the southern part of the peninsula around Pusan. With the threat of annihilation of the U.N. forces, the nuclear option was openly discussed.
The first two U.S. nuclear weapons developed were used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki and end the war in the Pacific in 1945 and I have often wondered why nuclear bombs were not used in the Korean War and what would have happened if they were used. The initial Plutonian bomb used against Nagasaki, (called Mark 3), was hand-built and difficult to use. Since the end of WWII, the U.S. had developed a process to mass-produce a new type of Plutonian bomb, (Mark 4), and had nearly 300 on hand at the start of the Korean War. At this time the Soviets were frantically developing their own nuclear weapons and the Chinese were still years away from a bomb of their own. The U.S. was the only nation able to deliver a nuclear weapon, even though the B-29s which would carry them were nearing their obsolesce. In actuality, all of the American nuclear bombs remained under the control of the Atomic Energy Commission and not the military and none had been deployed outside of the U.S. At the time it was thought that if nuclear weapons were used in Korea, the effect would not be decisive and would not deter further fighting.
In a game of nuclear bluff, (which was to be repeated by both sides for the entirely of the Cold War), President Truman ordered General Curtis LeMay, (head of the Strategic Air Command), to send 20 B-29s to England with fully assembled Mark 4 Plutonian bombs. These bombers were well within striking range of the Soviet Union. For the first time, nuclear weapons had been given to the military, except for one small thing, none of the bombs had their Plutonian cores. Events were getting a bit tense, then suddenly, it all changed. On September 15, A flank attack with an amphibious landing west of Seoul quickly cut the North Korean supply lines and drove their forces back up the peninsula. As the North Koreans faced defeat the Chinese got involved, and invading with an army of 200,000 men, drove the U.N. forces back. It was time to discuss the nuclear option again.
President Truman ordered nuclear capable bombers from Guam to a base in Okinawa near the Korean Peninsula. As fighting raged, practice bombing runs were made over the battlefields with dummy or conventional bombs to test out strike capabilities. By June 15, 1951, the fighting was winding down to a sort of trench warfare style conflict, (and would continue for two more years), the bombers were sent back to Guam. By attacking the Chinese, who were basically walking to combat through the mountainous landscapes of North Korea, it was not deemed a good use of the U.S. nuclear capabilities and definitely not what the bombs were made for. Actually, the only way to make an atomic bomb dangerous to others, was not to use it.
(Below, B-29s dropping conventional bombs over Korea. These World War II era bombers had to contend with the fast new Soviet MiG-15 jet fighters, the future of war was becoming a dangerous one.)
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