People's Volunteer Army - Background

Background

See also: Chinese People's Volunteer Army order of battle

Although the UN forces were under American command, this army was officially a United Nations "police" force. In order to avoid an open war with the US and other UN members, China deployed the People's Liberation Army (PLA) under the name "volunteer army". The name was also an homage to the Korean Volunteer Army that had helped the Chinese Communists during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, and it managed to deceive the US intelligence about the size and nature of the Chinese forces that entered Korea. Technically speaking, the PVA was the PLA's North East Frontier Force (NEFF), with other PLA formations transferred under NEFF's command as the Korean War dragged on.

As the UN troops drove to the Yalu River bordering China, the Chinese, who worried that the UN forces would not stop at the Yalu River, warned Western leaders that such an action would not be tolerated. Many Western leaders, including General Douglas MacArthur, wanted to invade China. However, President Harry S. Truman and other leaders disagreed, and MacArthur was ordered to be very cautious when approaching the Chinese border. Eventually, MacArthur disregarded these concerns, arguing that since the North Korean troops were being supplied by bases in Manchuria/China, those supply depots should be bombed. However, for the most part, UN bombers remained out of northeastern China during the war.

MacArthur refused to believe that the Chinese would really enter the war and ignored warnings from the Indian ambassador.