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—— ON THIS DAY ——
JUNE 25, 1950
38th Parallel, Korea
75 years ago
Korean War refugees, 1950 — one of the defining images of a conflict that displaced millions of Korean civilians, killed an estimated 3 million people, and ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty that technically left the two Koreas still at war.
At approximately 4 a.m. on June 25, 1950, North Korean artillery began a bombardment across the 38th parallel — the line that had divided Korea into Soviet-occupied North and US-occupied South since 1945. An hour later, 75,000 North Korean troops crossed the border. The invasion was rapid and devastating: Seoul, the South Korean capital, fell within three days. By September, South Korean and American forces had been pushed back to a small perimeter around the port of Pusan in the southeast. The Korean War had begun.
The war that followed involved the armed forces of the United States and fifteen other UN member nations fighting alongside South Korea, and China entering on the North Korean side in October 1950 after UN forces under General Douglas MacArthur advanced toward the Chinese border. The conflict was characterized by extraordinary swings: the near-destruction of South Korea in the summer of 1950, the US Inchon landing in September that reversed the military situation, the Chinese intervention that pushed UN forces back south, and two years of grinding trench warfare along a front that returned approximately to the original 38th parallel.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
US soldiers in Korea, 1950 — American troops who were among the first UN forces deployed to resist North Korea's invasion, part of a coalition force from sixteen countries that fought under a UN Security Council mandate
The decision by the United States to intervene was made within hours of the invasion. President Truman committed air and naval support within a day and ground troops within a week, acting under a UN Security Council resolution passed in the absence of the Soviet Union, which was boycotting the Council over China's representation. The intervention was officially a UN operation under MacArthur's command, though American forces made up the vast majority of the UN contingent. MacArthur's aggressive advance toward the Chinese border in October 1950, against warnings from the Chinese government, provoked the Chinese intervention that transformed the conflict.
General MacArthur's insistence on aggressive expansion of the war — including proposals to use nuclear weapons and to attack Chinese supply lines inside Manchuria — led to one of the most consequential civil-military confrontations in American history. Truman fired MacArthur in April 1951 for publicly contradicting the administration's policy. MacArthur returned to an enormous hero's welcome; Truman's approval rating fell to 22 percent — the lowest ever recorded by Gallup for a sitting president. The constitutional principle — civilian control of the military — was maintained at enormous political cost to Truman.
The armistice agreement signed on July 27, 1953, established the Demilitarized Zone approximately along the 38th parallel. No peace treaty has ever been signed; the two Koreas are technically still at war. The DMZ remains one of the most heavily militarized borders on Earth. North Korea has since developed nuclear weapons. The Korean War, known in the United States as the 'Forgotten War,' killed an estimated 3 million people — more proportionally, relative to population, than the Second World War in most combatant nations. South Korea, which was devastated in 1950, is now the world's thirteenth-largest economy.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
The Korean War established the template for Cold War 'limited wars' — fought with conventional weapons, with geographic and strategic limits, to avoid escalation to nuclear conflict. The restraint shown in Korea — not pursuing the war into China, accepting an armistice rather than total victory — created a model for how superpowers would manage conflicts in the nuclear age. Vietnam, and later conflicts, operated within this framework.
Truman's firing of MacArthur is one of the clearest examples of the constitutional principle of civilian control of the military. MacArthur was the most famous military figure in the world, a genuine war hero, and Truman was deeply unpopular. Truman fired him anyway. The decision preserved a constitutional principle at enormous political cost and has been cited as the correct action in every subsequent debate about civilian-military relations.
The outcome of the Korean War — an armistice but no peace — has created seventy-five years of unresolved tension on the Korean peninsula. North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the DMZ, the division of millions of Korean families — all are direct consequences of a war that ended in 1953 without being resolved. The Korean War is unfinished in ways that no other major conflict of the twentieth century is.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea and almost won. The US intervened, almost won, China intervened, and everyone ended up approximately where they started. Three million people died. There has been no peace treaty. The war is technically still ongoing. South Korea is now the world's thirteenth-largest economy.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
"It is a curious thing that many who would fight for the right to vote in a democracy do not bother to exercise that right."
— General Matthew Ridgway, commander of US Eighth Army in Korea, 1951 — on the duty of democratic participation
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about the Korean War's beginning, the Inchon landing, the Chinese intervention, Truman's firing of MacArthur, the armistice, and the fact that no peace treaty has ever been signed?
