Truman orders U.S. military intervention in Korea, June 27, 1950
By ANDREW GLASS
06/27/2018 05:27 AM EDT
On this day in 1950, two days after the North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea by crossing the border at the 38th parallel, President Harry S. Truman ordered the U.S. Air Force and Navy to help the South Koreans repel the invaders. He initially refrained from committing ground forces after being advised that North Koreans could be stopped solely by America’s superior air and naval power.
Truman acted after the U.N. Security Council unanimously called for member nations to offer military assistance to the government in Seoul headed by Syngman Rhee. (As a permanent member, the Soviet Union could have exercised a veto had it not been boycotting the council’s meetings. The Kremlin had been absent since January 1950 because it held that the People’s Republic of China, the communist-led government on the mainland, rather than the Taiwan-based Republic of China, should hold the seat.)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/27/this-day-in-politics-june-27-1950-665397
