Comments by "Doncarlo" (@doujinflip) on "Frozen Hell: Battle of Chosin Reservoir" video.

  1. Ironically many of the PVA were KMT soldiers captured in the closing stages of the Communist takeover and voluntold to deploy to Korea as basically cannon fodder, since the CPC was suspicious of their true loyalties. This could explain why such a large share of Chinese POWs refused to repatriate back to the PRC, even though KMT rule at the time was widely seen as just as blatantly corrupt, inept, and abusive.
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  2. A big thing that wasn't mentioned was how well organized the retreat was -- none of the major equipment or supplies that survived combat to reach Heungnam was left for the Chinese to capture, instead it was shipped out for use in the next year's counteroffensive or destroyed at the docks in the final demolition (which also disabled the port for the rest of the war). In fact after recovering practically all the troops, tanks, and trucks, the UN forces still had enough capacity to rescue almost 100,000 Korean civilians as well, whose descendants today comprise a not-insignificant share of South Korea's population. Meanwhile the successful evacuation mangled Mao's original mission to annihilate his anti-communist adversaries, and the PRC quietly shifted to a strategy of wearing down Western resolve by attrition through deliberately sabotaged ceasefire negotiations over the coming years.
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