jun 25, 1950 - North Korea launches an invasion into South Korea

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"Korea, like Germany has been jointly occupied by Soviet and American forces at the end of WWII. The nation had been part of the Japanese empire since 1910, and when Japanese resistance suddenly collapsed in the summer of 1945, the Red Army, which has been planning to invade Manchuria, found the way open into northern Korea as well. The way was also open, in southern Korea, for some of the American troops whose original mission had been to invade Japanese home islands." (Gaddis 2006, p. 41)

"South Korea was in and of itself of little importance to the global balance of power, but the fact that it had been invaded so blatantly – across the 38th parallel, a boundary sanctioned by the United Nations – appeared to challenge the entire structure of post-war collective security. It has been just this sort of thing that had led to the collapse of international order during the 1930s, and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. Truman hardly needed to think about what to do: “We can’t let the UN down”, he repeatedly told his advisers." (Gaddis 2006, p. 43)

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