From east coast to west coast in Korea, Thanksgiving dinner is eaten by many troops in bitter

cold and in in congruous settings.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1950, US soldiers in Korea enjoyed an all-American meal.

Bloody of turkey and fixings for each.

It's not the family dining room and the temperature may be a little low, but the scenery is okay

and the chow is good.

But these American troops did not know was at that very moment as they tucked into pumpkin

pie shipped all the way from the United States.

They were surrounded by thousands of Chinese soldiers in the hills.

The Chinese soldiers, members of the People's Volunteer Army, had not at any point enjoyed

the kind of feast the Americans had laid out.

The most that each Chinese soldier carried was a bag of cereal mix.

Since the richest military power in the world, these soldiers held rifles and hand grenades.

Against the Korean winter, hitting 30 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, they wore nothing

but tennis shoes.

Yet, they were about to drive every American soldier out of North Korea in just a few weeks.

Welcome to Blowback.

I'm Brendan James and I'm Noah Colman and this is season 3 episode 7, Mao's poem.

In July 1988, a handful of retired generals of the People's Liberation Army, Chinese Red

Army, had a tea party.

It was coming up on the 35th anniversary of Armistice in Korea.

There was no fear of professional repercussions or political score settling.

...