Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Six months after Secretary of State Dean A cheson singled out Japan as the only Asian country in whose defense the US would take immediate, unilateral military action, 95,000 North Koreans invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. On the same day as the U nited N ations asked members for troops to repel the aggressors, 27 June, Harry S. T ruman sent US air and naval forces to Korea; a day later, he ordered US Army units there from Japan. The US ultimately contributed 48 percent of all United Nations forces, and both UN commanders in chief: Douglas M ac A rthur and Matthew Ridgway. By August, Communist forces had trapped UN troops within a 140-mile perimeter circling the Pusan Peninsula. On 15 September, MacArthur landed US troops behind enemy lines at Inchon harbor, and the next day UN forces at Pusan began breaking out of their encirclement to crush the Communists between themselves and MacArthur. By 30 September, the North Koreans had lost 100,000 men and fled from the south. Two columns of UN troops pursued the Communists far into North Korea until 25 November, when 330,000 Chinese soldiers intervened at the Changjin and Chosin reservoirs. By 4 January 1951, the Chinese had inflicted heavy losses on the UN command and captured Seoul. UN forces resumed the initiative by 21 February with a counter-offensive that retook Seoul on 15 March and virtually cleared South Korea of Communist ... log in or subscribe to read full text