Walton Walker backed South Korea, and China allied with the Soviet Union in what was to become the first military action of the Cold War. Shortly after 75,000 North Korean troops with tanks invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, American air and sea forces were ordered by President Harry S. Truman to give South Korean troops support. The U.S. Eighth Army was ordered to intervene and drive the invaders back across the 38th parallel, the border between the two countries. With only four lightly equipped and poorly trained divisions, Walker began landing troops on the southeast side of the Korean peninsula
Anti-American sentiment in Korea all units in Korea that refugees be attacked with all available fire including bombing. In August 1950, 80 civilians are reported to have been killed while seeking sanctuary in a shrine by the village of Kokaan-Ri, near Masan in South Korea. Other survivors recall 400 civilians killed by U.S. naval artillery on the beaches near the port of Pohang in September 1950. North Korea claims that US forces massacred 35,000 people at Sinchon between 17 October and 7 December 1950. Scant evidence exists that supports these claims. The armistice at the end of the Korean War required that a political