In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.S. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III.
Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself.
By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south.
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