Korean war

· a military struggle fought on the Korean Peninsula from June 1950 to July 1953; it begun as a war between South Korea and North Korea but the conflict swiftly developed into a limited international war involving the United States and 19 other nations; from a general viewpoint, the Korean War was one of the by-products of the cold war
· North Korea apparently attacked South Korea without the knowledge of either the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China; the war began on June 25 when the North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung, invaded the south of the 38th parallel, supported by the growing opposition to South Korea's president and thinking of reuniting the two Koreas; the United States immediately responded by sending supplies to Korea
· US President Harry S. Truman ordered combat forces stationed in Japan deployed to Korea; American forces, those of South Korea, and other nationalities forces were placed under a unified UN command headed by the US commander in chief in the Far East, General Douglas MacArthur
· at the beginning the American and other UN troops were pushed back to a small area in the south-east of South Korea, but McArthur made an excellent offensive and his troops soon reached the south borders of China; after some time they again had to retreat against well-supplied and fresh Chinnese army and McArthur changed his agressive plans only to prevent south Korea from invasion from the north
· the discussions for a ceasefire begun in July in 1951, between representatives of the UN and Communist commands; the truce negotiations continued intermittently for two years