Following our great victory at Inchon, realizing the North Koreans could be totally defeated and the Nation reunited under a democratic government, the United Nations authorized General MacArthur to cross the 38th Parallel and drive to the Yalu. Setting surprise and speed as the top priorities had been the secret to MacArthur's success at Inchon in the first place. However, China considered our crossing the 38th as a threat to their own new government, infiltrated hundreds of thousands of veteran foot soldiers into Korea in secret, and ambushed our over-extended armies. Against troops experienced in years of guerilla warfare, planning and preparation proved to be far more important than speed.

Routed, desperately falling back as fast as possible to avoid further battle, our troops made the longest retreat in our Nation's history. There were bloody back and forth battles for the next six months, then two years of bitter fighting in trenches across all Korea, leading at last to a Cease Fire. During all this, countless innocent civilians suffered and died.

The civilians in this photo would have been murdered like tens of thousands of South Koreans, simply as political opponents of Kim Il Sung's North Korean government.

Indeed, maybe they were all murdered. Their escape route was far more perilous than ours.