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The Korean War began as North Korean forces invaded South Korea. The United
Nations (U.N.) Security Council called for member nations to help South Korea
repel the invasion. President Truman ordered the U.S. Air Force and Navy to
Korea. Later, President Truman justified U.S. involvement in the Korean War in
a speech to the nation:
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"We are trying to prevent a third world war ...
The communists in the Kremlin are engaged in a monstrous conspiracy to stamp out
freedom all over the world. If they were to succeed, the United States would be
numbered among their principal victims."
In November 1950, China entered the war, sending U.N. forces into full retreat.
President Truman hinted publicly that the United States might consider using
atomic weapons to end the conflict. British Prime Minister Clement Atlee rushed
to Washington to urge restraint. British and other European governments felt
the United Nations should keep the war limited, fighting it only with
conventional (non-nuclear) weapons. Many Americans, frustrated by U.S.
involvement in the war, supported allowing General Douglas McArthur free rein
to use atomic weapons to end it. In the end, no atomic weapons were used. But
by the end of the war the U.S. nuclear arsenal had grown from 300 to 1,000
bombs.
The threat of atomic weapons, however, may have been used diplomatically to end
the fighting. In 1953, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles hinted that atomic
weapons may be used. This may have brought the Chinese to the peace table. The
peace treaty was signed in July 1953, but the cold war persisted. President
Eisenhower said, "We have won an armistice on a single battleground--not peace
in the world. We may not now relax our guard nor cease our quest."
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