South Korea United States Forces in Korea
Figure 17. Organization of South Korean and United States
Forces in South Korea, 1988
Source: Based on information from Republic of Korea, Ministry
of National Defense, Defense White Paper, 1987, Seoul, 1988; and
Taek Hyong Rhee, US-ROK Combined Operations, Washington, 1986,
31-47.
In the confusion of the early days of the Korean War, Seoul
placed its armed forces under the command of General Douglas
MacArthur as United Nations (UN) commander. This arrangement
continued after the armistice. For some twenty-five years, the
United Nations Command headquarters, which had no South Korean
officers in it, was responsible for the defense of South Korea,
with operational control over a majority of the units in the
South Korean military. The command was the primary peacetime
planning organization for allied response to a North Korean
invasion of South Korea and the principal wartime command
organization for all South Korean and United States forces
involved in defending South Korea. In 1978 a binational
headquarters, the South Korea-United States Combined Forces
Command (CFC), was created, and the South Korean military units
with front-line missions were transferred from the UN Command to
the CFC's operational control. The commander in chief of the CFC,
a United States military officer, answered ultimately to the
national command authorities of the United States and the
Republic of Korea
(see
fig. 17).
Historically, operational control of South Korea's tactical
armed forces has made the United States commander vulnerable to
the politics of association. United States commanders have
rigidly avoided commentary on South Korean party politics,
confining public statements to purely military matters on such
issues as arms buildups and threats from North Korea. However, in
the complex politics of the Korean Peninsula, the United States
commander's military opinions often have been publicly
manipulated as support for Seoul's authoritarianism.
In May 1961 and December 1979, the command structure was
breached by South Korean troops participating in military coups.
A more complex set of circumstances occurred in May 1980, when
troops were withdrawn from the CFC under existing procedures and
dispatched to Kwangju to respond to the student uprising.
Confusion in the South Korean public over the particular
circumstances of the incident, the United States position, and
the limits of the CFC's control led many South Koreans to believe
that the United States fully supported the violent suppression of
the uprising. The lack of an accurate historical record for
nearly ten years generated widespread misunderstanding, and it
has been credited with the rise of anti-Americanism in South
Korea, a movement which continues.
Only after President Chun stepped down at the end of 1987,
and the opposition in the National Assembly grew stronger, did
the United States begin answering the questions concerning United
States involvement in Kwangju. On June 19, 1989, Washington
issued the "United States Government Statement on Events in
Kwangju, Republic of Korea, in May 1980," in response to formal
requests from the National Assembly. The statement addressed a
series of questions related to the rise to power of then
Lieutenant General Chun Doo Hwan. The statement noted no prior
knowledge of the assassination of President Park Chung Hee, nor
warning of the December 12, 1979, íncident, in which a group of
South Korean army officers led by Major General Chun seized
control of the military. It was revealed that Washington
repeatedly protested to the government and the military
leadership about the misuse of forces under the Combined Forces
Command. The report also stated that South Korean authorities
gave the United States two hours advanced warning of the
extension of martial law on May 18, 1980, and no prior warning of
the military's intention to arrest political leaders or to close
both the National Assembly and the universities.
The statement clearly noted that none of the South Korean
forces deployed at Kwangju were, during that time, under either
the operational control of the CFC or the control of any United
States authorities. Additionally, the United States had neither
prior knowledge of the deployment of special forces to Kwangju
nor responsibility for their actions there. The report addressed
the use of the Twentieth Division, CFC, and clarified that the
CFC agreement allowed both the United States and South Korea to
assert control over its forces at any time without the consent of
the other. According to the statement, the United States was
informed in advance of intentions to use elements of the
Twentieth Division to reenter Kwangju, that United States
officials, after cautioning against the use of military force to
solve a political crisis, accepted that it would be preferable to
use the Twentieth Division rather than Special Forces units (but
the latter were also involved). The report further documented
that the United States repeatedly protested public distortions of
Washington's actions and policy by Seoul and the South Korean
press, namely allegations that the United States knew either of
the December 12 incident in advance or of the extension of
martial law, or that Washington approved of the Special Forces
actions in Kwangju.
While the report rebutted most of the myths of American
culpability for events in 1979 and 1980, the ten-year delay in
issuing the report did little to resolve the misgivings held by
many South Koreans, who still persisted in believing that the
United States was in some way a party to the military takeover in
May 1980, and the harsh suppression of the Kwangju demonstrations
that followed.
In 1990 a few hundred United States military personnel were
assigned to the United Nations Command headquarters in
P'anmunjom, in the DMZ, and were responsible for representing the
United States at meetings of the Military Armistice Commission.
Because the Seoul and P'yongyang governments had never negotiated
a peace agreement after the Korean War, the sometimes shaky 1953
armistice concluded between the United Nations Command, North
Korea, and China remained the only formal channel for handling
complaints about violations of the truce.
There were 32,000 United States Army personnel in South Korea
in 1990; most were assigned to the Eighth Army, which included
the Second Infantry Division, the Seventeenth Aviation Brigade,
and other detachments deployed north of Seoul as part of the
joint South Korean-United States forward defense strategy. If a
conflict were to occur, the Second Infantry Division would be
expected to serve as a reserve force for the South Korean army on
one of the main invasion routes between the DMZ and Seoul. United
States Army personnel with command or planning responsibilities
for combat units also were assigned to the headquarters of the
CFC and to the headquarters of the Republic of Korea-United
States Combined Field Army, of which the Second Infantry Division
was the main American component. The remaining United States Army
personnel were assigned to support the missions of selected
United States and South Korean combat units, serving primarily in
communications, logistics, and training positions.
There were 12,000 United States Air Force personnel in South
Korea in 1990. They were assigned to units responsible for early
warning, air interception, close air support of United States and
South Korean ground forces, combat support, aircraft maintenance,
and the transportation of personnel and supplies from the United
States, Japan, and other United States military installations in
the Pacific. The Seventh Air Force, headquartered at Osan Air
Base, was the command element for all United States Air Force
organizations in South Korea. United States Lockheed U-2 high-
altitude reconnaissance and South Korean Grumman E-2C early
warning aircraft patrolled the North Korean border and monitored
the Soviet Union's air and naval activities in the Sea of Japan
area. Advanced F-16 fighter aircraft were used by tactical
fighter squadrons based at Osan and Kunsan. These squadrons
operated alongside South Korean air force tactical squadrons in
both air interception and close air support roles. South Korea
and the United States jointly managed the South Korean tactical
air control system, which had wartime responsibility for North
Korean airspace and the entire South Korean coastline. The United
States Military Airlift Command was responsible for transporting
United States military personnel, weapons, and supplies from the
United States and locations in the Pacific to South Korea.
United States Navy and United States Marine Corps personnel
in South Korea consisted of about 500 officers and enlisted
personnel who occupied critical staff and liaison positions in
the CFC. The United States Pacific Command in Hawaii frequently
deployed units of the United States Pacific Fleet, based in
Japan, and units of the marine corps, based in Okinawa and other
locations in the Pacific, to South Korea for joint training
exercises, particularly Team Spirit, held every spring to promote
South Korean-United States military cooperation and readiness.
During the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the United States Seventh Fleet
operated in the Sea of Japan and was assigned specific missions
to assist units of the CFC in discouraging P'yongyang from
attempting to disrupt the Olympic Games.
Data as of June 1990
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