Korean War

On 26 June, one day after 90,000 North Korean troops, armed with Soviet weapons, crossed the 38th parallel to invade South Korea, President Harry Truman directed U.S. military forces to assist South Korea. This began the Korean War, which came at a time when America was becoming more and more fearful of Communism. The fact that Communist China and the Soviet Union were backing the North Koreans added to American fears of a "Communist Takeover" of the world. Led by General Douglas MacArthur, American troops spent three years fighting in Korea. The war ended in stalemate in 1953 with the North Koreans north of the 38th parallel, a border that still separates North and South Korea. When North Korea invaded South Korea , the U.S. Air Force was less than three years old from its prior designation as the U.S. Army Air Forces, which ended on 30 September 1947. Thus the Korean War was its first conflict as an independent service. The Korean War was also the first war in which a world organization,