General Douglas MacArthur, a hero of the Second World War, planned an amphibious assault. American forces staged in Japan were quick to act. With the world watching and the South Koreans on the back foot, the United Nations passed Resolution 83 allowing all member nations the authority to send military personnel in the defense of South Korea. The Landing at Inch’ŏn - September 1950 First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez climbs over the seawall during the Inchon invasion. As they took the city, there were many instances of mass killings, executions, and other brutalities. As the North Koreans enveloped the city they blew up a major bridge leading south across the Han river, one of the main avenues of escape for both civilians and soldiers alike. Many of the South Korean forces retreated and left the city wide open for the taking. The North's speed and maneuverability allowed them to set up in much more favorable positions than the defenders of the city. Only a few days after the initial invasion, the North Koreans reached Seoul. A series of devastating artillery barrages followed up by blitzkrieg-like tactics pushed the unprepared and poorly equipt South Koreans back with relative ease. Within a matter of hours, almost 100,000 North Korean personnel poured over the 38th parallel and surged toward the capital of Seoul. The war first began in the summer of 1950 with a surprise attack by the Soviet-backed North Korean army. The First Battle of Seoul - June 1950 Korean War Memorial, Seoul. The scars of this conflict live on today between the Republic of Korea in the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north. Geopolitics aside, the war in Korea led to the deaths of nearly 2.5 million people and the permanent separation of a once united and unified nation. The United States of America and the USSR. Starting only five years after the untold devastation of the Second World War, the Korean War ushered in a new age of proxy warfare between the two emergent superpowers.
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