War Background
"Korea is a war in which the U.S. 1) within six months, decisively defeated the original aggressor, North Korea; 2) has fought inconclusively for 2½ years with a second, Red China. It is an international war, piled onto a civil war, undertaken in behalf of the 'free world.' It is the first U.N. war, the first jet-air war. It is also a war of superlatives that brought more men (5,000,000) from more countries (16) to a smaller piece of real estate (85,000 sq. mi.) than any other war in history. It has kept the U.S. fighting longer than World War I; it has already cost the U.S. $22 billion." -Time, June 29, 1953