The Beginning of the End (Late 1950)

Abstract

The invasion of South Korea by the North Korean Army was made possibly because the latter had become well-armed, while the United States had withdrawn its occupation forces from the South.¹ Dean Acheson, the American Secretary of State, in a speech of January 1950, had gone so far as to declare that Korea was beyond the United States defensive perimeter in the Pacific. But the invasion of 24 and 25 June was an affront to the principles of the United Nations, and although President Truman’s first reaction was merely to order General Douglas MacArthur, the American Far East Commanderin-Chief, to organise the evacuation of American nationals, he responded on 27 June to an unopposed call from the UN Security Council for military assistance for the South Koreans. The Security Council’s resolution would have been rendered null and void if the Soviet Union had not been boycotting its meetings, as a protest against the non-recognition of the new Chinese Communist régime.