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275 chapter sixteen Last Week in June Shortly after 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, 1950, the phone rang in Louis Johnson’s May¶ower apartment. It was a United Press International reporter who had questions about a dispatch just received from correspondent Jack James in Seoul reporting that North Korean troops had launched a broadbased early morning attack against South Korea all along the 38th parallel.1 The secretary, surprised and embarrassed by his lack of information, said he had received no such report and thus could not comment. Johnson doubted the accuracy of the dispatch. He knew that there had been hundreds of border incidents along the 38th parallel. However, he had to discount the possibility of a full-scale invasion since he had just returned hours earlier from his two-week Far Eastern trip and there had been no suggestion that such an invasion was expected in any of his numerous brie¤ngs.2 The implausibility of a full-scale invasion was still racing through his mind when the telephone rang again. It was the Pentagon duty of¤cer calling to inform him of an uncon¤rmed report of a major North Korean attack. The secretary , completely exhausted from his long ¶ight back from Tokyo, directed that any more reports on the matter be forwarded to recently appointed Secretary of the Army Frank Pace Jr.3 No sooner had Johnson hung up when the phone rang a third time. It was Frank Pace, who had been at an elegant dinner party at Joe Alsop’s house in Georgetown with Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs Dean Rusk when Rusk had received word of the attack from the state department duty of¤cer.4 Pace, thinking Johnson was still not back from his Far Eastern trip, had immediately hurried over to the Pentagon where he learned Johnson was, in fact, home and called him. According to Pace, a cable had been received from 276 louis johnson and the arming of america Ambassador John Muccio in Seoul reporting an all-out offensive, but not much more was known. Johnson told the 37-year-old Pace, a rising star in the Truman administration, that he was temporarily delegating to him authority to act on behalf of the Defense Department. He justi¤ed hisdelegation of authority to the secretary of the army on the basis that the only armed forces unit in Korea was the 500-man Korean Military Advisory Group which was part of the army, and the top military commander in the Far East, General Douglas MacArthur, was an army of¤cer.5 When Johnson tried and failed to learn anything more about what was going on, he ¤nally went to bed and left Pace with decision-making authority.6 About the time Pace called Johnson, Rusk contacted Dean Acheson at his country place, Harewood Farm,in Maryland. Acheson immediatelycalledPresident Truman, who was at his home on North Delaware Street in Independence, Missouri, for the weekend. When the president picked up the telephone, Acheson said, “Mr. President. I have very serious news. The North Koreans have invaded South Korea.”7 Acheson told the president that on their own initiative he and Rusk had already noti¤ed the secretary-general of the United Nations of the invasion and had asked him to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to take place as early as the next day, Sunday. Truman approved these preliminary steps. Acheson, who also thought that Johnson was still not back from Japan, asked, and the president agreed, that he assume responsibility for dealing with the crisis. Furthermore, remembering “the absurd restrictions that Johnson had imposed on communication between the two departments,” he asked Truman to make it clear to Secretary Pace that he wanted “fullest cooperation” between the Departments of State and Defense.8 Sunday Throughout the night and into the morning, state department of¤cials, in cooperation with UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie, prepared for a 2 p.m. emergency session of the UN Security Council on Sunday, June 25.9 From the beginning , President Truman made it clear that the United States would work entirely through the United Nations.10 Reports coming into Washington from Korea that Sunday morning were sketchy. The decision makers knew little more than the fact that the North Koreans had launched a military operation of considerable scope against their neighbor to the south. Although it was generally assumed that the Soviet Union was in...

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