The Growth of American Power Through Cold and Hot Wars 313ever. The U.S. and other powers instead divided Korea in half, at the 38th
parallel, with the northern half under the influence of Kim and the
Communists, and the southern half under the control of a U.S. client,
Syngmann Rhee. Between 1945 and 1950, both sides fought for control,
politically and at times in military skirmishes. In mid-1950, events took a dra-
matic turn when army troops from the North, the Democratic Republic of
Korea, or DRK, crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the South, the Republic
of Korea, or the ROK. Before the war broke out, the U.S. had taken a fairly
casual position, not including Korea as an area in Asia that would be worthy
of U.S. protection. But by June 1950, when the invasion occurred, circum-
stances had changed dramatically.
While the U.S. was already well-established in the ROK, with significant
private business investment in Rhee’s government, it was also concerned
about the possibility of another Communist country rising in Asia. So when
the war began, the U.S. went to the United Nations and got a resolution
passed to create a multi-national force to intervene and defend southern
Korea. By the time those forces got to Korea, however, the situation was dire.
From the outbreak of the war, June 25th, to mid- September, the northern
forces had stormed through Korea and gained control of almost the entire
country, all put a small area in the very south at Pusan. The situation looked
bleak for the ROK and U.S. But General Douglas MacArthur, the head of
the U.N. forces in Korea, devised an ingenious plan for an amphibious attack
at Inchon, which was on the western coast of the peninsula just south of the
38th parallel. The Inchon invasion worked to precision, and it cut the North’s
lines and forced mass DRK surrenders in the south, and the institution of an
often-brutal military occupation by the ROK against North Korean troops. At
that point, beginning in mid-September, MacArthur took the offensive and in
about 2 months had marched northward and taken control of virtually the
whole country. He then vowed that victory was imminent, that he would
have “the boys home by Christmas.”
MacArthur miscalculated, badly. Despite warnings from Mao that he
would not tolerate outside forces gaining control of a nation on China’s
border, the U.S. general in charge of intelligence, Charles Willoughby, a
right- wing ideologue, assured MacArthur that China would not take action
if the U.S. continued its march northward to unify the entire country under
American and ROK control. He was deadly wrong. Though MacArthur and