U.N.soldiersin Ko reawereAmericans.So , too ,
wastheircommander, GClleral D o uglasM acArthur.
A t firstthecom m u nistarmiesadvancedeasily.Hut
after threemonthsofhardfightingtheAmericans
pushedthembackacro ssthe38thparallel an d
advanceddeepinto N or th Ko rea.13ythistime the
A merican airnwasno lo nger simplyto protect South
Ko rea.Theyw an tedtoun it e allofKo rea unde ra
governmentfrien d lyto ward stheUnitedStates.
Ko rea hasalongborderwithChina. O nlya year
earliercommunistsled byMaoZcdonghadwona
longstruggleto ruleChinabyd rivingo utChiang
Kaish ck,TheAmericanshadbackedChian gIIIthe
struggleandin 1950 they stillrecognizedhimas
C hina'srightfulru ler.MaofearedthatifallKorea
carne'underAmericancontroltheym igh tletChiang
useit as abasefromwhichto attackChina.
M aowarnedth eAmericanstostaybackfrom
C h ina'sborders.Whenhis warningw asIgnoredhe
sentthousandsofChinesesoldierstoh elptheNurth
Ko reans.TheChinesed ro ve backtheadvancing
Americans.Anewand fiercerwarbegan in Korea.It
was reallybetweentheUnitedStatesand C hina,
alth o ug hneithercountryofficiallyad m itte d this.
T heKo rean Wardraggedon for anoth er twoanda
halfyears.It ende datlastinJuly1953. One reason it
,
SmallKOTt"a1lWOII/elldlldchilJ'ellfleeJ,omIheapproM"ill.~,\iOrIlo
K ortall army" .<u.s.lroop'aJ"mneI<>Iheb4/1lrfr,"' l.~l:lCOLI)WAR ANlJKUREAThebirthofNATO
In the yearsafter 1945 then on-commu ni st govern-
mentsofWestern Europelooked u neasily at the
huge Russian am ucs g ro u ped j ust beh in d the
barbed-wire fences ofthe Iro n C ur tain. They
fearedthat Stalinmight orderhis so ldierstoover-
runthem. In Feb ru ary 1948, their fearsin creased.
With Russian suppo r t acomm unistgove rn men t
took control inC zecho slo vakia .Then, inJune,
St alinstartedth e blo cka deofBerlin.
T h ese event s convinced President T ru m an that
WesternEurope n ee d edmorethan econo m ic aid.
In 1949 heinv itedmostofitsnation sto jo in the
United Statesin setting up the N orthAtlantic
TreatyOrganiz ation(N AT O).This was an alliance
ofnat ion s whoagreed to suppo rt on e another
agains t threats fro m the Russians an d set up
combined armedfo rcesto do this.
TheNorthAtlan ticT reaty wassignedIIIWashing-
ro n in April 1949. The fo llo w in g September
A m ericansheard th enewsthatthe Russians,too,
couldnowm akeatomicbombs. Thispersuaded
Congress to vote m illion s ofdo llars to equip
N AT O 's armed forces. In 19S1Gen eral Eisen-
hower, one o f the United States' best known
generals oftheSecon d Wo rld War, was placedin
comman d o f these forces. Soon thous ands of
Amer icanso ldierswerein Eur o peon cem ore.ended was thedeathofStalin.whohad been
encoura g ing theChinese to figh t on.An o th er was
th e factth at the newly-electedPresidentEisen hower
hin ted that theAmericans mig ht uscatomicweapons
ifth eChin ese didnotsigna cease-fire.
T h e cease-fire leftKo rea sti ll d ivided moreorless
along the lineofthe38th parallel. One Ko rean in
everyten had beenkilledandmillion smade
homeless.Yetbothsidesclaimedthat theyhad wona
ki ndofvictory.T heChinesesaidthattheyhad
proved thatnobodyneedb eafraidofopposmgthe
Americans.TheAmericanssaid th attheyhad sho w n
cu m m u nist severywherethat it didnotpaytotryto
spreadtheirrulebyfo rce.More than33,0(H)
Amer icans had died mKo reaand over 100,000more
had b eenwounded.ContainmentinAsiahad been
expensive.ButtheAmericansfeIt thatit had wo rked.
119