With news on the latest flare up in North/South Korean hostilities, I was reminded of an anniversary of sorts and our involvement in Korea in November of 1950 and how, around this time, it wasn't going terribly well for the United Nations troops as indicated in this broadcast of Voice and Events from the first week of December 1950.
President Truman: “Gentlemen, I have a statement to make; recent developments in Korea confront the world with a serious crisis. The battlefield situation is uncertain at this time. We may suffer reverses as we have suffered them before. But the forces of the United Nations have no intention of abandoning their mission in Korea. The forces of the United Nations are in Korea to put down an aggression that threatens not only the whole fabric of the United Nations, but all human hopes of peace and justice. If the United Nations yields to the forces of aggression, no nation will be safe or secure. If aggression is successful in Korea, we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe and this hemisphere. We are fighting in Korea for our own national security and survival.”
Not that we're necessarily going to get involved in another "police action", but just a reminder that we have a history in the region and it goes back quite a way.
