The Inch’on Landing, an amphibious assault at Inch’on, pushed the North Koreans out of Seoul and back to their side of the 38th parallel. Initially, this new strategy was a success. Now, for the Allies, the Korean War was an offensive one: It was a war to “liberate” the North from the communists. As a result, dangerous intestinal diseases and other illnesses were a constant threat.īy the end of the summer, President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), the commander in charge of the Asian theater, had decided on a new set of war aims. Also, it was one of the hottest and driest summers on record, and desperately thirsty American soldiers were often forced to drink water from rice paddies that had been fertilized with human waste. The North Korean army was well-disciplined, well-trained and well-equipped Rhee’s forces in the South Korean army, by contrast, were frightened, confused and seemed inclined to flee the battlefield at any provocation. As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the United States readied its troops for a war against communism itself.Īt first, the war was a defensive one to get the communists out of South Korea, and it went badly for the Allies. “If we let Korea down,” President Harry Truman (1884-1972) said, “the Soviet will keep right on going and swallow up one after another.” The fight on the Korean peninsula was a symbol of the global struggle between east and west, good and evil, in the Cold War. South Koreaġ0 Times America Helped Overthrow a Foreign Government READ MORE: What Caused the Korean War and Why Did the US Get Involved? North vs. The Korean peninsula is still divided today. refer to as “the Forgotten War” for the lack of attention it received compared to more well-known conflicts like World War I and II and the Vietnam War. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.S. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south.
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