The Iron Triangle As A Historical Showdown Of The Korean War
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Spring of 1952, between the mountainous region of Kumwha, Pyongyang, and Chorwon Korea known as the “Iron Triangle”, would become a historical showdown between the United Nations and Korea. In June 1952, the United States Army appointed General Mark Wayne Clark, commander of the US Fifth Army during World War II, to overall command on the Korean Peninsula as a replacement for the leaving commander General Matthew Ridgeway (Ecker, 2010). General James Van Fleet, commander of the Eighth United States Army, viewed the Iron Triangle as a shifting point in the Korean War (Ecker, 2010). For this reason, the battle would take place from October 14 to November 25, 1952, in attempt of the United States to gain control of The Iron Triangle. Knowing that the opposing forces were only effective in burst, General Fleet ordered his troops to form a blockade around the triangle, rendering retreat for the enemy obsolete. Initially, The Battle of Triangle Hill better known as Operation Showdown was supposed to be a small-scale offensive drafted with the goal of being a ridge capturing operation (Ecker, 2010). This tactic would improve the defensive line of the US infantry forces located north of triangle hill, by pushing enemy defenses back 1,250 yards, however, Operation Showdown would be overruled by General Mark Wayne Clark (Ecker, 2010). During this time at Panmunjom, military officials of both the United States and South Korea talked negotiations in regards to the POWs that