Seoul Falls
On June 25, 1950 the Korean People's Army (KPA) equipped with T-34 tanks and artillery support, advanced rapidly on the South Korea capital of Seoul. http://www.famousdaily.com/history/battle-of-seoul-north-korea-captures-seoul.html Sutori The Republic of Korea (ROK)...
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Veterans Day
Veterans Day was formerly known as Armistice Day, a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. https://youtu.be/2A6HQtPWatc In 1938 U.S. legislation dedicated November 11 as a day to celebrate the cause of world peace— hereafter...
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Taiwan Strait Tension
https://youtu.be/wByvdYGfyiI Although U.S. policy in early 1950 was not directly poised to prevent a Communist Chinese invasion of the Nationalist Chinese stronghold on Taiwan, the outbreak of the Korean War changed the equation. On June 27, 1950, the United States...
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Truman Report: Korean War
President Truman's June 1950 report to the nation, although laced with Cold War assumptions and righteous/patriotic jargon, seemed forthright and accurate regarding the status of the war in Korea.
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Eve of Korean War
researchgate.net The breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s opened previously-closed archives that contained information on Soviet-North Korean-Chineserelations during the Cold War—of particular interest, correspondence between Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong and Kim...
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Dean Acheson ~ Pacific Defense
https://youtu.be/i9c4c6J9GfM In January 1950 U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave a speech to the National Press Club intended to outline the Pacific defense posture of the United States. He named Japan and the Philippines in the U.S. defense plan,...
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Cigarettes Linked to Cancer
https://youtu.be/gCMzjJjuxQI 1949 Camel ad In 1950 The Journal of the American Medical Association published two articles linking smoking and cancer: Tobacco Smoking as a Possible Etiological Factor in Bronchogenic Carcinoma: A Study of Six Hundred and...
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Understanding Post-WWII East Asia
East Asia ~ Wikimedia I am currently on a trip to Seoul, Vladivostok and Tokyo to research locations for my upcoming historical-fiction novel covering the years 1940-1950. My protagonists are: a young Korean physician, trained in the Imperial Japanese medical system...
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USSR Repatriates German POWs
https://youtu.be/5Skoh6n2SB4 In 1950, while releasing 17,538 German soldiers, the Soviet Union claimed it had completed repatriation of all WWII German POWs numbering 1,939,063. Since the Russian TASS news agency had reported 3.5 million German POWs held in the USSR...
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Nuclear “Doom” Towns
https://youtu.be/wgpo0qAfwDk In the 1950s, nuclear testing began at the Nevada National Security Site with nuclear bombs mounted on top of a 1500 foot detonation tower so the fireball wouldn't damage the monitoring equipment. "Doom" towns were assembled with shops,...
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Taiwan
Brittanica.com By the end of 1949, most of mainland China was under Communist control. Official Communist figures counted some 1.5 million dead and wounded among the People’s Liberation Army. ~600,000 Nationalists troops were killed in combat, while roughly three...
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NSC 68 ~ No Preventive War
https://youtu.be/7ugz3eS1R6Q NSC 68 the United States Objectives and Programs for National Security was issued by U.S. President Truman's National Security Council in April 1950. Classified top secret until 1975, the document defined American foreign policy...
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U.S. Navy Plane Shot Down
Consolidated Vultee PB4Y-2 Privateer In April 1950, Soviet fighters shot down a US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol bomber over the Baltic Sea. At the time, Privateers were used by the US Navy for signals intelligence flights off of the coast of the Soviet Union and the...
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There Will Come Soft Rains
https://youtu.be/bv_D39zKZzc In May 1950, at the height of the Cold War, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury published the short story There Will Come Soft Rains in Collier's magazine. Later that year the story was included in The Martian Chronicles . Plot Summary:...
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Mao and Stalin
Transcripts of the December 1949 and January 1950 sessions between Mao Tse-tung and Joseph Stalin were obtained from Soviet archives by the New York Times in 1995, Moscow December 1949: The first meeting between Mao Tse-tung and Joseph Stalin took place only months...
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Einstein Warns of Arms Race
https://youtu.be/K4MjwIFoPn0 Transcript: The Eleanor Roosevelt Show." NBC Radio February 1950 ALBERT EINSTEIN (Physicist): ... The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion. On the part...
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Radio Free Europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pQh2PjdziQ&t=65s Headquartered in Munich Germany, Radio Free Europe was founded as an anti-communist propaganda platform in 1949 by the National Committee for a Free Europe (a CIA front organization). Although...
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U.S. Reveals H-Bomb Plans
In 1949 the United States had lost its nuclear supremacy when the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan. https://youtu.be/ZQOZp4ThymU USSR conducts its first atomic bomb test - 1949 Several weeks after a successful Soviet...
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Memorial Day
https://youtu.be/YChfpVD5xpk PROCLAMATION 2889 - May 22, 1950 PRAYER FOR PEACE, MEMORIAL DAY Since war is the world's most terrible scourge, we should do all in our power to prevent its recurrence.It was the hope of mankind that with the cessation of...
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Don’t Miss a Post
Dear revered subscribers, Unfortunately, the Wordpress automatic notification of new posts has been malfunctioning for some time. But now it appears the problem has been resolved. If you wish to receive an email notification of a new Enemy in the Mirror post, the best...
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Korean War Vets Memorial
I just visited the American war memorials in Washington D.C. All evoke powerful emotions. The Korean War Veterans Memorial is located near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was dedicated on July 27, 1995. The Memorial was designed and...
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The Broad High Road
At the end of WWII, with a Conservative Party defeat in the 1945 general election, Winston Churchill became leader of the British opposition. Midst the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, Churchill warned of an "iron curtain" of Soviet influence in Europe and...
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Indonesian Independence
https://youtu.be/-XhCI0tnsT8 Following the defeat of the Japanese in WWII, Indonesia proclaimed its independence in August 1945. What followed was a harsh attempt by the Dutch Empire (with some initial assistance by WWII allies) to recolonize Indonesia. From 1945-49,...
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Kim Il Sung and Joseph Stalin
Did Joseph Stalin approve Kim Il Sung's plan to attack South Korea in June 1950 because he wanted the US to become entangled in a limited conflict in Asia -- or was he reassured by Kim that the South would be rapidly overrun before the US could intervene?...
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Volkswagen in America
https://youtu.be/VUPCl1WUF-E VW Beetle In 1933 Adolf Hitler demanded the production of an inexpensive automobile capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/hr. After WWII British occupation forces in Germany ordered 20,000 Type I VW beetles...
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