US FORCES RETREAT FROM KOREA

What were the circumstances leading up to the Korean War?

The division of Korea happened in late 1945 after the Japanese surrender [in World War II]. The northern half of Korea was assigned to the Soviets, and the southern half was assigned to the United States. There were nationalists, Korean nationalists, on both sides. On the northern half, these were based around a guerrilla leader named Kim Il-sung. On the southern half there were a variety of leaders, but eventually they sort of coalesced around a guy named Syngman Rhee. Things were pretty violent from the beginning. A lot of people talk about the Korean War breaking out in June of 1950 as a real surprise, but there had been sporadic fighting all the way up until 1950. What happened in June was that the North Koreans launched a much more significant