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N0KFQ > TODAY 27.06.07 06:33l 97 Lines 4987 Bytes #-6353 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 27
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@ALLUS
1950 : Truman orders U.S. forces to Korea
On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announces that he is
ordering U.S. air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the
democratic nation in repulsing an invasion by communist North
Korea. The United States was undertaking the major military
operation, he explained, to enforce a United Nations resolution
calling for an end to hostilities, and to stem the spread of
communism in Asia. In addition to ordering U.S. forces to Korea,
Truman also deployed the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa (Taiwan) to
guard against invasion by communist China and ordered an
acceleration of military aid to French forces fighting communist
guerrillas in Vietnam.
At the Yalta Conference towards the end of World War II, the
United States, the USSR, and Great Britain agreed to divide Korea
into two separate occupation zones. The country was split along
the 38th parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone
and Americans stationed in the south. In 1947, the United States
and Great Britain called for free elections throughout Korea, but
the Soviets refused to comply. In May 1948 the Korean Democratic
People's Republic--a communist state--was proclaimed in North
Korea. In August, the democratic Republic of Korea was
established in South Korea. By 1949, both the United States and
the USSR had withdrawn the majority of their troops from the
Korean Peninsula.
At dawn on June 25, 1950 (June 24 in the United States and
Europe), 90,000 communist troops of the North Korean People's
Army invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel, catching the
Republic of Korea's forces completely off guard and throwing them
into a hasty southern retreat. On the afternoon of June 25, the
U.N. Security Council met in an emergency session and approved a
U.S. resolution calling for an "immediate cessation of
hostilities" and the withdrawal of North Korean forces to the
38th parallel. At the time, the USSR was boycotting the Security
Council over the U.N.'s refusal to admit the People's Republic of
China and so missed its chance to veto this and other crucial
U.N. resolutions.
On June 27, President Truman announced to the nation and the
world that America would intervene in the Korean conflict in
order to prevent the conquest of an independent nation by
communism. Truman was suggesting that the USSR was behind the
North Korean invasion, and in fact the Soviets had given tacit
approval to the invasion, which was carried out with Soviet-made
tanks and weapons. Despite the fear that U.S. intervention in
Korea might lead to open warfare between the United States and
Russia after years of "cold war," Truman's decision was met with
overwhelming approval from Congress and the U.S. public. Truman
did not ask for a declaration of war, but Congress voted to
extend the draft and authorized Truman to call up reservists.
On June 28, the Security Council met again and in the continued
absence of the Soviet Union passed a U.S. resolution approving
the use of force against North Korea. On June 30, Truman agreed
to send U.S. ground forces to Korea, and on July 7 the Security
Council recommended that all U.N. forces sent to Korea be put
under U.S. command. The next day, General Douglas MacArthur was
named commander of all U.N. forces in Korea.
In the opening months of the war, the U.S.-led U.N. forces
rapidly advanced against the North Koreans, but Chinese communist
troops entered the fray in October, throwing the Allies into a
hasty retreat. In April 1951, Truman relieved MacArthur of his
command after he publicly threatened to bomb China in defiance of
Truman's stated war policy. Truman feared that an escalation of
fighting with China would draw the Soviet Union into the Korean
War.
By May 1951, the communists were pushed back to the 38th
parallel, and the battle line remained in that vicinity for the
remainder of the war. On July 27, 1953, after two years of
negotiation, an armistice was signed, ending the war and
reestablishing the 1945 division of Korea that still exists
today. Approximately 150,000 troops from South Korea, the United
States, and participating U.N. nations were killed in the Korean
War, and as many as one million South Korean civilians perished.
An estimated 800,000 communist soldiers were killed, and more
than 200,000 North Korean civilians died.
The original figure of American troops lost--54,246
killed--became controversial when the Pentagon acknowledged in
2000 that all U.S. troops killed around the world during the
period of the Korean War were incorporated into that number. For
example, any American soldier killed in a car accident anywhere
in the world from June 1950 to July 1953 was considered a
casualty of the Korean War. If these deaths are subtracted from
the 54,000 total, leaving just the Americans who died (from
whatever cause) in the Korean theater of operations, the total
U.S. dead in the Korean War numbers 36,516.
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