10 Things You Should Know About the Korean War

1. On was side of the war was South Korea, below the 38th parallel, which was supported by the U.S. and was fighting for democracy.
2. On the other side of the war was North Korea, above the 38th parallel, which was supported by the USSR and was fighting for communism.
3. At the end, when both North and South Korea agreed to a truce, fighting did not end for two years.
4. In June of 1950, North Koreans crossed ove the 38th parallel into South Korea, startign the Korean War.
5. While sixteeen nations provided soldiers to the United Nations force, the U.S. did most of the work and made up most of the force.
6. The commander of all United Nations forces was General Douglas MacArthur, who had served in the Pacific during World War II and was well known and a war hero.
7. When the UN forces moved into North Korea, communist China got angry. They said that if the UN went any further, China would enter the war. And that is just what they did on November 25, 1950.
8. President Truman ended up firing MacArthur because MacArthur had publicly criticized the president's views and opinions.
9. Republican senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin claimed that 205 State Department officials were a part of the Communist Party. This was never proven correct. McCarthy then disappeared from the public eye.
10. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the next president, and had to build up the US nuclear arms. A space race also becane between the Soviet Union and the US, while the whole time, Eisenhower wanted to ease the tensions.