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Though the Korean War started on this day 65 years ago—June 25, 1950—when North Korean tanks crossed the 38th parallel, the boundary with South Korea, TIME's reporting from the following week reveals it took several days for the United States to realize the scope of what had happened.
It was early Sunday morning in Korea, the middle of Saturday afternoon in Independence, Mo. In the former, TIME reported, "North Korean radio broadcast war whoops" as "past terraced hills, green with newly transplanted rice, rumbled tanks." In the latter, U.S. President Harry Truman was visiting with friends and supporters in his home state when he received a telephone call from Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
About a day passed. In Korea, American civilians were evacuated as the Southern army rallied to try to hold the line. The 38th parallel was, one State Department official admitted, an entirely arbitrary line, chosen by the World War II victors in Potsdam with no consideration for the geographical, economic or political realities of the country—but it was the border, nonetheless, and it had been crossed. In the U.S., Truman returned to the capital to meet with advisers. The nation had already taken a side and promised help, but the question of how to help was unresolved. "As the tense White House conferences stretched through Sunday night and Monday," TIME reported, "that question merged with another: Would the rapidly retreating South Koreans be able to hold out long enough for the U.S. to act?"
South Korean President Syngman Rhee said publicly that he was disappointed with the American response: "Our soldiers are very brave. They sacrifice themselves against the tanks . . . Korea is very hard up because aid was so slow. It is too little and too late." Via North Korean radio, the South was urged to surrender.
Then, on Tuesday, June 27, President Truman and his advisers came to a decision. "Shortly after 11 a.m., the U.S.'s political and military policymakers began to arrive at the White House from the State Department, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill," TIME reported. "By 11:30 they had closed the high doors of the Cabinet Room behind them. Outside 100 reporters thronged the executive lobby or stood by telephones in the adjacent press room. Exactly at noon, Presidential Secretary Charles Ross stirred them into a whirlwind as he passed out the text of the gravest, hardest-hitting answer to aggression that the U.S. has ever made in its peacetime history."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-the-korean-war-started/ar-AAc6ZIa
It was early Sunday morning in Korea, the middle of Saturday afternoon in Independence, Mo. In the former, TIME reported, "North Korean radio broadcast war whoops" as "past terraced hills, green with newly transplanted rice, rumbled tanks." In the latter, U.S. President Harry Truman was visiting with friends and supporters in his home state when he received a telephone call from Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
About a day passed. In Korea, American civilians were evacuated as the Southern army rallied to try to hold the line. The 38th parallel was, one State Department official admitted, an entirely arbitrary line, chosen by the World War II victors in Potsdam with no consideration for the geographical, economic or political realities of the country—but it was the border, nonetheless, and it had been crossed. In the U.S., Truman returned to the capital to meet with advisers. The nation had already taken a side and promised help, but the question of how to help was unresolved. "As the tense White House conferences stretched through Sunday night and Monday," TIME reported, "that question merged with another: Would the rapidly retreating South Koreans be able to hold out long enough for the U.S. to act?"
South Korean President Syngman Rhee said publicly that he was disappointed with the American response: "Our soldiers are very brave. They sacrifice themselves against the tanks . . . Korea is very hard up because aid was so slow. It is too little and too late." Via North Korean radio, the South was urged to surrender.
Then, on Tuesday, June 27, President Truman and his advisers came to a decision. "Shortly after 11 a.m., the U.S.'s political and military policymakers began to arrive at the White House from the State Department, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill," TIME reported. "By 11:30 they had closed the high doors of the Cabinet Room behind them. Outside 100 reporters thronged the executive lobby or stood by telephones in the adjacent press room. Exactly at noon, Presidential Secretary Charles Ross stirred them into a whirlwind as he passed out the text of the gravest, hardest-hitting answer to aggression that the U.S. has ever made in its peacetime history."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-the-korean-war-started/ar-AAc6ZIa
Posted in these groups: 
Korean War
Military History
Korean War Military History
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 12
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You should also remember that (to the Koreans) there were NOT "two" Koreas - there was only one. This means that (to the people of the Northern half of Korea) they were NOT invading anyone, they were uniting their country.
Mind you, once the bullets started to fly, the US really had no option but to support Syngman Rhee (whose election the US government had carefully stage managed) despite the fact that he was a crass, venal, thieving, murderous thug whose government had reduced the number of people who didn't support him by around 50,000 people per year through the simple expedient of having the Army shoot them.
BTW - Did you know that Syngman Rhee had been the president of the Korean Provisional Government (a government in exile) from 1919 to 1925, only leaving office due to the minor technicality that he had been impeached and tossed out on his butt?
Mind you, once the bullets started to fly, the US really had no option but to support Syngman Rhee (whose election the US government had carefully stage managed) despite the fact that he was a crass, venal, thieving, murderous thug whose government had reduced the number of people who didn't support him by around 50,000 people per year through the simple expedient of having the Army shoot them.
BTW - Did you know that Syngman Rhee had been the president of the Korean Provisional Government (a government in exile) from 1919 to 1925, only leaving office due to the minor technicality that he had been impeached and tossed out on his butt?
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I was going to vote for 1945.
"Japan capitulated in August 1945. An effort to construct an independent government for the entire Korea was made in September 1945 by the statesman Lyuh Woon-Hyung. However, he had to step down under pressure from the United States Military Government. An initiative to hold general and free elections in the entire Korea came up in the United Nations in the fall of 1947. However this initiative did not materialize because of disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union: During this period of two years between the fall of 1945 and the fall of 1947, in the absence of the opportunity to set up a unified government, two separate governments began evolving and consolidating in the south and in the north."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea
"Japan capitulated in August 1945. An effort to construct an independent government for the entire Korea was made in September 1945 by the statesman Lyuh Woon-Hyung. However, he had to step down under pressure from the United States Military Government. An initiative to hold general and free elections in the entire Korea came up in the United Nations in the fall of 1947. However this initiative did not materialize because of disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union: During this period of two years between the fall of 1945 and the fall of 1947, in the absence of the opportunity to set up a unified government, two separate governments began evolving and consolidating in the south and in the north."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea
Division of Korea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The division of Korea into South Korea and North Korea was the result of the 1945 Allied victory in World WarII, ending the Empire of Japan's 35-year colonial rule of Korea by General Order No. 1. The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to temporarily occupy the country as a trusteeship with the zone of control along the 38th parallel. The purpose of this trusteeship was to establish a Korean provisional government which would become...
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I sure do Gunny
I had just finished my freshman year in High School and heard about the war in Korea on the radio & it started on Sunday 25 June 1950 A few days later some of my friends in the Reserves were called to active duty and landed in August with the 1st Provisional Brigade. So I was glued to the news on TV every night to learn about how the fighting was going along the Pusan Peninsula, Seoul and Inchon I tried to enlist at 17 but didn't have my Mom's signature so I had to wait until I was 18 on 10 November 1953 but the war in Korea was over by then for a few months.
I had just finished my freshman year in High School and heard about the war in Korea on the radio & it started on Sunday 25 June 1950 A few days later some of my friends in the Reserves were called to active duty and landed in August with the 1st Provisional Brigade. So I was glued to the news on TV every night to learn about how the fighting was going along the Pusan Peninsula, Seoul and Inchon I tried to enlist at 17 but didn't have my Mom's signature so I had to wait until I was 18 on 10 November 1953 but the war in Korea was over by then for a few months.
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