Korea: The Cold War Turns Hot

CHAPTER 4 · 1950–1953 · The Cold War, 1945–1991

At dawn on 25 June 1950, Kim Il-sung’s Soviet-equipped army crosses the 38th parallel — the first arrow — expecting to unify Korea in weeks. Stalin has approved the plan (after refusing it twice) on the calculation that America, which left Korea outside its stated defense line, will not fight. The calculation fails in days: Truman commits US forces under a UN flag (available only because Moscow is boycotting the Security Council), and by August the defenders hold one corner of the peninsula at Pusan. Then MacArthur reverses the war in an afternoon — the landing at Inchon, 240 km behind the fro

The turn: Inchon, 15 September 1950 — brilliance, then hubris.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.