Harry S. Truman

On June 25, 1950, Communist North Korea invaded democratic South Korea. U.S. president Harry S. Truman convinced the United Nations (UN) to condemn North Korea’s attack and send UN forces, composed largely of U.S. troops, to defend South Korea. Under the leadership of World War II hero U.S. general Douglas MacArthur, UN forces drove the North Koreans to the Chinese border. China then entered the war, forcing UN forces back to the original North and South Korean border, where both sides remained in a bloody stalemate.

MacArthur recommended that UN forces bomb military installations in China and engage the help of U.S.-supported Nationalist Chinese forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, who had been ousted from mainland China in 1949 by Chinese Communists. Truman disagreed; he argued that defending South Korea was necessary to...