THE AMERICAN EMPIRE AND THE COMING CLASS WAR ----- Episode 22

    HARRY S. TRUMAN MADE THE DECISION TO SEND 
    MILITARY FORCES TO KOREA IN 1950

In a memo he wrote a month before the attack on Korea, John Foster Dulles pessimistically surveyed the U.S. strategic position. "The situation in Japan may become untenable," he wrote, "and possibly  that in the Philippines. Indonesia, with its vast natural resources, may be lost and the oil in the Middle East will be in jeopardy. None of these places provide holding grounds once the people feel that Communism is the wave of the future." But he offered a glimmer of hope : "This series of disasters can probably be prevented if at some doubtful point we quickly take a dramatic and strong stand that shows our confidence and resolution. Probably this series of disasters cannot be prevented any other way."

The United States would take that stand in Korea. Truman told congressional leaders, "If we let Korea down, the Soviet will keep right on going and swallowing up one piece of Asia after another. We had to make a stand some time, or else let all of Asia go by the board. If we were to et Asia go, the Near East would collapse and no telling what would happen in Europe. Therefore. . . I have ordered our forces to support Korea. . . and it . . . is equally necessary for us to draw the line at Indo-China, the Philippines, and Formosa." 

Truman particularly feared a Soviet incursion into Iran. On June 26, 1950, he called Korea "the Greece of the Far East." Spinning a globe and pointing to Iran, he told staffers, "Here is where they will start trouble if we aren't careful. . . If we are tough enough now, if we stand up to them like we did in Greece three years ago, the won't take any next steps. But if we just stand by, they'll move into Iran and they'll take over the whole Middle East." 

MORE TO COME. STAY TUNED.